Mious

Main

 * wide, but sparsely populated (think Russia, but with only six million people); settlements usually village-sized, a few bigger towns
 * hard-to-farm soil: livelihood either from hunting/fishing, wild berries and such, or blessings from angels
 * cold climate; long winters, short summers
 * culture pretty much uniformly revolving around worshipping one of five gods with unbelievers being shunned from most settlements
 * there's a lot of variance in how people interpret their faith though (partially because the gods themselves rarely, if ever, interact with mortals directly)
 * also surprisingly little interfaith conflict: there's a notion of a Grand Design that each god and their followers contribute equally, with lots of mutual respect


 * angels are everywhere and look Weird
 * no demons
 * tech level medieval europe-ish
 * naming schemes arabic/hebrew adjacent
 * has a reputation among planeswalkers as a place that can help you meditate on spiritual issues

Cosmology

 * five gods, each of whom are on a higher plane of reality and outside linear spacetime and mortal comprehension. they're kinda omniscient and omnipotent except when planeswalkers are involved, and also can't see and manipulate finer details on the mortal plane that well. for this reason and the fact they would break the world if they entered it directly, they use angels (which could be compared to shed skin taking physical form) as proxies
 * 1) Gusma, God of Creation (UBG), responsible for all that comes into existence within Mious. worshippers venerate life and the creative process. usually artists and crafters of various stripes, also midwives. the most advanced "artificers" around (but still relatively undeveloped on an interplanar scale). generally abhor the ending of life, for better or for worse
 * 2) Bahet, God of Destruction (GWB), responsible for the decay and death of all things. worshippers preach about not fearing death and not interfering with it. they do waste disposal, demolition, recycling, and such (and also might go around assassinating people who they think are overstaying their welcome but shh). don't catch a deadly disease around them, they'll stone cold let you die
 * 3) Sha'Iv, God of Order (WUR), responsible for laws of nature and things having defined shapes. worshippers are the closest to organized law; they try, with mixed success, to establish Mious-wide legislation, and are usually the ones who establish/maintain/enforce local rules of conduct. they also make for good strategists and architects. really anal about things that don't matter
 * 4) Ifram, God of Chaos (RGU), responsible for people and things being able to change. worshippers generally make it a point to eschew long-term thought, follow their whims and flaunt outsider-imposed restrictions. also mostly artists alongside Gusma people. never stay longer than two nights in a majority-Ifram settlement, trust me on this
 * 5) Ni'Ama, God of Adversity (BRW), the odd duck out whose role in the world is to test its strength through causing misery. followers therefore go around inflicting trials of strength and morality on people and trying to break shit to see if it'll last. they also do a lot of mediating between people and settlements. while their part in the Grand Design is recognized by many, they also don't get invited to a lot of events. they're basically "today I will cause problems on purpose": the creed
 * angels come in two flavours
 * 1) seraphim: stronger but have no free will, being essentially the hands, mouths, and eyes of the gods
 * 2) cherubim: weaker but have free will. some fulfil the inscrutable will of the gods, some go native
 * the persistent and partially true belief about the afterlife is that when you die, Ni'Ama decides whether you deserve to be reborn or not, Bahet purifies your soul of its past experiences, Gusma allows the couple who'll be your next parents to become fertile, Sha'Iv transfers your soul to the proper parents, and Ifram grants it the potential to grow and change once again
 * it's also possible for spirits to return to the world of the living to fulfil inscrutable tasks from the divine
 * magic comes from faith in and contemplation of the divine, entreating angels, communing with nature, or from having inborn power, so no "wizards"

Races

 * qith: catfolk whose home town got nuked for an incident they refuse to share details on, now they roam the earth. very often savants in a specific skill or field. fiercely loyal to those who take them in as a cultural trait


 * devils: an artificial race that you can be transformed into as punishment / indentured servitude by Ni'Ama angels/priests for failing a trial. super strong and can't die of old age but magically compelled to obey orders until deemed as redemption-worthy, at which point a devil becomes their original species again. devil/nondevil children are azra tieflings, with weakened devil perks but full freedom, devil/devil children can't exist

Points of Interest

 * Saghira, "man these gods are shitheads, follow me instead". does a lot of community service and shit with her Big Beefy Arms. some angels avoid her. some attack her. she beats up angels and doesn't afraid of anything. possibly the stronger angels are holding back on her for Gods Work In Mysterious Ways reasons
 * Bahum: orphan with huge magic powers groomed by Bahetites, communed with Bahet, sparked, decided that their great power comes with great responsibility to preserve planar feng shui across worlds by blowing shit up and killing people, more details on their page
 * As'Han, prickfox planeswalker who genuinely thinks that the best way to help people around him become stronger is to troll and torment the fuck out of them. more details on his page once I get around to his bio
 * The Infinite, the first angel ever created who now thinks of itself as a god in its own right, with the ego that follows. the gods would erase him but he's kinda sorta intertwined with the very fabric of Mious itself, which complicates things