Shared Traditions: Continued

-M. Grooming: Traditionally, modern gladiatorial orders wore hair and beard in a length intended to provide padding for their helmets. With the increase in gunpowder weapons, short military “crew cuts” and clean shaven faces have been adopted, with helmet liners employed for those few houses that go helmeted in military service and in the arena. Exceptions to this rule are: A Sagisarius wears his hair according to his tribal tradition. Hunters are permitted long hair and beards. Boxers and Rodmen wear hair cut to an inch above the brow and below the ear and prefer full beards to deaden facial blows.

-N. Hygiene is strict among all houses and requires military bathing schedules combined with prayers to the Holy Trinity, in the name of the Apostle named as the guiding light of that order.

-0. In antiquity, the lannista was the manger and task master of the gladiator, from his own house, who forced reluctant gladiators forward with whip and iron. Modern Christian orders have no lannista. That task, in the arena, is accomplished by a Lictor. See Appendix on Civic and Military Orders.

-P. Attire in the arena are limited to sandals, loincloth and girdle, which protects the groin, so much prized for slave breeding and by patrician dames.

The Six Crusading Orders also known as The High Houses

House: Equis, or Knights or Sarmations

Rank: 1st

Sacral Month: August

Patron Archangel: Saint Michael, Defender of the Faith

Guiding Apostle: Simon (Peter)

Bloodline: Romano-Breton, with Sarmation blond hair preferred

Colors: Gold

Brand: Cross in Nimbus

Religious Duty: Defense of Christendom

Military Duty: flanking foot to marry foot and horse in the line, storming breaches in the walls of forts, leading boarding parties

Civic Duty: Guard Augustus and Caesar

Traditional Arms: spatha [straight saber with no handguard] and shield with visored helmet

Military Arms: arming sword in the form of a tapering crucifix, a martial crucifix [an iron war hammer in the form of a cross with pointed arms and inverted half moon top for blade catching used in the off hand and as a boarding ax] visored helmet retained military service, a brace of 3 grenades, artillery—yes, gladiators with big guns.

Civic Arms: same as military

History: Inspired by the example of Arthur and his Circle of Sarmation Knights, the House Equis was formed in 1529 and fields the most feared combatants in Rome.

Glory: The storming and taking of Gibraltar from the Moorish Saracens in 1588. This citadel is held by the House Equis to the present day, the only Gladiatorial House to have its own fleet. The House Equis is the largest and most prestigious House Munera and is capable of fielding major military operations without the aid of the Navy or Army. The Bishop of Knights is sometimes styled the Eighth Caesar. Musketeers are provided by Nordic, German and Polynesian war slaves converted from the heathen on the promise to be freed after 30 years service. Horsemen are likewise drawn from Turkic, Tartar and Moorish Saracens according to the same religious and manumission arrangement.

Joe Equis, or Joe Knight or Sarmation Joe

House: Gladitorius or Gladiators or Swordsmen

Rank: 2nd

Sacral Month: Sepulcher

Patron Archangel: Saint Michael Protector of the Faith

Guiding Apostle: Andrew, Brother of Peter

Bloodline: Roman-Breton

Colors: Silver

Brand: Shield with Crucifix Boss

Religious Duty: Guarding Cathedrals

Military Duty: Garrisoning Fortified Positions and guarding supply trains and serving as sappers in sieges

Civic Duty: Train the Praetorians

Traditional Arms: gladius and scutumn, traditional shield of ancient Rome and open faced helmet with neck guard according to the ancient design

Military Arms: blunderbuss, gladius with crucifix hilt, pugio, breastplate, helmet with culverns mounted on carts and boats, the order having a fleet of open gunboats often operating as river patrols and coast guards

Civic Arms: rods and scutumns and breastplates are used to quell mob disturbances and raid mob hideouts in coordination with Lictor and Preatorian forces engaged in restoring and maintaining public order and fighting crime. Training of Praetorian Guard.

History: Formed in 1529 as a defensive garrison force in support of the House Equis, the House of Swords is the second largest of the Gladiatorial Houses.

