Gladiator

The Gladiators are professinal warriors who use to entertain the audience by fighting other gladiators, wild animals and eventually terrible monsters in Nilfgaard and in its provinces. The fights, usually organized during holidays, are seen by both rich and poorer people and of course by the Emperor himself. In every city there are hundreds of pit dug and dozens of arenas. The most important landmarks for the fights are however the arena in Claremont and the Stadium in the City of Golden Towers, both funded by the famous Ebbinger businessman Dominik Bombastus Houvenaghel, a noted man within the history of the Eternal Empire.

Although the gladiators fights are seen as a pastime by the audience, it also happens at times that the arena fights serve as an alternative form of execution or hard labor for convicts.

Mostly of the gladiators who enter the arenas are usually slaves and prisoners of war but it may happen that a free man - or even woman - looking for glory or driven by their debts, enter the arena.

The warriors-to-be are selected since they're young and are then trained at special schools under watchful eye of lanistae, the directors of the schools.