Doctore Luminia
Name: Ivanna "Ivy" Landis
Appearance:
Age: 23
Preferred Gladiator Form: Retiarius
Bio: Ivy grew up in southern Italy, her father a wealthy merchant and ruler of the people in their small province of Sanya-del. She was raised to be a lady, proper and well mannered, her only interaction with other children was through various festivals her father put on in the towns square twice a year. She was, however, very perceptive and loved to spar more than anything, the older boys in town often meeting at the edge of the village forest to draw sticks and see who would reign supreme. Having gotten herself a nasty bruise or a deep cut a time or two quickly taught her how to patch herself up, hold her emotions and cover up anything with a little paint and effort. She spent three years of her adolescence working hard to win the spot of King of the Forest through their various levels of fighting; however, the year before the Centurum Empire invaded she did just that.
Their country was always one to side with Centurum law, but through a series of unfortunate events their King found himself on the wrong side of the Emperors and therefore an enemy to the empire. The battle was much like her first sparring event, the Centurum much larger and greater in skill and number had laid waste to her village and her people, both of her parents loosing their lives in the event. She fought along side the young men of the village and killed twelve soldiers that day, her technique fascinating for the general to watch from a distance. When the time came to gather the best fighters up for inspection she was included, her response to the general was the lodging of spit in his handsome face. He decided to keep her for himself and train her to be the best retairuis fighter in Maro, the crowds wanting more of the blonde beauty and her unbendable spirit. She would be great and he would sell her only to one day reclaim his prize.
Retiarius
The retiarius ("net fighter") developed in the early Augustan period. He carried a trident, a dagger, and a net. The retiarius wore a loincloth held in place by a wide belt and a larger arm guard (manica) extending to the shoulder and left side of the chest. He fought without the protection of a helmet. Occasionally a metal shoulder shield (galerus) was added to protect the neck and lower face. A tombstone found in Romania shows a retiarius holding a dagger with four spikes (each at the corner of a square guard) instead of the usual bladed dagger. This was previously thought to be an artistic invention or perhaps a ceremonial weapon, but a recent discovery of a gladiator graveyard found that several of the remains had four odd-looking marks that form the outline of a square on their bones which is consistent with the use of such a weapon.[citation needed] A variation to the normal combat was a retiarius facing two secutores at the same time. The retiarus stood on a bridge or raised platform with stairs and had a pile of fist-sized stones to throw at his adversaries. While the retarius tried to keep them at bay, the secutores tried to scale the structure to attack him. The platform, called a pons (bridge), may have been constructed over water.[22] Retiarii usually fought Secutores but sometimes fought Myrmillones.[23] There was an effeminate class of gladiator who fought as a retiarius tunicatus. They wore tunics to distinguish them from the usual retiarius, and were looked on as a social class even lower than infamia.[24][25]