Marcellus

Marcellus is a city located in the continent of Bigboy.

Overview
As the second-oldest city of the Free Cities, Marcellus was traditionally heavily embattled. The Freeholds Treaty stopped a lot of that, though the invasion of Mallois 20-something odd years ago had many from Marcellus heading out to do their part to help defend the Free Cities as per the treaty. The city's greatest asset is its fighters, many of whom go out into the world to work as mercenaries. Fighting pits dot the streets as very common forms of entertainment, so the crown jewel of Marcellus is its coliseum, where the bravest and best challenge everything the world throws at them.

On the flip side of the coliseum, however, is the Dirt Pit. This is an underground fighting ring run by the guards of the local murderer's prison, Inferno's Reach. The prison itself is for only the worst of the worst, those who've committed unspeakable acts to other living beings and have been found to be so detestable that they aren't to be granted the release of death and instead are to rot in the sweltering, damp conditions of the prison. Prisoners compete in blood sport, fighting each other--sometimes to the death--for whatever meager privileges and comforts the guards feel like providing. Only the wealthy and the powerful are invited to purchase tickets to these events, and while they are technically secret, the only thing really guarded lock and key is the guest list.

As it's built on heavy marshland, Marcellus is a feat of Orcish engineering. They've done what the Maya did and managed to create an island city that supports the weight of their stone structures while being exceptionally defensible due to the mire surrounding it. Roads through the Mire are wood, tied together with sturdy rope and regularly maintained, which also means they can be removed at a moment's notice. The people of Marcellus have never lost a battle on their home turf, in large part due to the natural defenses of the city itself. However, this has also led to the old wives tales of the marshland surrounding the city for miles being heavily haunted by the ghosts of the dead from battles past, some looking for the chance at glory that had been stripped from them meeting such an end before they even got a true chance to fight and others looking for simple revenge against the perpetrators of what caused them to meet their undignified fate. While the jury's still out on just how haunted the Marcellian Mire is, it's not uncommon to find skeletons--or more rarely, preserved bodies--floating in the bog.

Marcellus is run via martial law, its leader the commander of the military forces in the city. While Marcellus’s exports are typically its own people in the form of mercenaries, for those who don’t want to leave their families behind, a life of military service to the city is a viable and even lucrative option, as rank in the city’s military is equivalent to the rank or status of nobles in other locations.