Doom Arena of the Wastes

[Prodigy Almighty]

Far out in the middle of the Wastes of Fallen Souls, where wind stirs up drifts of snow, one building rises from the ground. It is called the Doom Arena by most, though no one knows exactly what it was originally called.

The fifteen-story arena structure was only found recently by a patrol of Chelkran Elites out of Fort Arctic Saber. Its original builders are unknown, but its purpose has been deduced by evidence left there; for instance, the large animal cages with human bones in them, and the racks of rusted and decrepit weapons, all found in the bloodworks.

Chelkran and human archaeologists and historians are working on cracking more of the questions about the so-called Doom Arena. Who are the people depicted in the carvings and statues? Who built the arena? Why is it in the middle of the Wastes?

[b3n|<3r|\|]

Hmm! Very intriguing. Pray keep us informed.

[Kaiser Ayreon]

Forgive my ignorance, but what or who are/is the Chelkran(s)?

[Prodigy Almighty]

The Chelkran are a genetic miracle of science, a product of my own work. In order to create the ultimate army of super soldiers, I combined the genetic material of humans with just a few specific genomes from bears of just about any type you can think of.

They just look like big people with sharp teeth. Obviously, they're much more, but that's the gist.

[Kaiser Ayreon]

Hm, maybe I should have some for my personal guard.

Tell me more

[Prodigy Almighty]

Well, if there's a type of bear you can think of that isn't extinct, then there's a Chelkran for it.

Sun bear Chelkran are the smallest, since Sun bears are the smallest bear. Makes sense. A Sun bear Chelkran averages just a little bigger than human size, maybe 6'6" and up.

Polar bear Chelkran are the largest by far, however, standing maybe 12'0" or taller when fully grown. My third in command is a Polar Chelkran, stands 12'7".

[Prodigy Almighty]

MOUSE! What the hell are you doing to my Arena?! Get outta here with that mess.

Really, though, it seems as though this part of the discussion belongs more appropriately in the Shrine of Controversy... I mean, hell, we have one, so...

[Andreas the Wise]

A most interesting arena ... if you want some archaeologists from the FDoG, you know who to call ...

[Oroigawa Koreyasu]

GHOSTBUSTERS!

[Noemi_Vassiliais]

Well... I'm sure a mixture of earth, water and air spells could do the trick as well. It'd probably be a whole heck of a lot easier to dig it up.

[Prodigy Almighty]

"This had better be DAMN important to wake me up from my nap," Prodigy groaned, rubbing his eyes with his metal hand.

Kale lead him through the Arena excavation. "The head says he's found something important, so let's hope he has something worth our time."

Together, they entered the largest heavily-insulated tent located just outside the Arena. Inside, they found Errian Olgar, the head archaeologist and leader of the excavation, hunched over his table in a warm polar suit. He straightened up and greeted his two superiors.

"What you got for us, Errian?" Prodigy asked, a tad irritable but trying his best to be patient and let the scientist speak his piece.

The archaeologist cleared his throat, a little nervous. "Uh, y-yessir. Um, we did some carbon dating on this tablet here--" he stuttered, pointing shakily at the table in the center of the tent. "Er, we aren't sure about these results, but--"

"Get on with it, man," Kale chuckled, slightly amused and slightly annoyed by the nervous Chelkran.

Errian gulped and continued. "Right. Well. Our carbon dating places this tablet in the present era."

There was a silence. Kale looked at Prodigy, Errian looked at Kale, Prodigy looked at Errian, and they did this for several moments before Prodigy burst out into laughter.

"So what you're saying is that this arena was built within the past couple centuries," he giggled, not fully believing it. "What are you going to tell me next, that it was built by Chelkran?"

"Yes." The answer caught Prodigy off guard, and he almost fell over as he spluttered.

"What are you talking about?" Kale asked, looking serious. "What would Chelkran be doing out here in the past few centuries before Absentia existed?"

"We aren't sure yet," Errian admitted, looking a little guilty. "But we're certain, if it wasn't Chelkran, it was some race of people similar in stature, based upon the frozen footprint impressions we got from the permafrost."

Prodigy looked at Kale, Kale looked at Errian, Errian looked at Prodigy, and they did this again and again for almost a whole minute. Then the cyborg said one word:

"Awesome."

[Prodigy Almighty]

Prodigy awoke with a start, looking around. He sat up in his big, cushy bed that he didn't really need, thinking. What could have woken him up? Definitely something about Yardistan...

