Modern Gladiatorial Spectacle
A New Outlet, A New Bloodsport
"I am often asked why a man in my position supports a seemingly barbaric program as this. Many more people scorn me for an alleged lapse in my mortality, allowing the survival of a bloodsport in which people fight and die, often on live television."
"My answer is simple: this is the system that has been established, and no one is forced into it. What this is is an outlet for the carnal, barbaric, primal human desire to shed human blood."
"Let's start from the beginning, because this whole thing goes back five or six years. What is now the world's most-watched televised sports program began as a solution to a serious problem in the United States. We have, or had, a severe problem with overcrowding in our jails and prisons. Kids tossed in for a decade, just for peddling a bit of drugs or carrying a dime bag of pot. Mandatory sentencing, three-strike policies, and other programs that got cons off the street, institutionalized them, and left them alienated from regular society if they ever got out. In 2017, we moved our detainees from Gitmo to Leavenworth, and we had an unfortunate riot that left 75 inmates dead and 14 soldiers dead. Same thing happened with the food riots in Terre Haute and Folsom. On top of that, you had documented human rights violations at almost every major prison in the United States. Beatings, rapes, drug use. We tried decriminalizing drugs, putting people on parole sooner, limiting appeals for Death Row inmates. Those helped a little bit, but did they solve the problems that beset our correctional system? Not in the slightest."
"A few months after Folsom, you had a fella named Kessler come around. Senator Todd Kessler, a Libertarian from California who had lost his brother at Folsom. He proposed the CMRA, or 'Simra.' The 'Correctional Management Reform Act:' inmates would compete in a controlled combat environment with live weapons and few, if any, restrictions. A tournament not unlike those in Ancient Rome. Those who survived these tournaments would go on to be paroled of their crimes and be offered a plethora of rehabilitative programs. Drug treatment, education, work; you name it. A pretty questionable system, at first."
"You can guess how most folks reacted. They called him crazy, and called Simra deluded. Letting criminals fight for their freedom to go out and commit more crimes; what was he thinking? I'm not Kessler, so I might not be able to immediately sway you, but by 2018, he pulled it off. He got Congress to pass Simra, but not by a landslide. Not at all, dude. Still, it got established and by winter of 2018, the first tournament was underway."
"Area 17, Nevada Test Site. Law enforcement and Nevada Army National Guard ran security as over 100 federal inmates competed. Gang-bangers, war criminals, drug-runners, and even a few serial killers. They duked it out and made that stretch of desert red from end to end. It was one gory sight when it ended. Back then, there was just a set time period of 48 hours for the inmates to fight it out, and when the dust cleared, only four men remained. There was a Blood OG, a soldier who had gotten tossed into Leavenworth for terrorism, a bank robber, and a stockbroker who had embezzled millions before the Recession. The part that gets everyone is that three of these four guys are now productive members of society. All of them have good jobs, an education, and they do speaking tours around the county. Nuts, right?"
"Just then, everyone took a second look at Simra. It was insane, totally contradictory, and everything else, but it worked. Other countries took the concept and ran with it. The UN tried to outlaw it, but they got enough backlash to lay off of it. I mean, if a rogue state like North Korea is still existing, then it's no miracle that Simra was allowed to do the same. That was just the beginning, because Simra would soon evolve into Munus, which is where I come in."
"In 2020, a delegation of prison officials, media execs, and private military contractors came to Washington and brokered the creation of what we have here today. Munus: a televised, commercialized Simra program in which everyone - cons and civilians and soldiers and everyone alike - would be allowed to participate. Munus would be held in a controlled environment, with regulation and guidance from both private and public monitors."
"What ended up happening was that the idea was voted upon and passed by Congress. An archipelago in the Pacific, the Mendell Islands, were granted for usage by Munus. I got put in charge of planning, so I took the two largest islands for Munus. The smaller island, at 30 miles, would serve as the 'Arena.' The larger 50-mile island would serve as the 'Base.' Arena Island had some pre-existing structures, like the ghost port of Thurston Town and some plantations and such, and along with the vast jungles and other settings that we added, it served as a good location for the games. Base Island, while not previously inhabited save for an old naval installation, was overhauled and modernized with a road system, a cosmopolitan commercial district, high-end barracks, a command center, a full-functioning seaport and airport, and a massive training area. It rivaled military bases on the US mainland, and before 2021, we had ourselves a fully-functioning, self-sustaining operation managed by the US government, and AmeriCom Entertainment and Tercio Private Military Services."
"We went live in 2021, and it became an instant success as millions of people invested in PPV for it. People put bets on matches and contestants, and sponsors, fan clubs, merchandising, and even Munus teams started to pop up. You've also got scientists and researchers, who are bringing in genetic and mechanical enhancements for live combat testing. Weaponized prosthetics, prototype exosuits, booster pills that gave your senses a temporary boost; hell, these eggheads even cooked up some genetically-engineered creatures to spice up matches. Fucking dinosaurs, dude."
"Right now, if you've got stock in either AmeriCom or Tercio, or any of the major companies sponsoring the four teams, chances are that you're fucking loaded. It's 2025, and Munus shows no signs of slowing down. People still decry it as senseless violence, but to the rest of the word, it seems that the "senseless violence" is paying off for the better. So, I advise you to take it for what it is, and continue watching.”