Gladiators
Author: Flosha
Written: 14.04.2024
Last update: 10.08.2025
Status: work in progress
In this article we will at first deal with the facts about the guild and its design known from the different concept sources and builds, with both the relevant background story of the guild as well as the general appearance of members of the guild (in form of the armour design). At the end of each section we will put all of it together to summarise how we will present the guild in PHOENIX. What we will not consider here are the individual characters of the guild and their role; this will be done in the character section in /story. Sources: Guild System V1 & V2, NSCS per Guild, Sequel Design Docs.
Name
They were first described as “Gladiators” on the first sketches, then as “noble Mercenaries” in Guild System V1, then as “Paladins” in Guild System V2, then as the “Guard” (of the Watermages) in the Alpha versions until ~v0.7 and finally as the “Mercenaries” of the Mages, when the names of the NC and OC fighter guilds were switched (the mercenaries of the orebarons were renamed to “Guard”).
Characteristics
The Guild System and Sequel docs inform us, that they…
- hate the Outside World and are “haters of the King”, which is their primary characteristics; the entire faction, before receiving any other name, being characterised as the “Anti-Outside-World” faction, they hate all Outside World “sympathisers” and collaborators.
- are based in the New/Gladiator Camp and protect the camp, the healing mages, the free diggers (scraper’s union) and the peasants by order of the mages.
- The mages heal them for free and the they receive food for free from the peasants.
- only “tolerate” the ore thieves.
- believe in the escape plan of the healing mages.
- are the best fighters in the colony apart from the ore barons and it was very important to Mike to inform the player of this fact (they are the best “lower” fighters guild, better than TPL & GRD; whereas the barons are the only “higher” fighters guild).
- teach all melee fighting techniques and are focused on melee combat (which also means that their members should use a great variety of weapons: short and long swords, one-handed axes and bigger battle axes; but based on the fact, that they are all using axes in the actual game, we can deduce that they highly prefer axes as their weapons and should thus being able to teach axe combat up to level 3 and sword combat perhaps just to level 2, while the OC Guard clearly prefers swords and should thus be able to teach sword combat up to level 3 while not being able to teach axe combat as well).
- teach healing spells lev 1-3 and “natural healing”, wherefore the demon summoner despises them as “wasting the (arcane) gift”, which may suggest that the healing mages initiated some of them to a low level of magic, breaking the established rules and traditions of the clergy and myrtanian priesthood; alternatively they may just have been given them some scrolls and instructed them about their use (regular non-mage characters can not use scrolls without said instruction).
- can be joined when having enough fighting experience as the primary factor they care about apart from the right attitude.
- have a “Kodex”; when the player joins the guild, Lee says: “From now on you are subject to our code to death. There is no more going back for you […]” (mentioned in Story 3.3)
- were originally supposed to consist of 24 people (according to NPCs per Guild). 8 of them at most were meant to have the above-mentioned basic healing skills given by the mages, the remaining 16 were not meant to have any magical capabilities.
Relationships
V1
How? | to whom? | |
---|---|---|
Good | Healing Mages, Halforcs | |
Neutral | Orethieves, Digger Bodyguards, Free Diggers, Sect Nad | Mafia, -snitches, -thugs, Old Diggers, Battlemages, Sect Gurus, Evil Witcher, Free Thieves |
V2
What they say about others:
- (OC) Junta: Barons? Licksplitters of the outside world we call you.
- (OC) Battlemages: Do not dare to threaten us.
- (OC) Thugs: Ragtag! One of us on two of you and we win.
- (OC) Snitches: Get lost and tell your boss he may lick my…
- (OC) Diggers: Coward working drones.
- (NC) Healingmages: Good that we’re not dependent on medicine from the Outside World.
- (NC) Orethieves: We have to work with you, but don’t have to revel with you.
- (FC) Secret Thieves Guild: ? [They don’t know about it]
- (FC) Rangers: For that they are single rangers, they make a good job.
- (FC) Free Diggers: Honest workers.
