Tellus: Core Setting Assumptions

Beside its inspiration from JRPG, Tellus has drawn inspiration both from the 4e World Axis and from The Original D&D setting. In many ways, making things odd/incoherent is part of the JRPG-esque experience as many older titles had some bizarre and whimsical worlds which were not designed as fully fleshed-out and in depth settings and more as a backdrop to adventure and cool/weird things.

• Tellus' dominant race are the Ulma: The most widespread sapient race in the current era are the Ulma (or Humans). As such I'd say 3/4 of all villages and cities are Ulm settlements.
• Tellus has three other major races: Dominant doesn't mean the only race, just the most widespread. The other two races with a civilization are the winged Sky-Folks and the mighty Dragon Clans. The third major race are the wild-dwelling Gigas, who do not form any extensive civilization.
• Tellus has room for most, if not all core classes: The setting may have some unique metaphysics but it was built on the idea that all core D&D 5e classes can be integrated into it.
• Tellus is ancient: This is an unchanged assumption from most D&D, nay, any fantasy setting. There are many ruins of past civilizations, include abandoned Sky-Folks and Dragon Clan settlements as well as ruins of ancient Ulma civilizations which clashed with them.
• Tellus is full of magic but this magic can be difficult to work with: On the whole there is a lot of magical shenanigans going on but even as civilization grows and expand, magic remain a difficult form to properly harness. Most settlements, at best, have one or two magic-related device or geomantic setup which help them survive.
• Technology is advancing: There might have been a time, in ages past, where technology and magic was incredibly advanced yet this era has faded mostly into myths, reverting the world to a faux antiquity/faux-medieval tech level. This is slowly changing, however.
• Tellus is full of monsters: The high amount of latent and active geomantic energies on Tellus shape how life functions on it. Mundane animals can become, either as individual or whole populations, monsters either through geomantic or spiritual transformation. Odd creatures which can be very hostile to people are the norm.
• Half of Tellus remains wild: There have been parts of the land which have become more and more tamed but about half of the land remain difficult, dangerous or mysterious with only perhaps roads and a few cities connecting said roads cutting through huge swath of wilderness.
• Magic may be common, but the truly divine is difficult to observe: The gods of Tellus may not fully exist as anthropomorphic individuals and may very well be forces/concepts beyond mortal understanding. Divine magic is real but somewhat distinct from other magic and more rare. The power of the Gods exist not in clear, concrete divine answers but in cosmic forces and mortal-derived theology and philosophy. Most Gods are generally held to be benevolent archetypal spirits...although this doesn't discount the possibility of evil Gods.
• A blend of East and West: As befitting trying to emulate a genre so heavily connected to Japan (even if Japanese-made RPG these days aren't limited to the classic JRPG style) there is a mixture of Western fantasy (the sword and sorcery aspects, the medieval castles and the monsters that seem out of a D&D module and all that) with Eastern aspects namely a dash of Wuxia (such as the monk). In addition, many of the metaphysical aspects are derived from Daoism and Buddhism.
• Things sometimes don't make sense: There is a good chance that for every coherent setting element there is a monster, a dungeon or even a small population of an odd race which just seemingly exist for no reason. There might be a complex, in universe explanation but it will never be addressed. It might also not exist because JRPG are full of weird, inexplicable crap.
• Tellus is generally PG-13 at best: In order to keep that console oldschool JRPG feel, the game and setting will generally shy away or gloss over the truly disgusting subject matters such as war crimes or substance abuse or other subject matters which would net a game an M rating by the ESRB. This mean quite a bit of my more beloved, more grimy elements of Sword & Sorcery will have to take a backseat as this isn't the kind of world where barbarians disembowel degenerate cultists huffing some mutant lotus plant to summon their tentacled demon-god with virgin sacrifices.