Svet

"Svet" in the various Slavic languages can mean "light" or "world".   In large aspects, this world is not unique. It is home to diverse peoples and histories and languages and cultures with complicated intertwinings and mutual influences. Varying levels of technology and resources are not evenly distributed amongst the inhabitants and there is an endless variety of biomes in which someone might find themselves. Wars are waged for any number of reasons. People try to scrape out a living on what seems to be a rock careening through space. You know, the usual. This is a world much like our own, a world long after humans evolved and conquered it, but much of what came before was lost to time. Perhaps this is a world colonized by humans in the distant, unknowable past. Who knows.   However, there is magic, but it is quite rare and is predominantly wielded by beings of unknown origin, sometimes referred to as "gods" or "spirits" or "demons" among other titles given by the various peoples of the world. There is the rare mortal magic user, but they are usually met with suspicion and the ways to acquire magic are usually believed to be the subject of rumor. The unknown is explained by the various religions and they may all be right in their own way, even when (especially when) they all seem contradictory. Whomever these powerful beings are is anyone's guess and the subject of much debate. Some even doubt they exist.   Yet they are all different: some patient, some capricious, some wanting only glory, some wanting merely to be left in peace. Those under the sea, that we know of, speak of having once walked on land but having been cursed to an existence under the sea because one of their number thousands of years ago committed an unknown crime against one of these powerful beings, resulting in powerful transmutations to isolate them below the waves.   Stories may be of various sorts, but underlying themes in most should include: unseen and unknowable horror, conceptions of and interactions with the supernatural in various cultures. Stories with LGBTQ+ characters within various societies are also a goal.