- (FC) Halforcs: Dumb, but tough.
- (PSI) Gurus: Scary Figures, they’re in league with the evil / decadent.
- (PSI) Novices: Those Blinded with their offers are no temptation for us.
- (PSI) Templars: Wake up - you could become good paladins/mercs.
- Evocator: The healing mages will know why they are so careful.
- Outside World: We are your slaves no longer!
What others say about them:
- (OC) Barons: Those peasants could have an easier life, good fighters, but not enough.
- (OC) Thugs: Without your magic we destroy you.
- (OC) Snitches: Never reveal yourself to one of those, these monsters are not willing to negotiate.
- (OC) Battlemages: When they wouldn’t be so naive, they’d be an equal opponent.
- (NC) Healing mages: Reliable protectors.
- (NC) Ore thieves: Don’t give me such an angry look or I’ll tell it the healing mages.
- (FC) Rangers: They help us against monsters and thugs.
- (PSI) Gurus: Interested in a job as a temple guard?
- (PSI) Novices: Tough nuts. We won’t ever convert them.
- (PSI) Templars: You should respect our way the same as we do yours.
- Evocator: You will never be true masters - wasters of the gift.
- Secret Thieves Guild: Fodder.
What they say about locations:
- OM: The Old Mine is protected quite well. The Mercs do not lower their guard.
- OC: The gate guards of the Old Camp aren’t very good fighters.
- FM: To protect the Free Mine is quite a hard graft. From below the monsters and from above the danger from the Old Camp.
- FL: The scrapers from the Free Camp need our protection and we need their ore.
- EP: The Convoys coming from the Exchange Place are teeming with Mercenaries. Even an Ore baron is always around.
- MB: Kind of eerily this barrier. Animals can cross it, but men become insane thereby.
- NC: The protection of the New Camp has priority over everything else.
- SC: The people from the Sect Camp are very odd. But at least they don’t get in our way.
- DT: No one gets me to this old tower at the cliff. I don’t have a death wish.
- AM: Sometimes we go to the Abandoned Mine to practice our weapon skills.
- AF: The only place where things are still handled justly is the abandoned fort.
Relevant Dialogues
Jarvis on the SLD (0.94k): “Our goal is to break out of here. We work hard for this. We do not want to lounge around, like the rags from the Old Camp, who just rest on the shoulders of the miners.”
Jarvis on the SLD (1.06): “There are no guards or templars here, who protect you. Everyone looks after himself first and we, the Mercenaries, are the only ones who hold together.” […] “We - we are the Mercenaries of the Watermages. […] And we all follow Lee. He is a great man. He is the only one who holds this damned camp together.”
Jarvis about their heap of ore, hating on the king (1.06): “When we would exchange it with the Outside World, the king would sell us his wife for this. / But we’ll do a damn thing to give the ore to this old fuck. We want to get OUT of here!”
Lee on the responsibilities of a mercenary of the mages (1.06): “Very simple. Protect the ore - protect the mages. / Sometimes the mages have a special mission for one of us too.”
Orik on the SLD (0.94k): “I am Orik, head of the mercenaries. My guys here are all former soldiers from the army, mercenaries and deserteurs. Good guys.” […] We protect the ore and the watermages. The mages may be able to look for themselves, but nobody touches the ore.”
Kharim about the independence of the New Camp (1.06): “[…] You know nothing about us! The New Camp is INDEPENDENT of all this shit!”
Conclusion
- Almost all of the mercenaries/guards of the New Camp were former soldiers in the royal army, mercenaries and deserteurs. Their leader (Lee) was a general during the War of Varant under Rhobar II. and later a bodyguard of the king [ADDQUOTE!]. Lee (and some others, such as Cord) were already thrown into the colony before the creation of the barrier, that much is known.
- Thus based on them being originally described as gladiators, it is a logical consequence that when being thrown into the colony, these former soldiers were forced to fight for life in the arena to the amusement of the wardens; this is the root of their gladiator background and the reasoning behind their armours.
