June 29th prompt
Jace was greatly enjoying this Brightshine. All the drama about the ghost of the first emperor, the fabled black pearl, it was so exciting! Thankfully he was allowed to take leave for the festival. The expedition could cook for themselves for a while, surely.
As he wandered, Jace came across a cluttered stand. The nocturne behind the countertop greeted him roughly, mistaking him for another dragon. Jace had barely opened his mouth to say so when he saw the artifacts on the table. The nocturne looked at him expectantly. "Well? No guesses this time?"
Not willing to pass up a chance to try and piece together history, he looked down at the items below. After a moment, he looked back up at the nocturne.
"Well, it looks like you had quite a champion here. All of these artifacts point to an esteemed pit fighter. The book- if I can look though it- oh thank you- is an Arena Book. They were kept by game masters particularly in Light arenas. They have records of every fighter's battles: dates, weapons, armor, opponents... it's all in here," he tapped the cover with a claw. "There aren't that many left, unfortunately, because fighters that died in the pits often had their records tossed out. Record books that were kept, either by a champion's patrons or the freed champion themselves often just... deteriorated over time.
"This particular book has the records of a very skilled champion, probably almost a legend in her time. Arena Books would often list a champion's patron, if the patron was a significant member of the community, and this fighter here, Azur of the Fire, had not one patron, but two.
"This is actually reflected in some of the other artifacts here. These fans-" Jace gestured to the large pair of red and black fans, "are decorative wing fans; they'd be worn outside of the arena- too delicate and easily damaged to fight in. Of course, there were some bladed wing fans, but the Arena Book never lists Azur fighting with them. These are also very finely decorated and if you look closely, they show traces of silver accents on the viper." Jace traced a grey-ish area on the fans where the silver might once have been.
"Fans like these were a mark of status and of claim. The viper in red and silver was very clearly someone's emblem, and seeing the level of extreme detail as well as the silver accents, we can assume that their patron was rather higher class. This was also a claim, as the champion wearing the fans was now publicly known as their patron's fighter.
"I did mention that Azur here did have two patrons. Even if this wasn't recorded in her Arena Book, knowing that these items all came from her- they did, right?" Jace suddenly paused, looking up at the dragon behind the counter, who nodded. He continued, "Ah, good. Obviously the veil-" he picked it up in his claws, as if Zap might've forgotten, "is gold while the fans-" once again, Jace gestured to the red fans, "had silver trim. These would not have come from the same dragon as that would mean mixing metals in an emblem which was against the rules of emblazoning but that's beyond the point.
"Now, this veil is actually pretty interesting. If- ah, let me see something here..." Jace put the veil back down on the table and grabbed the spiked helmet instead. He flipped it upside down and looked on the inside before muttering a small "aha!" and flipping the helmet right side up again.
"See here on this helmet, there's a little divot on the inside, look, and it fits the gem on the veil quite nicely. On the sides here-" he rotated the helmet, pointing out a small hook on each side of the helmet, "-are small pegs to attach the sides of the veil to. This, like the fans, would not have been worn in combat- no no no, decoration only. The veil and helmet together would be worn on a Champion's Parade, which was a special festival thrown for the winning fighter of a large tournament. The veil on its own would be worn much like the fans- in public as a claim.
"Given that it can be attached to the helmet, it is likely that both were given by the same patron- and a rich one at that. This gem is actually of quality, which is surprising given that it would be worn inside a helmet. Also, though this veil might look like silk at first glance, if you look you can see that it's actually a very fine chainmail. The small dangly bits are little buttons of gold and the larger chain suspending the veil itself is made of white gold, which was believed to be a 'purified' form of gold, which was widely considered to be solid sunlight." Jace paused for breath, not noticing the bored and slightly stunned expression on Zap's face. "Now, last item on the table...
"The cleaver. This is the most obvious. It is a weapon mostly of brute force. This was not for a delicate fighter; Azur of the Fire was a very strong dragon. A cleaver like this one was mostly used as a metal club that just so happened to have a sharp edge, although if Azur's other listed weapons (mostly swords) are of any indication, she did know how to use the sharp end. Now-" "JACE, THERE YOU ARE!"
A small pink and blue nocturne ran up quickly to the stand. "Gosh, we've been looking for you! It's been about 15 minutes; please tell me you weren't talking this entire time," she scolds. She turned to address Zap. "Sorry about that, Jace tends to go off on tangents sometimes, honestly it's best if you just nod along and try to cut him off when he stops to breathe. You've already met Jace here, but my name is Azurite!"
Azurite fiddles with the ties on her staff nervously. "I hope Jace hasn't been bothering you."
ooc notes wrote:
oh my god i am so sorry. i'm a tour guide and i basically shoved all my tours today on you via my bby boy. im pretty sure there's some almost direct quotes. well, at least it fits. jace is exactly the kind of nerd who knows all this stuff off-hand and he's wordy to boot. thank u for reading this horrible word vomit, it's 1:45am im passing out gn/gm
edit: this is for the june 29th prompt, forgot, oops
FR time +9 
