WIP setting information<br/><br/><hr/><br/>Skyspear Island, named for the volcano that rises miles into the sky from its center, has long been an oddity in the world.  The oldest texts say that the island was once the meeting place of the Goddess of Passion, the Demon Lord of Lust, and the Arch-Devil of Control.  When the negotiations broke down, the three were cast down and entombed within the world to stop a war between heaven and the hells.<br/><br/>In recent memory Skyspear Island has been a sprawling wilderness broken only by a small network of towns and village and a single port city.  The city of Freehaven has existed on a bay on the southern edge of the island for as long as anyone can remember.  A major trading port, it sees ships from around the world hoping to buy strange items found only on Skyspear Island.<br/><br/>The entire island seems blessed, or cursed, with a powerful magical effect that can only be counter-acted by antimagic fields.  A wound, from a small cut to a mortal stab, heals nearly instantly.  The victim is left drained and, if severe enough, all but incapacitated, but they won’t have even a scar.  Death is still possible from old age or from decapitation, but under normal circumstances mortal damage will leave the victim helpless, but not dead.  The result is an almost casual treatment of violence, and a massive arena culture.  Grievances are often settled by duel, and as long as no one dies, even the law rarely bothers to intervene.<br/><br/>The people of Skyspear Island are strong believers in personal freedom and personal responsibility but, strangely, slavery is legal and common.  A regular punishment for crime is enslavement, and while the supply of slave collars is controlled, there is still a booming market of kidnapped people turned into slaves.  The latter is officially illegal, but once the collar is worn no one asks questions.  A slave is the property and responsibility of their owner, and no discussion of how they came to be collared is ever raised.<br/><br/>The Adventurer’s Guild of Skyspear was founded in an attempt to bring peace between the civilized towns and the wild tribes.  The monsters would refrain from killing, and in return the ‘heroes’ would as well.  With the bulk of the monsters being male, supposedly due to an ancient curse, the Adventurer’s Guild has agreed to exclusively hire women.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>Freehaven grew around a bay that provides safe harbour to a fleet of trade ships.  It forms the shape of a horn, a narrow point in the west along a peninsula that juts out from the mainland, and a wider sprawl on the eastern edge of the bay.<br/><br/>At the tip of the western point, on a rocky cliff that rises nearly a hundred feet above the sea, is the largely abandoned Castle Highwind.  The home of a local noble whose family fell upon hard times generations ago, the castle is slowly crumbling into the sea and many parts have been walled off or otherwise abandoned.<br/><br/>In the narrow section of the city on the peninsula north of Castle Highwind is a section of city filled with the oldest temples and mansions.  It is a place of old money, with nothing having changed hands in more than two hundred years.<br/><br/>The northern edge of the bay, between the peninsula to the west and the sprawl to the east, is located the docks and market.  The docks are large enough to hold dozens of ships, while the market is a small city in and of itself.  Anything can be purchased in the market, if you know where to look.<br/><br/>The sprawl to the eastern side of the city is comprised of the Quarters, where much of the population live, and the Slums, the poorest section of the city.  The Quarters are an unremarkable area, while the Slums are a place you only go if you are quick with a knife.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>The Adventurer’s Guild is located in the market, not far from the docks.  A sprawling structure, it stands several stories tall and takes up most of a city block.  It contains a small barracks, for those members who can’t afford a place to stay, and its own workshop full of various tradespeople.<br/><br/>To join the Guild requires the signing of a contract and nothing more.  As long as the member follows the contract they are free to use the Guild’s services.  The Guild provides a place to sleep, basic meals, insurance on lost gear, and access to a job board.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>The Grand Arena is not actually a single structure, but rather a string of them that stretch in a crescent through the city.  The largest is in the market district, but they exist in both the temple district and the slums.  Relatively uniform in size, they take the shape of large oval depressions in the ground.  The outer area is descending rows of seats, while the center is a sand or stone circle for the actual combat.  There are no barriers between the seats and combat, and no walls around the building.  They are designed so that someone walking by can glance down and see the spectacle, even if they never take a seat.<br/><br/>Each arena that makes up the Grand Arena is connected by a series of underground tunnels and structures that all meet at a central, massive, cavern.  The cavern, located under the market district, is used mostly for training.