Haven

A Home for Demigods

Haven is a literal haven for demigods. Many years ago, the Olympian Gods decided to create a safe haven for their half-mortal children. Haven has a magical barrier surrounding it that prevents any who have not been invited from seeing it. Haven is also shrouded by the Haze. It is located in at the top of a hill in a redwood forest, and the entrance is marked by the largest tree in the forest. Haven is one of several locations around the world where demigods gather to train and protect each other. It is known as the safest of these locations as the magical barrier doesn't only hide it from sight, but it also prevents monsters from entering. Most monsters do not even dare to enter the redwood forest located outside of the barrier.
Haven itself is made up of several apartment buildings. Each building is dedicated to a different god with the more extravagant buildings being dedicated to the more powerful gods. The building dedicated to Zeus: Olympian God of Thunder is by far the largest and most ostentatiously decorated. It has corinthian columns and is made of colorful marble. Intricate carvings showing Zeus' power cover the entire building. You can only stay in the apartment building dedicated to your godly parent. Anyone who does not know who their godly parent is stays in the Hermes building. Hermes: Messenger of the Olympian Gods is the god of trade language, thieves, and travel. He agreed to take unclaimed demigods as well as the children of gods not powerful enough to get a building into his own because he considers them travelers he is protecting. His building is one of the simpler buildings with plain white doric columns and few carvings that have not faded over time. Despite the fact it is magically enlarged on the inside, it is a very cramped and chaotic space. There are a ton of people living on top of each other here. The apartments are mainly studio apartments, and those who do not have studio apartments often have several roommates.
The apartments exist in different levels of opulence and care. The Zeus apartments are by far the most opulent followed by the next tier made up of the Hades, Poesidon, and Hera apartments. The next level contains Dionysus, Ares, Aphrodite, Athena, Apollo, and Artemis. The final tier is Hephaestus, Demeter, and Hermes.
Hera's building contains images of motherhood. Hades' building contains images of the Elysian Fields (think heaven), the Asphodel Meadows (limbo), and the Fields of Mourning (think hell). Poesidon's was made of blue and green marble and had carvings that looked like sea foam as well as sea shells imbedded within the walls. The carvings depict sea creatures, both common and mythological. Athena's building looks like the outside of a library and is connected to the actual library on the grounds of Haven.
The Ares building is made of red marble with carvings depicting battle surrounding the outside. It has sturdy ionic columns. The apartments are mostly two bedroom places. There are several empty apartments. There is a full gym with a sparring ring inside of the building. There is a record of everyone's workouts posted in the gym with a clear betting pool on who can lift the most and who will win in sparring matches.
The Aphrodite building was clearly designed with aesthetics in mind. It looks very classy and elegant. The children of Aphrodite seem to mainly be interested in careers related to acting, modeling, and design. The Hephaestus building is at the center of a lot of activity as it is close to the forge, stables, racetrack, training facility, and battleground. It stands out from the other buildings as it does not maintain a classical greek style but instead combines the most useful building materials and compositions from around the world to make a sturdy, utilitarian building. The Apollo building is near the racetrack and medical building as most children of Apollo are skilled drivers and/or healers. It has many carvings depicting the sun and always seems to reflect the sunlight that hits the building's surface.
The people in the Artemis apartments are not her children as she swore to never have children but instead are female demigods who turned away from their allegiance to their godly parent's and swear to become her hunter's instead. They frequently go on quests and do not live in normal society like most demigods. They use the apartment in Haven as a home base in which to recover between missions.
The Demeter building is near fields filled with crops and grazing animals. The children of Demeter are mostly responsible for cooking and maintaining the food supply of Haven.
Haven has several different amenities available to all who stay there. There is a forge, a racetrack, a lake, a stable, a pavilion where people can gather to eat, a large set of kitchens, a medical building, a library, a training facility, and a battleground with a magically changing environment that can be used for further training. There is also a large house on the property where Dionysus lives. Dionysus runs Haven. He maintains it and deals with the needs of the residents.
The forge is always busy as children of other gods are constantly requesting new weapons, repairs, or improved designs on their weapons. The racetrack can be used to race cars as well as horses and people. The lake has many creatures inside of it, including mythical creatures. Demigods train on the water and learn how to maneuver boats on the lake. The stables contain horses as well as other steeds. The pavilion holds long picnic tables as well as a fire pit and recreational activities like foosball, billiards, ping pong, and video games. It is a common area where people spend time. They serve high quality food from the kitchen that magically appears on everyone's plates when they order off the menu. Demigods scrape a portion of their food into the fire and offer prayers at the beginning of each meal. The medical building contains expansive rooms with large windows that let in a lot of sunlight. Think of the hospital room in which the CEO of a large company might stay. The library contains a magical workshop and is often filled with children of Athena as well as Hephaestus who work to integrate technology and magic. It contains the device used to identify demigods who do not know who they are and assign them watchers. The training facility looks like a completely normal building that could be seen on any street corner in a city.  It has several floors. The ground level is designed to test weapons. It has targets set up at various distances and training dummies that can be attacked with weapons. The next floor up has a room designed for training with magic. It has a shielded room with lots of cushions on which people who are struck with magic can fall. Water is always readily available to be used to put out magical fires. The battleground has a device that can be used to switch the environment in which people train. It is primarily used for team building and group challenges. It has settings such as a snowy mountain, an area with many different levels of elevation, a cave, lava, and a forest in which demigods can train.
While Dionysus is in charge of running Haven, he leaves most of the running of the settlement to the older demigods who stick around to train newcomers. Dionysus does not want to deal with the extra work of training demigods. He is working there as punishment for sleeping with Zeus' favorite wood nymph. While he can still make alcohol for others, he has been cursed so that alcohol turns into water when he tries to drink it himself. He does not bother to lear the real names of the residents and hopes that they will die if injured rather than recover as it will save him paperwork. The residents refer to him as D since the gods don't really listen to what mortals are saying unless they hear their name. The demigods he leaves in charge of training aren't much older than the newcomers, but they choose to take on the responsibility of teaching newcomers about their own specific areas of study. Liam is a son of Hephaestus and is in charge of the forge. He helps newcomers find the correct weapons and armor. His second in command is Josephine, but leaving her in charge results in frequent accidental fires. Hazel is in charge of training newcomers in accessing their magic. She is a daughter of Demeter. Jessica Chavez, daughter of Athena, returns to Haven during the summers to help train demigods. She is interested in modernizing the way demigods fight monsters.
Most of the people in Haven carry weapons with them everywhere. A few wear armor, but most only wear armor when actively training. All residents are responsible for contributing to Haven. Most do so in a way that aligns with the talents provided to them by their godly lineage. They can choose to do something else if they so desire.