Agrion Island sits far from the crowded mainland trade routes, surrounded by impossibly deep blue waters and skies that rarely darken. From a distance it looks almost untouched. Vast jungle stretches across the western coastline before wrapping north around the island, thick with ancient tree, hidden rivers, and beasts rarely seen elsewhere in the world. At the island's centre stands the Houndu Mountains, a sprawling stone range split by enormous cave systems that disappear deep beneath the earth. Rumours speak of rare crystals hidden within those caves, glowing veins untouched for generations, though no mining operation has ever lasted long enough to recover them. The beasts that dwell beneath the mountains are said to be territorial beyond reason, and many believe something far older still sleeps in the darkness below.
To the south and east, the jungle gives way to wide open plains where herds roam freely beneath clear skies. Along the coast, the oceans surrounding Agrion are home to creatures so large and elusive that most sailors refuse to travel the waters at night. The island itself is beautiful, but it has always carried an uneasy feeling beneath its beauty, as though civilisation only occupies a small corner of something far older and untamed.
Long before the Beast Bazaar existed, Agrion Island was already known to traders. In ancient times it served as a thriving stop along one of the old maritime trade routes, its open-air markets filled wit spices, metals, textiles, tools, wine, and exotic goods from distant nations. For a time the island prospered, but as the world changed and trade routes shifted towards the mainland, Agrion slowly faded into obscurity. Its once crowded streets emptied, its markets shrank, and its people survived mostly through fishing, farming, and small scale trade between passing ships.
Everything changed with the arrival of Lord Elias Beauchamp.
Once a wealthy landowner from the mainland, Elias abandoned his former life after the death of his wife. Selling much of his estate, he took his young son and travelled the world by sea, searching not for fortune, but for purpose. When he arrived on Agrion island, he saw something others had overlooked. While the mainland expanded relentlessly, pushing beasts into extinction and driving wilderness further into memory, Agrion remained isolated and largely untouched. The island's ecosystems still flourished. Strange creatures still roamed its jungles, skies, great plains, mountains, and oceans. Some were beautiful. Others terrifying. Many had never been seen beyond the island itself.
Elias understood immediately what Agrion could become.
Using his remaining fortune, he purchase the island and commissioned the construction of the grand Beast Bazaar upon the ruins of the old trade district. He hired local tribes, hunters, trackers, and traders who understood the island better than any outsider ever could. Routes were established from the docks to the Bazaar, while the deeper wilderness remained heavily restricted and fiercely protected. The first hunting and capture teams were formed under strict instruction, and before long ships once again began arriving at Agrion's shores.
Trade returned to the island almost overnight.
Today, the grand docks of Agrion are among the busiest in the known world. Ships crowd the harbours carrying traders, collectors, hunters, nobles, military buyers and explorers from distant nations. Cages are unloaded beside crates of silks and barrels of spice. The sound of shouting dockworkers mixes with the cries, roars, and chirping calls of beasts waiting to be sold further inland.
At the edge of the docks stands the Argo Inn, the island's oldest tavern and the only one located conveniently overlooking the dock. The Inn is rarely quiet. Traders celebrate successful captures over heavy drinks while others whisper rumours of creatures spotted in and beyond the Houndu Mountains. Hunters exchange scars and stories beneath candlelight while wealthy collectors negotiate purchases behind closed doors. For many visitors, the Argo Inn is their first taste of Agrion Island.
From the docks, an old cobbled road cuts through the island towards the Bazaar itself. Some travel by horse and cart while others make the long journey on foot. As travellers approach the town, the atmosphere shifts. Smaller market stalls line the weathered streets selling food, charms, fabrics, tools, carved trinkets, and hunting supplies. Then, towering above the surrounding buildings, the Beast Bazaar finally reveals itself.
Built from pale stone with enormous oak doors and vast open interiors, the Bazaar feels both ancient and strangely refined. Sunlight pours through high arches onto polished stone floors while the constant hum of trade fills the air. Merchants haggle over prices while while handlers carefully guide beasts through the halls. Some creatures are small enough to perch quietly beside their owners. Others require reinforced cages and entire teams to restrain them. The sounds inside the Bazaar never truly stop. Deep growls echo through the corridors alongside distant screeches, snapping claws, rattling chains, and the excited voices of traders chasing fortune.
Not every beast is treated the same. Some become trusted companions or family pets once trained correctly. Others are used for labour across farms and settlements due to their immense strength. Certain species are prized as guard animals, while others are bred and trained for military travel across land, sea, or air. Exotic meats, pelts, claws, tusks, and hides are traded throughout the world, thought these industries are tightly controlled by Agrion Law. Taxes rise and fall constantly depending on population numbers in an effort to prevent overhunting and preserve the island's fragile ecosystems.
The relationship between mankind and the beasts of Agrion remains complicated. The island's people respect the creatures deeply, but they also profit from them. Wealth, power, status, and survival all flow through the Beast Bazaar, and no one understands that balance more than the Beauchamp Family.
Following Elias Beauchamp’s death, control of Agrion eventually passed to his grandson, Tobias Beauchamp, who still governs the island today from the Beauchamp Estate on Agrion’s eastern plains. Tobias is known throughout the Bazaar as eccentric, warm, and unusually welcoming for a man of such influence. He often speaks openly with traders and visitors alike, wandering the Bazaar floors without ceremony while discussing beasts with genuine fascination. Yet beneath that charm lies something colder. Those who disrespect him, interrupt him, or mistake his kindness for weakness quickly discover a sharper side to the ruler of Agrion. His guards are known to react with immediate fear when his mood darkens, though Tobias himself rarely loses control for long, usually calming them with nothing more than a subtle movement of his hand.
Whispers surrounding the Beauchamp family have existed for decades. Some claim rule breakers are simply banished from the island forever. Others speak quietly of harsher punishments. Stories persist of poachers, smugglers, and illegal hunters being cast unarmed into the caves beneath the Houndu Mountains, never to return.
Yet even those rumours pale beside the oldest legend on Agrion Island.
Myth.
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No one knows exactly what Myth is. Every year new sightings spread through the Bazaar, each describing only fragments of the creature. A colossal eye glimpsed through jungle fog. A scaled limb disappearing beneath the mountains. A shadow passing beneath ships in deep water. No hunter has ever seen the full beast. No expedition has ever returned with proof. Some believe Myth is not a single creature at all, but something far older than the island itself.
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And now, for the first time since Elias Beauchamp founded the Beast Bazaar, fear quietly spreads through Agrion once again.
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The beasts are becoming harder to find.
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As the Bazaar’s fame has grown, demand has grown with it. Tobias Beauchamp knows the island cannot sustain endless expansion forever. Hunting restrictions tighten each year while traders compete for increasingly rare captures. Beyond the walls of the Bazaar, conversations have already begun about distant islands, undiscovered ecosystems, and opening new trade routes beyond Agrion’s waters.
Because the world’s hunger for beasts has only just begun.