Then it hit him like a foul ball far to the left: The Chelkran Rebellion.

It solved the mystery of the Doom Arena. When the Chelkran moved from Toketi to the tropical island of Greater Chelk, the current home of Chelkran Kesh, some of the bear-men didn't want to leave their original home. They revolted, staying on Tokish soil, forming an independent settlement right under the nose of the Tokish government, under the leadership of some upstart Asiatic Chelkran. When the Montag Crisis happened recently, the whole place was wiped out, leaving no trace that anyone lived there except some underground tunnels that could have belonged to the Montags.

But what if some of them split off from the rebels? Could they have gone further west from there?

He would require some proof, but it was a good hunch. He would have to put together an expeditionary squad to check it out. The cyborg pushed open the door to Amstead and headed down to Kale's room; the sooner they got started, the better.

[Prodigy Almighty]

"It paid off!" Errian cried, looking at the book in front of him. The book had been frozen solid, and several pages had shattered like glass. But with some luck and bit of air conditioning, they kept the pages from melting. And indeed, Executor / Duke Prodigy's hunch had been right.

Turns out, about two years before the Montag Crisis, some of the rebels had heard about Prodigy's travel to Shireroth. Since the schism, they hadn't been happy with the new administration, but they had no way of getting to Chelkran Kesh. So instead, they went to Benacia. Unfortunately, they lost their map or something happened to put them off course - the reasoning wasn't clear, those pages had already melted in the heated tents - but however they got there, they found where Absentia had been as a nation.

Due to in-fighting, the Arena had been set up for use in honorable duels. But with the addition of bloodshed of such caliber to a Chelkran society, they wanted more. The Arena started seeing much more use, and the more blood spilled in the Arena, the more the crowds wanted. In fact, the Arena was the blackhole that pulled this settlement of Chelkran to its demise in one giant, bloody civil conflict.

Errian grabbed the phone. Prodigy had to know.

[Prodigy Almighty]

After the successful finding of the Arena's origins, the excavation had smashing results. Before long, they started turning up increasing amounts of old weapons, armor, construction blueprints, and a few more ice-preserved books. One thing they did NOT expect to find...

Errian stared very dumbly at the arrangement of items on his examination table. An old tome, a pouch of berries (somehow still fresh), a metal rod carved with an assortment of runes, a tiny glass bell, and a ceremonial dagger. Exactly the artifacts described in the Book of the Six, detailing the rise of the Akronarian Pantheon of gods. The artifacts that MADE the mortal chelkran into gods.

He bit his lip. How could he be sure they were real? Try it? No. That was out of the question. Errian questioned whether the ancient artifacts still contained any power. After the second binding of magic, they disappeared; now, suddenly, they reappeared with the third binding. Could it be that the third charter brought them back to functionality?

Errian picked up the phone again. If anyone could make such a decision, it was either Kale, Korstokk, Prodigy. Prodigy was dealing with Yardistani rebellion, and Korstokk was leading the Tokian forces in Jasonia.

Time to call Kale.

[Andreas the Wise]

Another god? Oh my ....

[Kaiser Reynardine I]

Six of them, even!

[Andreas the Wise]

I knew the other six already, I was talking about Prodigy ....

[Maksym Hadjimehmetov]

Very nice.
I'm sure Mr ShireWiki would like all that into one page!

[b3n|<3r|\|]

Ah good. This is what a good Dux Emeritus should do; retire to his County for a while and work on the culture he has neglected for the affairs of Greater Yardistan for a while.

[Prodigy Almighty]

Kale studied the Arena. Recently, all archaeological pieces of interest had been moved, and now the Arena was basically empty. Ripe and ready for all of the grand plans laid out previously.

"First project, we need to renovate the seating," the interim Executor told his assistant, the man in charge of fixing up the Arena, a human man named Stan Doughty. "Bathroom facilities should be installed next, which means get the water pipes working. Press box on the western side, halfway up, private seating booth on the east side. Concessions on the north and south sides, facing each other..."

The mousy little man wrote down everything Kale said, practically word for word, missing nothing, saying nothing. When Kale had finished reciting his instructions, Stan stood there, ready to write more. Neither spoke until Kale looked at the man, bewildered. "Well, get working, eh? That's a lot of stuff."

"Yes sir," Stan said quietly with a bow, and walked away. Kale shook his head and looked back towards the Arena, muttering to himself.

"I swear, if that man wasn't so brilliant, I would drop him like a Razorball player drops the ball when he has no arms..."