- We know from the earliest Orpheus drafts that like the later orebarons they were also leaders of the revolt.
- After the revolt they split from the Old Camp in disagreement with the ore barons about the question of cooperation with the king, while only the barons are now being celebrated as the “liberators” in the Old Camp (due to which the OC was originally even be called the “liberal camp”).
- The mercenaries see themselves as former slaves of the outside world (“We are your slaves no longer!”) - or more concretely - as former slaves of the king. They have broken their chains not in order to make themselves dependent from the king once again in form of a deal like the barons do. They do not care for gold nor ore, just for freedom (and revenge).
- Revenge is a major story thread for the guild; while not everyone was betrayed as worse as Lee, they were all betrayed insofar as that all of them once were servants of the king as soldiers and mercenaries in his war and were then imprisoned by the same. Thus, the guild is driven by a strong comradeship.
-
They were supposed to be the strongest fighters in the colony besides the orebarons and have some sort of a codex, which has to be developed, obviously focused on such things as their responsibilities as protectors of the ore and the mages and their independence from the outside world with an absolute refusal of cooperation with the king. The latter is a source of conflict with the Free Camp, because the Free Camp or parts of them have a slightly different view and are sometimes secretly making deals with the Outside World, which the New Camp highly despises; an important factor that shows the independence of the Free Camp in the early vision).
- We know that some of them are still gladiators - Orik fought in the arena before (see the Comic), Kharim fights in the arena in the game; a pupil from Cord was supposed to fight in the arena in Story v3.3 and the player would be send as another of his pupils to the arena in course of joining them (in this context, also see the famous late alpha screen, showing the hero in the arena (yes, this was the hero face at the time) with the light gladiator armour (sadly with the later version of the armour that was a downgrade from the original design seen further below, following the concept arts of Gorn)); later as a member of the Mercenaries he was to be send to fight in the arena against a baron.
- Thus it is reasonable to assume that this lifestyle of being a gladiator, of regularly going back to the arena (reliving the past by stepping into the footsteps of their leaders), is an essential part of their tradition. Fighting in the arena (and we are speaking of fights to death here) is a kind of heroic act that they expect their men to go through. And this is why they (or the best of them) still call themselves “Gladiators” with pride. This way I have been making sense of all the different ideas for the guild to create a full picture; and their armours only make sense, become believable, justified and meaningful through these explanations, sadly all completely unknown to players of the release version.
Armour Design
The armours will have to be a direct representation of the above summarised characteristics, combined with the specific conditions and limitations of their life in the colony. But let us start with the first relevant concepts.
The following drawing by Mike can be seen as the very first idea for the armours of a member of this guild:
It was, based on later sketches by Mike, roughly implemented into the game, in form of the general fighter armour in v0.56c including the leather helmet, as it was often shown alongside this armour in early Alpha screenshots. One may recognise how the helmet has been modeled in the shape of the helmet in the drawing above.
Below are Ralfs first two known concepts of the guild (please remember, before imagening a mistake: “Garde” (Guard) was the name of the New Camp Warriors and “Söldner” (Mercenaries) was the name of the Old Camp Warriors at the time). It can be seen how the concept below has taken Mikes drawing into account and tried to develop it in another direction.
The second concept also exists in a colorised version here. The coat that he wears is made in the very same style as his early watermage concept, which shows that his original idea was to present both guilds in a very similar style. It was one faction with two strongly linked guilds, one being specialised in fighting, one being specialised in magic (healing mostly, as they are opposed to the battlemages of the Old Camp). Even if these concrete concepts can surely be critizised in several regards (Ralf himself is not too proud of these early ideas), I see some value in the general idea of a shared style of the two guilds, which, based on the individualisation of armours and robes, can still be fulfilled in case of a few NPCs in at least a similar style, mixed with the general design direction of the later concepts.
