Furthermore a Kicker is a term from ‘American Football’ – where only one person actually kicks the ball (the rest of the world knows; there are 11 “kickers” on a football team) – so embarrassing to witness – it happens when US starts to teach the world about sport and distance (head-shaking). There are a gazillion classes that could have been awarded to Joseph…

well football, and just some inclusivity, 11 then

You, like many others, seem to forget the effect levels and monsters would have on the world, as well as the effect of global scrying/viewing a la “television” broadcasts.

Levels would make many forms of entertainment such as this seem extremely trivial and useless on a large scale. Having people gain levels in something that serves no real purpose would be harmful to society as a whole, especially in times where there is significant conflict occurring. They don’t need hundreds of people gaining the Kicker class when they need those people to be soldiers or adventurers, that can help fight off monsters or whatnot.

Monsters also make large fields and crowds to watch these types of games often impractical, or even impossible for certain areas. A city like Liscor that has limited space due to the terrain isn’t going to want to give up a huge portion of that space for fields. If they make a field outside the city proper, they can’t use it for months of the year due to rains, and the rest of the year has huge hazards due to monsters. A city that has lots of bandits or monsters nearby would invite a lot of harm if there was an attack during a game. Or if the players fell.in a shield spider nest. Or a few rock crabs decide they are hungry. Or they get ambushed by goblins while practicing.

Prior to the Earthers introducing television, most games like this would also be pretty uneventful after a while. Most towns are fairly small, so you’d be playing the same few people over and over and over. Maybe a couple towns nearby would play against each other, assuming they could all afford to create the fields necessary to do so. But, either way, it would all be kept extremely localized. And that means it would get boring rather quickly.

Having worldwide viewership means people would be more willing to travel to play other teams for various sports. You wouldn’t just have recognition locally for winning.

And beyond all that… many sports are not exciting when you are just giving a description of them. “So, let me get this right. This game is just… kicking a ball? That’s it? Okay, there’s a goal foe either side that you kick a ball into. But… that’s it? I mean, I’ll go kick a ball, sure, and it can be fun, I guess. I don’t really get the point in trying to make it fancy, you’re just kicking a ball.”

Watching iit, though, is a completely different perspective. And even then, for a lot of people, many sports aren’t that exciting.

Crelers were spawned as a nightmare of the slumbering god on Rhir.

As for the demons, they seem to me to be more a product of bigotry by the Blighted Kingdom. They are mutants from other species that have been transformed due to the blight on Rhir.

Probably, they were originally remnants of whatever peoples lived on Rhir prior to the Creler Wars. When the Blighted Kingdom was created after the wars, in order to stop further creatures from being dispersed across the world, they found the few living remnants on the continent, which had been mutated. People being people, the mutants were likely heavily discriminated against.

Anyone affected by the blight was pushed out of “proper” society. Eventually it got to the point where acts of violence were being committed, and the mutants were labeled as “demons” to make them seem like less than people. Violence escalated, both sides commit atrocities against each other, and that continues for thousands of years.

Now we see not only the extreme divide that thousands of years of conflict have created, but we have a massively bigoted king that has been kept alive for far, far longer than would be healthy for a human mind. He’s stewed in his bigotry against the demons for centuries, and now is willing to sacrifice thousands/millions for his goals.

Nalthal was able to enter the garden because he is both a very high level [Druid] and a [Gardener]. The garden is essentially his domain, even if it isn’t owned by him.