- Ser Androw Ashford
Lord Ashford’s eldest son and heir to House Ashford, Andrew Ashford was trained as the squire of Leo Tyrell. Only a handful of years knighted, he has yet to distinguish himself as a knight. - Ser Robert Ashford
Lord Ashford’s second son, Robert Ashford was trained as the squire of Lyonel Baratheon. Only recently knighted by his mentor, Robert is looking to prove himself a capable knight. - Lord Leo Tyrell
Lord of Highgarden and of the Reach, Leo Tyrell is the current head of House Tyrell. Considering Lord Ashford one of his closest supporters, he readily accepted the invitation to stand as the defender of Lady Ashford’s honour. - Ser Humfrey Hardyng
Champion of the Grand Melee at the Tourney of Maidenpool the year prior, Humfrey Hardyng has come to Ashford to prove he has as much skill on horseback as he does on foot. - Prince Valarr Targaryen
A surprise entry in the champion list, Prince Valarr Targaryen volunteered himself when his father, the Crown Prince Baelor Targaryen, decided to attend the tourney as representative of the King.
As the tourney begins, these five champions will stand against all challengers. When one champion is defeated, the man who defeated him takes his place in the champions – and must defend his position against those who would ride after him. The five champions at the end of ten days of jousts will together decide the tournament’s queen of love and beauty – and each champion will receive an additional Destiny Point to spend as they see fit.
But allowing just any to challenge the champions would be chaos; in order to organize the challengers, Lord Ashford has empowered his steward, Plummer, to make decisions and select those of highest status to joust the next day.
Each day, those would-be challengers (or a representative of the challenger) must come before the Steward of House Ashford and make their claim for the next day. The challenger or his representative makes a Status (Reputation) test; the character making the test uses his own Status (Reputation) for the test, regardless of whether he is speaking for himself or another. At the end of the claims for a day, the Steward will declare the strongest claims for the day; the top five, in descending order, will select the opponent they wish to challenge the next day.
On the following day, these challenges will be run out using normal joust rules and a new set of challengers will make claims for the following day. Joust matches will begin of Day 2.
Each champion may only be challenged once a day. Once a competitor has tilted against a champion, successful or not, they may not attempt to make another challenge; Lord Ashford’s Steward will deny repeat attempts at the lists.
For example: While on Day 1 there is no jousting, would-be competitors may make their claims for the right to joust on Day 2. The Steward will select the five highest scoring competitors who will select their opponents for Day 2 and challenge them. On Day 2, those who did not earn the right to challenge a champion may make another claim to the Steward for Day 3’s challenges and so forth.