[@AngryBadger] Really good points, thanks for the feedback! Let's see here...

The beast races are quite varied in terms of intelligence, for sure. A dryad for instance has way more cognitive ability than a minotaur. The only thing that really groups them is that they're few in number (compared to humans) and have an appearance that is for the most part inhuman.

The revive mechanic is definitely the trickiest thing to nail down here. I almost don't want to have it, but then we'd be forced to win literally every fight without losing anyone, or the fights otherwise have to stop before anyone can be killed. To be playing a fresh-faced, inexperienced team, I don't know if I could believe that. So instead I'm taking this very "gamey" mechanic and trying to make it fit in the universe, which I probably haven't done the best job of.

I might do more of a write up on it, but the gist of the process is that the runic enchantments on each arena are capable of restoring any fighters to the physical state they were in before they entered the arena. This is done for all fighters after the match is done, not just the dead, so it heals the wounded, too. It does need to be done somewhat quickly, probably... fifteen minutes or so after death is the limit?

And the mages that work the arenas are paid quite well for it, nor is it too exhausting for them. Even small-scale tournaments don't allow just anyone to enter, so they're only reviving teams that have earned their entry one way or another. There are probably other events without any reviving (watch these ten slaves try to fight a pissed-off minotaur!) but I figured all of the matches between established teams would have it.

Unless, of course, circumstances mess with it. Runes can be damaged to become ineffective either on purpose or by accident, which can complicate things. Mages can be bribed or threatened. People of other lands might refuse to revive foreigners, or a specific beast race. And we will definitely get into conflicts outside of the arena as well. And those are always going to be life-or-death.

As for Markoth, I may need to take another thought for it. It was the last realm I thought of, and in all likelihood it would be the last one we'd end up visiting. I should probably make sure the arenas are more important there as well. Not every mage is involved in the arenas, though, plenty do devote themselves to other things. I just tried to keep the focus of my description there, since it's most of what we'll be dealing with.

Again, though, thank you for all the feedback, I really appreciate it.