The Pits

The doors themselves were heavy, clanging shut behind Ast as they entered the large room. It seemed to run for lengths and lengths, as wide as the training fields and thrice as crowded. In the immediate vicinity was the talking and shouting and vying for barspace, the alcohol to their left and the bettings off to the right. Men and women huddled in groups, a bustle of chaotic activity, and beyond the close crowd the shouting and bells of the rings—the pits’ namesake, and its main attraction.

It was the single place of leisure for the entire city’s military, and it was a filthy, anarchic mess in order to house the repression and distemper within the soldiers of the confederate army. First and foremost, it was a series of brawling pits, where men fought each other like dogs and the foulest and lamest of the army got weeded out of existence by natural selection. But it was also a den, and a whorehouse. For Ast and Ryven, it was both captivating and revolting.

The Dogpits, or Pits, is an underground establishment in the South Beourjen slums that's the main gathering of liesure for the the Beourjen Army. Originally it was designed as a recreational outlet for the sterilized soldiers in the army—i.e. slighens and Brickard recruits—however the establishment has become increasingly popular among the younger generations of unsterliziled common soldiers as well.

The Pits is known first for the brawling pits, but also houses both betting and drinking bars as well as an adjoining whorehouse. Patrons are required to either be Beourjen Army soldiers or veterans, or in a party with a soldier, and the entrance is guarded by both common and Brickard representatives. Although city law dictates that all patrons must be of age to enter the establishment, the guards are commonly bribed (similar to most taverns and brothels within South Beourjen) to allow underage orvon and slighen in.

Index

History
Food and Drink
Crew

Founding Date

1328

Type

Bar

Notable Patrons/Fighters:

Astervitch

brawler

Corrigan

brawler

Daveer Leidevelt
Evander Balassar
Dominic Veskev

Annais Catholden

brawler

History

Founding

Beginning around the turn of the fourteenth century, the Pits' tunneled halls were used as a refugee hideout for slighen fleeing the Protectorate. It's unclear how early exactly these slighen—mostly men, as women were afforded more liberties within the Protectorate at this point—took up residence, but the hideout was discovered by city police in 1321. Over the course of the next year, the hideout was routinely cleared out and the slighen were arrested and sent to Bezet Ouvre. The halls were taken as property of the Beourjen Army, and, because of its discreet and slum location, were converted into a bar and fistfighting hall for the lower-class soldiers of the Beourjen Army, with all profits turned over to the army. The bar was generally unprofitable as most lower-class soldiers chose not to spend their wages at a place run by the army.

Slighen Appeals

In 1378, the Confederacy began allowing slighen into the military under the condition of surgical castration. Most had already been castrated anyway and could find little other employment, and so it led to an influx of recruits. This in turn led to a much larger population of lower-class soldiers as potential customers for South Beourjen's military bar, as it was then called.

Around this same time, South Beourjen's current representative met with the High Commander to discuss a revision of funding and profit allocation surrounding the military bar. They agreed that while a small portion of profits would still be turned over to the army, most would be cycled through the establishment in the form of a gambling bar. The drinking bar would operate as before, winning fighters would recieve monetary prizes, and soldiers could bet on each match. The redesign proved to be extremely well-recieved, and the military establishment quickly became known as 'the Dogpits,' and then 'Pits,' as it was a place to watch 'dogs'—slighen—and men fight.

Sterilization Reformations and The Brickard Trade Agreement

During the 1420s, the Confederacy switched from surgical castration to vasectomies as the required form of sterilization of their soldiers, and 1438 saw the initiation of the Brickard Trade Agreement. Both in turn led to a higher demand for sex, and again South Beourjen's representative appealed to the High Commander, this time for the expansion of a whorehouse as part of the Pits' amenities. The expansion drew in even more customers and the Pits became a sort of reprievement for all lower-class soldiers within the army as well as prostitutes—there was no worry of out-of-wedlock pregnancy, the men paid well, and they often treated the women better than their upper-class counterparts did.

