What you need to know about The Ring of Beasts… for now.

“A world that exists in some place, at sometime.”

Opening, Kingdom Kome’s The Ring of Beasts

Kingdom Kome’s The Ring of Beasts occupies a much bigger world than just a short film. Leading up to our premiere at the Los Angeles International Short Film Festival we thought we’d share a little more about the world that the story occupies.

1. The Setting

The story takes place in a time frame of the Ad Regnum universe called the “After Rift” era. It is a time frame in the future, but makes us feel like we’re in the past by the way several things have regressed to a state of primality.

Safe to say it is when the world as we know it has effectively ended. People occupy a territory of what was Northern Africa in what is now called “The Forgotten Lands” it is in these places that the world doesn’t really change: Pandemic, nuclear war, natural disasters, it doesn’t matter. Places like this exist regardless of the state of the world those reading this occupy.

“The Forgotten Lands are a place marred by Blood, Rust, Metal and Dust.”

Opening, Kingdom Kome’s The Ring of Beasts

This was a stylistic choice that highly informed everything in the abstraction* from the colors that were graded in post-production right down to the costumes worn by the characters. This is a world where those are the things people have to work with. That’s it. Unless you’re extremely wealthy.

*an abstraction in this context is a story that has the same characters, theme and tone as a bigger story but is done on a smaller scale. In this case, The Ring of Beasts short film is an abstraction of the bigger saga.

2. The Ring of Beasts

“The Ring is something that has been so misunderstood. Yes it’s animalistic sure, but it really is man watching himself in his true primitive form. Venting the pent up aggression in all of us lest.”

Wilson, Kingdom Kome’s The Ring of Beasts

The Ring of Beasts in this world is actually more than a system of entertainment, it’s a system of trade, of dispute resolution, a ceremony of respect. When society has fallen apart and blood thirsty gangs threaten to rule, what better way to resolve disputes than to pit two fighters against each other? Your best vs mine.

Sadly, this world is not to far off from the present one, as the system is largely based off of the horrific sport of dog fighting. Only in this context, the “dogs” are human beings.

Another important distinction to make, unlike the gladiators in ancient Rome, the olympic wrestlers in Greece, or the latest UFC cage fighters, the contenders in the ring are treated as the lowest of the low of society, even the grand champions or “Top Dogs.”

The Rules of the Ring are simple:

• Fights are until incapacitation (or death if agreed)
• To make a fight fair the challenger (the Under Dog) must earn his right to challenge by fighting and winning an undercard fight before fighting the current victor (the Top Dog)
• No weapons are allowed, only the fighters bodies.
• No intervening, postponement or withdrawal is allowed once the fight begins.
• The winning owner must honor the wager.

3. The Characters

It is safe to say that the predominant system of governance in The Forgotten Lands is a system of feudalism whereby powerful owners of land, clans and fighters (Barons) contest their dominance and power by being the active participants in The Ring of Beasts, the system is always ongoing and any Baron can challenge any other Baron at any time provided they have a reason and a wager to back it up.

An important distinction to make about these Barons is that they all come from different walks of life and fell into a form of politicised power in the world they occupy. Some, like the character Wilson, have simply just tried to maintain order and live the best life they can, others, like Xanadou, seek the thrill of the game. They thrive off of fear, off of the mob. Sound familar?

With the knowledge of these three important points about the world of The Ring of Beasts next time we will be looking into how the fighters came about, more important characters, factions and notes about the world.

In the meantime. Join our Reddit page at https://www.reddit.com/r/TheRingofBeasts and make sure to follow up on all social media pages.

The Ring of Beasts:

Twitter:

@theringofbeasts

Instagram: 

@ringofbeasts

For Kingdom Kome:

Twitter: @kingdomkome_

Instagram: @kingdomkome_official

Tiktok:@kingdomkome_official

Facebook: @kingdomkome_official

The Ring of Beasts is part of the Ad Regnum Universe created by Cameron Scott.