Well, how about a place where one may enter only at full health,
mana, endurance & willpower? That should eliminate the chance
of people using the haven as a fast & convenient hideaway during
fights. You'll need to restore yourself fully before you may enter.

As for taunts & insults, the haven will be very much polluted by all
that noise if it's not set apart from the rest of the land like it's another
continent. Make it somewhere you can't communicate with people
outside the haven, not by messages, tells or shouts. This adds the
advantage that you would become bored very soon if you stay in
the haven so long that you rust.

I still like the idea of having all newbies born in the haven, rather
than in a certain city. That should start them out as being neutral to
all the politics from the beginning. Perhaps just a training school
that teaches only general skills to the Novice level and a dungeon
which permits players of level 3 and below to gain a basic
experience with combat & questing. For the more experienced
players, it should act as just a place so cushioned from worldly
hostilities that it becomes boring & tiresome over an extended time.

Make it so that lessons can't be accumulated while you're in the
safe haven.

Mistral

Penned by my hand on the 20th of Glacian, in the year 189 AF.
ÿ