The Warborn Trial · 2027

Who runs it. The Warborn Trial is a judged contest of skill administered by Strength and Solidarity LLC, of Oklahoma, United States, trading as Warborn Blades. Questions about these rules may be put to the house at 1-800-368-8131 or by post to Strength and Solidarity LLC, Oklahoma, United States.

No chance. No prize in the Warborn Trial is awarded by chance. Every hoard is won on marks given by judges against the published rubric. Odds do not exist here; work does.

Who may enter. Open to legal residents of the fifty United States and the District of Columbia, eighteen years or older at the hour of entry. Not open beyond those borders: the hoards are edged steel, and the house will not carry a prize across a border where it cannot lawfully follow.

No free entry — void where prohibited. There is no free entry to the Warborn Trial. The Trial is a judged contest of skill, not a game of chance, and no alternative free route is offered, required, or granted by favour. Every entrant pays their bracket's fee. Where a state does not permit a fee-bearing contest of skill, the Trial is simply void in that state: the house takes no fee there and seats no entrant there. The house holds no quarrel with those residents — the bar is their own state's, not Warborn's.

What that means at the door. Void where prohibited. There is no waiver to request and no free place to ask for. An entrant resident in a barred state is refused at the door, no coin is taken from them at any point, and any fee reaching the house from such a state is returned in full. No petition by post, by telephone, or by any other means can seat an entrant from a barred state. The house will not accept coin it may not lawfully take, and will not seat a place it may not lawfully award.

States where the Trial is void. Void where prohibited. The Warborn Trial is not open to residents of AZ, AR, CT, DE, FL, LA, MD, MT, ND, SC, SD, TN, VT, because those states do not permit a fee-bearing contest of skill. No entry fee is taken from those states, no place is seated, and no hoard is awarded there. Any coin that reaches the house from a barred state is returned in full and the entry struck.

Equal dignity. Every seated entrant pays the same fee for their bracket, and every entry is judged the same way. Fees fund the hoards and the running of the Trial; they buy no mark, no favour, and no better odds. The judges never learn an entrant's name, house, or state.

Void where prohibited. Void where prohibited or restricted by law. The Warborn Trial is a contest of skill, not a game of chance, and an entry fee is lawfully required of every entrant whose state permits one. Where a state does not permit a fee-bearing contest of skill, the fee is not taken from that state's residents; the house will refuse any entry it cannot lawfully accept.

Every hoard is awarded. Every hoard is awarded regardless of how many entries are received, provided at least one entry in that bracket is judged and meets the rubric. The house does not withhold a hoard for want of a crowd.

Any steel. The entrant may use any steel they like. Warborn steel is not required to enter, is not required to win, and buying Warborn steel improves no entrant's standing by a single mark.

Eighteen and over. Every entrant must be eighteen years or older, proven by verified photo identification at the gate. Warborn is fiercely protective of the little ones: no child may enter this castle, no child may enter this Trial, and no child's likeness may appear in any Deed, still frame, or Plate. An entry showing a minor is refused without appeal and the fee returned in full. We would rather lose an entry than risk a child.

Safety and what no Deed may show. No Deed may show an unlawful act, a threat to a person, cruelty to an animal, work done in a public place where it endangers a bystander, or a blade drawn on another soul. No child appears in any part of an entry, in any frame, at any distance. An entry that breaks this is refused without appeal and its fee returned in full. The house would sooner have an empty field than a hurt child.

Your own risk. The Deed is real work with a real edge, done by the entrant, in the entrant's own place, at the entrant's own choosing. The house sets no task, supervises nothing, and is not present. By entering, the entrant accepts the whole of that risk for themselves, works within their own skill and their own law, and releases Strength and Solidarity LLC, its officers, members and judges from claims arising out of the making of a Deed — save for harm caused by the house's own gross negligence or wilful wrong, which no rule here excuses.

Your own work. By sealing an entry, the entrant warrants that the Deed, the Telling and the Plate are their own original work, made for this Trial or by their own hand; that no other person's footage, writing or photograph is passed off within them; that no part is fabricated or generated to depict work the entrant did not do; and that every identifiable person appearing in the work has consented to appear and to be shown by the house under the licence above. The entrant holds the house harmless against a claim that this warranty was false.

Conduct and disqualification. The house may refuse or strike an entry for fraud, for a second entry under a second name, for tampering with the roll or the vault, for contacting a judge about a standing entry, or for abuse of the house or its people. A struck entry forfeits its place; where the strike is for fraud or abuse, the fee is not returned.

Blind judging. Three judges. Entries are stripped of every name, house and address before the judging room ever sees them; a judge reads a code and a body of work, nothing else. Every judge writes a scorecard. Any judge with a tie to an entrant must recuse. Where two judges' totals differ by more than fifteen marks, the entry is read again by all three before the tally is sealed.

Ties. Where two entries in one bracket finish level on total marks, the higher mark in The Deed takes it; if still level, the higher mark in Care of Steel; if still level, the entry sealed earlier by the clock.

Final word. The judges' marks and the house's reading of these rules are final in all matters relating to the Trial, save where a law of the entrant's state says otherwise.

