Keeping Score (CGH)

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Official score-keepers are in evidence in each of the cities, most often in the form of the bookkeepers. After all, since they must provide up-to-date betting lines in order not to seem corrupt, they have to keep track of the victories and fighting styles of each of the gladiators who appear.
If they wish to scout out new talent, they send their agents to the farms and estates of the nearby nobles. These agents linger around the slave pits and training arenas in hopes of catching sight of the gladiators. The scouts are often keen judges of combat skills, able to tell how a fresh gladiator will behave in his first major encounter. The reports from these scouts usually determine the initial betting lines before the game featuring the particular gladiator. For more on wagering in the arena, consult "Gambling on the Games," page 80.
Templars can easily influence the betting agents into conveniently adding or dropping the gladiators' chances in order to make a profit for themselves. As with all things on Athas, the scores the betting men hold are uncertain.
Other scorekeepers include the legions of death-lovers who flock around the gladiators. Chances are that they will know all the facts available about the gladiators, filing them away in their memories so that they might compare these gladiators with others. These morbid fans have the most accurate system of the common folk, for they are unlikely to forget the smallest detail.
Gladiators themselves are unlikely to keep an accurate tally of their kills, for after so much killing, only the finest and the most fearsome moments stand out. The others fade into obscurity. Also, the newer gladiators always want to impress the others, and thus they lie about their victories.
Therefore, most people discount the kills a gladiator claims to have made. Even if the gladiator keeps accurate records for himself and his companions, none believe him, discounting the number of victories as either modesty or boasting.
Owners and patrons, too, rarely tell the truth about their gladiators. They want others to be impressed by the prowess of their clients, and thus to marvel at the good sense of the patron and his clever business acumen. Most other wealthy folk simply take it for granted that any number of victories an owner attributes to his gladiator is far overblown.
In more ancient days, owners kept score by branding or tattooing their gladiators after each victory. This practice quickly fell into disrepute when many of the owners began falsifying the tattoos, adding new ones each day in an effort to out-bluff their opponents' gladiators. Even while this method was still effective, the numerous slave revolts that occurred when the branding irons were brought out were enough to prove to the sorcerer-kings that perhaps this method was not the wisest.
While the templars keep records of gladiators victories and losses in order to keep track of possible troublemakers and to keep accurate score for their own purposes, they do not release these to the common folk. It is in the nature of templars to keep secret any information that might be useful. They cannot risk that the records might fall into the wrong hands.
Trainers have the most accurate information of anyone. Most keep strips of leather or portraits of their gladiators, marking them on one side when that gladiator wins, on the other when he loses. They use this information to determine how well a gladiator's career has advanced, and how it needs improvement. The vagaries of the markings indicate how well the match was fought, the difficulty of the foe, and the areas for improvement
Most trainers feel some loyalty to their gladiators, and will not betray this information. They tell the patrons, of course, and cannot refuse templars, but do not share the information among themselves. Divulging a gladiator's record is tantamount to treachery in the trainer's world. When a gladiator is traded, his trainer gives him the record of victories so that his new trainer can keep accurate track of the career of the new gladiator.