Crimsonious

This kingdom is more or less run like a dictatorship. You have to fight your way to the top in a battle to the death. The leader is the one with the highest kill count. You can choose not to participate in the slaughter and become more of a support, you can do things like cook and clean, if you're sharp witted you have the option to be a battle strategist. If you do become a support you are frowned upon and treated without respect.

Children become apprentices once they hit 13 and they often are paired up with a sparring buddy to battle against. As an apprentice you aren't allowed to participate in any battles to the death until you graduate at the age of 18. A ceremony is held and the former apprentices are selected at random to fight each other to the death. there is only one round of this so that they actually have warriors in the army.

They do the fight to the death thingy to combat overpopulation in the kingdom, in the past Crimsonious was sealed in an impenetrable barrier for about 500 years and they needed a way to combat the fact that they had too many people. it eventually became a tradition, and the tradition eventualy became a part of the culture