Throughout the later fifteenth century and into the sixteenth century, relations between men in the army began to transcend their economic and racial separations, and often slighen would bring their captains or unit 'packs'—usually the captain, lieutenant captain, and any close privates—with them to the Pits. Many younger noblemen in the army began to see an appeal to the Pits as well: they could meet without the constant eye of the city police and chaska, and could engage in more illicit sexual affairs without risking their reputations.

The crowd started to thin out a bit at the back half of the establishment, though there was still a crowd. Men leered, sloshing their drinks and spewing out curses. And all of them, tusks or not, sharpened or flat canines. Ast managed to push through fairly easily; no one paid attention to an average-looking Brickard grunt, which was what he looked like even in adolescence.

Ast reached one of the last few pits, the men having thinned out significantly this far back. There was a crowd gathered around the pit itself still, and stragglers lazed about in an area with booths and tables. Several small groups sat playing cards, or simply watching passerby the way Ryven did at the bar. And there was a door on the wall, somewhat inconspicuous and in the shadows, that people frequently entered and exited. The whorehouse, if that was the proper term. Ast had never been but he’d heard that it wasn’t so much an actual house than rather a singular open room for quick pleasure.

He edged toward the pit now nearest to him, a crude iron fence wrapping around the rectangular area. He had to push past people to get to where the gate was, a small mob of yelling and insults thrown about in a dozen directions. It wasn’t too hard to shoulder his way through, though he got jostled a bit on the way. One drunken fellow shoved his shoulder, not accomplishing much more than furthering Ast’s annoyance. Another man, a Brickard soldier, looked over his shoulder, spitting, “fuck off, kid,” which did indeed make Ast feel like a kid. But he wasn’t about to let such an inconsequential anxiety deter him.

Food and Drink

The Pits doesn't offer a traditional food menu, though they do carry a wide variety of alcohol. Because of the Confederacy's high alcohol taxation, much of the alcohol industry is monopolized by Houses Duxtour and Val'Eax. However, Beourjen army establishments are somewhat exempt from the alcohol taxation laws and so the Pits is able to sell a number of both domestic and import liquors at a slightly lower price. Their most popular drink is, unsurprisingly, low-grade Duxt mead, which Ast at one point remarks as tasting like 'watered piss.'

Aside from the standard ales and meads that can be found throughout the Confederacy, the Pits also offers one of the widest selections of traditional Cravven whiskeys and stouts. During the spring and fall solstices, they serve beathateth—a traditional Cravven drink made with hot cider, whiskey, and spices—in large cauldrons.

Notably, the Pits doesn't carry any alcohols from House Val'Eax. This isn't uncommon within the city—most establishments carry either Duxtour or Val'Eax liquors, and the lower class doesn't have much preference either way.

Crew

Svet

The man barring the gate, an older, rougher looking soldier with a deep scar across his forehead and hair slicked back with grease glanced at him under hooded lids as Ast approached. He did a double take, the eyes narrowing, hand tucking a clipboard underneath his arm.

Svet is the keeper at the pit furthest back in the establishment. He's a low-born common soldier and although he's quite gruff and keeps to himself, he grows to care for Ast in a tentative, almost paternal, way.

Gem

“He and Stef are, er, talking through some things. Might be a couple more minutes. And Key’s upstairs with Gem.” Ast had not asked, but he didn’t say anything, and Corrigan squinted. “I think it’s Gem. If she was available when he went up.”

Gem is a prostitute working in the main lounge of the whorehouse. She's Key's preferred girl at the Pits before he courts and marries his wife, and up until this point, Gem is naively hopeful that he'll marry her and pay off her indenture at the brothel in North Beourjen where she also works.

Collum

Collum is one of the barkeeps at the Pits. He's a slighen and a close friend of Leison and Corrigan, as well as a distant cousin of Stef. He doesn't say much, though he's witty and friendly when he does talk, and he generally knows a lot of gossip and information on what's going on in the South Beourjen slums.

Dranix

Dranix is one of the orvon bouncers at the Pits. He knows Kestern from serving in the war with him, though he never reveals this to Ast or Ryven.