Welcome to the setting of folk fantasy, a place meant to be many storytellers' playground. The worlds and lands within them are set up in such a way to facilitate nearly any setting within them, whether you are the kind to go by the book or giddily play with its insides or even reside someplace in between this world is hopefully for you.
The rules of gods
1: Once dead, a god cannot live again as that is the price of such power.
(their was once a way to circumvent this but 2 Gods destroyed it and cast its pieces into the fathom)
2: Their power comes from belief.
Extra: their are four main kinds of deities.
-created: these are the gods that manafest due to mass belief in stories of powerful beings. Their power and temperament very wildly dependent on the stories that make them.
-The borne: usually the offspring of other gods these have always had their power
-forces of nature: these have some overlap with previous category but are often things that have existed for longer and are simply venerated as gods. These are some of the most potent but are also hard to reason with.
-ascended: these gods were once mortal and through their deeds and others beliefs they have gained their position. They are often the most flexible with the ability to choose Domains and even take on new ones at their whim. Though many prefer to stick with 2 or 3, some have been known to manage many more.
The rules of magic
1: magic is unpredictable and is the absence of nature's rules and consistencies, one can be the best of casters since creation and do everything right but still have a spell become horrid and turn upon its so-called master. This is why many prefer a simple sword or a big stick.
2: iron nullifies it. This is why it hurts Fey. As a result the stuff is artificially rare and highly coveted. Most metal items without specific traits to say otherwise will be made out of a non ferromagnetic alternative called Salk steel. The only source of magic to ignore this is fathom magic as it has yet to bend to the laws of this reality leading to it being the most unpredictable.
3: not a rule but instead an observation. In most cases the catalyst to turning magic into a spell or effect is intent. It's theorized that this is why magic can be docile till a thinking being is near.
P.S. The four kinds and their respective knowledge are: fathom/rune, aka unwoven under knowledge (Demonica). Given, under knowledge (Religion). Errant, under knowledge (Arcana). The oldest magics, under knowledge (Esoterica).
Fun bits of genre set dressing
it is believed that the universe and all in it wants to be lazy and balanced. The balance of a body and soul is a mind created through their union. This is why the soulless seek the sane and the bodiless seek to possess others
Shadows and reflections while linked to people are separate entities. the shadow is the hidden parts of someone and reflections are the only thing keeping you from entering the reflected world through its doors(silver backed mirrors)
Demons
In this setting demon is short for dimension traveler but most Don't get to finish introducing themselves as such before natives start freaking out due to the fact that they are often weird and wild appearances. The reason for this is that while they say they come from “other dimensions” they actually mean other realities entirely. They most often seep into these worlds from holes to the unwoven tapestry aka the fathom, the walkways between realities that are without reason and rules.
Then theirs..
The cycles of the cicada
This is a ritual cast in the 7th era that results in the fact that all dead not properly consecrated will reanimate every 3 cycles of the cicada, aka every 51 years. It is this and two other reasons why the 7th of anything is now believed to be unlucky.
As for areas there are 3 planes, each linked to one of the three aspects of being. those being, Materium plane of body, dream lands plane of mind, and Muldigulv plane of soul.
Each have their own worlds and realms within writen to be little pockets of the defined surrounded by empty space for writers to do with what they please.
If anyone has questions, feel free to ask, as this is just the basics needed to understand everything else.