OK. What non-fighting stuff can't you do DP? Shroud someone? Other than that, I can't think of anything else off the top of my head that's labours, farming, trade, teaching, or administrative that you can't do divinely protected. And, if there is, perhaps that needs to be addressed, rather than changing duellism.

I get your point about wanting to have a choice as to when you fight. If I knew I wouldn't be killed twice an hour, I, myself, wouldn't bother with pacifism. There are definitely some who don't respect a life choice, and it's a shame, but that's just the nature of the land. However, I think you over-estimate the non-duellists fighter response to such a change as you suggest. The problem I've heard most from non-duellist fighters is that people should have the ability to learn how to protect themselves,

not depend on a status to guard them. What you suggest would create a situation where more people would be convinced to become duelist, and they'd have no impetus to ever drop it, and the people who don't like duellism would just get more frustrated and likely leave the land.

Duellism needs to stay a learning mechanism, not be changed in such a way that people can and will be duelists for life. This is not a gentle land, even for pacifists, and I'd hate it to become so. People who want to be fighters should, in fact, have the ability to learn how to protect themselves without a protective status to guard them. Those who can't learn, or aren't willing, should be pacifists or divinely protected. In short, shit or get off the pot. There are plenty of other ways to be useful.

The reason I choose duelist is because I like to test out changes to my professional skills and brush up on finer intricacies of my abilities, so I can teach my apprentices better. I could only wish there was a scholar status, where one could go to an area that's completely protected, and you can just play with your abilities unhindered.

Help files can be changed, but help files are written by the divine, who wish to convey what they believe a certain status, concept, or ability should be. So, using a help file for insight into what Lord Genesis intended a certain thing to be is a completely valid method of interpreting an aspect of the land.

Written by my hand on the 4th of Ilmarael, in the year 1217.