Gladiator: Road to the Colosseum (Out Now!)

Yeah that sounds just about right. Lawyers, doctors and bankers are just about where most of the top students are going to now, with a growing trend of people going into engineering and computer science due to all the software engineering money. Still lawyers hold quite a reputable position. I guess as long as you are making a decent living, it is good enough. Besides, the euro is relatively highly valued so its quite good compared to most asian currencies hahaha.

Leverage. Its just unfortunate that they are born into the wrong family at the wrong time to feel your MC’s wrath. Thats true too. With the kind of manumission that they were looking at, with the gilted cages and all, there was very little a retired gladiator can do. If you look at the modern sportsmen, I guess you could say that a life of meaningless decadence would definitely appeal to some.

Yeahh. It just makes a lot more gameplay sense. Would an impoverished noble sell himself to slavery though? I wonder how desperate he must be. There are some educated slaves and freedmen who worked for the state as public slaves. Maybe they could stave off the inevitable with this option.

Having something to think about would serve the MC well. Not just with PTSD but with a host of other mental ailments that would befall an idle mind.

Thats true. And Kraterous might have even taken the extra step to make them disappear as well. But that would give you all the more reason to force him to eke out a miserable existence under your watch.

That is true. A web of conspiracy and ulterior motives. I am sure your MC’s time in the arena would earn him plenty of enemies as well. And if he becomes successful and wealthy, the Romans are unlikely to cast a kind eye and might act upon their envy

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I thought the pacing was great- I’m not a big fan of slow-moving stories, I tend to prefer ones that get a move on into the actual story, so this was brilliant :smiley:

I really liked the characters! And your writing style is very engaging. You manage to paint a very vivid picture with few words! :slight_smile: I also liked how you didn’t shy away from detailing the harder and more gruesome parts- it made moving up from the plantation all the more sweeter for my character.

Good luck with it all! I can imagine all the variation for that coding must be pretty extreme :smiley:

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Yes, but it wouldn’t be so nice for my mc, it would be a literal nightmare due to the mental issues in fact.

With the promise of becoming educated slaves and to escape a more severe punishment, quite possibly. As for the public option that was mostly limited to the major Roman cities I believe and even then we might bribe or blackmail the magistrate in charge of that to reject our Nemesis, so he has no choice but to try for a position as a private tutor or steward.

They could but the state officials could still reject applications they thought were dodgy. We’ll just have to persuade them to do so with the Nemesis.

It sure would.
Not saying it would be easy, but at least the challenge would be more fun to my mc then the Arena.

Also true, but a lot of freedmen did manage to succeed in spite of engendering these sentiments.

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There are so many, but I will name a few

Izumi Curtis - Full Metal Alchemist
I haven’t watched brotherhood yet but my friends told me I would like Olivier Armstrong as well

Major Motoko Kusanagi - Ghost in the Shell

Faye Valentine - Cowboy Bebop

Kikyo - Inuyasha

Toph Beifong - Avatar the Last Airbender

Tsunade Senju - Naruto

Unchou Kan-u - Ikkitousen

Margery Daw - Shakugan no Shana

Erza Scarlett - Fairy Tail

Mirajane Strauss - Fairy Tail

Nico Robin - One Piece
This show gives me all the feels

Halibel - Bleach

Yoruichi Shihōin - Bleach

Soifon - Bleach

Samara - Mass Effect

Cassandra Pentaghast - Dragon Age

Flemeth - Dragon Age
Kate Mulgrew’s voice is amazing by the way

Leliana - Dragon Age

Storm - XMen

There is alot more but my list is already getting pretty long lol

Ok last one, probably

Fa Mulan - Mulan

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@Seraphinite
Thank you so much for your kind words! I really do appreciate it :smile: Its good to hear that you liked the characters! Dialogue and romance isn’t exactly my strong suit - prior to this most of my writing was academic hahaha so it’s definitely heartening to hear :smile:

Well, yes and no! After a while you start to figure out how to work within the limitations of ChoiceScript :slight_smile:

@Prof_Chaos

Famous last words hahaha. That’s a super extensive list!! I must admit I definitely didn’t expect so many characters, but that’s awesome! Can’t admit I’ve read/watched a lot of the shows on your list, but safe to say you’re really into anime and manga?

