What's the lore behind Arena Champion?

Conan Exiles General Discussion Creative Corner
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I’ve been looking high and low for information on this but can find nothing - not the Wiki, not Reddit, not the Discords, so now I am here. Unfortunately the signal : noise ratio on any platform favors the noise (e.g. the incessant noise people make about Arena Champion being too hard/easy) so searching has failed as well.

So here is my question: what is the deal with the Arena Champion - lorewise? Is she actually a human? What is her background - is she some kind of hybrid like the Kinscourge, an undead creature using the human model in-game a la The Judge, or a regular human made immortal through some kind of sorcery? Is she even real at all, or rather some kind of phantasm or illusion that is still capable of doing very real damage, or some kind of delusion conjured by your own character’s imagination as they work deeper into that haunted ruin?

There is a lot that just doesn’t add up, after all. The Giant-Kings were supposed to have drafted all their gladiatorial fighters during the war - you would assume someone like the Arena Champion would have been pulled out of the arena and onto the front lines. Plus the fact that it seems like it’s been a considerable amount of time since the Giant-Kings summoned the Sandstorm; how would a regular human survive alone inside a ruin like that?

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She could well be a human exile possessed by the spirit of the arena champion I suppose

Like Razma or the sand storm maniac

I’ve never heard any lore referring to her

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The warmaker dungeon wasn’t really thought through in the context of lore and was designed around player enjoyment and challenge rather than any canon probably because of limited rollout time for the dungeons release. Trying to canonically explain it would be a complete mess just looking at it so we will never really get a definitive explanation for it. They’re very picky about the lore when confirming it and I don’t see them doing anything with whats in there.

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The Priest-King was trying to create a race of superhumans loyal to the Triumphrate. The proving ground was the Arena.
The Arena Champion was a captured Cimmerian Princess that had a spell cast over her, and was genetically altered by a spell that the Priest-King used that was stolen from the Witch-Queen, which granted her superhuman strength.
She was taught to hate the human race, and after being trapped in the Stronghold after the fall of the Giants, is still cursed and still craves human blood.

                                                                                                   That's all folks!
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Where did you get that from?

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Not in the modern sense with beakers and microscopes, that’s true. Using magic to twist the genes wouldn’t be an unheard of idea though, even if they don’t fully realize the underlying mechanics of it. You don’t actually need to know the hard science behind what happens to food when you heat it up to be a good chef.

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Following his battle with the red-haired Vanir Conan, lying exhausted, is visited by a beautiful partially-nude woman identifying herself as “Atali”. Upon her bodice, she wears a transparent veil: a wisp of gossamer that wasn’t spun by human origin. The sight of her awakens Conan’s lust and, when she repeatedly taunts him, he chases Atali across the snow-covered region.
From “The Frost-Giant’s Daughter” series, written by RE Howard.

While Robert E. Howard had already written many fantasy stories featuring northern like characters, the names and plot structure for “The Frost-Giant’s Daughter” were derived in their entirety from Thomas Bulfinch. Howard combined the legend of Atalanta with another reworked Bulfinch legend, that of Daphne and Apollo, but he reversed the roles. Whereas Apollo was a god and Daphne a mortal, Howard made Atali a goddess and Conan a mortal. In the original, Cupid had struck Apollo with an arrow to excite love for Daphne but struck her with an arrow to cause her to find love repellent. Howard kept the idea of the love-maddened Apollo (here a lust-maddened Conan) pursuing the girl until she invokes aid from her divine father.

You continue to show your ignorance of RE Howards lore by assuming you know what was in his mind. His tales revolve around true mythical legends, Kings, Queens, Princesses, etc.
You sound more like a " I saw the movie" type of person that refuses to believe in Greek mythology, because it does not fit into your biblical narrative.
Even though I just made the tale of the Arena Champion up, you presume to declare that tribes had no Kings or Queens.

Here are a few examples of tribal rulers. Howard was a huge fan of history, and interwove his stories with mythology and history.

  • Makeda, Queen of Sheba.
  • Kandake – the empress of Ethiopia.
  • Queen Nefertiti.
  • Queen Ranavalona 1 of Madagascar.
  • Queen Moremi of Ile-Ife Kingdom, Nigeria.
  • Queen Cleopatra of Egypt.
  • Queen Nandi of the Zulu kingdom.
  • Queen Muhumuza.

Stop trying to pretend you know the mind of RE Howard. Pretty amusing that you feel the need to interject on a story line that I completely made up.

Also, genetics - the genetic properties or features of an organism, characteristic, etc.
is a description of what makes makes you unique, and has nothing to do with todays scientific biology.
Being genetically altered by a “spell” in a folklore tale is very real in terms of story telling mythology.
I could give you numerous examples, but your narrow-minded lore deficient mind would not accept them.
I honestly doubt that you know much of RE Howard or have read his short stories and tales much.
You saw the movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger, and now presume to be an expert on Howard.

"I have known many gods. He who denies them is as blind as he who trusts them too deeply." – Robert E. Howard: “The Queen of the Black Coast”

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I made it up. Since there is no real lore to the Arena Champion, an active mind is the next best thing. :slightly_smiling_face:

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This is an often-used trope in fantasy, even sword-and-sorcery fantasy. Conan even meets an alien in Howard’s “Tower of the Elephant”. I think that genetic manipulation would be a perfectly acceptable form of “dark sorcery”, and much easier to swallow than a “Cimmerian princess” :wink:

Getting back on topic, I’m curious about the Arena Champion, too. The only other arena champion that is mentioned in the game is Tyros the Deathbringer.

