by Tavaan
Back in old Antara, the great Antaran games, where criminals were pitted against each other in combat, magical duels were fought, and mock wars waged, were a highlight of city life. But the cruelty of the games garnered them many detractors, and when Aranor was founded, the entire concept was rejected by Queen Lillian and the other founders of the city.
Last year, however, a group presented themselves to the city with an idea, and it was approved – an arena would be built, and a new, more enlightened version of the Antaran games would be introduced.
I’ve seen the Antaran games. Did the Aranorian Arena have even a tiny chance of capturing the glory of that old, bloody establishment?
The Arena is open every third day for battles. When I arrived in the morning, I found a large, colorful wooden sign outside the entrance, brightly declaring the day’s events.
Opening Two Hours Before Noon with Antiya and Shyata, the dueling Martial Artist Majaes!
They’ll be followed by Kadarn, Bear wrestler, as he attempts, once again, to battle his bear-brother, Gurden.
Noontime refreshments will be available as Open Bloodfights take place, the most realistic fighting you’ll ever see! Then your favorite heroes will vie for the tri-day title, with open betting. And today we have a special treat as Turren, the city’s most powerful fighter, will take on SIX men at once. Will he fall tonight, at last?
I paid my eight silver entrance fee and walked inside.
What the Arena is lacking in size, it makes up for in vicious architecture and murals. Every wall, it seems, is painted with exciting fight scenes portraying hugely muscled men and rather faintly clad women battling it out with magic, weapons, or bare hands and feet. I found my way to one of the common seats, simple tiered wooden benches, and looked about. The Arena is circular, with common seats fitted between four huge ‘boxes’ – raised, enclosed structures which can be rented by the rich and elite. Then, down near the arena floor, the most dangerous place, I would think, are rows of comfortable chairs, which are not only much more expensive than common seats, but right next to the action, as well. Still, I was early, and being a little higher than those seats, I think I had a view that was as good as any.
I watched as the Arena filled. It’s popular, I’ll give it that! Within an hour, most of the seats were gone, and the horn was blown to command the attention of the crowd. Four people emerged with voice-projectors, and took up places in front of the four sections. A shirtless man, wearing a sword on his back, strutted out before the section I was in. He welcomed us and announced the day’s events, promising incredible fights and encouraging us to shout out our cheers for the combatants.
Then it was on. Antiya and Shyata emerged to wild fanfare and cries. They are extremely popular with the crowd, despite the fact that their ‘battle’ was obviously staged. They did throw a lot of flashy magic about, which the audience loved, and they managed to do some pretty spectacular martial arts and even wrestled around on the ground. Of course, the real reason people probably liked them is that they are both very well-made women, and they weren’t exactly wearing full plate armor.
Kadarn, I imagined, was also a staged act, but his bear certainly looked ferocious, and as Kadarn was an imposing man, the wrestling match was quite amazing. Kadarn won, but had to dodge a lot of bear-swipes and snarling bites, the audience gasping all the while.
The Open Bloodfights came next, open to anyone wishing to enter. The concept of the Open Bloodfights is that healers or necromancers are kept on the sidelines as contestants go out and fight with actual swords and other weapons. If someone is injured, they are dragged out and healed, to fight another day. So no one ends up dead or permanently hurt. Still, it was exciting and sometimes difficult to watch, as one man was hit in the knee and dragged out screaming, while others were hurt so badly I really thought they must be dead. There is a lot of blood, and it is obviously not staged in the least. A few people in the audience had to close their eyes, but for the most part, it was a festival of screaming onlookers.
The worst part is that people walked around selling fudge, nuts, shishkabobs, various cheeses, and dried fruits and meat. It felt like their timing was a little off to me, what with blood splattering about just below. My seat-companions, though, seemed little bothered, and ate gustily.
As the contenders came out to fight for the tri-day title, I saw that the timing wasn’t that bad after all, because there was a long pause for informal betting while the contestants stretched and warmed up.
This contest pits the former winners of the Open Bloodfights against each other, as they attempt to defeat each other for the tri-day title. This part, I was told by the person next to me, is fought in various different ways – today, the eight contestants were paired into two teams of four, and the two teams battled each other. Three men were left standing, and they settled the winner by letting the three of them attack each other in a free-for-all. The entire spectacle was no less bloody than the Open Bloodfights, but there was a lot more skill evident – these people had to earn their way here. A man named Sheldon won, and took the title of Tri-Day Hero for the next three days, after which he’ll be crushed by Turren. You see, the Arena always has a Champion, famous throughout the city. The Champion fights anyone who manages to make it all the way up to Tri-Day Hero. I was told that although the title of Tri-Day Hero is coveted and gains a person a nice purse of gold, people are less excited about winning it these days, as it means that three days later you have to fight Turren. I could see why as Turren emerged.
He’s a huge man, much like those paintings I saw on the walls of the Arena when I first entered, with a bald head and huge bare feet. He held an axe in one hand and a massive hammer in the other, and when his six opponents came out, he looked ready to make them into flesh pulp. Turren got a lot of cheers, and also a lot of boos, mainly because he’s been the Arena Champion for over a moon now, and he’s reportedly not a very charismatic or likeable fellow.
"It’s nice when the Champion is really liked by the audience," I was told by one of the founders of the Arena, Jellen. "Turren is liked because of his brutality, but that’s about all he has going for him. But no one can seem to make him fall, so he’s here to stay until someone does."
Maybe, I thought, they’re trying to bring him down, because he had some trouble with the six fighters. Still, in the end he managed to send them all off the field, some, no doubt, in need of a resurrection.
"The Arena’s been steadily growing in popularity," Jellen said. "Unfortunately, the Arena itself isn’t all that big, and can only hold about four hundred people. Sometimes we’ve had to turn people from the door, when it got really crowded. Once we squeezed over six hundred people in here. But with Turren as the Champion right now, things have been slowing down, and we only get three hundred or so some days."
Jellen told me that they sponsor a whole variety of contests, and that even though I thought that Antiya and Shyata weren’t fighting, they really were. I’m still not sure if I believe him.
"We’ve had some crazy and unbelievable battles in here," he said. "We’ll try almost anything once, as long as the people are actually trying to defeat each other."
He didn’t want to discuss too much about the ‘inner workings’ of the Arena.
"We pay our winners well, and make almost all of our gold from entrance fees. We also rent out the Arena on non-fight days for all sorts of other events, like riding contests, children’s faires, and outdoor dramas."
I asked him, too, about the rumors that high level fighters were sometimes hired out to spectacularly rich people to fight in actual, real fights held in private ‘arenas’.
"I can’t say I’ve ever heard of such a thing," he maintained. Again, I think he was lying.
Despite the closed attitudes of the founders to public writers, such as myself, and despite the staged appearance of some of the fights, I must admit the Arena was fun. The energy of the audience is tangible, and much more intimate and friendly than the energy of the old Antaran games. It’s nice, too, to know that the people down there aren’t actually going to be dead.
Will I come back?
Well, let’s just say that I won’t be happy until I see Antiya and Shyata fight again!