Lusuium

In the western half of the Cooking Canyon lays **Lusuium**, a hellish fortress in which beasts from all over the world are trained and mutated so they might fight in the arena. The fortress is build inside of a carved out mesa, giving the Beastmasters a great vantage point over the surrounding cliffs.

Lusuium is primarily run by a group known as the Beastmasters who are specialised catching and taming powerful monsters. These Beastmasters have developed their own subcategory of magic known as biomancy. Biomancy is a form of necromancy which has twisted the craft as to allow its user to work with living tissue instead of the usual death tissue. It was developed with the aid of a few necromancers who were shunned by necromantic scholarly society for their unconventional ideas. Those Beastmasters who are especially gifted in the art of biomancy are known as biomancers. These biomancers like to put magical enhancements on creatures to make them even more powerful and to create an new and exciting show for their audience. The cruellest of biomancers even craft extra limbs and other spare parts on their beasts to create truly horrifying monsters that will wow the crowds back in the capitol.

## The layers

### Outside

Outside the fortress is a 150 metre wide mote filled with lava from the nearby river. There is no bridge to cross this mote, so visitors might only enter by ferrying across on one of the dark steel arks that the Beastmasters have build for transport. These arks can be found floating all across the lava river, floating up and down to bring the fortress their precious cargo. This cargo is primarily made out of metal cages, filled with all types of creatures, both large and small, who are trying to take out their frustration on anyone coming to close to their bars. The cages are hauled onto the Beastmaster's wagon which is pulled by two tamed Woolly Rhinos . Once all is done the poachers are payed their due and the beasts are taken up into the volcanic rock cave until they come upon a set of large iron gates. These gates are large enough to allow an adult hydra inside. The doors are engraved with the likeness of several powerful creatures. Especially noticeable are those of a wolf and dragon in the middle of each door.

### Primaris

Behind the large iron gates is the first layer of Lusuium, Primaris. At this layer the mercanaries and soldiers working for Lusuium can be seen training every day and night so they might stand a chance against the beasts. Most of the Beastmasters makes their home here as well, although they usually work further above. Between the Beastmasters, soldiers, and their retinue the layer of Primaris can, to a certain extend, be considered a large town in its own right. Hanging down from the ceiling of Primaris are thousands of small growling cages, reflecting the torches below to look like stars in the night sky.

### Secondis

Climbing higher up the mesa is the layer of Secondis where the Beastmasters prepare the creatures that will fight in the arenas of their clients. First they have to be broken before the Beastmasters can build them back up as a fighting machine. Most creatures break simply from the glare of their cruel new masters after spending months in a cargo hold. But those beasts noble enough to stand their ground are forced into submission by the lash of the barbed whip, the hot embrace of the branding iron, and whatever other deprived form of torture its new Beastmaster can think of it. It is on Secondis that the Beastmasters have build their biomancy laboratories. In here the biomancers use arcane means to break those rare and powerful beasts that have proven themselves to be unbreakable to traditional means.

### Tertaris

Creatures that are ready to fight are stored in the highest layer of Lusuium known as Tertaris. Here also stands the testing arena where beasts are tested against each other so the Beastmasters might judge the capabilities of different species. It is also here that the biomancers like to hold tourneys between their creations to see who is the best biomancer in Lusuium. Many of these biomancers still speak about a spectacular fight during the tourney of 1496 where a giant rat with lightning bolt enchantment on its tails defeating a giant shark who had the legs of a allosaurus grafted on.

## Astrorignis

Astrorignis life as a noble dragon ended before it ever had a chance to begin. In 1601 a group of powerful adventurers slayed Astrorignis's mother and sold her eggs to a dwarven merchant, through which it would eventually reach the hands of the master biomancer Brachus Carnem. Brachus was determined to be the first Beastmaster to ever break a dragon to his will, and with this little egg he would. The Beastmasters had a client from the Principality of Berokwho was obsessed with hosting ever more extraordinary arena fights between exotic monsters and continuously ordered Brachus to bring him something new to be impressed by. Brachus hoped that a dragon would finally satisfy his client, as he had already exhausted most of his ideas. First he enchanted the egg with dark incantation that would redirect nutrients meant for the brain unto the rest of the body. The small black dragon born from this was more powerful than anything Brachus had ever seen, able to break out through iron bars after only three months and through mithril bars after six months. The fire produced by this hatchling shone with many different colours, burning even hotter than normal thanks to Brachus's incantations. Because of this colourful breath weapon Brachus called the hatchling Astrorignis, or "his little starfire" in private.

Astrorignis grew up steadily, but as dragons are want to do slowly. For a matter of fact he was growing up to slowly for Brachus liking and he continued to increase Astrorignis's growth at the cost of its mental development. After only 18 months Astrorignis's body had grown to be the size of an adolescence dragon. Brachus considered him ready for the arena in Tertaris and set him up against a pack of trained dire wolf for his first fight. Brachus disappointment was immeasurable when his little starfire ran whimpering into a corner from beasts three times smaller than it. As punishment Brachus used Astrorignis to find out how long it takes to flay the scales of a dragon's back. It took weeks before the dragon finally began reluctantly fighting the enemies his cruel masters lay before him.

One night the Beastmasters began hearing weird whimpering voice coming from Tertaris. It said broken sentences such as "*Not... More...*" and "*No... Want... Fight...*" . Eventually one of the Beastmasters found the source of the voice: the now two year old black dragon Astrorignis. Despite all incantations the creature had still become intelligent enough to speak. This freaked the Beastmasters out to such an extend that on the next morning the crafted seven crystaline nails with which they hoped to lobotomise it. Now that the last remaining spark of sentience had been stabbed out of Astrorignis only bestial rage and blood lust remained. Brachus finally had his beast, and the dragon proved unbeatable in battle. Brachus got the fame he always had hoped for and died twenty years later as the first biomancer who broke a dragon. But eventually the public grew bored of their unbeatable champion and it was send back to Lusuium. Nowadays Astrorignis is only allowed out of his private habitat in Tertaris when important clients are visiting. In this private habitat he spends his time with his rage, only being visited by the carcass that the Beastmaster drop him as food, all alone without even someone to call them their little starfire.