Gladiators

The wealthiest templars and most noble families maintain stables of men and women picked and trained for their fighting prowess. These slaves are sent to fight in the gladiatorial stadiums for public entertainment. Their owners, sitting in private boxes perched high above the arenas, often wager considerable sums on the outcome of these battles. More than one noble has been sold into slavery for not being able to pay the debts he incurred when a favored gladiator fell. The best of these gladiators are muls (pronounced: mul), a tough crossbreed of human and dwarf. They retain the height, dexterity, and cunning intelligence of their human side, but are also gifted with the durability and strength of their dwarven parent. From their dwarven line, they also inherit a certain single-mindedness which makes them vicious fighters. Standing over six feet tall, muls weigh two hundred to three hundred pounds, have hairless coppery skin as tough as gith hide, and tend toward introspective, gruff dispositions. They are born sterile and cannot reproduce their own kind. Despite their combat abilities, muls don't make good soldiers. In addition to being very expensive to buy or breed, muls are intelligent enough to recognize when their officers are making a mistake and stubborn enough to refuse foolish orders.