Escape to Prison - Gladiator, US-Sapphire

[Gladiator 1145]

In an ancient city controlled by cruel rulers, lived lifeless people, wore lifeless clothes, had lifeless jobs. Whenever someone decided to do something unusual or not normal, they were sentenced to suffer, in a lifeless room full of people, that once wanted to live. 
The fate of those convicted people was mostly death, they were called to fight monsters in Colosseums to try to entertain people, but even such events were lifeless and had no joy for the spectators, the gladiators, on the other hand, had fun and didn’t feel the lifelessness, even though their fate could be death at any moment. That was the life in Vita.

 

Legend says, one of the gladiators used to write journals. It is told that some scattered papers of his journals were found.

(IMPORTANT: Reading the journals is optional, it will not affect the plot of the story, it is just a closer insight to the minds of the characters)

 

Gladiator's Journal 1

Occasionally, the prison’s owners specially summon a skillful blacksmith from a different place called Arinar to repair the weapons of the prisoned gladiators, because he knew more about weapons than the repairers of Vita. He also brought the gladiators rare curing herbs that only could be found in Arinar. People of Arinar were known for their perfection in making weapons, armors, jewelry, and magical potions and scrolls.

One Gladiator was interested in this world, because he noticed something different on the repairer, he looked, spoke, and acted very differently from what he’d normally see in Vita. 
The Gladiator was already familiar with Arinar, he heard great things about that place.
    “Is it true what they say about Arinar?” Gladiator asked.
    “Yes, it is” the repairer confirmed and then he added, “It’s a place where you can have the best life, but also the worst one. There is a lot to adventure, but also a lot to fear. It’s no place for the weak, the coward, or the poor…”
    “The poor?!” Gladiator interrupted.
    The repairer continued, “Yes, but those don’t live long, you either fade away or die quickly, or live long enough to be one of the greatest legends of Arinar. But you can’t accomplish anything on your own, you need to join a group of other warriors that have the same intentions as you, and together, you’d overcome hardships, competing against other merciless warriors and conquering powerful castles, and on top of that, collecting valuable treasures. But I warn you, it is also not a place for the greedy and the selfish.” Then he left.

 

The Gladiator was mesmerized by everything he’d heard and wanted to go to Arinar. However, he felt frustrated; he didn’t know how to escape this prison, even though he was promised to get his freedom multiple times if he kills a certain number of monsters, but he’s been lied to. Moreover, he saw many of the gladiators with blatant convictions getting their freedom, and he is still stuck, and that bothered him.
He furiously yelled at the Prison guard, “How do I get out of here?!” not expecting a reasonable answer.
But the guard answered, “25 shiny coins.” 
The Gladiator was baffled, and didn’t know what kind of coins he meant, and he wrote everything down in his journal. 
He left a hidden message on the paper and planned to give it to the repairer when he comes the next time, hoping that he’d decipher the message and help him.

Gladiator's Journal 2

 

The blacksmith decides to pay the price to free Gladiator, but he asks him not to escape Vita, because he knew that Gladiator was one of the type that he warned from. Just like the gladiators before him. But Gladiator’s greed didn’t hold him back, and he managed to escape Vita.

Remainings of the announcements made by the Vitans, it is told that they were spread in several villages in and outside Arinar

 

 

This paper is reported to be found by the Vitans as they were following the traces of Gladiator in his escape

Gladiator's Journal 3

 

He started looking for the repairer in a town called Gasphel, and he had no ‘thanks’ for him in his mind. After a while he found his allies and friends, and he forgot about his life and family in Vita, he completely got isolated; he is now trapped in Arinar, that has become his new soul prison, unlike Vita – a physical prison.

 

Legends say that the body of Master Torsen was found near a set of papers, only one of them was found, the rest is lost.

 

Paper #2 of Torsen's Journal

 

The End

Moral of the story:

Moral of the story

So I guess, I wanted my story to have a moral since it’s supposed to be a legend, and that’s what normally characterizes legends…

If you didn’t catch it yet, here is the moral of the story:

Vita is a metaphor for life, in fact, it means life in Italian. I chose Italian because it fits the Gladiator theme, and it sounds cool to be a city name. And Arinar is a metaphor for Warspear, or any other game actually. And the gladiators are basically us.

We are all ‘prisoners’ in life, sometimes it is boring and ‘lifeless’ so we use games to get entertained, but some people play games way too seriously and lose control of themselves playing it and get trapped into it, so they become prisoners of the game. We call them “no-life players”. I’ve done it, you’ve done it, everyone had such a phase, but we can get over it, because Vita is coming after us and we don’t want to realize that too late. And that’s how my character was born into Arinar, I guess 😄

Actually, Arinar could represent anything that people use to forget about the stress of life and escape life, not only games but also drugs for example. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

That's it for me 🙂 Good luck for everyone!

 

P.S.

I thought a lot about whether I should add those handwritten journals. Obviously, the story alone is 3000 letters, so if the journals are counted, it will be like 10k or something. But I hope that the judges don’t count the journals, as I said, they are an optional and an additional reading for anyone interested. I would understand if I get disqualified because of it, but in my defense, I say that they are completely irrelevant to the plot, you can just ignore them and nothing is gonna change, I just thought it’d be a cool idea to add for more details, and a closer look to the characters mind, that would be a waste of letters if I would add that to the main story.
https://charactercounttool.com/ 
2995 letters in the main story: without spaces and without the small notes about the pictures

Edited August 10, 2018 by Gladiator

[Higgings 1824]

And here is where mt vote goes 🙂

 

This means I'll have to work hard for my story! 

[yellowmiks 6]

Good one glad. Ima going to vote u.

[Akasha 2058]

On 8/2/2018 at 4:02 AM, Gladiator said:

P.S. I thought a lot about whether I should add those handwritten journals. Obviously, the story alone is 3000 letters, so if the journals are counted, it will be like 10k or something. But I hope that the judges don’t count the journals, as I said, they are an optional and an additional reading for anyone interested. I would understand if I get disqualified because of it, but in my defense, I say that they are completely irrelevant to the plot, you can just ignore them and nothing is gonna change

You made it clear that they're not to be considered for judgement by our admin, but only as a bonus content for those who have interest in your story. Everythig should be okay 😉

[Vera_Z 321]

Was expecting a detailed combat in the sand with "Ad mortem inimicus!" in the end.
But hell, that moral. *chuckles*

Best of luck brave Gladiator.
May the Vitans perish before your path.