Colosseum

For the episode with the location's name, see Calamity - Episode 4.

Colosseum
Localization	Rome, Italy
Location used bythe organization	Ordo Calamitas (previously) The Host's Production
Appearances
Calamity
First appearance	Calamity - Episode 4 - "Amphitheatrum"

You find yourselves face to face with this enormous arena, this massive stone structure partially cracked and worn down by time, but a relic of our times.

GM

The Colosseum, or the Flavian Amphitheatrum, is a large ancient structure located in Rome. It once served as a venue for brutal games between gladiators, overseen by rulers during different periods. Today, it functions as a museum and a tourist attraction. The site is also closely associated with The Host, as its staff members are part of the Production of the Host, and the museum's symbol is a simplified version of the Symbol of the Host. Additionally, some of the known former rulers of this location have been possessors of the Relic of Energy.

History

Past

Approximately 2,000 years ago, Veritus founded the Ordo Calamitas and assumed the leadership position of the organization, directing its activities underground, where the Flavian Amphitheatre would eventually emerge. In A.D. 67, Gaius became Amphitruo and subsequently constructed the Colosseum on the orders of Emperor Titus Flavius Vespasianus. This monument served as the stage for numerous battles throughout its history, many of which were organized by the Host. In the future, the Host's Production continued to control the amphitheater, and as the ancient ruins of Semper Clausa were eventually sealed, the cult sought ways to access them once again.

Arnaldo Fritz

Arnaldo Fritz, in his investigations on how to stop Kian, contacted the director of the Colosseum museum. This director was Vinicio Ludos, one of the employees working for the Host. On February 10, 2009, Arnaldo managed to enter the ruins using an unknown method, where he met The Magistrate inside and was eventually discovered by the Relic of Energy. Since then, the ruins were sealed once again.

Calamity

On September 9, 2021, the agents Dante, Balu, Rubens, Carina, Joui, in a team led by Arthur, entered the Colosseum in search of clues about Kian and Arnaldo's investigations. Inside, they encountered occultists from the Host's production and the director Vinicio Ludos. After battles and investigations, the team managed to open the doors of Semper Clausa, granting access to the ruins.

Upon discovering the entities and the history of the underground ruins of the Colosseum, the Vultures, along with other members of the Order and allies, organized themselves to initiate a war against Kian at the location. A widespread battle ensued, and while other agents faced the Escribes, Dante, Carina, and Joui searched for Agatha, who had gone missing. Arthur, Balu, and Rubens split from the group to protect the Leone's Mansion, which was under attack.

Agatha was found alongside Kian and his markeds inside the Colosseum's arena, and a battle ensued. With an alliance between the markeds, Kian faced off against Joui, Dante, Carina, T-Bag, Boris, and Damir in a deadly conflict. Mr. Verity also joined the fray, and later, Balu, Arthur, and Rubens arrived. The battle ended with Joui, Boris, and T-Bag dead, Kian restricted, and most of the agents and allies severely injured.

With the victory of the Order against the Escribes achieved, the agents tended to their wounded and left the Colosseum.

Art Gallery

The art gallery of the Colosseum Museum is located on the ground floor of the monument in the right area. In it, it's possible to see five paintings representing the rulers of the region. In all the paintings, there were people wearing different masks with bizarre faces in different contexts.

Governors

In different eras, the Amphitheatrum was ruled by various individuals referred to as "Governors". It is reported in Vinicio Ludos's book that each of them had different acts while in charge of the Colosseum, but all were consistently brutal. In the 8th episode of Calamity, at the entrance to the Ordo Calamitas Ruins, the members of the Sect of the Masks joined forces with Team Vultures to engage in a battle with the Hosts from the past, who were revealed to be the five documented Governors of the Colosseum: Amphitruo, Aeneas, Liber, Silenus, and Plautus. Their respective powers and abilities are based on their mentioned ways of acting as follows.

Amphitruo

Amphitruo would be the true architect behind the construction of the Colosseum and the Great Fire of Rome. In the Colosseum, around A.D. 80, Amphitruo orchestrated deadly games in which prisoners, criminals, and enemies of the emperor were forced to participate as actors in entirely tormenting theatrical performances. They endured the real-life conditions of their characters to entertain the Roman people and the emperors. This ruler has a highly mysterious past, with few records and evidence about his origin or true name, creating questions among modern historians about his existence.

In his painting, Amphitruo is depicted wearing a mask with an open smile and narrow eyes. In this mask, three hands can be seen forming the face, as if they were forcing his facial expression. The man appears to have no visible hair and is wearing knight's armor. Instead of a breastplate on his torso, there is a cloth garment with two medallions featuring the symbol of the Ordo Calamitas. Around him, there are hands of bloody people attempting to reach him, with one gripping his arm, another touching one of the medallions, and another touching his shoulder guard. He appears to be in front of red curtains, typically found in theaters. His mask was found by Rubens in the drawer of the Amphitheatum's director office.