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That filled a itch in my mind I had about the Warmaker Dungeon that has bothered me for so long, I accept it as canon in my mind. What do you think about the Champion of the Warmaker?

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The Champion of the Warmaker is Warmaker Klael’s champion, the last of the Giant race. It is obvious from his height that he is of the Giants race.
He guards the secrets of making the Destroyer and Carnage. These weapons are thought to be the last great defense of the Giants, and many of this race waded into battle swinging the great mace, but were turned to stone by the “new” weapon of the human barbarians.
He is the last of the race of Giants capable of battle. The others are just servants of the triumphrate, serving in an undead capacity conjured by the Priest-King.

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I was 14 years old when this English book accidentally dropped in my hands. My English back then was really low so I definitely got tired really fast since I couldn’t understand half of the sentences of the book :rofl::rofl::rofl:. So I can say for sure that the lore of this history is the Hollywood effort filming and of course leaving great gaps of the history untold since they cannot fit in the script. I was amazed however by this film, I loved it a lot and Conan the barbarian is definitely a fiction hero of my childhood.
I really love your fiction story, I am sure that even RE Howard would love it too. Yet I would beg @Croms_Faithful to give us some light here, he like you, loves the lore of these books, I would love to have his opinion too.

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Wasn’t Egyptians a civilisation and not a tribe?

Like I’ve never read of Egyptians in any textbook being referred to as a Tribe, but I have read in those same textbooks of African races being described as a Tribal, this implies that there is a minimum standard on what constitutes a Tribe.

Not an expert here, just reiterating what I remember from reading when younger.

I’m also not displacing your point, but I think your examples used to exemplify your point might be technically incorrect, notably Nefertiti, who was a Queen sure, but not a Tribal Queen. I think textbooks speak of Egyptian Queens in the same qualifying terms as Queen Elisabeth. Like we wouldn’t refer to Queen Elisabeth as a Tribal Queen for example.

Can I offer Shaka Zulu? Definitely referred to as a Tribal King in the textbooks. He actually is a pretty awe-inspiring tactician that tore England to pieces. Reminds me of a Cannibal Brute from the game- large and bigger than life type of figure.

Cheers.

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On this part you are totally right. Egypt civilization grown way before ancient Greek and the growing timing of this civilization is similar with the Chinese if I am not mistaken. Egypt and Chinese civilizations are the most powerful and creative at this period of time, Greek, Persian etc came way after them. Yet I have lack of knowledge about Indian civilization, I believe they were equally with the other 2 but for some reason India is by false ignored, it shouldn’t.

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My clanmate asserts the Warmaker’s Champion, the duder who grows when you smack him, is Tyros himself. I myself have never subscribed to the “lore” because it seems a lot of it has been created for the game, whole cloth. Maybe when the game is finished there will be a less inchoate form of a story, but for now it’s like the recipes: apt to change on a wHim.

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I find that one a little hard to agree with (Warmaker’s Champion is Tyros) - because we have a fair bit of information about Tyros. Specifically we know he is the half-human half-giant king son of the Priest King, we know he fought and defeated the dragon in the arena, we know he once held the north of the giant king’s lands for them, before turning against them, we know he fought against his father (and evidence suggests their final battle occurred somewhere near the mounds of the dead). But above all, we know that he has another name that he is listed by - the Kinscourge - the Archivist even states that the only place he can think of to get the Tears of Two-Races would be to somehow get them from Tyros, since he is the only representative of both races. (Though, given that it appears the Warmaker himself is still alive, just standing in the ruins of the civilisation he failed to protect, and ultimately destroyed, the Archivist’s ghost could have just directed us to make Klael cry and then mix it with any human’s tears, which would have matched how they originally obtained the tears of two races.)

Edit: that’s not to say these details couldn’t change if Funcom decide to change the lore they have created - as you suggest, nothing is fixed in stone and there is plenty of room for interpretation.

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Perfect! I’m a fan of the 'scourge myself, and had no way of articulating this so well.

You could ask the same clanmate: every time I’ve run past the Arena Champion, I’ve asked “what’s her story?” Does anyone have a good nickname for her?

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‘thrall-killer’ :wink:

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Tribe - a social division in a traditional society consisting of families or communities linked by social, economic, religious, or blood ties, with a common culture and dialect, typically having a recognized leader.

While you could argue Queen Elizabeth is a poor example, the House of Windsor meets all of the requirements and definitions of a tribe. So not only is she the Queen of a nation, but also the Matriarch of her tribe.

I think people assume a tribe has to be a small group, but in India there is a tribe with a population exceeding 12 million.

The actual term, “tribe” originated around the time of the Greek city-states and the early formation of the Roman Empire. The Latin term, “tribus” has since been transformed to mean, “A group of persons forming a community and claiming descent from a common ancestor”.

In summary, being tribal has nothing to do with how you choose your leaders, and to say that if you are tribal, you cannot have a defined leader called a King or Queen shows a clear lack of history, lore, and prehistory. The Lemurians were every definition of tribal, but had a Queen.

“I am the law!”, “I am king, state, and law!” and “By this ax I rule!” - Written by R E Howard.

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Seriously funny. or in the terms of the tribe. . . . LOL!