What you probably know about Creation if you live in it

Creation is actually a lot like our world in many ways. The sky is blue during the day and black at night, there's a sun, a moon, stars, and five planets visible with the naked eye (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn), things fall down, trees grow up, etc ...

That said, it's also different: The year is 420 days long, but after the end of each year and before the start of the next there are five days of darkness during which no heavenly bodies appear in the sky --- this is called Calibration, and it's a strange time when strange things happen. Gods are real and can talk to you sometimes. Most of them are just small nature spirits, but a few become huge and powerful with age and worship, and are beings greatly to be feared.

As for history. Well everyone knows that a little over seven-hundred years ago the world ended. A great plague wiped out most of the people and a vast and horrific invasion of monsters did for most of the rest. When the plague died out and the monsters retreated the few survivors emerged and started to repopulate the world. Your people probably pulled together after that, found a place with good farming which had not been too badly twisted by the insane chaos energies which the monstrous "fair folk" brought with them, found a local god who had survived the disaster and set up a new tribal society.

Over time some people resettled the ancient cities --- and some even rediscovered some of the secrets of the ancient magics of the first age. But for most of creation life is simple, brutal, and tribal. You probably have a few medium sized towns amongst your people, and they trade with each other and with passing merchants from the cities. Those cities in tern trade with each other and with occasional river-caravans from the great metropolises like Nexus, Great Forks, or Lookshy. These big cities have banded together to form the Confederation of Rivers. I suppose technically your people are part of that --- but only by second and third-hand. It never seemed very important. Squabbling for resources with the people of the nearby hills always seemed far more relevant to your daily life.

Sometimes the gods have children with humans, and these children have unusual powers and often become great leaders. A scattered handfull of bloodlines actually carry something more powerful still: The exalted --- also known as the dragonblooded --- are a race appart. They interbreed with humans, but they are not human. They are better than human in nearly every way, blessed by the five elements of the world itself. They pop up in normal human bloodlines very very rarely, but they say that Lookshy has entire families of them who keep their blood pure by inter-marrying with each other.

Across the sea far-far away lies the blessed isle. On the isle are more dragon-blooded --- and they are the sworn enemies of the confederation of rivers - which is a loose organization of kingdoms and city states banding together against hostile incursions.

The shamans and thaumaturges also talk about demons, which are another kind of spirit who can be summoned and made to obey orders. Wandering monks sometimes talk about them, too. The monks say that we all reincarnate when we die and that if we are good then we will reincarnate as a better person, maybe a chief, or even a dragonblood! They also warn that some powerful demons can take possession of regular people; these demon-stolen are known as the Anathema and should rightly be feared if ever encountered.

Since Anathema are myths, the main reason that you give these monks food whenever they come is because they can fight gods and fair folk and other monsters that sometimes lumber out of the wilds.

Another view of day-to-day life in Creation:

Most of the setting is in the bronze age. Most of the people in it are farmers. There is trade and war, slavery and tribute, plague and drought and pestilence. Your Average Joe in Creation is more worried about the weather than he is about the disappearance of the Scarlet Empress because if the crops fail he starves, but the Realm is... some place... far way, that maybe the wandering Immaculate Monk who came through two season ago talked about breifly.

The world of Creation is one that is very small and very huge at the same time. Very small because for something like 90% of the population the world consists of the things within a weeks walk of where they grew up. Very huge because you hear vague, contradictory rumors about fantastic things happening... somewhere else.

Sure they know gods are real, but gods are just folks. Powerful folks, maybe a little weird but just folks. You sacrifice a lamb to the grain god in the spring and to the snow god in the winter, but its just like paying taxes. No big deal. Maybe you complain about it, but hey, what'ya gonna do?

And then layered on top of this world we have the Exalted and all the associated stuff. Vast sorceries, epic feats, heroic deeds... all fighting over this world of subsistence farmers and trade cities who think aqueducts and bronze swords are big fucking deals.

If you swept all the Exalts and associated riff-raff away the world wouldn't even notice. But the world can't help but notice. Because while you might have been a mundane schmuck yesterday today you are Exalted. The world will change because of your actions. You can shatter the pillars of heaven if you choose.

And when the debris falls, it lands on all those mundane schmucks you left behind. So... do you care about that? They're so small and petty. You are so much more now. It would be so simple to treat them as things.

And that is the crux of Exalted. This world with real people and real consequences living real lives... and thrown in these unstoppable god-beings with their glorious, selfish desires and ideals.

Also, this is a map of Creation. Your character likely knows only a small fraction of it (unless you are a Realm Dragon Blooded or have Lore in the •••• to ••••• range).