Welt

Welt is a land of Magic suppressed. There are rich resources of wild magic floating in the air, bubbling up from the ground and living in the beasts of the land. Many races of this world, elves, dwarves and Celestials to name a few have a certain amount of magic in their souls, sustaining them. But centuries ago humans, as humans tend to do, took it into their heads to domesticate the wild magic, to pull it out of the air and bottle it, to mine the raw eldritch materials to make themselves powerful.   And they were successful, to an extent. Many human mages were able to gain great power, to spread plagues and famines with their reckless experiments, to awaken and bind ancient dark gods, to gather armies of unwilling thralls for epic battles as if playing chess with the lives of their fellow humans. In short, widespread magical fuckery.   Large swaths of the land were left inhospitable or deadly. The other races made themselves scarce lest they too would be drawn into the magical dumpster fire that was humanity. Monsters, created or given powers and sentience roamed the wildernesses of this ravaged world and people lived in terrible fear.   Then came the Mundane Council, a collection of downtrodden non-magical people who resolved to do away with the root of the problem. They sought help from the elves who knew subtle magics and the dwarves who could make wondrous items and were able to outfit a small army of assassins, spies, and saboteurs with devices known as Eldritch Sinks which can ground magic without harming the bearers. With this technology, the Mages were overthrown in what was called the Glorious Midnight Rebellion. Mages were killed or fled, their grimoires were burned, and their towers were toppled.   The Mundane Council re-formed under the name Mundane Coalition of States, a semi-democratic nation of disparate city-states and territories with one uniting Principle: that magic is meant for the common good, not for individual elevation.   This doesn't stop some from trying. There is still a large amount of background natural magic around as well as artifacts of the bad old days that are now used as common enough tools. However, magic of a certain potency must be used and shared by all.