Aban at a Lesser!

Iazamat

Gladiator shells that participate in special arena events wouldn't be a problem and would feed into the - to steal from Aishia here - "slice of life combat" concept. You could make it possible for players to group against or alongside the shells, make arena events 1v1, have city-sponsored gladiator shells, and allow anyone that isn't directly participating to bet on the event and potentially make a little gold. With the proper set up, it would be simple to theme these on the fly. And done correctly, it would fit perfectly into the middle ground between doing nothing and running a full-on event, allowing volunteers to blow off steam while encouraging player participation. And in the end, it would be truly meaningless conflict outside a potential source of city pride, as they'd be billed as entertaining games, but they'd still engender participation and that feeling of rallying the troops if handled properly.

Zaila

What about using this concept to give each city a champion-NPC that could mechanically "rally the troops" twice per howling to a lesser of the city's choice? I imagine it'd need to be activated by an elected official.

It'd be an NPC of some cultural significance (like Aban) with some pre-set mechanical battle function that isn't OP. They could announce their presence via a shout or whatever so you're not getting a sneak-attack bonus and to hopefully inspire both sides that "Oh! An especially fun battle to come!" Maybe they only last through one death, maybe through to the end of the skirmish. Then Bloodloch could be all, CT Hey! Eno's brought Aban! UndeadChampionAlpha, LETS GO WRECK THEIR BIZNIZ AND SHOW THEM WHAT REAL STRENGTH IS!"

Can add in that only one-City-Champion-per-tether can be at any fight or something to keep it from getting ridiculous. And if you think you're all A-Team enough to take them down without help, you're doubly-cool and save your champion for later.

Maybe also add some cool bonus for all participants when they come to a fight like this (so even the non-buffed side gets something out of trying to go after the buffed-battle). Maybe everyone who comes and witnessed the glory of this SUPREME fighter gets 5 lessons. (even though the NPC isn't even all those shockingly amazing)
*edit to add: The idea of this being that an admin could totally jump into the shell when it's being used and talk for it for more activity flavour, but without impacting a balanced combat strategy.

Terrible? Decent? Totally misreading the room?