Gladiators
| Gladiators at a Glance | |
|---|---|
| Midnight Ocean | |
| Last Captain | Despair |
| Senior Officer(s) | |
| Politics | Autocratic |
| Shares | |
| Flag Affiliation | None |
| Dormant or disbanded as of 15 November, 2007 | |
Gladiators was first created on Azure Ocean by Misery. The Gladiators quickly became one of the most active crews to sail Azure, with Misery herself often found at the ship's helm. Many flags sought the crew, with the Gladiators making the fateful choice to join Crimson Tide, where Misery soon became royalty.
Midnight (first incarnation)
On Midnight, the Gladiators sailed again, though this time as a combination of the original crew, a few famous pirates, and her first mate, Tedv. However, this was not to last. A crew split left behind very few members, including Misery and Rome, who went on to merge into Pirates of the Damned.
Midnight (second incarnation)
Gladiators later rose to a brief political prominence as an alt crew, organized by Misery, that attracted members in response to Notorious Fandango's early public efforts, which some labeled extortion. The exact motivation varied from member to member; while many members seemed particularly aggrieved at demands of PoE from small stallowners [as Notorious Fandango targetted all shopkeepers in their demands], as opposed to specifically targetting similarly-sized and experienced flags, others were drawn to the chance to defeat the "rockstar" flag or specific members thereof, or simply to support their friends. Like Notorious Fandango itself, membership was drawn from a number of existing flags; while Notorious Fandango had significantly more players that were known as "rockstars" at the time, the division of skilled players looks more even in retrospect when including Gladiators that became well known in later times.
After the controversial blockade of Remora (Remora IV), and Notorious Fandango's late drop attempt on Ostreum (Ostreum II), attention of both sides was somewhat distracted by the conflict between RAWR and the Scallywag Syndicate, in what became known as the Scallywag War. In addition, as Notorious Fandango either dropped or found less offensive ways to continue the more controversial parts of their efforts, the perception of a need to oppose Notorious Fandango en masse diminished, with attendance (as Gladiators) falling as low as six pirates by the time NF blockaded Spring (Spring III).
With the introduction of the fame mechanic making it more difficult to shuttle the alt crew to whichever flag was defending, the decision was formally made not to continue with Gladiators as an organized opposition to Notorious Fandango ; as the above jobber numbers indicate this was largely a formalization of a de facto situation.
Aside from an overabundance of parley threads, and any effects on Notorious Fandango, the primary legacy of Gladiators was a thaw in relations between islandowners; many of whose previous dealings with each other had primarily been as opponents on the blockade board.