Glory: Credited with defeating the Danish invasion of Britain at Kent in 1542. These men are regarded as superior to all other gladiator types in mixed arena combat.

Joe Gladiatorius, or Joe Gladiator, Joe of the Sword or Joey Sword or Sordid Joe by the mob who hate these men for their law enforcement role with an unequaled passion.

House: House Myrmillo or Marines

Rank: 3rd

Sacral Month: Spring

Patron Archangel: Saint Martial [formerly Mars and provisionally ranked among the Archangels by the Pope]

Guiding Apostle: James and John the Fisher Brothers

Bloodline: Romano-Breton, Cornish, Scottish or Nordic-Germanic Converts

Colors: Bronze

Brand: Fish-crested vizored helm

Religious Duty: Provide a full battalion in service to the Pope and directly subject to his orders

Military Duty: Naval boarding parties, opposed landings, naval sieges and island combat and garrison duty, with half of the order strength active in Oceanna. Train and lead sailors in combat.

Civic Duty: funeral processions under traditional arms, as the order is known for losing entire commands to recover slain comrades, even from besieged fortresses.

Traditional Arms: round shield and gladius with bronze helm

Military Arms: straight cutlass, brass boarding hat with bill, T-bar face cage and male coif, boarding ax, carbine and pistol

Civic Arms: the marine’s traditional arms, are regarded as the best street-fighting kit in Rome

History: Formed in 1530 to combat Nordic depredations, and expanded in 1541 to put down an Irish uprising, the Marines of Rome are resented by most other Houses and the Army, though they are in fast brotherhood to the Navy, who provide their transport. Each House Marine must field a company or battalion strength unit intended for combat. They engage in Christian arena combat the least, only accepting challenges from the House of Nets and never making challenges of their own. These gladiators are most likely to face heathen opponents in the arena and refuse to fight criminals, from whom they openly recruit to deplete their ravaged ranks.

Glory: Many acts of suicidal valor have been committed by the Marines. The most notorious was the siege of Sado Castle upon Sado Island west of Honshu when one of their sappers was captured and hung from a cross upon the battlement. The senseless frontal assaults that insured eventually freed that marine, though of his 5,000 fellows, only 31 remained alive. The city of Sado was put to the sword, except for the boys, who were inducted into the House Marine to fill the ranks left vacant by the slayers of their parents.

Joe Myrmillo, or Joe Marine, Fishy Joe, Joe Fish and “Jimmy-John” in honor of Christ’s third and fourth Apostles

House: Thrax or Thracian or Highlander or Scots

Rank: 4th

Sacral Month: Winter

Patron Archangel: Saint Michael the Protector

Guiding Apostle: Rather the Prophet John the Baptist

Bloodline: Scottish or Nordic-Germanic Convert [2]

Colors: Steel in a Spiked Nimbus

Brand: Basket-hilt Claymore and Spiked Targe

Religious Duty: transport, guarding and recovery of sacred relics, beginning with the raid on Jutland to recover the Silver Cross Taken from Clydesmoor Church in 1537.

Military Duty: raiding and urban warfare, street fighting

Civic Duty: strictly arena entertainers

Traditional Arms: sica [bent cutlass] and spiked shield with T-bared vizored helmet with mail coif

Military Arms: Claymore and Targe, hat and kilt, heavy pistol and dirk

Civic Arms: dirk and hawthorn knob-headed walking stick, awarded as a civic symbol after the order broke the Dubliner Rebels in the 1702 Uprising. This history has compelled the order to demand that its members are regarded as ever on civic patrol by the wearing of their helmet in public.

History: Formed in 1530 to combat Nordic depredations and infamous for their role in the crushing of numerous Irish uprisings. Thrax Houses are smaller, fielding squad-sized units for military service. Augustus Brittannicus, noting the similarity in ancient Thracian and modern Highlander equipment, named the house so.