How many enter. There is no cap on the number of entries the Trial will take, and no minimum number is required for a hoard to be awarded. The house does not disclose entry counts before judging closes, so that no entrant chooses a bracket by counting heads instead of by their own work.

Winners are written to. A winner is written to at the address on their Warborn account within three days of the announcement. A winner who does not answer within fourteen days of that letter, or who cannot lawfully receive the hoard, or who will not return a W-9, forfeits — and the hoard passes to the next-highest mark in that bracket. The house makes three attempts before it moves on.

Hoard values and no cash. Hoard values are the house's retail prices as published on 4 September 2026 and may drift with the market. No hoard piece is exchanged for cash, and no cash alternative is offered. One hoard per soul. Where a piece cannot be supplied, a piece of equal or greater retail value is put in its place.

Lawful delivery of steel. Steel must reach its winner lawfully. Where a piece in a hoard may not lawfully be shipped to or held at a winner's address, the house substitutes a piece of equal or greater retail value that may. No hoard piece is ever exchanged for cash.

Tax forms. A winner in the United States must return a completed W-9 before a hoard ships. Hoards are advertised at retail value and the house reports what the law requires it to report. A winner who will not return the form forfeits, and the hoard passes to the next-highest mark in that bracket.

Taxes on a hoard. Every hoard is advertised at its retail value. A winner in the United States must return a completed W-9 before a hoard ships, and the house reports what the law requires it to report. All taxes on a hoard are the winner's own.

One place. One entry per soul, per year, in one bracket. An entrant may not enter two brackets, and may not enter twice under two names.

An account. Every entrant must hold an account at Warborn. This is a hard line: no anonymous entries, no entries by post-box alone, no entries on another's behalf.

Dead links. If a Deed link is dead when a judge reaches it, the house gives the entrant seven days to repair it. A link still dead after seven days is scored as unsubmitted.

Accommodation. An entrant who needs an accommodation to take part — another way to send the Proving, more time for a repair, a reader for the rules — asks the house and it is given. No entrant is marked down for the accommodation, and the judges are never told one was made.

Cancellation and withdrawal. Should the house be forced to cancel the Trial, every entry fee is returned in full. An entrant may withdraw for any reason before their entry is sealed and receive a full return.

When the world intervenes. Where fire, flood, illness, war, failure of a carrier or of a service the house depends on, or an order of a court or a government makes the Trial impossible to run fairly, the house may extend, suspend or cancel it. On cancellation every fee is returned in full and no entrant owes the house anything.

Returns of coin. An entry fee is returned in full where an entrant withdraws before sealing their entry, where the house cancels the Trial, where the house refuses an entry it cannot lawfully accept, and where an entry is refused for showing a minor.

The winners' roll. The names of the winners in each bracket are published in the hall on the day of announcement and held there for ninety days. Any entrant may ask the house for the winners' roll by post.

Use of a winner's name. By winning, an entrant agrees that the house may publish their first name, last initial, state and blind code in the winners' roll and in the telling of the Trial, for no additional payment. A winner who does not wish their name published may say so in writing and the house will publish the blind code and state alone; where a state's law requires that consent be separate from entry, it is asked for separately at the hour of winning.

Your work stays yours. The entrant keeps ownership of their Deed, Telling and Plate. By sealing an entry, the entrant grants the house a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to hold, judge, and — for the Trial and its telling alone — reproduce and display that work with credit, for three years from the day winners are named. The house does not sell entrants' work, does not licence it onward, and does not use it to advertise unrelated wares.

What the house keeps. The house collects only what the Trial needs: the entrant's name, contact, state, age attestation, and the three parts of the Proving. It is never sold and never traded. Entrants' names and addresses are stripped before the judging room sees any work.

How long it is kept. Entries not in the winners' roll are held for ninety days after the announcement so that any question may be answered, and are then destroyed, save the bare record that an entry was made and its fee returned or kept. An entrant may ask the house at any time for what is held on them and may ask that it be destroyed, which withdraws the entry.

No platform stands behind this. The Warborn Trial is not sponsored, endorsed, administered by, or associated with any social platform, video host, or file service through which an entrant may choose to share a Deed.

If a rule changes. The house may correct an error in these rules, and may amend them where a law requires it. Any amendment is posted in this hall with the date it was made, and no amendment takes a hoard from an entry already sealed or moves an entrant to a worse footing than the one they entered on.

If a rule falls. If any part of these rules is found unenforceable, that part alone falls and the rest stands whole.

Governing law and disputes. These rules are governed by the laws of the State of Oklahoma, without regard to conflict of law, save where the entrant's own state law governs by its own force. Any dispute that cannot be settled between the entrant and the house is brought in the state or federal courts seated in Oklahoma, and each side bears its own costs. Nothing here takes from an entrant a right their own state law gives them and will not let them give up.

No Siege Engine instrument is awarded as a prize in this Trial. These rules were written by the house with care and research. They are the house's own terms, not legal advice to any entrant. The house is not a law firm and has not had these rules reviewed by counsel; an entrant with a question about the law of their own state should ask someone qualified to answer it.