The New Saran
Bloodsports Edition - An In-depth Look at the Latest Sporting Trend
ISSUE #423 - 5352 ASC
Editor's Note
This issue of the
New Saran, as you will already be aware, focuses primarily on the new competition that has gripped the imagination of people across Shireroth. While warrior combat and personal duels are a constant in many parts of the Imperial Republic, violent martial arts competitions are rarer and usually regional in scope, such as the steikfaat tournaments of Highpass. Steikfaat usually only involves broken bones and tissue damage - hence the worship of the old Brookshiran god, Spleazure, God of Broken Limbs. The activity that has spread like wildfire from the pits of Jacia after being embraced by the Ministry of Sport has greater fatal potential. Gladiatorial combat is making a resurgence and in the land of the crossed hockey sticks, of the whaler brandishing his harpoon, and of the proud Marechaussee armed with killet, it has a particular appeal.
Building Opportunities
The new stadium in the northern city of Sant Mateu is a wonder to behold. Constructed over two years through funding made available by the city's government as well as subsidies from the Imperial Ministry of Sport, it has a capacity of fifty thousand spectators and state of the art facilities. The Dockside Combat Arena is a worthwhile expense, looming over what was once a derelict part of the western docklands of this northern city.
The same architectural firm behind the awe-inspiring Kaiseress Mira Raynora Minor Stadium in Til'Het produced the designs for the 'Agnite Arena'
The Arena is dedicated to a Saint of the Antican Rite of the Matbaic Orthodox Church, Pseudo-Octavius the Agnite, whose
Apologia in Agnis et Verbum Dei was written in a monastery formerly on the site of the new arena. The work introduced the notion of
religio licita into the Church, which provided the theological basis for the process of termination of centuries of bloody dispute between Matbaic Orthodoxy and Cedrism.
As well as being a symbol of religious unity, the Arena's construction provided for a much-needed boost to economic equality in Sant Mateu. 'Between the Jingdaoese moves off and back on Cibola, the Bretts only just having refounded Calbion, the Alexandrian revolution and the Natopian push towards Tapfer, trade here has been drying up for a generation,' said Annalf Metmet, one dockworker we spoke to. The area now occupied by the arena - still called 'Ogavia' after the demolished Church - has been a museum of empty warehouses and rusting loading cranes for years. The construction project itself brought employment to many long-term unemployed young people, and since its construction house prices have risen dramatically, commerce has flourished with the increase in local tourism and businesses are being set-up. Ambition has overtaken despair thanks to this new sporting sensation.
One of hundreds of apprentice teams: five Antican apprentices, one Saran apprentice and one Saran master
What is the future of Ogavia and its residents? It can only be brighter - albeit bloodier - with the arrival of the combat arena. The question we must ask ourselves is whether the moral and social cost of this sport could possibly outweigh the benefits.
Interview With the Man with Blood on His Hands
The air is wonderfully fresh - which surprises me, the
NS correspondent sent to the Agnite Arena. Up until only eight hours before my arrival, the huge expanse in which I now stand was host to yet another bloody festival. And yet the turf has been washed or replaced, and the wind has blown all the atmospheric residue of the violent sport away into the memories of those that witnessed it. I am here with Arnestus Tibble-Mahron, Director of the Friends of the Dockside Combat Arena Group, who by virtue of his office has privileged access to this new sacrificial altar to our tastes.
New Saran: You were involved in bringing this sport to Mar Sara, weren't you?
Tibble-Mahron: Yes indeed, I was one of the first to see its commercial and cultural potential as a new way to bring people together and entertain them.
NS: What do you see as the cultural value of this kind of activity - bloodsports?
T-M: I see in it the potential for development of our armed forces and police forces, the appreciation of what those who lay down their lives in defence of our land do. I see the capacity for the retributive shaming of criminal offenders, who might then earn our respect and prove they deserve to re-join the ranks of the respectable Saran. I see the chance to bring communities together, to lay down their arms and watch someone else fight for a change.
NS: But isn't this a heavy cost for those things? People die here every day, don't they?
T-M: I'll clear that point up - people often die here, but certainly not every day. Only in certain of the tournaments and events are fatal blows considered legal, and I don't just mean within the rules of the game - as well as a full ambulance and medical service on stand-by all evening, we have a legal team and a squadron of police on duty to make sure the laws of the land are respected. No single blow occurs, without sanction, other than is mandated by the rules as approved by Charter of the Count.
NS: What would you say, then, to the countless critics of the fighting pits, not least of whom is Senyan sports minister Jonas Götëerez
who describes this as 'organised murder'?
T-M: I would say a number of things - I would invite them to join me in the Friends Box to actually watch the sport, which I doubt they ever have. If a society approves of ice-hockey and its customary fights, this is a mere extension of that. It is an intense competition between people - it represents the values of diligence, temperance, and respect that we hold up as important. I find in particular the Senyan declaration of 'murder' and intention to arrest sportspeople as uncharacteristically Mondesian*. All participants voluntarily accept the sport, and all must abide by its rules. Do some people regret their choice once they have made it? No doubt, but they made the decisions that led to their place in the pit, and they must fight their way out of it.
NS: Any success stories of those fighters?
T-M: Absolutely, hundreds. Hard-working men and women who, when faced with a challenge that threatens their mortal existence, knew they could do nothing but work to get themselves out of it and never give up. As per the Count's Charter, many are now in the Marechaussee; others in government service; others just take part in the sport, in this arena or any other, and enjoy it as their life's calling. In fact, I'm hoping for the first award of a degree in the Order of Excellence to a Pit-Fighter within the next five years.