David, this is your fault.

Keli'don is a world partly deprived of its magic. 2350 years ago, the structure of the world lost its grip as one of the gods previously Earth-bound ascended to the stars and shook The Weave apart. Now only fragments of The Weave remain, and magical essence - known as Glister - has become a currency all over the world. Glister is harvested from magical phenomena, found naturally in the air, or even mined with enchanted tools.

The world has learned to live with magic as an elite resource but many still rely on magic to solve bigger national problems, and magic users are few and far between and sorely sought after. But as time progresses, many theorists are working on how to restore the Weave to its former state while many work against this with a "Live and let die"-mentality, placing the two against each other.

Keli'don is spread across an archipelago with two main continents. It consists of 9 semi-equal sized regions, of which some have formed nations while others are smaller independent states or stateless lands, so while the world is charted, a lot of it is still curious and foreign to most outsiders, and except for the bigger cities, much of the world is uninhabited by humanoids and beasts and monsters run freely.

Many areas are heavily dominated by only a few races, though there are of course a growing amount of migrants and odd ones out here and there - and this globalization of the races is only speeding up.

While most people are without magic, there are some who can manipulate what is left of the Weave to some extent; Sorcerers. They still need Glister to work their magic, but not as heavily as others. Wizards have the intellect to know how to efficiently convert Glister into magic, and Artificers have a similar ability though they need objects to keep control over the essence once drawn. Paladins and other half casters have learned to do the same thing but seeing as it is more through force of will and a natural instinct, this is not as powerful. Clerics and Warlocks fall under the same category of another being using them as a door for their magic to the material plane. Bards use their imagination, creativity, and non-magical tools as extensions of themselves to the extent of controlling the wavelengths of magic for their own use. Natural magic comes from the raw magic found in the world around us, and Druids more so than Rangers, can pick up on and to an extent manipulate this with some help of the power that comes from the Feywild. Shadow monks have the same ability but get its spark from the Shadowfell instead. Barbarians, Monks, Rogues, and Fighters all have in common that their magical essence is less tangible and rather useless unless honed.