Bread and Circuses

Warden Zerak enjoyed choosing combatants for the Nexus Arena.

The bloodletting was enjoyable to watch, as slaves from various species and various locales in real-space did battle, the prey serving as amusement for the people of Commorragh. Fighting pits were common in the city, but never in battles on this scale. On the outside, the Nexus Arena was the largest fighting pit ever constructed. The greatest monument to the power of the Dark Eldar.

But there was more to it than that. The Nexus Arena was based on team combat. Enjoyable in itself, but to put foes that would otherwise see each other dead…that was enjoyable. Delectable, even. To force prey to fight, sacrifice the core of their beliefs so that they might survive. The average human wanted every alien dead. The average ork would just want to kill anything around it, the concept of a team match weighing heavily on what amounted to its brain. Their deluded kindred would try to salvage their pride, a tau would despair once they realized that their idealism would mean nothing here, and a necron…well, Zerak had no idea what a necron might think, battling for entertainment. But if there was anything left in the metal husk of the race that had once given the eldar pause, he liked to think that it was screaming.

Yes, Zerak thought, walking through the cells as he picked out combatants for the next match. Choosing opponents was very enjoyable.

"Him," he said, pointing to a human. A muscular, quite physically imposing human, but human nonetheless. "Put him on the same side as the ork."

The human began babbling on about something – no doubt something about souls, or their corpse god, he didn't care. The kabalites nonetheless dragged him away – if these were normal slaves, even pit fighters, he'd have let them have their fun before sending the prey-species out to fight. But this was the Nexus Arena. The crowd wanted the best that the Materium had to offer. The rules were strict in that the combatants were to be unharmed outside the field of battle.

"Moving on."

Which was a bit of a problem when that genestealer broke loose prior to the last match. Zerak shook his head – as far as he was concerned, taking tyranids were a waste of time. There was only so much you could do with a mindless beast. Even orks felt pain, and understood the concept of authority. And daemons, at least, understood the nature of allegiance.

"Hmm…"

But what the creature before him understood, only Khaine could stay.

"Data."

A kabalite handed him a dark crystal, one containing a roster of all the prisoners on the arena's roster. As he scrolled through, he glanced at the creature. Bi-pedal, green, reptilian…it kind of reminded him of an ork. That was, if orks possessed tails and four yellow eyes.

"A reptus," he murmured. "How interesting."

It was interesting, he reflected. The reptus before him was one of a few thousand left in the galaxy, scattered across the Materium after their home system's sun went supernova. And the Materium being what it was, it didn't take long for them to encounter species that wanted them dead, for whatever reason. And given their biology, how it pre-dispositioned them to aggression, and the shunning of species not their own, the few species in the Materium that didn't want them dead were academic. They were not reptus. As far as Zerak could tell, it was their most defining psychological trait.

And he'll have to fight alongside non-reptus, Zerak reflected. Interesting.

The creature hissed at him, as if reading his thoughts. The warden checked the crystal – no psykers in their species.

Maybe you'll do.

And yet he paused. This was one of the last reptus in Creation. If this one died (a distinct possibility), the reptus would be one step closer to extinction. How tragic would it be if the Dark Eldar didn't get more of his kind for their amusement? If a prey-species went extinct, that would be a loss that would be hard to replace. It was why they'd set up breeding programs for some prey species in the same situation, to ensure that they had a constant supply of playthings. Even prisoner-prey couldn't ignore their biological drives. And watching rape provided its own amusement after all.

But that was another realm entirely. The reptus was here, a prisoner. The archons wanted him for fighting, and it was at Zerak's discretion to make the choice.

"We'll take him."

The kabalites moved in. The creature fought, hissed, even hit one, but they managed to keep it subdued. Zerak watched as it was dragged away to be outfitted. Down the hall, out of the dark, into the twilight. He pocked the crystal and looked down the prison row. More prey species, more combatants, more sources of amusement. Howling, weeping, cursing. Damning their captors. And their foes.

"Now then," the warden asked, "who's next?"

A/N

So, another two MOBAs have been announced - Supernova, and a W40K-themed one, Nexus Arena. Quite aware of the irony that this isn't the first time I've posted a 40K oneshot based on an ARTS, the fact that the first one turned out to be a lane strategy game instead.

Still, I'll give both games credit, in that Nexus Arena at least uses the setting's lore to its advantage, by having it take place in Commorragh. Not sure why the prisoners would have access to their full gear, or how you could coerce tyranids to fight, but hey, I can roll with it. Supernova, on the other hand, looks a bit interesting given that it seeks to harken more to traditional RTS mechanics. Not the first one to have done this (e.g. Prime World), but it's something at least.

Anyway, ended drabbling this up as a result.