Monsbaiya

SETTING COMMENT

Physical Description
From above - from left to right this image shows the lake, settlement and tower. The settlement from above The tower A map of the settlement A house The gate before entering the tower - note the ‘no bitties’ sign The tower doors casting their weakening spell

Monsbaiya is a small desert settlement surrounding a great tower. The settlement itself is unremarkable - noted in canon for having nothing of cultural value. The buildings are all similar to each other - rectangular and built from stone. There is a great lake to the south of the settlement and tower, and a smaller one in the centre of the settlement. Both of these are man-made, and the abilities of monsters are used to keep them full of water.

The tower is more interesting. Even from the outside it’s an imposing sight, the skeleton of a great two-headed dragon built into it. A great wall and chasm separate it from the settlement that surrounds it, the only way to enter is through a single gate and across a rope bridge. The gate is enchanted, and won’t allow anyone to enter the tower if they-


 * Are under 15.


 * Are over 15 but so frail that they stand a good chance of dying within the tower.


 * Are carrying more than 5 items.

It also saps strength, reducing anyone who passes through it to the equivalent of level 1. In canon this is permanent but in DH it’ll be temporary, only lasting until they return to the settlement. Monsters are immune to this effect.

The inside of the tower is a living, changing thing. It is filled with treasures, from weapons, armour and magic items to coins and jewels and monster eggs. The monster eggs are considered the most valuable of the treasures, as the magic of the tower does not sap the strength of monsters and the only way to tame monsters is to hatch them from eggs. Monsters are the key to reaching the highest floors of the tower. The treasure within the tower is unlimited, more piles of riches appear every time someone enters, but with it comes just as much danger. Even with the tower keeping the young or frail from entering, many people have lost their lives in the building. The tower is swarming with powerful monsters.

Even if treasure hunters can overcome the monsters, the true danger is the tower itself. It is a living, malicious thing. No two floors are ever the same, as it will change itself to try to get hopeful adventurers lost. It will catch those who enter it within traps and lead them into monster dens. If they slow at all in their ascent it will trap them with earthquakes. And, once a traveller has entered, there is no easy way to leave.

Upon entering, the door of the tower will vanish. Teleportation items and magic only allow the traveller to move within the floor of the tower they are on with a few exceptions-


 * An item called a Wind Crystal will carry the user and anyone with them out of the tower.


 * An item called an Oleem Seed sacrifices a tamed monster, turning its body into the wind to allow its tamer to leave.


 * You can leave upon reaching the tower’s peak. (For the record, this is not going to happen for anyone any time soon after the setting’s introduced - characters start from level 1 in the tower, and moving to its peak is a whole game in canon).


 * Tamed monsters can leave the tower freely. They can take humans with them, but only if the humans are in a poor enough state that the tower will allow them to leave. So you can let yourself be beaten into unconsciousness and hope for the best. In this case, you lose any items you have (including equipment you entered with).


 * Sometimes the tower allows people to leave posthumously, returning their bodies to the settlement. Obviously this option is less than ideal.

Tamed monsters can only exist in the tower when wearing a monster collar. A tamer can always buy one monster collar in the town but for some reason buying a second always proves very difficult.

History: The Monster Tower existed long before the settlement of Monsbaiya, a great sentient tower filled with danger and treasure said to house a power that could control the world. The desert surrounding the tower made living there difficult, but people travelled to the tower to seek their fortune. Eventually someone realized that there was a less dangerous way of making money off the tower’s presence - by offering a service to the people who braved it. The opportunity drove people to try to find a way to create a settlement in the harsh environment and so Monsbaiya, named for the monster eggs - the most valuable of the tower’s treasures, was born.

<span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);font-family:Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">Sadly, the dream is more romantic than reality. More people returned from the tower injured or dead than rich and while people have never stopped chasing the dream, people still flock to the tower from all around to chase riches, Monsbaiya itself is far from thriving. The town has nothing to its name but the monster tower - no arts, no music, not even a school.

Culture:<span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);font-family:Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">


 * <span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);font-family:Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">Housing: Most houses, other than those of the very rich, are small and sparsely furnished. Even among those who live in luxury, furnishings are sparse. Plumbing exists, though the poorer families have the gather their water from wells. Electric appliances, including refrigerators and televisions, are rarer and only used by those who need them for their businesses or at home by the very very rich.

Bathing facilities in poorer homes leave much to be desired.


 * <span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);font-family:Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">Families and family structure: Most families are traditional, though the monster tower has stolen many fathers from families. Widowed mothers are the norm rather than the exception. Children are expected to go into their parents’ profession, including treasure hunters.  <span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);font-family:Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">Adults are referred to by children as ‘aunt’ or ‘uncle’ regardless of relationship and raised similarly, while they’re not officially raised communally it’s understood by everyone how much pressure having fathers go to the tower puts on families and they’re always willing to help out.  <span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);font-family:Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">Polygamy is apparently not frowned upon, as long as the polygamist is rich and powerful enough. Homosexuality between males is treated similarly.


