This art was never widely practiced, even at the height of its popularity in the First Age. A relatively late development, Heroic Gladiator Style was one of the few martial arts specifically designed around the use of armor, especially (but not exclusively) for elite warstrider pilots. While it was used, as its name implies, in arena combat, the style saw the most use on the edges of Creation. It was pitted often against powerful mutants and behemoths, as well as the occasional escaped demon. Originally intended for use by Celestial Exalted wearing the finest powered armor and warstriders, it was most widely adopted by Dragon-Blooded who found its Charms particularly effective in mitigating the limitations of their common warstriders.

This would make it an ironically potent weapon for the Terrestrials during the Usurpation. Nonetheless, it was not especially effective against the perfection of the Solar Exalted, and having been created by one of the ‘Anathema’ (a Twilight who loved both martial arts and armor design), it waned in use during the Shogunate. The style was revived during the Contagion, however, where it proved invaluable against the terrible incursions of the Raksha.

Today, Heroic Gladiator Style is a top-secret weapon taught to the most dedicated students at the House of Bells. There, they teach a special cadre of students to use the Realm’s handful of precious noble warstriders as the ultimate equalizers against the Yozis, Raksha and dreaded Anathema. They train in the common warstriders, where they learn to overcome the limitations of those titanic suits of armor, and those who excel become the most elite pilots in the Realm. While it is an open secret that some sort of ‘special warstrider style’ exists, only a handful (including the Empress, wherever she is) know that it is a Celestial art. Students are forbidden to tell anyone that even outside of their armor, a Gladiator of the Realm is nearly the equal of an Immaculate Martial Artist.

Heroic Gladiator Style is fantastically training-intensive. Everyone who learns this style must not only focus the use of their bodies, but merge that skill with supernatural excellence. In game terms, each Charm has two Abilityprerequisites: one in Martial Arts and one in Athletics. Increasing both is necessary to gain the full benefits of the style. Terrestrials must also, as with any other Celestial style, learn Charms that allow them to exceed their normal limitations. The modern school may be the only place not run by Anathema where Dragon-Blooded can learn the Tiger-and-Bear Charms. At least a few students die every year trying to live up to the Gladiator sifus at the House of Bells.

Though considered brutal and direct by many, Heroic Gladiator is inherently an elegant style, combining raw power and implacability with fluidity of movement and sinuous grace. On the other hand, it is unquestionably straightforward, with little emphasis on the clever tricks and Essence-bending powers of more esoteric styles. While Heroic Gladiator has a philosophy and ethos that separates it from mere brawling styles, but as a weapon of war, it exists for one purpose: to keep the warrior alive long enough to destroy her foes. Heroic Gladiator Style permits the use of most Martial Arts weapons, with only chains and ropes (including the garrote) being excluded.

Any Martial Arts Excellency ↓ ↓ ↓
Unrelenting Gladiator’s Blow ↓		Death-Defying Palm ↓		Heroes-Never-Bleed Technique ↓
Heroic Gladiator Form ↓ ↓
Hundred-Blow Barrage ↓			Heroes-Never-Stop Stance ↓
Gladiator-Avenging Reply ↓			Heroes-Never-Surrender Method ↓
Enemy-Obliterating Strike ↓			Heroes-Never-Die Kata ↓
Supreme Poetic Retribution Prana

Note: Lunars may replace "Any Martial Arts Excellency" with "Any Dexterity Excellency"

Unrelenting Gladiator’s Blow

Cost: 2 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK
Minimums: Martial Arts 2, Athletics 2
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Any Martial Arts Excellency

The trained Gladiator has learned to maximize her power by focusing both her strength and her Essence. Unrelenting Gladiator’s Blow adds the lower of the character’s Athletics and Essence ratings in successes to the post-soak damage of a single Martial Arts attack.

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Death-Defying Palm

Cost: 3 motes
Duration: One action
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK
Minimums: Martial Arts 2, Athletics 2
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Any Martial Arts Excellency

With a simple flicker of motion, the martial artist casually slaps aside the deadliest scythe or the sharpest dagger, his palm unerringly guided to the flat of the blade or the offending limb’s extremity. Death-Defying Palm adds the lower of the character’s Athletics and Essence ratings to the Gladiator’s DV until his next action, and he can parry lethal and ranged attacks without a stunt.