I’m only kinda familiar with Bleach (watched the first few seasons almost 7 years ago until it became too hard to keep up hahaha) and Yoruichi was one of my favourites too! And Fa(?) Mulan - classic Chinese tale, though we call her “Hua Mu Lan” and the Chinese version is quite different from the Disney one (I’ve watched it too) haha. Having served in the army, I can only imagine how incredibly difficult it would have been for a girl to serve alongside the men through battle whilst 1. Carrying her weight 2. Not revealing her gender

@idonotlikeusernames

Still, it would take quite a lot of ego-swallowing to finally give up on the “noble” title. A big shame and loss of honour to the famly name. If I’m not wrong, should the nemesis be sold as a private slave, he/she will have to take on the name of his master. That would be disastrous to any noble.

Haha “persuade” is being used very liberally in this sense. I’ll be very excited to see how your MC fairs post arena :smile: It will be very interesting to see how a intelligent low class MC fairs!

Also, I’ll like to ask a little about gender and orientation. Sorry if I’m being very direct/aloof, I really have almost zero knowledge of these kinds of things and I apologise in advance if this is common sense/offensive. It’s just not a very well communicated concept in my country. :confused: So if I were to discern the various genders and orientations there’s male and female, who can then be straight or homosexual. Are the terms “gay/lesbian” derogatory? Would the term homosexual be better? Or are there other ways to put it. Also, sexual orientation is distinct from gender, meaning a homosexual male would categorize himself as a male (or is it gay male)? And at this point would the person be referred to in male pronouns (he/him/his) or female (she/her/her)? I would assume that transgender would not be represented since there wasn’t gender reassignment surgery back then.

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You might be better served asking your questions about sex and orientation on this thread to get a more diverse picture, but I will answer what I can from my perspective. I’d use gay instead of homosexual, it is the more common term today and what most gay guys in my neck of the woods use when referring to ourselves. Yes, gay men are men, despite the societal efforts of the past to claim we’re not. So gay male is very much male.
There have also always been transgender individuals and while surgical options were far more limited in the past. While the earliest surviving official mention of mastectomy for example dated from the sixth century AD, there’s some speculation that it was known and used as early as ancient Egypt. Trans guys in ancient times could certainly have used other tactics as breast binding. I know less about trans women, but you could certainly ask in one of the other threads around here for input from the trans people here on this forum.

If it should really be necessary we could always make sure that our dear nemesis is accused and tried for a crime. Preferably one he’s actually committed, as Kraterous does not seem to be the most law-abiding of guys, meaning the loss of nearly all his money and possessions might suddenly, finally render himself vulnerable to prosecution.
Needless to say a proper conviction would take the decision out of his hands. If it is really necessary my mc isn’t against manufacturing something on him as a last resort.

Oh, yes, that’s one of the reasons my mc wants him enslaved into his new household. Forced to take on the (Latinized) name of a former street rat, simply delicious. :laughing:

Well if we get the good kind of manumission and have some money from our arena days, plus like all such freedmen the patronage of our former master Roman society would view us as middle-class at the very least. The only thing standing in the way of manumitted gladiators really extending their fame and fortune after they survived their gladiator careers was the rotten type of manumission they historically got. Some of the Roman volunteers, should they survive their terms as gladiators, presumably used their newfound fame and money to build all sorts of legacies.

So in conclusion my mc would post-manumission likely not be viewed as lower-class by Roman society, and how Greek society continues to view him is not something he’d care about anyway.

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I’m an Army veteran too, so I have a lot more respect for her.

