7 Gladiators

1-The Willing

Whilst historically the vast majority of gladiators have been slaves with no say whatsoever in their choice of occupation, or else free men who joined up as their only possible way out of poverty, this man was rich and seemingly had a promising career as an officer in the Imperial Legions ahead of him yet threw it all away to volunteer as a gladiator, much to the utter disgust of his family who cut off his inheritance. Nobody forced or blackmailed him into it, nor did he join whilst of unsound mind or not knowing what he was doing. He joined for the chance of fame and the promise of some of the prize money. Whilst like his fellow gladiators he had to take the gladiatorial oath, is locked up at night and even occasionally chained whilst being transported to the arena, he would not escape if he could do so with no penalty. He fights with the crest of his noble family on his shield (much to their embarrassment) and a noble longsword, and actually enjoys fighting and killing despite the danger that he is in when in the arena. His family have grown ever more estranged from him as his fame and wealth grows.

2-The Famous

At first a mere slave like most gladiators, he fought so well and dispatched so many of his challengers that he has become one of the most famous gladiators in the entire country. He has been moved as a result to the capital city and often fights in front of the Imperial Family. Here the fights are far more likely to result in death fort the loser since both the Emperor and the crowd are known for their bloodthirstiness. However, the food is better, the sleeping accommodation is better-no straw to sleep on, instead a bed fit for a noble, he gets to make love to many of his female fans, and best of all there is at least a chance that one day the Emperor will be so impressed with him that he will grant him a wooden sword and his freedom. His wounds that he often picks up in the ferocious fights are tended with care by the arena medicus, and his owner treats him well and even shares a small part of the prize money with him, as he is worth a lot of money to him. He fights with the finest armor and weapons and is well trained with the sword, trident and spear.

3-The Spartacus

This slave was once an officer in an army that fought against the Empire, and not just a junior officer either, but a colonel. Taken as a prisoner of war like many gladiators, he had time to rip off his epaulettes first before being captured, and none of his men betrayed his true identity to his foes. His general declined to do the same thing and was paraded through the streets of the Empire's capital in an Imperial Triumph, before being ceremonially strangled and cremated on a pyre in front of the Imperial Palace. The former colonel wants revenge and is planning to help his fellow gladiators to escape. But he has bigger plans then that; he wants to create an army of freed gladiators, freed slaves and those amongst the poor and the downtrodden who will join him, and then wreak havoc on the Empire from inside. Ultimately, he wants to capture the Emperor himself and have him strangled and cremated. He knows that the large numbers of slaves and poor people in the Empire could be it's downfall, if they could be organized into an army. Until then he fights with the gladius that he used when in his country's army and bides his time.

4-The Trainer

Enslaved like so many gladiators, after two decades and many, many fights the Emperor granted him the wooden sword and his freedom. But he knew little more than the gladiatorial arena and didn't want to go back to fighting in it. So he signed onto the staff of a gladiatorial training school and now he trains new gladiators how to fight, both by pointing out the basic kill zones on a board, and by personally fighting them when they are more advanced in their training with wooden weapons. He normally *beats* them, and then points out to them that if it was a real fight in the arena, they would either be dead or at least at the mercy of what the crowd thinks about them. Although he was once a slave himself, he now has a contempt for slaves, but it does not stop him from doing his job of training them to the best of his ability. He is well paid and fully trusted with the keys to the cells and the school's armory. The Spartacus knows that he must be defeated for his revolt to be successful and that there is no chance of him willingly joining it.

5-The Emperor

The other gladiators dread it when the Emperor fights as they are only armed with balsa-wood weapons and shields whilst the Emperor's weapons are all too real, and there is no chance of winning against him in such circumstances. Whilst the ordinary people don't mind seeing their Emperor "fighting" in the arena, the nobles are ashamed by the spectacle. An Emperor should fight for real in the front rank of his army to win new lands for the Empire and fame for himself, instead of shaming the Imperial line by play-acting as a gladiator in the public arena. A few of them are conspiring against him, taking great care not to be uncovered by his spies and secret police. He may not have as long a time on the Imperial Throne as he thinks.

6-The Untrained

Sometimes those who are convicted of certain crimes are just thrown into the arena with a sword and shield and no armor or combat training, and they may not even have held a sword before in their lives before this moment. The crowd loves to see blood and death but gladiators are expensive to buy and to train, and their deaths cause their owners to lose quite a bit of money, which they hate. So these untrained no-hopers are sent into the arena to die so that the crowd can have it's fun without busting anyone's bank balance. Should one of them somehow win, he or she is trained properly to take the place of the slain gladiator, as he or she is clearly worth training.

7-The Skater

The Skater fights on an arena in the far north, where the floor is ice, and there are parts near the center that can crack into near-freezing pools of water that can be deadly to the arena. His weapons are a repeating crossbow and a saber for close-in work, and he fights sometimes against polar bears and other such artic beasts, sometimes against other gladiators like himself, and sometimes against heavily armored and armed but skate-less gladiators, or against untrained people that are just there for him to kill. Whole mini-battles have been fought out there upon the ice on festival days to keep the crowd happy and supporting their Emperor.