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Heroes-Never-Bleed Technique

Cost: 2 motes
Duration: Until next action
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Minimums: Martial Arts 3, Athletics 2
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Any Martial Arts Excellency

Gladiators can survive blows that would kill lesser Exalts. While they cannot yet ignore the stings of their lessers entirely, they can shrug off attacks that would otherwise cripple them. When this Charm is activated, until their next actions, unarmored Gladiators add the character’s Essence to bashing, lethal and aggravated soaks, while armored Exalts become one with their armor, negating the effects of piercing attacks. Attacks that ignore armor entirely become merely piercing if they have any physical component at all (such as Armor-Penetrating Fang Strike), but Shaping attacks that do harm by transforming the body are not affected by Heroes-Never-Bleed Technique.

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Heroic Gladiator Form

Cost: 6 motes
Duration: One Scene
Type: Simple
Keywords: Form-type, Obvious
Minimums: Martial Arts 4, Athletics 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Unrelenting Gladiator’s Blow, Death-Defying Palm, Heroes-Never-Bleed Technique

The Gladiator focuses all her Essence into her central chakra, then releases it throughout her body, combining physical training with perfected Essence flows. Flowing into a fluid, graceful-yet-powerful stance, the martial artist unites phenomenal combat skill and awe-inspiring physical prowess.

For the duration of the Charm, the Gladiator may add her Martial Arts score to Athletics rolls and vice versa. This bonus applies for all purposes, including static values such as jumping distances and Parry DV. Furthermore, if the martial artist has trained in the same specialty in both Abilities, she may add the dots from both specialties to all relevant rolls. This bonus explicitly counts toward the dice limit for Excellency use. A Gladiator may exceed her normal Excellency limits with this Charm, but may not use the First or Second Excellencies to enhance an Ability thus exceeded until this Charm ends. Heroic Gladiator Form does not interfere with use of the Third Excellency. The martial artist may parry lethal and ranged attacks without a stunt or Charm.

Virtually all current wielders of Heroic Gladiator Style buy "In Warstrider" as their relevant specialties, but this is not a requirement of the style.

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Hundred-Blow Barrage

Cost: 3 motes per attack
Duration: Instant
Type: Extra Action
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Minimums: Martial Arts 4, Athletics 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Heroic Gladiator Form

Most think of Heroic Gladiator Style as slow and direct, but Hundred-Blow Barrage proves its agility. The Gladiator rears his fists or leg back, then with a terrible cry, unleashes a magical flurry of attacks that in fact looks like a hundred blows. In truth, this Charm permits a maximum number of attacks equal to the lower of Martial Arts and Athletics. These actions must be attacks, but they can be directed at one foe or several as the Gladiator wishes. Unarmed attacks enhanced by Hundred-Blow Barrage can be made lethal if the martial artist so desires.

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Heroes-Never-Stop Stance

Cost: 6 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-OK
Minimums: Martial Arts 4, Athletics 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Heroic Gladiator Form

Heroic Gladiators who live up to their name must often stand their ground against horrible reality-warping foes or vast numbers of mindless drones in defense of the innocent. Those Gladiators who choose this path of Valor are often capable of holding back entire enemy units. Heroes-Never-Stop Stance reduces the parry defense penalty imposed by each action the Gladiator takes by one, to a minimum of zero. It also enhances the protection of armor, as the martial artist becomes one with her equipment. Any damaging effect that completely ignores armor, including Shaping effects, is instead soaked with the full protection provided by the defenses, with the appropriate effect manifesting on the armor’s exterior. Piercing attacks, however, affect the armor soak normally.

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Gladiator-Avenging Reply

Cost: 5 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack
Minimums: Martial Arts 5, Athletics 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Hundred-Blow Barrage

The Gladiator slides into a fluid, hyper-aware stance, capable of sensing even the slightest pressure but simultaneously detached from it. Until her next action, whenever a foe successfully strikes her (i.e. overcomes DV, but not necessarily causes damage), the martial artist may immediately attempt a Martial Arts counterattack, ignoring all internal penalties. The Gladiator also reduces the damage of each attack by one level as she flows with and around theattack, using her assailant’s own momentum to guide her counterattack. This Charm cannot be used to retaliate against any other counterattack Charm.

