Ginunhive

Ginunhive (ギヌンハイブ, Ginunhaibu), also known as the Gladiator Island Ginunhive (剣奴孤島ギヌンハイブ, Kendo Kotō Ginunhaibu), is a large island located in the southwestern part of the Sacred Vollachia Empire. It is where many of the Empire’s criminals and slaves are forced to become gladiators.

Information
For many years, the Gladiator Island has been a place where slaves or criminals became gladiators in order to fight for the entertainment of the Empire’s citizenry. Admission to and departure from the island is strictly controlled, and the island is isolated in the middle of a black lake filled with various aquatic Demon Beasts in order to prevent gladiators from leaving.

Before Gustav Morello became the Island Chief, Ginunhive most often featured deathmatches between gladiators, including one-on-one fights, three-on-three battles, five-on-five bouts, or even a clash between multiple gladiators and a Demon Beast. There were also some cases where special events would happen, such as the celebration of a new Emperor’s coronation. These special events did away with the typical rules, and in one case, ten gladiators were pitted against a massive Demon Beast. The only way to reach the island was through a drawbridge that was usually kept raised, making it an impassable method for gladiators to escape through. The gladiators themselves were treated contemptibly by many of the guards, prevented from carrying weapons outside of the arena, and they were always forced to wear handcuffs outside of the fighting grounds. In order to survive, some gladiators took up other positions like healing or prostitution, and in return, they were usually not forced to fight in the arena. If a gladiator were to die, their bodies would usually be thrown into the lake from the island's waste disposal site, though in some rare cases, a spectator would purchase a corpse.

The deathmatch system was revised when Gustav Morello took over as the Island Chief. Gladiators were organized into Units (合, Gō), which were comprised of five people. The people that made up a Unit were selected at random upon their entry to Ginunhive, depending on its performance, it could be broken up. The Units were formed for an event that served as a rite of passage to become a gladiator, called Sparka (スパルカ, Suparuka), which was unanimously regarded by gladiators as the toughest deathmatch they could face at the Gladiator Island. Units could also be forced into Sparka as a punishment. In Sparka, Units face off against various types of Demon Beasts, known on the island as Gladiator Beasts (剣闘獣, Kentō Kemono), which were trained for use in deathmatches and had their horns broken off by the island’s guards. There were one hundred guards assigned to Ginunhive.

Although the conditions of being a gladiator were improved in the time since Al’s escape, there were two ways that made it near impossible for other gladiators to follow in his footsteps. The first change involved the drawbridge. It was altered to be composed of two main drawbridges, one on the side of the island and the other on the opposite bank. To open the way to Ginunhive, multiple interconnected bridges connected to one of the banks were structured to form a single bridge when being lifted to the same level, the water within them was drained, and the same process occurred on the opposite bank, ultimately creating a single bridge when the procedure was finished. The second change involved the curse rule. When a gladiator entered the island, a curse mark was bestowed onto them. The curse rule could be invoked whenever a gladiator broke the island's rules, and it took the lives of anyone who was engraved with a curse mark. However, the curse rule could not be utilized freely. The curse rule was tied to a black orb-shaped curse tool created by Groovy Gumlet, and it could only go into effect on the gladiators if they surpassed the orb's fixed range. Due to the curse tool's range, it was effectively impossible for gladiators to escape the Gladiator Island Ginunhive without removing the curse mark's effects.

History
The Gladiator Island has been active for at least four centuries. In the distant past, Reid Astrea visited Ginunhive for an extended period of time and achieved 6,000 recorded undefeated victories. Another individual known as the Gladiator King visited the island at one point in time, and he became heralded as a hero. A statue and a custom-built replica of his helmet were eventually created and displayed in the island’s Colosseum to honor his legacy.

Around seventeen or eighteen years before Subaru was summoned, Aldebaran was sent to Ginunhive, where he would stay for over a decade. During Al’s tenure as a gladiator, he gained an assortment of scars from cuts and burns on his face and lost his left arm. Coincidentally, a man named Null once put a cloth over the wound of a gladiator who lost their arm, which eventually allowed him to officially act as a healer in the island's healing room, despite still being enslaved. Around five years into Al's stay, a man named Ubilk was sent to the Gladiator Island. For another five years, he acted as a male prostitute in order to survive and spent his time slowly trying to convince other gladiators to participate in a rebellion with him. A year after Ubilk’s arrival, ten gladiators were pitted against a large Demon Beast. Eight of them died, and the only two who survived were Al and a woman named Hornet, who took interest in the one-armed man after he managed to survive the deathmatch.

Around the time of Vincent Vollachia’s coronation, Ubilk began the rebellion he had been planning for five years by murdering Auran, the assigned guard of Al, the only gladiator who had not joined him. When Al refused to join in an act of sedition, Ubilk ordered Hornet to kill him shortly afterwards, though the one-armed man would barely escape certain death. The gladiators sought to take a countess who was visiting Ginunhive by the name of Serena Dracroy hostage. However, they instead captured Priscilla Pendleton, who feigned being Serena and was taken captive to the room of the murdered master of the island, where Ubilk was. He chose to reveal his heritage as a member of the Evil Eye Tribe and spoke of his plans with Priscilla. Rather than seeking independence from the Empire, which was what all of the gladiators besides Hornet sought to achieve, Ubilk's true plan involved buying time for something; Priscilla speculated that he intended to send some of the Nine Divine Generals to the Gladiator Island as a distraction so that the Emperor could be killed while the Generals were dispatched elsewhere. As a consequence of the uprising, Olbart Dunkelkenn, the Third ranking Divine General, was dispatched to the island along with Arakiya.

