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Beloved by the masses and scorned by the elites, Arena gladiators were the heroes of the people. Before Agronak the Gray Prince there was Sextilia Penna the Iron Maiden.
A gladiator who wore a skull shaped helm and left the field of the Arena bathed in the blood of her enemies. Man or Woman, Orc or Elf, Beast or Dremora all had hoped to take the Iron Maiden down. But in the end the Maiden herself would step down.
Her final battle, her opponent came out like a beast, he rushed to strike the Maiden down. But the she held him off. Her clipeus would be rent to splinters by the repeated blows from his war axe. One blow would come close to ending her life as he sunk the axe into her helm. Thinking he could press the axe further in and bury it in her skull he let his guard down. The Maiden lifted her gladius and sliced open his unprotected chest. Blood and guts erupted forth on the sand and her ocrea.
Stumbling back he let go of the axe to hold himself together with his now free hands. The Maiden would stand and pick up the axe and as her opponent fell to his knees she would hold it over her head with her shield hand.
Cheers rose from the crowd and the stands would shack. Hands rose thumbs held high, the maiden answered their demand and sunk the axe in her opponents neck.
The next day the Black Horse Courier would feature a special edition.

Iron Maiden steps down

After this many tales would come out of what had happen to Penna. Some would say she had stared in the face of death and desired to live. Others said she had been killed by friends of her opponent who took revenge on her. But the most popular story was that she was the daughter of the Imperial Council and her near death had upset them to remove the maiden from the Arena. More so when the Imperial Census would show that there where no one named Sextilia Penna in the Empire.



Yeah seems we got the thumb thing wrong. I was watching a youtube video a few weeks back where a collage professor said Up means death and down means life. I spent the last half hour trying to re find it so I could link it.
Also this was suppose to be a Pirate day image with Galatia singing a Pirate version of the Monty Python Lumber Jack song. But I got to playing the Arena again this time with the WAC mods. I do like WAC for Pirate like outfits, those striped shirts and so many swords to play with.