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Thanks for the link! I will take a look at the thread and see what i can learn from the ideas there.

Hmm nothing wrong with a little blackmail or a pre determined trial aye? Kraterous would be sure to cross a number of laws, but I am sure almost everyone would have, if you looked hard enough. Just that some people would have been smarter than others, or had the means to hide their dirty laundry much better.

Ooh you are vicious. Its awesome :wink:

Yeah it will definitely hinge on the type of manumission you get, and I’m quite willing to bend reality a little on that aspect. I wonder if there were actual gladiators who managed to establish a name for themselves post arena, would definitely be interesting to read their biographies and stories :slight_smile:

True. By then, Greece would by and large be under Roman control and Greek traditions would matter for very little.

@Prof_Chaos
My respect goes out to you. Its interesting to see the diverse range of people on this forum!

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No records survive that I know of, but the Roman volunteers weren’t slaves, there were even some desperate patricians (or family “black sheep”) among them. While they had to submit to the lanista’s during their gladiatorial career they still weren’t true slaves. So if they survived their stint in the arena one assumes that some of those people, not being slave-gladiators and not being subject to the rotten historical type of manumission enslaved gladiators could attain, were able to do something better or greater with their fame and fortune post-arena other than mindless decadence, as again their best options weren’t limited to becoming prisoners in gilded cages while having to run a gladiator school.

So, again one assumes at least some of the volunteer, auctorati gladiators who survived their stint were able to go on to do greater things later on. As they were not subject to any of the restrictions on manumitted dedectii.

True my mc can be rather vindictive, but wouldn’t you be if you were enslaved and managed to survive the experience?

True, but they probably still mattered more to Greek provincial nobles then they did to the rest of the Greek population.

Again true, but from our brief knowledge of him during our childhood he seems like he would grow into the type of guy who breaks a fair few more of them than most, even in the ancient world.

Well one assumes his vast wealth and status as well as the protection of his influential relations to keep getting away with it. One thing to understand is that formal Roman/Greek trials required the wronged party to prosecute it by themselves and the penalties for “false prosecution” were severe. So not very many, if anyone at all would dare try and pursue their grievances against Kraterous or his family, at least not while they’re rich and influential.

However if my mc succeeds in attacking their wealth and rendering them impoverished there’s no telling what or who would come crawling out of the woodwork and without his vast wealth Kraterous might just become vulnerable enough for them to feel they can succeed in holding him to account, likely without my mc needing to have a direct hand in that part.

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Yeah it’s quite difficult to find very detailed information online, but Roman volunteers would also have a completely different set of circumstance compared to the common criminals and slaves which were thrust into the role. But yes, I will definitely agree with you that success in the arena would definitely have allowed the auctorati to build upon their new wealth and reputation through various means apart from running a gladiator school.

Haha if I were to be put in the position, I’ll simply arrange for a quick knife in the dark. Not really the vengeful type, more of practicality - get my enemies out of the way so that I may do as I please without fear of reprisal. I find planning the downfall and destruction of a single entity or nemesis to be too respectful to my opponent.

Hmm. I’ve read this before too. But that would probably mean there wasn’t much check and balances in those days. Families with wealth and influence could almost take the law into their own hands and do as they please. So unless they were to cross an even more powerful family, or worse, the state, they should be more or less immune to prosecution.

Ah yes. perhaps true. Let others do the dirty work, sit back and enjoy the complete, utter demise of an old nemesis :smile:

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That is my understanding too. However if my mc succeeds in attacking the wealth of Kraterous and his family that would greatly diminish his power and influence, including his power over the law, which in turn might make his other enemies who were previously too weak to challenge him remember some of their old grievances and come out of the woodwork.

Well my mc would still have to do the initial work of weakening Kraterous’ power, wealth and influence and he wants to be the one to buy and of course own him and his family. But it is true that he may not have to lift a finger for the middle part of his revenge plans as once Kraterous’ power base is weakened enough Kraterous’ other enemies may do the rest for him.