Aeneas

Aeneas was a ruler who, despite not being a member of the nobility or the emperor's circle, was one of the most popular gladiators who had survived numerous games at the Colosseum. After assuming the position of his deceased predecessor, he used his control of the Colosseum around the year 100 AD to host the most brutal gladiator games in the arena's history. Aeneas had a strange fiery obsession, which many associated with the fact that he had participated in countless wars and sieges during his life before becoming a prisoner of war. Aeneas was also described as having various records of insanity. The Governor had several scars, which he concealed behind his mask, continuing an eventual tradition among the arena's rulers.

In his painting, Aeneas is depicted wearing a mask with purple adornments at the top that mimic laurels and tightly closed eyes. Additionally, the mask has an opening in the jaw area, exposing the chin of the man wearing it and showing only the jaw area on the mask, which is accompanied by the upper dentition of the mouth with purple teeth. The man has his arms outstretched, with one hand holding a flaming torch and wearing a loose toga. His hair is coiled, short, and of a light tone. Around him, charred bodies can be seen burning with the fire he himself ignited.

Liber

Liber, around A.D. 365, was described as a ruthless, tyrannical, and egocentric organizer to the extent that he ordered all records of Governors preceding him to be erased and omitted. Liber orchestrated extremely cruel games, described as a Governor who reveled in the despair of gladiators. He always organized pairs of these individuals, forcing them to work together to survive against wild animals and other gladiators, forming bonds of friendship or even sometimes romantic relationships, only to reveal after months of cooperation that only one could emerge alive, forcing them to kill each other in front of the Roman people.

In his painting, Liber is depicted wearing a mask with purple parts on the central region of the face, encompassing the eyes, nose, and the upper portion of the lips. Around the purple portion on the face, there are small dots that outline it laterally and inferiorly. At the top of the mask, there is a structure resembling a purple crown that is directly attached to the mask by zigzag incisions. The man is seated on an iron throne in a comfortable position, with crossed legs and supported arms. His hair is loose beneath the mask and falls onto his shoulders, and his attire consists of an open long-sleeved overcoat, a sort of mantle with a circular ornament adorned with thorns that encircle his neck and shoulders from behind. In one of his hands, he holds a rose, and on the ground, several roses can be found scattered around. In front of him, there are two men in gladiator attire crying while one of the men murders the other with a knife.

Silenus

Silenus took office around the early A.D. 380, preceding the beginning of the Fall of Rome. Unlike his predecessors, he was much more dedicated to the arena due to his elaborate games and presentations, directing so many resources toward it that it contributed to the eventual depletion of Rome's resources. Prominent were the fights in naumachiae, which were real naval battles inside the Colosseum itself. Although not much is known about his past, there are contradictory pieces of evidence suggesting the possibility that he might have been an ancient emperor who faked his own death and traveled extensively, getting to know new cultures.

In his painting, Silenus is depicted wearing a mask with numerous wrinkles and twisted structures projecting from the face both superiorly and inferiorly. The mask's expression consists of narrow eyes and a wrinkled, irregular mouth. He has brown hair combed back, wearing a sleeveless toga that leaves his arms adorned with blue bracelets exposed. Additionally, the man has his arms outstretched at the top of a grandstand, observing a waterlogged area with warships battling. Several gladiators can be seen falling into this water, bleeding, with ships being destroyed and sinking in the arena.

Plautus

Plautus was the orchestrator of the greatest carnage in the Colosseum, being the main figure responsible for the prohibition of gladiator games. Plautus assumed power in the mid-A.D. 397s, and in his games, everyone who entered the Colosseum could actively participate in them, with the only rule being that only one person would leave the arena alive. As a result, hundreds of gladiators died every day in Plautus's games driven by the greed of accumulated prizes. The ruler, in a way, created a cult around his own image, where his followers helped organize the games and protected him at all costs. For years, Plautus was unstoppable, causing the death of thousands of Romans during his reign. All of this changed when Plautus inexplicably disappeared, without even a plausible theory of what happened to him. It is reported by Roman historians that his followers repeated the same phrase after his disappearance:

Plautus in tenebris abisse.

Followers of Plautus

In his painting, Plautus is depicted wearing a mask with a forced smile and tight eyes, forming a psychotic expression. Furthermore, the mask appears to have tribal markings, leaf-like shapes on the top, and large ornaments on the ears. The man has his hair tied in a short ponytail and is holding a dagger in one hand and a spear in the other. He is wearing only a skirt and some simple adornments on his arms and legs and is surrounded by various arrows and swords embedded in his torso, which already bears many scars. He is standing on a pile of bloodied bodies, all of them appearing to be impaled by various weapons.

