User blog:Leolab/Ancient User Tourney, Round 8: Gaius Leopold (Skully) v Tiberius Proditus (EA)

No title card, 'cause title cards with avs tend to look awful.

Gaius "The Salt Eagle" Leopold: The MOTHERFUCKIN' PIRATE MERC BASTARD

versus

Tiberius Proditus: The Legionnaire who betrayed his men to the enemy

Bio
Born as the bastard son of a King Marcus Leopold and one of his servants, ruler of the Kingdom Of Illiyac, Gaius inherited the surname of all bastards in these lands, that name being Salts. As a child, Gaius was left to his own devices around the castle and often spent his days trying to earn his father's graces by studying, training in combat and understanding the functions of court. This continued until he was 10 years old, where the young Gaius would give up upon the dreams of being legitimized. Upon giving up, Gaius took to combat training, spending his time at the docks and adventuring with the garrisons of the city.

As he grew older, Gaius would often take his anger on others in drunken bar fights, training and generally having alot of anger. He'd also spend days with his half-brother, Magnus, as both trained alongside each other and confided their personal motivations. Gaius and Magnus would often take these sparring sessions as methods to improve the others skill in combat. It is also during this time that Gaius expressed genuine interest with mercenary work and exploring the world, which Magnus often encouraged in hopes that Gaius would find some kind of joy in a land beyond his. And at the age of 16, Gaius would indulge upon these fantasies and signed up with a band mercenaries loyal to his father and the crown as they set sail to serve him in attacking his foes and obtaining wealth and glory for the kingdom.

And so for the next few years, Gaius would work as mercenary, garnering a reputation and gathering enough coin to obtain his own ship and crew at the age of 25. He would continue to serve his kingdom as a mercenary, but also worked on the side as him as his crew attacked and raided the coastal towns of the kingdom's enemies. This is where he'd gain his title of "The Salt Eagle" for the banner he flew containing the old emblem of his Kingdom, with the eagle perched upon the salt rock. During one of these raids against garrisons of a rival kingdom, Gaius slew their champion, but losing his eye in the process due to his own arrogance, an event that would humble him greatly. Still, as the years passed, his reputation, wealth and experience allowed him to amass a large fleet. One that would rival that of a small kingdom as he began dabbling in trade.

His ultimate test would come as the Kingdom Of Illiyac was invaded, rival kingdoms growing tired of the privateers and mercenaries sent to attack their lands, their coasts and soldiers. Gaius set his sails once more and with his fleet seeked to destroy the menace that threatened his homeland. He would prove instrumental as he organized the naval fleets of his kingdom, organized ground forces and fought alongside Magnus, now King, in attempt to drive back the invaders. The final blow would come in a massive naval battle as his fleet of pirates, mercenaries and vikings boarded dozens of ships and captured and destroyed in name of his homeland. And upon securing the security of his homeland, Gaius would kneel before his brother and for his service, loyalty and dedication to his lands was legitimized as Gaius "The Salt Eagle" Leopold.

Initial Weaponset (Special)


Salt- Gaius' personal weapon that never leaves his side, Salt, is a sword of his own making and design and forged during his career. Salt is a bastard sword, making it roughly 48 inches long, the material being something similar to Damascus Steel as in was made centuries ago in real life as high quality method of making swords, and with a weight of 8 pounds. Can be held with one hand, but preferred with two hands.

Other Weapons & Armor

 * -| Short Range =



War Axe & Viking Shield- The axe is shortened and with weight reduced in order to be held with one hand to work in conjunction with his shield, while having a small spike on the other side, think 13th century German war axe, but without holes in the axe head. The shield is the typical Viking shield with a spiked steel boss in the center for use as a defensive and offensive tool. The combination is roughly 16 pounds,


 * -| Mid Range =



Halberd- The entirely of the spear is roughly six feet tall with its blade at the top of the weapon. The weapon is a classic using the spike, axe head and spear head for a variety of tasks that the weapon is required for. Weighs around around 7lbs and the axe head is made of steel


 * -| Long Range =



Composite Bow- Think your typical Mongol Composite Bow with the weapon weighing roughly 2.5 pounds. Carrying around 20 arrows in his quiver, consisting of broad head arrows made with steel material arrow heads. The arrows heads also have small 'claws' to them making the ripping out process all the more painful.


 * -| Armor =



Steel Armor (Chest Piece & Gauntlets & Boots)- If you want a basic idea of appearance the Steel Plate Armor in Skyrim should give you a good idea. As mentioned the armor is steel plates meant to offer strong protection from attacks, preferring to only wear the chest piece and gauntlets and boots to avoid having too much weight. Wears a black gambeson underneath the armor for a bit of added protection. The combination is roughly 45 pounds combined.

Bio
Tiberius Proditus was born to a Roman soldier and a North African woman, and spent his early childhood on the march across Rome's many colonies, as part of the legion's civilian baggage train. He learned harsh desert survival at a young age. He was fascinated with other cultures, and identified far more strongly with his North African heritage than with his Roman heritage. These sympathies remained undetected by his father. As he traveled from place to place, Tiberius became a petty thief and scoundrel, stealing from merchants before disappearing into the crowds and leaving with the Romans. He was not a spoiled child, but was quite certainly a mischievous boy.

