Federal Drone Jousting

With the invent of drone combat and it's adoption by federal armed forces has the question about how to deal with hostile drones popped up a lot in federal military planning, while common methods include trained war birds and simply re-instating the old concept of AA positions with machineguns have the Imerians also developed lances used by their own drones to allow drones of their own to simply in the tradition of old knights charge hostile drones and then take them out before returning home. These drone lances are designed to shatter to allow the federal drone a greater chance of survival. As a result have federal drone pilots started to train with drones in areal drone on drone combat with two lanced drones attempting to outmanoeuvre one another and deal the final deadly strike, something that quickly caught on in federal regiments and became a popular pastime to observe for soldiers.

What started out as simple combat training and experimentation quickly took on a more sportsmanship level of enthusiasm as drone operators soon started to hold competitions between themselves and other regiments, sometimes at great expense paid by their regimental commanders by transporting the soldiers all over the federation to test their skills. Especially good pilots and drones both became celebrated heroes to the regiments, even if they still have not reached near the same level of fame and fortune as a skilled duelist, equestrian, or marksman that are also held up as the pride of any regiment. These jousts however have also made their ways out in civilian life as the sport of drone jousting have been taken up by some of the aristocracy, while still far behind traditional jousting in level of prestige have the Imerians still accepted the sport and some attempts have been made to standardise the sport

Drone Arenas

Often are these jousts either held in two kind of categories and a good pilot is expected to be able to compete in both and tournaments are often held with both categories running side by side. They are officially called "Faltturne" and "Terrangturne" or field jousting and terrain jousting. As the name of the latter implies are these tournaments held in heavily obscured areas like forests, or cities where navigating and using the terrain to your advantage is as important as anything else. The later is more a traditional joust, two drones start at a predetermined distance and altitude before charging at one another.

Official Regulations and oversight

While firstly very reluctant have the Royal Jousting Society taken the role as the regulatory and organising body that is officially in charge of overseeing the development of an organised ruleset that can be used in the federation as a whole as well as organising tournaments. The largest and earliest such Tournament was the Federal Drone Jousting Tournament of 1549 held in the year of our kingdom 1549 in Blaland which received some interest by the federal public and even royal patronage and even saw a lot of federal military observers attend to see what could be gleaned from drone on drone combat and as a result was the prize pool for the nine winners surprisingly high for a rather new sport and one so reliant on technology, something most federals tends to frown upon. Some of the first rulings made was forbidding the early tactic of just striking the opposing pilot, this ruling was however not without controversy as the military objected as this was seen as a very effective method as far as they were concerned but this ruling officially separated drone jousting as a sport from it's militaristic origin as pure areal combat.

Drones and their pilots

With the recent "Sprit reforms" carried out by federal authorities where thinking machines used in combat have more and more downplayed their computer nature and uplaying the anima most federals believes reside in any object as important to their function have successfully taken a hold amongst most federal military men and have started to sweep out in wider society as a whole have the team of Drone and Pilot both been seen as equals and just like jousters tend to take on very flamboyant personas is the same true for not only the pilots but their drones as well. Early and beloved examples of this was the flying crab which was a drone made in the shape of a crab and the shrieking death, a drone in the shape of a bird but had inbuilt air tubes that made it shriek loudly and noticeable when it dove for an attack.

As a result are the pilot and drone often presented as a duo with matching heraldry, uniforms, and gimmicks which helps sell toys and some of the more famous pilots have started to show up in federal toy stores as tin soldier versions of them are currently being sold as collectors sets and some drones are often sold as teddy bear like toys for smaller children, especially popular are sales of kites in the shape and heraldry of famous drones. However despite this have some concern been raised by some more conservative elements that the pilots are often in the shadow of the drones they pilot, and that the robots should not be praised as much being merely machines. Especially vocal protesters have even foretold that this might spell the end of jousting as we know it. However his seems very unlikely as drone jousting remains a very fringe sport and fail to drive in the enormous crowds a real jousting tournament would in the federation.