 * <span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);font-family:Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">Foods: Food is possibly Monsbaiya’s only cultural pride. Though they have no specialty of their own, only recipes borrowed from travellers, they love good food and take great pride in making variations on the borrowed dishes and preparing things  damn well<span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);font-family:Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">. Most of the food they eat is borrowed from travellers from the east - curries and rice dishes in particular.  <span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);font-family:Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">The rice from around Monsbaiya is a novelty to travellers, as it curls into spirals when fried. It also changes colour when vinegar is added to it, turning a different colour depending on how much vinegar is added.


 * <span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);font-family:Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">Exports/Imports and Local Products: Monsbaiya’s main export is the monsters that are brought back from the tower. These monsters have many uses around the world once tamed. Eggs are significantly more valuable than hatched monsters. They have to import near everything other than weapons that can be found in the tower - they don’t have the means to make much locally. Even flour is difficult to get hold of in large quantities.


 * <span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);font-family:Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">Economy: Those who succeed in Monsbaiya are those who are listening when opportunity comes knocking. There is a lot of money to be made, either bringing treasure back from the tower or selling medicine and equipment to those who are aiming to tackle the tower, but it all depends on being in the right place at the right time. Basically, you either get rich quick or you don’t get rich at all.  <span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);font-family:Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">The currency of Monsbaiya is simply G, or gold.


 * <span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);font-family:Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">Arts and Education: Monsbaiya doesn’t have a whole lot of either. There are those who collect for charity, hoping to set up public schools and fund places such as parks but they havn’t met with much success. Most people who find their fortune in Monsbaiya are quick to leave afterwards, few people feel enough of a connection to the town to invest in making it a better place.


 * <span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);font-family:Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">Government: On paper there is none. Laws are decided by communal ‘okay stop taking the piss’ and crime is kept in check by the knowledge that there are a lot of heavily armed people who call the town home. Monsbaiya doesn’t belong to any country and has no ruler.  <span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);font-family:Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">In practice, people who have more money have more power. The richer families do as they please.


 * <span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);font-family:Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">Gender Roles: As a rule, men go to the tower and women remain in the town. There are exceptions, but they’re rare. Women are expected to watch over children, as a rule. In the town itself men and women hold much the same jobs.  <span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);font-family:Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">Men having relationships with multiple women goes without mention but women having relationships with multiple men is frowned upon.


 * <span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);font-family:Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">Languages Spoken: Due to people from all the world coming to Monsbaiya in search of thier fortune, natives of Monsbaiya speak a mishmash of many different languages and pick up on the basics (...or at least whatever they need to know to sell things) of new languages quickly. The settlement doesn’t really have its own language, people speak whatever they, or the listener, know most of.


 * <span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);font-family:Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">Recreation and Sports: None worth mentioning. People fight for fun sometimes, but there’s little in the way of things to do. Most people just work all the time.


 * <span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);font-family:Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">Mode(s) of transportation: The settlement’s small enough that people can just walk around it easily. For longer journeys, trained Nyuel monsters are used as mounts. The very rich can use Aurabikes, if they’re  extremely comfortable in their sexuality.


 * <span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);font-family:Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">Methods of Communication: People just talk to each other!

Local Inhabitants:<span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);font-family:Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;"> The people of Monsbaiya are a tough, adaptable lot. They’re religious, they believe in a single god and attend church regularly, but this doesn’t seem to affect their lives much outside of occasionally thanking god for things. They’re a culture of workaholics, all spending every available hour working, likely because there is literally nothing else to do.

<span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);font-family:Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">The monster and treasure hunters are people from all across the world. Generally male, they’re varied in culture and beliefs. Most of them tend to be rough and fond of their beers, though. Due to the danger within the tower, they have a strong tradition of offering help to each other, especially younger or more inexperienced hunters. But they won’t hesitate to turn on each other if there’s enough money involved. a favourite habit of the tower is to throw unimaginable riches at those who group together to watch them tear each other apart over it.

<span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);font-family:Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;">And then there’s the monsters. Untamed monsters attack humans. Tamed monsters attack anything that poses a danger to their tamer.

Risks:<span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);font-family:Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;"> Outside of the tower, there’s a few monsters. They stay away from the city itself but will attack children who go to play in the lake. The risks of the tower have already been discussed.

Celebrations:<span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);font-family:Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;"> There aren’t many. The pubs will sometimes give a round of drinks on the house if someone gets particularly far into the tower and lives, but that’s the closest the town gets to celebrating.

Additional Information:<span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);font-family:Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;"> For those who know the canon, this is Monsbaiya from pre-game.

Notable Residents

 * Lightning


 * Serah Villiers
 * Hope Estheim
 * Newton Geiszler
 * Lenalee Lee
 * A metric ton of Moogles

Notable Changes

 * The Vestige, a restaurant in the south-east section of the city run by the adventurer sisters Lightning and Serah. The house built onto the back is large and spacious, and often used as a wayhouse or lodge for fellow Havenites with business in the town. It also boasts a Moogle Office for mail-delivery and handywork.
 * The Water Bell was reclaimed from the Monster Tower, improving the quantity and quality of the water that flows through the town.