The next and last known NC Guard armour designs by Ralf are the following:
The light armour is now very much resembling what the armour would later become in the Alpha as presented below, only lacking the fur at the legs. It is the same armour that Gorn was shown wearing in the concepts by both Ralf and Tom Thiel. The medium armour is also already looking very much like the medium armour known from the game, but with no fur either. The heavy armour on the other hand has not too much resemblance to what it would finally turn into. It also may be noted that the three Guard armours are all shown with a blue hand as a distinctive mark (an idea that was completely rejected), while the organiser armours are all presented with a blue piece of fabric instead, which has been preserved and developed into the scarves of the alpha armours, with an exception of the heavy armour.
Concept vs. Ingame Discrepancies
The final armour design came from Mike himself, in cooperation with Uwe Meier, evolving the latest concepts that Ralf came up with. Below you can compare the actual ingame realisation of these armours in the game with their concept. Sadly we only have the concepts of the light and medium armour, not the heavy one.
Both the light and medium armour from the Alpha (as seen below) follow the concept very accurately except for a few details.
In case of the light armour there is a differently designed shoulder part; throughout development it has either been designed from leather, from metal framed by leather or completely from metal, as it has been done in the Alpha; different variations can co-exist.
Other than that the leather straps around the upper body could and should be improved in their mapping, size and weight. We have reconstructed it accordingly.
The medium armour diverts in a few more ways; the concept presents the armour in a more believable way and gives a more harmonious impression.
For one, the central metal plate on the chest is less oval in the concepts and more round and bigger overall. And the form of the metal parts at the legs was also slightly different.
Secondly, the other metal plates are attached to leather strings, which is the case with the ingame armour too, but there is has been done very randomly, while on the concept the plates and leather strings are drawn in a much more believable way.
Thirdly, and this is a problem that the medium armour shares with the light one (and probably the heavy one too, of which we have no concept art): All the mercenary armours were meant to have medieval “hose” from leather, no regular leather pants. In case of the medium armour we can still see these “hose” and the green-blue “underpants” underneath; but in the concept these underpants can be seen much more, while in the ingame version, especially from the backside, they are almost hidden completely by something that can only be interpreted as a leather slip above the actual, long underpants, which is not very believable. The same applies to the light armour, where iz cannot be seen anymore at all, that he is wearing medieval hose; the texture is actually presenting it accurately, but it can barely be seen, because the colour of the hose is too dark and too similar to the underpants in comparison to the much lighter leather in the concept. According to the concept the light and medium armour were meant to use the exact same hose in colour.
The heavy texture then presents the very same pants as the medium one, but now as complete pants with no kind of “opening” anymore through which the underpants could be seen. So it cannot be seen as any kind of organic “upgrade” of the same armour anymore (as which the progression from light to medium armour can and should be seen in the concepts, so it is likely to be the idea behind the heavy version too). But as it is displayed in the game the pants must have been replaced completely for the heavy variation and cannot just be upgraded, as we would then at least need to see some kind of a seam. It is more likely that the original heavy concept may have had the same “hose” as the light and medium armour too and should be presented accordingly.
The hose that all the mercenary armours have in common in some way, are a particular characteristic of the New Camp; only the Mercs and Organisers are wearing these, which we may see as an older, more traditional or more primitive form of wearing pants, all the other factions are wearing regular, closed pants.
Another important factor is that the colour of the fur does not match the concepts. In the concepts the colour is a darker, faded brown and the fur on the legs of the light armour in the Alpha is the only one that comes close to the colour of the concepts. The fur of the medium and heavy armours does not match the concepts (where the fur had the same style in all the armours) and goes into more of a grey tone, although there is no animal or monster in the game with a fitting fur of that kind. In the Alpha it still was a work in progress and at least a bit darker than in the release versiom, but the colour was not matching. In the release version then, where the fur has been improved in graphical regards, the colour turned into something even more unfitting. The same dark, faded brown colour, according to the concepts, was also meant to be used with the Organiser armours. And here too, the final colours didn’t match and they ended up with a grey fur that does not fit to any monster in the game, apart from, perhaps, a shadow beast, while the darker brown colour of the Concepts and the light Alpha armour was roughly matching the Alpha wolf.