The Bi-Weekly Slag

**The Bi-Weekly Slag** is a political debate held every other week within the undersea capitol city of the Salt Dwarves, Caus Drukat. These debates host four different political parties in one chamber with a spectating audience, as they duke it out both in words and (sometimes) in fists or in the arcane arts.

## Explanation

Salt dwarves have countless political parties, some with broad goals, and some with very narrow objectives. Typically, power is held primarily by one party in three-year terms or until the leader of the party is slain (typically the latter). When the need for new leadership arises, the bi-weekly slags are executed for the remainder of the year until the Bridge, during which the entire population of dwarves living at Caus Drukat votes for their desired leadership.

Parties are categorized in a double elimination bracket, with four parties facing off against each other in debate at once. They then debate with the guidance of the DC (Debate Commission, a separate, "impartial" political party). At the end of the debate, the DC and the audience's votes are coalesced to decide the final victor of the four. It is a double-elimination bracket, so a political party isn't removed from the table entirely unless they've lost two debates.

At the beginning of the slag season, dozens of slags are held at once in different venues. However, the Final Slag of the year takes the top four popular parties and pits them against each other in one major event for the entirety of the capitol city to witness, with no "winner" declared at the end, instead being a proper debate for all citizens to witness in order to decide who to vote for at polling.

## Debate Composition

Though the topics of discussion and participants change with each Slag, the general composition of one tends to match the template below.

* Items in a bullet point list are In-Game Rolls

### Opening Statement of Equality

The Slag begins with an opening statement from the Debate Commission's appointed Master Debater for the Slag. They declare their dedication to equal treatment between parties “regardless of affiliation”.

* Wisdom (Insight) check against the Master Debater's Persuasion/Deception to see if they have any alignment/sway towards another present party.

### Opening Statements

Each party present gives a one-sentence opening statement about their party's primary value, introducing themselves to anyone in the crowd that hasn't heard of them before.

* OPTIONAL Wisdom (Insight) against any of the opposing parties to see what can be gleaned by looking at them.

### Debate Topic Presentations

Three topics are presented for potential discussion. The present parties must pick 1 topic to either be FOR or AGAINST

* Each party has 1 roll FOR or AGAINST a topic, with the four rolls being added together for each individual topic. The one with the highest score is the one that will be selected
	+ Performance, Deception, or Persuasion, depending on argument

### Formal Argument/Stance

Each party has a short moment to develop a formal argument/stance, with presentation of their stance based upon how quickly it's formulated and how soon one can run up to the center of the hall to announce it.

Parties that have the same/similar stances will be looked down upon.

* 10 minutes IRL to write down stance to be presented, with risk of another party approaching and strategically sabotaging your own stance if you are too slow/loud.
* Performance, Deception, or Persuasion check to establish initial "score".

### Rebuttals

After hearing initial statements, each party is given one opportunity to speak a second time, now knowing their cohorts' opinions. They may choose to fortify their own thoughts, agress others, distract the audience and Master Debator, etcetera.

* Initiative rolled for order
* Rebuttals can...
	+ Fortify party's stance (+5 to self score)
	+ Put down other party's stances (-5 to one other party or -2 to two other parties)
	+ Distract the jury and administrator
		- Performance or Deception against Master Debater's Insight; on success, the next party to present will have their statement negated or reversed

This is also the phase that things tend to get the most aggressive- if a party so chooses, whether it be an aggressor or a defender, they may challenge one foe to a Stance Duel to prove their ideals are the most powerful. Depending on the use case, challenging another party may be encouraged or frowned upon by the public. Rejection of such an advance is even more frowned upon if the audience is clamoring for a battle, however. The death or surrender of a party member results in that party automatically losing the slag and being ejected from the running for Ruling Party.

* Wisdom (Insight) to read the crowd and see if a fight would be appropriate
	+ Charisma (Deception) to rig the rules heavily in the defender's favor, against the Master Debator's insight.
* Combat rules are decided by the party being issued the challenge
* It can only be a 1v1 battle, though magic and other artifacts/equipment are typically allowed.

### Closing Statements

Each party gets to make one final closing statement, again choosing to speak for themselves or against others.

* Another set of rolls regarding rebuttals.

### Declaration of Victors

A moment of recess is executed, during which DC representatives walk around polling the audience and the Master Debater reflects on the events of the slag. At the end of the recess, the Debater returns to the center of the hall and reveals the victor.

## Scheduled Bi-Weekly Slags

#### *Competing Parties:*

* The Demo-Ex Socialites (*co-victor*)
* DDTO (*co-victor*)
* League of Authors
* Abbathor's Chosen (*eliminated from bracket*)

#### *Results*

The Demo-Ex Socialites and the DDTO were co-winners due to a window bursting in the debate hall during the Stance Duel between the former party and the League of Authors

#### *Competing Parties*

* The Demo-Ex Socialites
* Material Marquies
* Baby Powder
* ~~Textilites~~ (disbanded by the VDC due to voter fraud)
* The RRR