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Mandate Of Heaven
The Martial Arts of the Gods are mostly the beauty of Form and Motion, as eternal as they themselves. While such art retains a measure of respect amongst the Empire, the Martial Arts of Man tend to be much more brutal and violent - a reality that the Gods seem to accept either out of understanding of the nature of Man or simply uncaring of anything but the grace and skill of the warrior.
Training in the Martial Arts is endemic throughout the Empire; even in the most industrialized parts of North America or the most shattered and broken fragments of Europe there are frequent tournaments and many know local styles. The Clans touch every part of the Empire, indeed some Clans maintain all their power in the Outlying Provinces and have little or no presence in Capital. Yet, despite all of that, true mastery of the Art of War demands that one travel to the Heart of the Empire. Only in Capital can you learn the greatest secrets of the Martial Arts, and only in Capital can you rise to greatness amidst the most powerful Clans.
Some Tournaments are very formal, showing mastery rather than focusing innately on victory. Others are a lot more like actual combat, or literally are actual combat complete with the threat of death. Some of the highest stake matches probably are Life or Death, complete with the Emperor overseeing the match and intoning "Finish Him!" at the proper point. Tournaments centered around Clan Politics tend to be team-based, while Tournaments for up-and-coming Matrial Artists are more individual. Both as rough ideas, rather than hard rules.
There are at least two levels of competition, probably a few more, with sub-levels in between. The focus of the first is to either build yourself a Clan, or show your stuff so that a clan Adopts you. The second is Clan-fighting and is all peckin' order stuff, for status and such. A third, impromptu, level consists of Tournaments held outside of Capital, which can only get you so far before your master sends you packing to learn from the Clans.
Basically, Clan is very important in this setting. You can eventually get so bad ass that other warriors come to you and ask to join your Clan even if you don't have a Clan yet. Similarly, if you're really holding out for a Clan, you might get so powerful that you can show up at their house and shout out a challenge. If you can make it inside to one of their Elders, the Clan is forced to accept you. Such challenges are rare, and assumed to be non-lethal, but things have been known to escalate.
Clans themselves base their internal rankings on a mixture of respect and inter-clan Tournaments to determine their own pecking order. The largest clans will have all kinds of internal cliques and groups, and even the smallest clans tend to have some kind internal divisions.
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