Storage

The storage room is an employee's room located on the ground floor of the amphitheater where cleaning supplies, boxes, and artifacts are stored. In this room, employees take breaks and pass the time. Inside, Dante, Arthur, and Rubens meet Verônica, Pasquale, and Salvatore, three employees of the location. The storage room has various shelves and stored objects, with boxes and an improvised table using a box for support. On one of the shelves was Aeneas's mask.

Library

The library is a room next to the storage room that can be accessed by following the corridor to the right of the Colosseum. Inside, there are various bookshelves with books in different languages, primarily designed for tourists.

Director's room

This room is located at the back of the library and is where the director of the amphitheater spends most of his time. The room is cramped and contains only a chair, a table with drawers, and a painting of the Colosseum on the wall. In this location, Carina and Balu tried unsuccessfully to convince them that they were journalists and wanted to write a story about the monument. They were later cornered in the room by the director Vinicio Ludos and three other occultists from the Host. They defeated them all, and later, Rubens found documents about an ancient organization called Ordo Calamitas and an impossible-to-open door called Semper Clausa, in addition to Amphitruo's mask.

Corridors and Stands

On the ground floor and first floor there are circular corridors that surround the arena and result in stands that give vision to the stage. In the center of the Arena is visible ruins with stone columns and other broken structures, higher in the stands, two cabins on opposite sides at the ends of the arena, those are small rooms with a bookcase, a table and a balcony that from the view of the entire arena. In each of the cabins there was one of the masks of the governors, being them the masks of Liber and Plautus.

Statues' Room

The room is a large space with five equal stone statues of bodies in formation, these statues having metal fittings on their necks to put the masks and scriptures of the times when these rulers ruled. Further ahead there is an opening to a room with plenty of sand on the floor, and several pots thrown to the corners. By placing all the masks on the correct statues, a passage with stairs opens to the basement of the Colosseum, the Semper Clausa.

Semper Clausa

Semper Clausa was a room described as a place that never opened, being seen open only once, however, it is opened during the events of Calamity by Team Vultures. Down the stairs, there is a large room, with 3 passages blocked by stone doors, all of them with the Symbol found in the cover of the grimoire of Arnaldo Fritz, being the same symbol visible on the floor of the place. The room is formed by stone blocks, having a rather old appearance. Upon entering the middle passage is a corridor with another staircase at the bottom, the staircase leads to a large dark room, with the same symbol carved into the floor, several stone columns and two corridors leading to stone doors marked with the symbol of The Host. In the room beyond these doors, there is a huge hall with six statues of people, these being, from left to right: Remus, Celestine, Gaius, Marius, Faustus and Amalia, the Markeds of Ordo Calamitas. These described locations that can be accessed only by opening Semper Clausa are known as the Ordo Calamitas Ruins, considered the main installation of this organization. In addition, by underground ways, through a specific path, the ruins of the Semper Clausa also connect to the ruins of Domus Aurea, a ruined palace outside the Colosseum created to be a secondary base of Ordo Calamitas.

Evidences and informations

Library
Book of Vinicio Ludos.	Page of Vinicio Ludos' book about Aeneas.		Page of Vinicio Ludos' book about Amphitruo.
Library
Page of Vinicio Ludos' book about Liber.	Page of Vinicio Ludos' book about Silenus.		Page of Vinicio Ludos' book about Plautus.
Director's Room
Letter addressed to Vinicio Ludos, sent by a professor named Manuel Cruzes. The letter mentions the name of Arnaldo Fritz.		Note given to the Amphitheatrum's employees, written "Be careful when dealing with the statues of the governors, remember that the ritual is already active! The fitting of the masks should be done correctly only when Vinicio will hold the private exhibition of the ruins for investors! No one can access Semper Clausa." in italian.

Trivia

• The governors of the colosseum has several references to the Roman mythology and culture:
  • "Amphitruo" is the name of a comedy written around the middle of the 3rd century BC.
  • "Aeneas" is a character from the Greco-Roman mythology. In addition, his painting represents a probable reference to an event of the Roman empire, where the emperor of the time held his opponents on poles and burned them alive.
  • "Liber" is an equivalent for the Roman god of wine, Bacchus.
  • "Silenus" is a character from the Greco-Roman mythology, follower of Bacchus. In addition, his painting represents the sea battles that took place inside the colosseum.
  • "Plautus" was a Roman playwright, writer of the comedy "Amphitruo".

Gallery

• Arts
• Documents

Symbol representing the staff of the Colosseum Museum

The Colosseum in the Calamity Teaser

Colosseum's website