Make a setting, Veeky Forums!

Saber cats.

Cassowaries

Bronze continues to be used despite iron being readily available due to the majority of individuals having fae ancestry that makes it unusable by them.

It just got really '80s in here.

Unreliable, one-shot flintlocks make up the vast majority of firearms, and have not yet outpaced the longbow.

Why?

Magic emanates from the stars

Certain stars have certain magical affinities. If those stars are blocked by the sun/moons, that type of magic doesn't work.

Also, all reproduction is accomplished by anal sex.

Because the world has not yet gone through the industrial revolution, and Khopesh are awesome.

Cannons like pic related are often used during sieges.

It takes the form of celestial whales that fall to the sea. Whale products are the primary source of magic, so whaling is popular.

Or at least, that's the common superstition.

Finest Whale bone/blood/blubber/etc is prized for alchemy regents

This would imply that stars only visible in certain hemispheres would grant magic unique to those hemispheres.

Distant lands would have different magical rules, the poles would be places of magical extremes.

I'm ok with this.

Bronze Plate Mail is extremely expensive, and highly valued for its ability to resist shots from firearms. Most who use it are elite warriors, or extremely wealthy men.

Agreed.

Spears have firearms on one end and a spear on the other.

People drink fermented whale oil and blood to empower themselves.

Instead of gunpowder, firearms and explosives use Blasting Dust, which doubles as the highly combustible spore of a species of harmless mushroom that can grow to be half the size of a man.

It's getting very tes in here.

Blasting Dust is edible, and is often used as a spice. It tastes like and has many of the properties of chili powder.

Magic requires immense power that radiates from the stars, which is most effectively absorbed if a Mage exposes themselves to the heavens. Most Mages meditate almost, or completely naked during nighttime, and sleep during most of the day to maximize their power gain.

Eating too much of it causes addiction. Habitual users can be identified by their abnormally high body heat. A religious cult of dedicated addicts believe that if they eat enough, they can become a star themselves.

They can be identified by the shimmer waves of heat their bodies produce and the sizzling boil of water as it touches their tongues.

Trade caravans are an extremely dangerous but extremely lucrative business due to the importance of bringing enchanted items from one part of the world to the other e.g. magical pottery that can purify water can only be found in one country but is desired everywhere.

In small doses, it's an excellent flavoring, and can be used to preserve food longer. It's not as efficient as salt, but it is much cheaper, and arguably tastes better. There's an ongoing debate between Chefs over whether Blasting Dust or Salt is the superior spice.

Metals forged bathed in starlight give certain qualities that differ from season and location.

A small war has been started over this.

Demons and angels are magical cosmic beings

Cassowaries are commonly used by merchants and commoners, for their docile nature and rugged persistence. Saber Tooth Cats are much more dangerous and difficult to tame, and are almost always ridden by wealthy men as status symbols or by elite warriors during battle.

Salt has magic-nullifying properties, and if given the proper ritual, can literally burn the flesh from the bone of those it touches, as a result, the Spice War was extremely bloody and had horrific casualties.

They are no more powerful than ordinary Spirits, and busy themselves tempting mortals to do what they deem to be good, or evil, the mortal interpretation of moral values varies depending on culture, meaning that an angel in one culture might be a reviled demon in another, and vice versa.

Angels are winged space squids, they taught men to read and write and sing. Demons take the form of swarms of pests, rats, mice, insects, snakes.

While angels can be the source of all knowledge and truth for one society, they can be wisdom devouring demons for another.

In a few cultures, Squids are regarded as vile monstrosities, and in some cultures, pests, rats, mice, insects, and snakes are revered as holy, which adds a whole new layer of moral conundrums.

Angels are not always winged space squids, sometimes they're winged space eels, winged space manta rays, or winged space starfish. They're the origin of the common myth that humanity originated in the sea.

Oranges are extremely popular in the world's more tropical regions, and are heavily prized as delicacies by those outside of them. Merchants make a great deal buying and selling Oranges, and several Merchant houses keep a contested monopoly over the delicious fruit.

When enough Blasting Dust is snorted in large enough quantities, it overloads the user's adrenal glands, sending them into an unstoppable, frothing, berserk rage and removes their ability to think rationally for several hours. Warriors often snort small amounts of Blasting Dust before battle, to hone their fury and give them a slight edge in combat.

Angels and demons are identifiable by the constant presence of small servitor beings that flit to-and-fro out of view and reality around them. These servitors often resemble deep-sea creatures like sea angels or jellyfish.

Refined whale oil is a very powerful fuel source and can be used for magical machinery such as flying ships, automatons and shield barriers.

Certain gemstones are able to hold and retain Star Magic, while these gems are only able to hold small amounts on their own, with a large enough quantity of them Mages can achieve power levels far beyond their natural limits. With gemstones, the power of an enchanted item's effect vastly increases. These gemstones are highly valued by artificers and mages, and are extremely valuable, to the point that the owner of a reasonably sized gemstone mine could purchase their own kingdom with little difficulty.

The oceans are rich in giant seaweed and kelp, to the point where some seas are completely green from the dense foliage.

The celestial whales depend on the ocean vegetation to survive, which is why they seasonally descend from the heavens and risk getting eaten.

Low tide in the green seas results in the tops of the greenery floating on the water surface, blanketing the surface and posing a hazard to boats and swimmers.

Culturally, the world is marked by large, stable empires with vast reach and active and safe overland trade routes (necessary for the large-scale use of bronze as tin and copper are not formed in the same geological conditions) bringing vast wealth to a burgeoning middle class. Transportation and communication technology limits the effective governance of these empires and corruption, complacency, and open rebellion are stirring around the edges. Meanwhile, the complex alliances woven between the major powers, an arrangement that sought to guarantee peace and continued prosperity in the short-term, is slowly building up pressure that soon will only be relieved by a massive explosion.