Prologue: The City of Loc Lac

Loc Lac, the greatest hunting and trading city in the world. The city stretches for miles, its massive, piercing towers reaching into the heavens and thousands of its brightly colored, patched air blimps float soaring overhead among the scarce clouds, carrying countless zenny worth of trade goods in crates full of cargo, unloading their goods at special landing ports to be shipped out throughout the city on rickety wooden ox carts. Sandstorms brew constantly in Loc Lac, and the air is hard to breathe through all the grit and heat. The desert sun beats down mercilessly on Loc Lac, and the locals all wear broad brimmed hats and heavy scarves that cover their noses to stave off the sun and sand. Streets sprawl across the city like millions of tiny crooked streams, covered with hovels, dirty cheap little street stands with vendors shouting their wares, high class walk in shops, breathtaking skyscrapers and even the occasional brothel, all of the streets flowing with people of all kinds. Tall, dark locals with odd, staccato accents and loose baggy clothing, broad, muscular southerners reeking of fish, silent, pale northerners sweating in their massive hooded cloaks, and more people from even more lands all unheard of all filled the crowded city to the brim.

Yes indeed, Loc Lac was most certainly the greatest city in the world; a marvelous jewel in the harsh, unforgiving desert. Yet, as cruel fate might have it, all jewels must have their tarnishes. The great port city of Loc Lac traded in not just material goods, but, unfortunately, in flesh as well. The demand for human slaves in Loc Lac has reached a horrendous high, and now slaves can be seen being sold on practically every street corner. High class nobles buy them as cheap servants, and even less wealthy citizens bought them to aid in day to day chores.

However, these are but drops in the ocean to the purchase of slaves in Loc Lac. Most slaves by far are fated to do one and one thing only: be purchased by arena owners and fight massive, colossal monsters in the arena for their puny lives and the sick, twisted, bloodthirsty crowd's entertainment. The coliseum itself takes up a huge portion of the entire city. Here the slaves are bought in masses of thousands, as constant replacements for the arena matches are… required. The crowds pay quite a massive sum of zenny to watch a helpless slave in pathetically weak armor be ripped apart by some gigantic foul beast.

The slave matches are incredibly popular events in Loc Lac. There's big money to be earned in the arena business. Not only is there an enormous income created by the admission fee, but before every match, bets are placed by the audience to decide whether or not the slave or the monster will arise victorious. Often matches with crowd favorites involved will be advertised all across the city on cheaply made posters several days prior to the fight. The flow of zenny in the arena is bigger than that which any gushing river could produce, and it generates a vital part of the city's economy. Unfortunately, this means that the slave trade is here to stay in Loc Lac, and won't be leaving any time soon. The act of owning another human as property and treating them worse than animals is simply the way of life in the great, beautiful, internally filthy city of Loc Lac.

Author's Note:

The Monster Hunter franchise does not belong to me. Capcom claims all rights to all Monster Hunter games. Thank you!

~ Pie