And since you’re already deviating a bit from history here our mc’s if they make it to manumission would also have other options then running a gladiator school on behalf of their backers at least sixty miles away from Rome. Really this was historically the only option the most successful manumitted gladiator slaves got.
Provided the same kind of manumission that was historically available to educated and favoured slaves becomes available to the mc our options after the Arena would look more like those of the auctoratii would have had available to them historically then anything else since the manumitted educated slaves did become Roman citizens, if second-class ones. Though again any sons born to them after said manumission would be full Roman citizens by birth.

That is a perfectly valid feeling, however it is not something my mc would be content with, particularly not after surviving the Arena and having killed dozens of men with his own hands, he’d know it would be far to quick and merciful.

My mc does need something to keep his mind occupied, while building a business alone might suffice for that he does owe most of his suffering and perhaps even that of his family (if Kraterous took revenge on them too) to his old nemesis. So he’d want to see his old nemesis suffer too, perhaps not so much physically, as he has, but certainly mentally and through loss of his noble status and enslavement.

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@nauhziy the true nemesis of my noble Gaul is his uncle, I want to go back to the tribe, depose Uncle, sell him and his family to a slave and rule the tribe (with Boadicea or maybe even Aurelia at my side).
Will it be possible to enact vengeance against the MC’s uncle?

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@idonotlikeusernames
I understand your intention. It’ll be interesting to see if I can translate that idea through ChoiceScript. How fickle our loyalties can be, swayed by coin and opportunity.

Its a smart idea, i’ll give you that. And in so doing maybe your MC could lay the foundations of a new powerful dynasty, his adopted children being granted full Roman citizenship and backed by a strong position in wealth and influence.

Well. I was considering making a sequel that would have the MC running a ludus, from the pov of an owner or lanista. True that I am already deviating, esp with the fighting - I will want to have more variety than historically accurate, for flavour and gameplay. What do you think of a Ludus management retirement? Would it still allow you to exact your revenge? I assume, with enough coin and success, it does not change.

I guess there is where my MC would differ from yours. But I can completely understand why your MC would hope to exact such a means of revenge.

@Urban
Yes, Nobles, Merchants and Peasants all end up in the arena due to different reasons, and I hope to include a means of getting back at your enemies towards the end game (most likely post arena?)

Mostly cause the Nobles/Merchants have no reason to spite the gang leader for his/her predicament.

How would you hope to exact your revenge though? Through fire and sword? Or a more diplomatic/business manner such as @idonotlikeusernames

Go back to the tribe, launch a coup against the chieftain, become the new leader and sell him and his family to the first slave trader passing by.

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It would not occupy my mc’s mind in the slightest and would force him to constantly relive his arena experiences (and the horrors of them), so in one sentence it would be hell! All the coin and success in the world wouldn’t change that. Also running the day to day operation was something “freed” slaves with the wrong kind of manumission did, so it wouldn’t exactly scream success in spite of its possible financial rewards.

At best the right kind of manumission coupled with running a school for gladiators would grant only the first, influence on and in Roman society would remain minimal.

It would change and it probably wouldn’t allow my mc to exact any remotely satisfying revenge on his nemesis. The only kind of revenge the wealth from running a highly successful school for gladiators would probably allow is the hired assassins/knife in the dark way, but that wouldn’t give my mc any sense of closure or fulfillment at all as he wants to take away his former nemesis lavish lifestyle, noble title and eventually freedom. Just having him assassinated would achieve exactly none of that and worse might get his children to come looking in vengeance.

The owners of the gladiator schools were scarcely involved in their day to day operations and manumitted lanista’s were probably the closest thing ancient Rome had to the modern CEO. People who were paid very large amounts of money to run something they didn’t own. Of course, like I said before, what they’d want us to run is the combat/training aspect of it, not the business book-keeping/publicity end of it, meaning again that my mc would have absolutely nothing to occupy his mind with.

