A death duel was a fight to the death between two opponents as a means of resolving a dispute and preserving the honor of the aggrieved party. Such duels were a part of Yuuzhan Vong culture, as well as that of the inhabitants of the planet Ammuud.
The death duel, as practiced by the people of Ammuud was formalized with their adoption of the Code of Ammuud approximatedly 100 years prior to the Battle of Yavin. The Code's creation resulted from their realization that many years of warfare between the threatened to bring about an end to their civilization. Under the Code's rules, grave offenses against members of a family or a clan were to be answered by its patriarch, who would challenge the offender to a death duel. Because this system entailed the death of one person, instead of the many that would likely result from a long-running feud between clans, the people of Ammuud viewed this as progress.
A death duel entailed the involvement of at least six people: The two combatants and their seconds, a surgeon and a judge. A combatant would lose his honor if he refused to fight his opponent or if his opponent was injured or killed prior to the death duel. A Mor, or clan leader, faced the additional prospect violating his oath as the protector of his clan and losing the support of his people if he infringed upon these tenets.
A combatant could appoint another individual as his champion, but he was forbidden from selecting anyone from his own clan. Both combatants had their choice of weapons, but the challenged party was allowed to dictate whether the duel would be a or a .
In 2 ABY, Odumin, a Corporate Sector Authority Territorial Administrator, was trying to crack open a slavery ring in which the House Glayyd had been unknowingly involved. In order to get the Mor Ewwen Glayyd to turn over evidence relating to his clan's involvement with the ring, Odumin connived to place the Mor Glayyd in the debt of Han Solo, to whom he would turn over the evidence and in turn Solo would theoretically eventually give the evidence to the CSA.
To this end, Odumin hired the infamous gunman Gallandro to force the Mor Glayyd into challenging him to a death duel by striking the Mor's sister, Ido and thus committing a grave offense against the clan. With his honor as well as that of his clan on the line, the Mor Glayyd had no choice but to challenge Gallandro to a death duel for the grave insult despite the fact that he would surely be killed by the experienced gunman.
The duel was delayed twice before Solo arrived on Ammuud and eventually volunteered to fight in the Mor's stead. Gallandro completed the task that he had been assigned by convincing the Mor that he had no intention of facing Solo in a death duel. He apologized to the Mor and asked for his pardon. After Gallandro was allowed to leave, he proceeded to attempt to retrieve the data that the Mor had given to Solo afterwards.