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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arkhandus" data-source="post: 2099504" data-attributes="member: 13966">I'll do up the gladiatorial basics later for my next contribution probably.  I've been DMing arena matches for The 13 Kingdoms for at least a year now, and have a fair grasp of how a gladiatorial sport in Eyros would be set up.Contribution:A trio of foreign gladiators has recently arrived in Eyrdeyn to compete in the Eyrdeyn Grand Coliseum's MCCLXVII (1,267th) Annual Games, to be held midway through the coming autumn.  The trio, calling themselves Lux Ex Oriente, "Light from the East," and have earned significant popularity with the crowds in arenas from Zhalccu to Eyrdeyn.  These gladiators are also great athletes that intend to compete in other parts of the Games as well as the gladiatorial competition.  Kal'aj'ash'nee intends to enter the decathlon, Ikaido the marathon, and D'achao'himat'echet the mounted race.The apparent leader of Lux Ex Oriente is Kal'aj'ash'nee, a stunning warrior-woman from distant Mo'ahhim, nearly ebon of skin with long, many-braided black hair, she seems to be the only one of the trio who speaks Vulgar Eyrosian; the others only speak their native tongues and Mo'ahhim.  Kal'aj'ash'nee wears piecemeal bone-and-leather armor in the apparently-Mo'ahhi-common style, revealing but mildly functional and easy to move in.  Like others of her kind she wields a whip-dagger (ginta as the Mo'ahhi call it), with a blade made of sharpened bone and etched with crude symbols.  Kal'aj the Ebon (as the crowds know her) is well-muscled but particularly lithe and seems to constantly surprise her opponents with the speed and accuracy of her ginta.  Her Mo'ahhi fighting style is dancelike and appealing, but deadly to foes with the spinning whip-dagger.  She is manipulative and cunning, but does not speak often, and has a hardness in her looks.  The Mo'ahhi's accompanying foreign allies, though they often seem at odds, are Motoushi Ikaido of Nientei, and D'achao'himat'echet Uramao'tetcatlan of O'hoa'ti'neumas.Ikaido the Azure (as the crowds know him) is a somewhat short, olive-skinned Nientese man of middling age and wizened appearance, with two long, thin mustaches and black hair tied back in a topknot.  He wears a dark blue headband with a sunrise-behind-a-mountain stitching over the forehead, and his blue-lacquered leather lamellar has a very foreign look to it, and doesn't seem to lessen his incredible speed or agility.  Ikaido carries a curved bastard sword and similar shortsword, at the left side of his belt in artistic sheathes, and the blades themselves are lightly engraved with colored patterns.  He speaks frequently to Kel'aj in her language Mo'ahhim, seemingly displeased regarding others but mindful of angering Kel'aj with too much of his complaining, and Ikaido never seems to address D'achao directly.  Ikaido at least seems willing to talk to arena fans with Kal'aj translating, and seems to convey only compliments and polite gratitude to his fans, though some see that he simply hides his contempt well.  The sword-dancer fights with a fast-paced two-sword style emphasizing brutally fast and deceptive offense over defense, but is quite agile on the defense as well, though not as skilled at it.D'achao the Bronze (as the crowds know him) is an O'hoa'ti bloodspell zealot, whose savage knife-fighting style and self-mutilation, not to mention copper dagger and wicker armor, speak volumes about his people's culture.  From the hardly-known O'hoa'ti'neumas hordelands of the far, far east, D'achao'himat'echet is a towering reddish-bronze man of great muscle and little finesse.  Though perhaps ruggedly handsome, D'achao's body is scarred in many places and apparently each scar is either from a battle-wound or self-inflicted as marking a kill by D'achao.  Like all O'hoa'ti zealots his scalp is kept bald, and shows signs of rough shaving with crude implements.  His forehead is marked with a strange scar shaped as some kind of symbol, as is the palm of each hand.  D'achao rarely speaks and often seems agitated or terribly bored, while even in his calmer moments he seems to look at some people with a strange, inexplicably unsettling glint in his eyes.  Maybe it's just his red eyes, but it seems to be more than that.D'achao has an obvious dislike of Ikaido but seems to fight well enough in tandem with the Nientese sword-dancer.  He also shows an obvious affinity for Kel'aj and does as she says, despite his enmity towards the other Lux Ex Oriente member Ikaido, and despite Kel'aj's apparent lack of interest in him.  D'achao the Bronze fights with a crude copper dagger, etched with some foreign symbol, and he wears simple wicker armor, signs of his people's primitiveness, yet they seem reasonably effective against Eyrosian arms and armor.  His fighting style is direct and brutal, utilizing his broad dagger for attacking, and his free hand for grappling and shoving.  He carries two extra copper daggers sheathed in his wicker armor, but only as a reserve.  However, what unnerves his opponents is that D'achao always starts a battle by cutting himself a shallow gash and wiping the blood across his copper blade and wicker armor.  He chants in his people's primitive tongue the whole time as he ritually cuts himself and then even while fighting, and sometimes spatters his blood on opponents with a flick of his hand, which seems to harm or frighten them for some reason (besides the disgust).</blockquote>

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