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Heroes-Never-Surrender Method

Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple (Speed 3)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Minimums: Martial Arts 5, Athletics 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Heroes-Never-Stop Stance

The Gladiator refuses to give in to pain, exhaustion or weakness. For the remainder of the scene, the martial artist ignores dice penalties from injury, fatigue, Poison or Sickness effects and is immune to all Crippling effects, the last effect being Perfect. The character continues to take damage from poison or disease if applicable, but as long as the Gladiator is conscious, she continues to fight. When the Charm ends, all accumulated penalties other than Crippling effects (which are simply never applied) take effect. In extremis,
the Speed of this Charm can be reduced for a cost of three motes per tick, to a minimum Speed of 1.

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Enemy-Obliterating Strike

Cost: 4 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental (Step 10)
Keywords: Obvious
Minimums: Martial Arts 5, Athletics 5
Minimum Essence: 4
Prerequisite Charms: Gladiator-Avenging Reply

The determined Gladiator can obliterate most enemies with but a single blow. Enemy-Obliterating Strike makes unarmed attacks lethal, and adds the Gladiator’s Athletics in dice and Essence in automatic successes to post-soak damage. Use of this Charm reduces the Rate of any attack used in conjunction with it to one, and it is completely incompatible with any multiple action effect. People killed by Enemy-Obliterating Strike should be treated as if their bodies have been burned for purposes of the rise of hungry ghosts. Any object not made from the Magical Materials is reduced to shards if destroyed by use of this Charm.

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Heroes-Never-Die Kata

Cost: 4 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Minimums: Martial Arts 5, Athletics 5
Minimum Essence: 4
Prerequisite Charms: Heroes-Never-Surrender Method

The style’s supreme defensive technique allows a Gladiator to turn the force of any attack on itself, if the character’s skill is sufficient. The character invokes Heroes-Never-Die Kata in response to a successful attack, and theattack must not be unexpected. The Gladiator rolls his Dexterity + Martial Arts pool normally, except that if a weapon is being used, add the weapon’s Defense to the pool rather than Accuracy. This roll replaces the character’s normal DV. If the new DV causes the attack roll to fail, the Charm is treated as a parry that perfectly defends against any attack, even if it is unblockable. Attacks that are not rolled are considered to have a number of successes equal to the attacker’s permanent Essence for this Ability check.

Even though a roll is required to successfully use this Charm, Heroes-Never-Die Kata still has one of the Four Flaws of Invulnerability. Gladiators can purchase this Charm twice, with each version having a different Flaw.

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Supreme Poetic Retribution Prana

Cost: 6 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive (Step 5)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack
Minimums: Martial Arts 5, Athletics 5
Minimum Essence: 5
Prerequisite Charms: Enemy-Obliterating Strike, Heroes-Never-Die Kata

Arrogance is the downfall of many powerful warriors. Thinking their might will always win out, they wield great and terrible powers with abandon. The greatest of Heroic Gladiators can turn this hubris against their foes, destroying them with their own strength. The martial artist activates Supreme Poetic Retribution Prana after the attack has been resolved. The Gladiator’s DV is instantly doubled. This can be stacked with other effects such as Combos and innate powers, but these bonuses add rather than multiply, i.e. if a Solar with a natural DV of 6 uses Supreme Poetic Retribution Prana, then uses Martial Arts Essence Flow to buy three successes, the final DV is 15 — (6×2)+3 — not 18.

If this increase of the Gladiator’s DV is sufficient to negate the attack, it is then reversed directly onto the assailant, as if the target had attacked himself exactly as he did the Gladiator, with the same number of successes applied to the target’s own DV. The target can use Charms and/or Combos as per the normal rules to defend himself. If the target is struck by his own attack, damage is rolled normally, and all other applicable offensive Charms and weapon powers take effect on the assailant. This Charm cannot be used to retaliate against any other counterattack Charm.

© 2008 Peter Flanagan