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Bleeding Place

The Bleeding Place

The Raa's sacred dueling amphitheater in Sungrave, where centuries of Rim Golds have settled quarrels in blood on white marble.

Story so far

The Bleeding Place is a circular amphitheater carved into the stone heart of Sungrave, where House Raa and the Rim's Golds have for centuries settled feuds by single combat. Condensation-slick stone dragons hang from its dark ceiling above tiered rock benches encircling a white marble floor emblazoned with the Sigil of Gold; a blind White Justice and a young White Chance officiate the sacrosanct rites, laying down a ring of white sand that drinks the duelists' blood. Duels here are governed by strict custom—no armor, no lowColors admitted, propriety demanded of the audience.

It is where Lysander as a boy watched young Peerless fillet one another, and where Cassius, challenged by Bellerephon, fights a brutal blood-feud duel—then, as Dido sends cousin after cousin against him, becomes the stage for her stratagem to bleed her own kin and stoke the Rim's war-fury.

Appearance

A circular stone amphitheater in the mountain's heart, sculpted lotus flowers and condensation-slick stone dragons hanging from the dark ceiling, tiered rock benches encircling a white marble floor bearing the Sigil of Gold, ringed in blood-drinking white sand.

Role

The Rim's sacred dueling ground; the amphitheater where Cassius fights for his life and Dido stages her war-stoking slaughter.

Relationships

Cassius — The Morning Knight who fights duel after duel for his life on its marble floor.
Dido — The Protector who perverts its sacred custom into a stratagem to bleed her kin and stoke war.
Bellerephon — The Rim champion who challenges Cassius to the death here and falls.
Lysander — The captive who watched duels here as a boy and now steps onto its floor to save Cassius.
Sources — 1 recorded facts, by chapter
Chapter 39
  • The Raa's sacred dueling amphitheater in Sungrave, where centuries of Rim Golds have settled quarrels in blood on white marble.
Character portrait