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@Urban

It will probably be hard to do so, especially if you were ousted by your uncle in the first place. What would be your alternative if they deny you?

@idonotlikeusernames
Its a pity :confused: a ludus management sequel would be awesome I think, and more historically accurate. But I understand where you are coming from, and the entire discussion has been geared towards a more Roman kind of manumission.

Hmm, it is true that the lanista didnt wield much power or influence. And having to face the horrors of the arena while training and sending men to their deaths would be traumatic, to say the least. Adding to the issue of a vendetta against your nemesis. But now I’m facing a bit of a dilemma in the long term horizon of the story - how do I give players the ability to fulfill their revenge plots without stifling their approach. And secondly, how do I continue the story post manumission/revenge. Or do you think that would be a good point to end it.

In terma of storyline, I think the manumission would be a major climax/end goal, and revenge would be a second climax/end goal, but anything beyond that might be draggy to the reader?

To be honest, my original idea was for your current MC to go through the arena and earn his manumission (first book), which will see him become a lanista in a ludus(second book). He can then choose to either go back to his home or stay with Rome, and players will take charge of his children. His children will then be embroiled in home/rome politics and find a way to seek revenge. (Third book)

But I’m going to relook at the entire story and see how I can alter it to give choice without killing myself too much.

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Help the Romans conquer it and then sell Uncle and his family to slavery.

I think it would be an awesome sequel. It’s not like an ex-gladiator would have a lot of opportunities in Rome.

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It would. However, like I said before, his sons, biological or adopted are the last persons he’d involve in his personal revenge against his nemesis, as being avenged by them would be a mark of his personal shame and impotence that he couldn’t even handle his own business. For better or worse his revenge on his nemesis would die with my mc. Sidenote it could also die with Kraterous himself, should he somehow predecease my mc. Just taking generic revenge on his family wouldn’t be the same either. Though my mc of course wouldn’t piss on them if they were on fire, so to speak. It’s just that without Kraterous himself present they wouldn’t be worth the effort.

Manumitted dedectii historically didn’t have much opportunities post arena, but that was because they didn’t get truly manumitted they just became a different kind of slave in a gilded cage, if they were lucky.
Of course if we get that kind of manumission we couldn’t build any sort of legacy at all for our descendants cause we wouldn’t even be legally competent enough to even designate them as heirs.

This would also rely on us getting the kind of manumission that the educated slaves got historically that made them Roman citizens, second-class ones, but citizens nonetheless.

True, it would. However becoming a Lanista is just becoming a different kind of slave, just one who lives in a gilded cage, if he’s lucky and gets to call himself “free”.
More to the point I guess my mc would rather become an educated slave then a nominally “free” Lanista as having to run the combat training parts of a gladiator school wouldn’t keep him mentally occupied and engaged and would force him to constantly relive his own horrors of the arena. :worried:

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My MC also has unfinished business with her dear uncle. When she becomes free this is the first place she would look to find answers to what befell her family and why she, her friends, and fellow kinsmen were sold into slavery. Something is not right here and it must be resolved. To treat your people like this is unacceptable.

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My Greek pc was bought by Brutus, reported the thief, then sent to the mine because I got the date wrong

Nice work! I was expecting something simplistic with training and fighting a bunch of opponents, but this was a pretty immersive story so far. Have only played the one branch, but I like the idea of getting sold to different masters and seeing different corners of Roman life (wasn’t so interested in a fighting game, but very interested in a historical game set in Ancient Rome!). Also really like the idea of (optional) randomized character creation, just seeing what kind of person I find myself, and that the fact that my pc didn’t speak Latin continued to affect the plot after the first chapter.

EDIT: My arrogant upper-class Egyptian pc was initially sold into the mine. Curious what stat check I failed to get there with 25 leadership, 19 strength, 40 charm, 46 intellect, and Latin fluency? Simply appearing too weak? And now she’s stuck in the mine. Ouch.

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