The Games of Love War are held annually in the Season of Little Grass. They are a series of martial contests between the warriors of the Wagon Peoples, and the warriors of Turia. At the time of these Games, an unofficial truce is declared between Turia and the Wagon Peoples, usually enemies; and also between the various tribes of nomads. The Games are much loved by Turians and Wagon Peoples alike...safe-conducts through the southern plains are granted for judges and craftsmen from as far away as the City of Ar. Merchants freely peddle their wares to the mixed population of warriors...food, drink, and even slave collars. There is a festive atmosphere at the Games, even while men will die and freewomen will be enslaved before the day is done.

The Games are held on the Plain of a Thousand Stakes, a designated area some pasangs from the walls of Turia. Here the girls of the Wagon Peoples gather on kaiila-back, while the women of Turia approach from the city in curtained palanquins borne on the backs of male slaves. The warriors of both Peoples approach in long lines, behind their war-standards. The Games of Love War do not constitute an actual gathering of the people. Normally only the warriors and the girls who are to stand as stakes intermingle. Onlookers gaze from the tops of the walls of the city, eager to see the contests. The women of the Wagon Peoples generally stay out on the prairie tending the bosk, and awaiting the outcome of the Games.

The justification for the bloody Games is twofold. On the one hand, it gives the warriors of Turia a chance to match their skills against those of the Wagon Peoples in hand to hand combat, something which is rare enough in day to day life. The nomadic warrior tends to be an evasive foe. Their method of attack is to strike swiftly and then withdraw almost immediately with slaves and goods, allowing no time for reprisals. Only in the Games does a Turian warrior have the opportunity to fight on equal terms.

Secondly, the Games allow for a transfer of female slaves from the City to the Wagons, and vice versa. As has been mentioned elsewhere in these scrolls, the Wagon Peoples prefer their slavegirls to be the elegant, well-bred girls of the City. The Turians, conversely, find the wild girls of the Wagon Peoples to be almost irresistible as slaves. It should be mentioned that only the most beautiful girls are allowed to stand as stakes in the Games of Love War. Where warriors are fighting to the death for possession of a woman, that woman must be worthy of the honour. Although a woman may propose herself as a stake, she can only be accepted if the judges of her People agree that she is a fitting offering. If she is less than perfect, she will be rejected, as the honour of her People rests on her beauty.

The Plain of a Thousand Stakes is so named because each girl to be offered must be bound to a stake in a cleared area where the combats are to take place. The stakes are placed in pairs, one stake for Turia opposite one stake for the Wagon Peoples. For the sake of the Games, all four tribes of the Wagon Peoples are counted as one. There are more or less a thousand girls as stakes each year, half from the City, and half from the Plains. Each is led to a pole of wood that has been hammered into the ground. Here she will stand throughout the Games, and the warriors will fight before her. Tarl Cabot describes the scene:

The stakes, flat-topped, each about six and a half feet high and about seven or eight inches in diameter, stand in two long lines facing one another in pairs. The two lines are separated by about fifty feet and each stake in a line is separated from the stake on its left and right by about ten yards. The two lines of stakes extended for about four pasangs across the prairie. One of these lines is closest to the city, and the other to the prairie beyond. The stakes had recently been, I observed, brightly painted, each differently, in a delightful array of colours; further, each was trimmed and decorated variously, depending on the whim of the workman, sometimes simply, sometimes fancifully, sometimes ornately. The entire aspect was one of colour, good cheer, lightheartedness and gaiety. There was something of the sense of carnival in the air. I was forced to remind myself that between these two lines of stakes men would soon fight and die.

About a foot from the top of each stake hang a pair of retaining rings, similar to slave bracelets. These will hold the hands of the girl who is to stand at this stake during the combats. Near the top of the stake hangs a tiny key, which will be used to unlock the bracelets by the victor, who will then carry the girl away, whether to freedom or to slavery.

Each girl has a champion from her own people, who has been pre-selected, and who will fight on her behalf. The stakes are ranked by numbers, First Stake, Second Stake, and so on. Judges with lists call out the names of the girls who will stand at each stake. First Stake, theoretically, should be the most beautiful girl of her people. The Turian girls stand at the stakes nearest to the prairie; the girls of the Wagon Peoples stand at the stakes closest to the walled city. The girls are ranked by a delegation from their own people, the Turians by members of the Caste of Physicians who have served in the great slave houses of Ar. The girls of the Wagon Peoples are selected by the masters of the public slave wagons. Some of the Turian girls, when they come to the Games, wear beneath their Robes of Concealment the camisk of a Turian slave girl. This is for the sake of modesty, for should their champion be defeated, they will be stripped of their robes at the stake and led away naked.

At the commencement of the Games, the warriors of both sides stroll between the stakes, examinining the girls, and deciding which ones they wish to fight for. On this occasion, judges will accompany the warriors of the Wagon Peoples to unpin the veils of the Turian girls. It is not expected that a man will fight to the death for a girl whose face he has never seen. This is considered a great indignity to the girls. If more than one warrior wants to fight for a given girl, the possessor of the greatest number of courage scars wins the honour. Incidentally, a warrior is also entitled to know who a girl's champion is, before he commits himself to fighting for her.

When the judge gives the signal, the warriors begin to fight. If it is the girl's champion who wins, she is returned to her own people, with all honour. If her champion is defeated, however, she is led away in chains to be the slave of strangers.

In this way, many proud Turian beauties leave the walled city to care for the bosk in the dust of the Wagons. In this way, many wild girls of the Plains are locked away behind Turia's gates. During the Games of Love War many freeborn girls come to know the tears and terror of becoming slave.