Once a'pon a time, higher beings (gods, great old ones, devils, fae, etc.) settles disputes by fighting battles and wars, but they became concerned about causing the extinction of mortals, so they made a separate realm for their battles. This new realm was barren of all life, until one day, a teleport spell gone wrong put some humans into the realm. This gave the higher beings an idea, since there is no risk of a true extinction anymore (after all, there's other realms full of them) this opened up a new way of fighting wars: using humans as pawns so the higher beings don't have to fight the battles themselves. So, they set aside land: a continent torn apart by past battles, and a few shattered pieces made into islands (I'll post the map soon, if anyone is interested), where larger battles are off-limits, added some plants and animals (so it's livable), and moved the humans there. This continent is simply called "Haven". In order to prep the humans to battle, the higher beings gave them access to spells and magic. This worked out perfect for the higher beings, but not so well for humans. The battles and wars changed Haven's environment into something a lot more twisted and corrupted than expected. Although the higher beings won't allow Haven to become lifeless, the humans now have to deal with a rapidly changing and dangerous environment. Humans started using their magic for industrial purposes, in order to mass-produce defenses, weapons, etc. So, now you got factories that run completely on magic. (Welding tools that run on fire and electric magic, dams controlled by ice and water magic, potions that super-size livestock, etc.) I've been brainstorming how exactly the 'pick a pawn' system works for higher beings choosing who to send on missions. In this, I'm going to talk about how higher beings interact with humans. First, the Gods' Battlegrounds (place holder name) and Haven is kept in strict maintenance by a group mostly made up of gods called Wardens. There are a couple different factions within the Wardens themselves, examples are (placeholder names!) Watchers, which are record keepers of pawns and fights, Caretakers, who take care of Haven, and Groundskeepers, which maintain and repair the battlegrounds after every fight. For higher beings, setting up a fight is easy, just show up and take whatever space isn't occupied, but when it comes to "hiring" pawns, that's when the 'paperwork' gets complicated. If a pawn dies when hired, the pawn is sent back to Haven and brought back to life, but if a pawn dies in Haven, that person is dead dead. (Afterall, if a pawn gets taken in chess, you get the pawn back after the battle, but if the pawn piece gets damaged outside of your control, as in a fire or water damage... not your fault). There's a few hubs scattered around the Battlegrounds, where Higher Beings can go to hire pawns and bet on fights. When a higher being hires a pawn, the higher being must actually notify the pawn at least a day before (either through the mail, visit them in person, or the most common, show up in their dreams and explain the terms and conditions there.)