Coliseum

The Coliseum

The Coliseum (also spelled "Colosseum", or formally known as "the Stuartian Amphitheater") is the grandest and most famous engineering marvel and architectural structure of Aelyria Prime, a vast open public space used for the enjoyment of citizens. The Coliseum serves as arena, field, grounds, and theater all at once; it is a permanent, state-of-the-art venue for entertainment. It is an elliptical amphitheater at the center of the Capital City seated just northwest of the Forum capable of seating in excess of 100,000 spectators. Used for hosting traditional jousts, gladitorial combat, arena duels, and games of sport, many other public spectacles have been held there, such as mock sea battles, animal hunts, executions, re-enactments of famous battles, and dramas based upon mythology. The building ceased to be used for entertainment during the late Third Empire, but plans to re-open the structure for mass and widespread events began to emerge in the early Second Kingdom.

The Coliseum's original name was the Amphitheatrum Stuartium, or the Stuartian Amphitheater, named after its chief architect Prince Stuart de Marchant. The name was used only in official circles, but the Coliseum's common name was popularly held throughout the Realm as more poetic and fitting for an arena of its glorious magnitude.

The Coliseum Under Construction

Construction

Construction on the Coliseum began shortly after the destruction and enslavement of Alngea under orders by Prince Stuart de Marchant; it was financed by the sale of precious relics taken from the ruined city of Orcatios when it was sacked by Aelyrian forces in retaliation for Alngea's support for the Republic of Libertas. Twelve thousand Alngean captives were brought back from that campaign to build the Amphitheater. They worked under tremendously harsh conditions, worked long and hard, and until the end; all slaves were compelled to labor until they died from exhaustion. They poured more than 6,000 tonnes of Rockstone Concrete and hauled huge travertine limestone building blocks from a quarry over twenty five miles away.

As the building progressed higher, they would use less of the stronger and expensive heavy limestone and more of the cheaper and lighter ingredients. The Aelyrian workers had sophisticated wooden cranes and pulley devices for lifting immense slabs of stone, which they could do quite easily from the ground and lift to great heights. In just Eight Years, the imposing structure grew to over one hundred sixty feet tall, dwarfing all that surrounded it. It became the tallest structure ever built during the Second Empire and it came to symbolize the power, engineering and wealth of Aelyria Prime.

Aelyrian amphitheaters were typically constructed from a surprisingly simple framework, incorporating two theaters back to back to form one three hundred sixty degree theater in the round. The Coliseum set a new standard for Aelyrian amphitheater design. It contained an intricate network of corridors and staircases that could shuffle 70,000 Aelyrians in and out within record time. As with smaller stadiums and newer arenas built during the Third Empire, everyone who entered the Coliseum had a ticket corresponding to the number above one of the entry gates. The complex was designed not only to control the crowds but to keep them comfortable. It has one hundred ten drinking fountains and two large restrooms, large enough to accommodate a packed house.

The Coliseum even has a retractable roof. On hot days, an awning called a volarium would be unfurled above the upper decks to shade spectators from the sun. Operated by sailors from the Aelyrian Navy who were stationed around the top of the Coliseum's arcade. They could move it according to the sun and wind using tall polls to move the canvas around the edges of the arena, consequently ensuring the Coliseum could be amazingly air conditioned and comfortably shaded. On special occasions, the volarium's awning would be replaced by a colored canvas depicting the different houses of nobility, provinces of the empire, and chartered municipalities of the realm, including even guilds and factions that might compete and be cheered. Later on, operation of the awning was later transitioned to magical spells controlled from lower levels, though guests often complained that they were not as smooth and responsive as the trained sailors were.

Inauguration

Completed almost eight years to the day, the Coliseum was complete and Prince Stuart de Marchant personally oversaw and led the Inaugural Celebration. For 100 straight days, Aelyrians flocked to the Coliseum to soak in every kind of carnage imaginable. Five thousands were slaughtered in a single day, thousands of gladiators and prisoners left as corpses. Outside the arena bloodshed on this scale had been known only in war. But inside, it was pure entertainment. Spectators during the inauguration would go for the entire day: in the morning, they would watch men kill or be killed by animals; around noontime, they would watch the execution of prisoners; and, finally, by afternoons, the main event would emerge: gladitorial combat, duels, tournaments, and jousts. These duels were exciting and a big draw at the Coliseum, widely popular among both the citizenry and nobility, but not always the main event.

Historians describe live naval battles recreated right in the middle of the Arena -- with battleships on water. It was possible to divert water from the Aqueduct to the Coliseum in order to flood the floor to a shallow depth. There are numerous water channels for flooding in the substructures of the Coliseum, though they have not been used since the Inauguration. The complex plumbing system alone is considered a masterpiece of engineering design, easily reconfigurable to flood and drain the arena. Water diverted from the Aqueduct into holding tanks could be released into the Arena floor, while drain pipes connected to the Great Sewers could empty the Coliseum of any water used in battles directly into the River Ioannes.

The Coliseum's naval battles have been known as an astounding engineering triumph, but proved to be a fleeting interest to the spectators and arena managers, later relegated to secondary status to a new innovation that revolutionized the Games at the Coliseum: the Hypogeum, a two-story substructure beneath the Arena containing a system of elevators and trap doors that enable tigers and armed gladiators to pop up through the floor and slaughter their unsuspecting victims. Cages for wild and fantastic animals, magical beasts and traps, soldiers preparing an assault, knights sharpening their swords, condemned criminals in restraints, would all emerge unexpectedly.

As the games begin, a trapdoor in the arena floor would open and by a system of pulleys an elevator would hoist up cages and platforms containing surprises for unaware victims above. When the trapdoor opens, awaiting combatants would be bathed in light and the screams of the crowds above; when it would close, the contestants would remain beneath in darkness alone to contemplate their own demise amidst the screams of death and the terrible stench of blood, waste, beasts, men, and decay from the countless slaughters earlier in the day. Vile, bloody, exploitative, and thrilling: the Games of the Coliseum were the ultimate Aelyrian spectacle, and all who would enter were awed by the engineering prowess of the world's most advanced civilization.