Kahuna Burger
First Post
Establishing a location for my next adventure, and a bit of flavor to the gladiator skill and PrC I've been working on.
Two hundred years ago, the gladiatorial pits of Earling were a place of carnage and brutality, where slaves fought to the death against each other or against pain crazed beasts for the sport of those both highborn and common. It was a place of hopelessness, where being alive at the end of the day bought a slave only another night of filth and squalor and another chance to face death the next morning. The slaves who fought there were despised prisoners of war, condemned criminals and slaves who had proven themselves too fractious for any other use – the dregs of the slave market, lives bought cheaply and spent just as casually.
In some ways, the Pits are very much the same today – fights still occur every day, sometimes between gladiators and sometimes against beasts. The betting offices and informal pools still do a brisk business and both highborn and common still watch the matches from their stratified viewing areas. But at the same time, everything has changed. When the ruling family was torn apart in a bloody internal feud and the former king’s elven advisor quietly put the pieces back together, one of the things that changed in Earling was the very nature of slavery. Now more properly defined as indentured servants, slaves have rights, including the right to earn or buy their way out of slavery, and cannot be killed purely for sport.
Unable to buy or sell the lives of gladiators cheaply, the owners of the Pits changed the entertainment they sold from slaughter to art, paying top gold for skilled and charismatic fighters, and making sure that in most cases the loser survived to fight again. While the gladiators are still slaves, many have deliberately sold themselves into the life for the chance at glory and in some cases even riches. A skilled fighter can ‘sell’ himself for quite a bit of money to support his family then work it off over the years, only to sell himself again. Those with both martial talent and a flair for performance find themselves living well off of the gifts of fans, and while many gladiators are still owned by the Pit owners themselves, others are sponsored by minor nobility and wealthy merchants who show off their “champions” as they would a fine racehorse.
Two hundred years ago, the gladiatorial pits of Earling were a place of carnage and brutality, where slaves fought to the death against each other or against pain crazed beasts for the sport of those both highborn and common. It was a place of hopelessness, where being alive at the end of the day bought a slave only another night of filth and squalor and another chance to face death the next morning. The slaves who fought there were despised prisoners of war, condemned criminals and slaves who had proven themselves too fractious for any other use – the dregs of the slave market, lives bought cheaply and spent just as casually.
In some ways, the Pits are very much the same today – fights still occur every day, sometimes between gladiators and sometimes against beasts. The betting offices and informal pools still do a brisk business and both highborn and common still watch the matches from their stratified viewing areas. But at the same time, everything has changed. When the ruling family was torn apart in a bloody internal feud and the former king’s elven advisor quietly put the pieces back together, one of the things that changed in Earling was the very nature of slavery. Now more properly defined as indentured servants, slaves have rights, including the right to earn or buy their way out of slavery, and cannot be killed purely for sport.
Unable to buy or sell the lives of gladiators cheaply, the owners of the Pits changed the entertainment they sold from slaughter to art, paying top gold for skilled and charismatic fighters, and making sure that in most cases the loser survived to fight again. While the gladiators are still slaves, many have deliberately sold themselves into the life for the chance at glory and in some cases even riches. A skilled fighter can ‘sell’ himself for quite a bit of money to support his family then work it off over the years, only to sell himself again. Those with both martial talent and a flair for performance find themselves living well off of the gifts of fans, and while many gladiators are still owned by the Pit owners themselves, others are sponsored by minor nobility and wealthy merchants who show off their “champions” as they would a fine racehorse.
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