While trying to enter the island, Arakiya found a severely injured Al. She made the decision to heal him, and after a brief period of conversation, the two went onto the island to figure out how to open the drawbridge in order to send in her reinforcements. However, Hornet found the two of them and began to duel Al. Meanwhile, Priscilla saved her husband Jorah with the help of Balleroy Temeglyph and a gladiator called Ghajit, though the gladiator was swiftly subdued by Miles after he began panicking. Shortly afterwards, Priscilla used a broadcast to reveal Ubilk's plan, splitting the gladiators into two factions that either sought to ensure their survival or to be free.

Priscilla’s message had no effect on Hornet, as her goal was to fall gloriously in battle at the hands of a strong opponent. Al used his ability to continue distracting Hornet and buy enough time for Arakiya to burn the body of a shinobi who used a technique known as the Poison Hand, causing the Gladiator Empress to die a death without honor. Olbart confronted Al after the drawbridge was lowered and asked if he wanted a reward, but the man declined the offer and said his goodbyes to Arakiya. Before Ubilk, the instigator of the rebellion, could be apprehended and questioned for his motivations, he was thought to have escaped Ginunhive via a teleportation mechanism within the murdered island head’s room. In the end, the ways of the Gladiator Island generally remained the same as they were before the insurgence.

When Al escaped the Gladiator Island at an unknown point in time after the revolt, he was given the jet black replica of the Gladiator King’s helmet while leaving. After his escape, the head of the island at that time was promptly fired. To fill up the position, Vincent Vollachia appointed Gustav Morello as the new Island Chief. Under Gustav's leadership, the Gladiator Island was remade from its previous lawlessness into a more orderly place where there were less unnecessary deaths. As a result, the number of people who died from injuries or illnesses decreased.

Locations

 * Gladiatorial Arena: The arena is a circular field with high walls, located at the very center of Ginunhive. It is where the Gladiator Island’s deathmatches and Sparkas are held. There is a passageway for gladiators that leads into the arena, which is lowered by an iron gate whenever no events are held there. Additionally, a separate iron gate and passageway are used to bring Gladiator Beasts into the arena.
 * Seating: On the other side of the walls surrounding the arena, there is staircase-like seating where spectators can view ongoing deathmatches or Sparkas.
 * Healing Room: The healing room is located in the lower stratum of the island. The room was once occupied by Null, who used his amateur healing skills to treat other gladiators to the best of his abilities. It is also known as the corpse room, as it is where many who fall in the arena become corpses.
 * Office: The office of the Island Chief is located in the upper stratum of the island. It is a spacious but mostly empty room, only containing a desk, a guest sofa, a bookshelf, and a toolbox, which are all used for Gustav’s work.
 * Common Rooms: The common rooms serve as the living quarters for the gladiators. There are usually multiple gladiators assigned to a given room.
 * Dining Hall: The dining hall is a space where the gladiators usually eat their meals together.
 * Library: A library was formed when Gustav Morello decided to start accepting books to the island. It is a place where the gladiators often spend their relaxation time together.
 * Waste Disposal Site: A place on the lower stratum of Ginunhive where anything deemed unnecessary, including human corpses, are thrown into the lake to serve as food for the aquatic Demon Beasts residing there.
 * Observation Decks: There are a few balconies that serve as observation decks around the island. They overlooks both the island itself and the lake that surrounds it.
 * Control Tower: The drawbridge used to enter the island raised and lowered at a control tower. The large metal door at its entrance is sealed by an impressive lock.
 * Lake: The Gladiator Island is surrounded by a black lake. It is filled with various aquatic Demon Beasts, which, next to the deathmatches, are the second most common causes of death in the area.

Staff

 * Gustav Morello (Island Chief, Governor)
 * Auran (guard) (former)

Former Gladiators

 * Reid Astrea
 * Gladiator King
 * Neiji Rockheart
 * Al
 * Ubilk
 * Hornet
 * Ghajit
 * Null
 * Cecilus Segmunt
 * Hiain Yatz
 * Weitz Rogen
 * Idra Missanga
 * Natsuki Subaru
 * Tanza
 * Orson
 * Hitz
 * Nadrey
 * Quonson
 * Codley
 * Rex
 * Milzac
 * Cashew
 * Moizo
 * Deeroy
 * Creegkin
 * Codroe
 * Phenmelle
 * Jawsrough

Trivia

 * The area of the Empire in which Ginunhive is located has a perpetually overcast sky that subtly darkens it, even when the sun is out.
 * According to Cecilus Segmunt, the term Sparka was originally used as a name for duels that staked unyielding convictions.