Glory: This breed of man gained their longest lasting renown as the leading fighter type to drive the heathens of North and Arctic Pannonia off the Appalachian Mountains and beyond the Mississippi River and Great Lakes in the 200 years of Woodland Wars. Thracians are renown also for taking on daring individual missions for the clergy. They are infamous for imitating John the Baptist’s medium when questioning enemy captives or criminal suspects concerning the return of sacred artifacts, to include a simple parish wine cup that once cost the Entire Gang of Shives, a notorious New Your Mob, their lives at the hands of Preacher Thrax, infamous for quoting Scripture while interacting with those suspected of pilfering church artifacts, even as scanty as tin cup candles, penny boxes and Eucharist waifers taken by the starving.

Joe Thrax, or Thracian Joe, Joe Highlander, Joey Scott, Churchy Scott, or Jerry Joe or Viking Joe if he seems particularly Nordic

Note 2: the conversion of such Nordic and Germanic captives and POWs constitutes a deliberate attempt to breed continental European genetics into Roman bloodlines. These men are most often put to stud service.

House: Retiarius or Boarder or Netman or Catcher

Rank: 5th

Sacral Month: Caesar

Patron Archangel: Uriel Pillar of Divine Strength

Guiding Apostle: Phillip

Bloodline: any

Colors: Navy blue

Brand: Net and Trident

Religious Duty: to battle heretics and Saracens in the arena, netted for conversion or skewered for blasphemy

Military Duty: all trained as swimmers and divers, small teams are used for mining and counter mining harbors and for nightime infiltration of enemy ports and fortresses

Civic Duty: runaway capture and harbor salvage, inspecting merchant ships for smuggling and tariff violations. Despite being the best and most active urban slave catchers, these men pride themselves with delivering their quarry unharmed, and are not resented by their quarry, who they tend to engage in friendly banter, even promising to put in a good word with the master upon the slave’s return.

Traditional Arms: trident, net and dagger

Military Arms: garrote and dagger with nets sometimes employed for immobilizing defenders on a ship being boarded or cast down from a ship onto an enemy boat under oar

Civic Arms: net and dagger

History: Revived as a coast guard against Turkic raiders in the Irish see in 1576, these gladiators are often crowd favorites in the arena and are most likely to be liked by the mob.

Glory: Joe the Net, in 1925, saved seven iron workers from perishing in a flooded caisson during the building of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Joe Retiarus, or Border Joe, Netman Joe, Netty Joe or Catcher Joe

House: Prococatuer or Challenger

Rank: 6th

Sacral Month: Easter

Patron Archangel: Uriel Pillar of Divine Strength

Guiding Apostle: Bartholomew

Bloodline: any

Colors: white with black trim

Brand: white gladius on black field

Religious Duty: trial by combat versus successful Muslim champions

Military Duty: train the officer class in swordsmanship

Civic Duty: guards to patrician class, employed to neutralize mob leaders and hitmen

Traditional Arms: gladius and oblong shield with open face helmet

Military Arms: rapier, pistol and dagger, cape and tasseled beret

Civic Arms: same

History: This order was formed in the year 1775 in the wake of numerous assassinations of patricians by plebean radicals. They serve mainly as Patrician body guards and as the companions and instructors of army and naval officers, drawn fro this same class. Tribunes prefer these men as bodyguards. There is no unit organization among Challengers. The numbers of challengers operating out of each house is kept strictly secret. Once in his lifetime, every Challenger is sworn to serve as a champion for a pebean of good character beset by criminal conspiracy or challenged unjustly by a Patrician [this latter, whom he is barred by oath not to slay, but disarm]. This Decree was instituted in 1820 as a counter revolutionary measure by the Pope and Augustus.

Glory: Lester Challenger of the South Panonnian House Provocatuer in Lima Peru, seconded, successfully one plebean in every province of South, Central, North and Arctic Panonia between 1821 and 1864 and retired undefeated from the arena with 76 sword duels, 13 pistol duels and 16 arena combats against Saracens, all of whom had been victorious against Christian champions. There is a statue of Lester Challenger in the Forum of Augusta, where he passed from surgical complications after a successful, but fatal, pistol duel at age 59.

Joe Provocatuer, or Joe Challenger, nobody uses slang addresses such as “Joey Caper” [3] unless he wishes a visit from said person.

A whispered nickname for Challengers is “Caper” in reference to their white capes with black trim.