Once he was of age, Tiberius was recognized as a citizen, where he returned to Rome and became a soldier in the legion. He was by no means an exceptional recruit, but he did his job well enough. There he received standard training and drilling and was stationed in Germania, under the command of Publis Quinctilius Varus. Most importantly, he learned to feign loyalty.

His auxiliary officer, Arminius, defected to the Germanic tribesmen in the area and was in the process of preparing an ambush when he was discovered by Tiberius. Having no strong loyalty to the legion, and ever the self-serving opportunist, he quickly pleged his support to Arminius. He participated in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD, which was a resounding success for the soldiers of the Germanic tribes. Arminius, sensing Tiberius' opportunist nature, attempted to assassinate him. Tiberius fled.

Having betrayed his army and now hunted by the locals, Tiberius was forced to rely on trickery and cunning to survive. Not well-conditioned to survival in the forest environment of central Europe, at least not by himself, Tiberius made his way from village to village. No hunter and no gatherer, he relied on barter and thievery to provide for himself, and as the weeks went on he eventually learned of a nearby Roman outpost from the locals. By this time, the Germanic assassins had pursued him to his limit. They knew the terrain and he didn't--it was nothing short of a miracle he had evaded them as long as he had.

Only a day's way out from the outpost, Tiberius once again played his shifty personality to his advantage. Publicly buying off a messenger, he sent for help. A group of Germanic ghost warriors descended upon his camp that night. Approaching the campfire, they killed the figure hunched over for warmth. It was the messenger, dressed in Tiberius' armor. Now with half a day's lead over his pursuers, Tiberius made it to the safety of the outpost. Since the legion at Teutoburg had been annihilated, Tiberius was the first to bring news of the attack to Roman ears--and as the sole survivor, he was well aware that his word was now the truth.

Inital Weaponset (Short Range)


Spatha sword. It was something of a modified gladius that was used heavily in border areas as the gladius was influenced by the native longswords. 90.8 cm overall length (35.7 in), 69.9 cm blade length (27.5 in.), 4.1 cm blade width (1.61 in.), 1.85 lbs. All-wood (walnut oak) hilt with reinforcing guard plate of bronze inleted into the forward end of the guard, and a mushroom-shpaed rivet block. Disc-shaped pommel. Iron blade. Primarily a thrusting weapon.

Used in conjunction with the scutum shield. Curved oval shield (two sheets of laminated birch wood glued together, covered with canvas and leather, with a spindle-shaped boss along the vertical length of the shield). Considerably heavy (~22 lbs or ~10 kg). 1.28 m long (50.39 in.), 63.5 cm wide (25 in.). The shield is the thickest in the center (1.2 cm), and is slightly less than a cm thick at the edges.

Other Weapons and Armor

 * -| Mid Range =



Pilum javelin. Hard pyramidal tip with iron shank--the shank is meant to bend on impact, rendering the weapon useless if an enemy were to throw it back. More importantly, it is designed to embed itself into an enemy's shield, rendering the defense useless due to the cumbersome weight of the bent pilum. The shank was joined to the shaft by a socket. 2 meters (6 ft 7 in.) long overall, hardwood shaft; 60 cm shank (24 in), 7 mm in diameter (0.28 in). Tiberius carried one with him.


 * -| Long Range =



Plumbata darts. Overall length 20 cm (7.87 in.), iron dart heads 15 cm (5.90 in) long, 2 cm (0.78 in.) wide. Lead weight attached to anterior end. Tiberius only carried three with him.


 * -| Special =



Pugio dagger. Large, leaf-shaped iron blade 28 cm (11 in.) in length, 5 cm (2 in.) in width. Grip is riveted through a wide, flat tang.


 * -| Armor =



Lorica hamata. 1/8"-diameter iron rings comprise the mail shirt. Reaches to mid-thigh, 5-inch sleeves, shoulder doublings. Leather-and-thick-cloth subarmalis worn underneath, over tunic, for padding to help absorb blows. Montefortino helmet. Conical, with raised central knob, cheek plates, and protruding neck guard. "Pinecone" patterning on the crest knob. Wool and felt helmet padding glued inside to help absorb blows. Caligae heavy-soled, hobnailed leather boots. Overall armor weight approx 16 kg (33 lbs.)

Battle Notes

 * Arena is a 20m diameter circle, grassy soil footing, no cover
 * All warriors will start out with their Initial Weaponset equipped, along with their armor.
 * Their other weapons are placed sheathed/unloaded/unset/etc. next to their point of entry into the arena.
 * The match is to the death.
 * Brackets and other tourney information may be found here.
 * Note that vote scores are doubled, since Challnonge doesn't accept half-points.
 * Note that the pictures are  not  meant to be exact representations of the equipment. They're just generic images I found on the wiki.

Voting Notes

 * Votes with good edges or at least 10 relevant sentences count as a full vote
 * Votes with meh edges or at least 5 relevant sentences count as a half vote
 * All others count as no vote
 * Well-reasoned rebuttals can lower the count of a vote by half.
 * Well-reasoned counter-rebuttals can restore the half-point.
 * The users whose characters are fighting may not vote for or against themselves, but may defend their warriors by giving rebuttals and counter-rebuttals
 * I have the final say in how much a vote counts for. If I feel a vote merits counting differently than these guidelines, I will do so.
 * Due to voter concerns regarding his rebuttal spree on a previous match, El Alamein is only allowed to defend his own vote.
 * Voting ends at some point on 07/10/2016