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The Ultimate Monster Battle Arena is a physical Arena, huge, intimidating, and reinforced. Very reinforced. Really very reinforced indeed.
More broadly, the Ultimate Monster Battle Arena, and the Championships League that it hosts, is the cultural core of the known world and the centre of civilisation. The city of Bastion is surrounded by wastelands of grass, brush, and sand for many days' travel. Wasteland inhabitants are few and far between, and any settlements are built of wood and determination. Further out, travellers encounter mountains, forests, snowy glaciers, and volcanic landscapes, but no humans - they encounter a lot of awesome Monsters, though.
No, all human society is in Bastion. And all Bastion cares about is Monsters, Ultimate Monsters, Battling Monsters, Battling Ultimate Monsters, and Ultimate Monster Battles.
Monsters are powerful, awe-inspiring, awesome creatures. Not all animals are Monsters: within Bastion, one may find rodents, cats, city birds, and dogs. Not all Monsters are animals: roughly half are biological, roughly half are technological. Biological Monsters range from ice-armoured bats to acid-drooling lizards to unsettlingly-nimble oozes, whereas Technological Monsters run the gamut from shrill spindly lights-on-wheels to a five-storey-tall iron tetrapod with a digger for a jaw. No two Monsters are alike, and nobody knows where they come from.
Monsters are extremely awesomely dangerous, and Bastion's walls keeps its citizens happily free of five-storey-tall-iron-tetrapods. This is why venturing into the Wastelands is essential for the Championships: awesome Monsters need to be hunted, trapped, and transported to Bastion. Unfortunately, the nearer Monsters live to Bastion, the less awesome they are. Only the small, stupid, or slow remain nearby.
The only other (good) reason to leave Bastion is to bag some awesome Archaeotech, and perhaps even some working Archaeotech whose use can be figured out. Archaeotech are relics of some sort of a world before, more advanced than anything produced nowadays. Annoyingly, all easily-accessible Archaeotech has been found and employed; nowadays, good Archaeotech excavation sites are usually days away.
The main purpose of Archaeotech is - surprise! - to enhance the Ultimate Monster Battle Arena. Archaeotech can augment Monsters, Monster-fighting weapons wielded by Monsters and Gladiators alike, and Monster-hunting devices. Awesomely.
Once a Monster has been dragged out of the Wastelands and into one of the Arena's pens, it must be trained to fight. Being a Trainer is a highly-respected position. Most children dream of becoming a Trainer, although many do aspire to be a Commentator, a Network Executive, or - if they want to make their parents sigh and shake their heads - a Gladiator. Those who can't make it in the Ultimate Monster Battle Arena or League have to settle for selling merchandise, running bets, or being a Fan. They are not awesome.
The Ultimate Monster Battle Arena is run by The Network. The Network manages the Championships League each season, and runs the Arena; there is no broadcast technology, so more or less everybody in the city turns up to the Arena for an awesome match. A season is 21 weeks long, and anyone can enter a Monster - or themselves. Humans can fight, too, as Gladiators. Not for long though.1)
The forthcoming matches are arranged at the League Conferences, alongside challenges, bragging matches, gossip, betting, plotting, screaming fankids, interviews, and host of other awesome activities. League Conferences take place every three weeks in the Arena's Vault. Anyone who's anyone goes to the Conferences.
So. The Ultimate Monster Battle Arena is the centre of the world. Most economical activity revolves around the Arena and Championships League, and The Network is more relevant a force in the average citizen's life than the official city leaders. For the citizens of Bastion, the political, educational and financial systems pale in significance to the Ultimate Monster Battle Arena.
You don't get to catch a giant-fanged hopping Monster in a spike pit, mount your PINK GLOWING LASER BEAM Archaeotech cannon between its giant wuzzy ears, call it CUDDLEDUCK FLUSTERCLUCK and send it into the Arena to laser THE RIGHT LIGHTNING in half by going to school, do you?
