Folklands

The folklands are a series of small, closely-packed islands, running 620 miles in length from north to south. The view of the choppy oceans across the horizon from the outermost shores of these islands are the boundaries of the known world to those that call them home. These inhabitants struggle to get by with early-medieval knowledge and technology. The weather is often cold and humid, and resources are scarce.   Humanoids of all sorts once lived in these lands, but the lack of natural magic in the world cause all of them to devolve over the generations. Now, all humanoids have near-human appearances with minor vestiges of their former heritage, and a person's race is inherited from their mother.   The ability to use magic is exclusive to those that inherited it from one or more parents, the nobility. The feudal patriarchy is further secured by the fact that only the firstborn son or daughter of a male noble can inherit the sorcerous bloodline powers of his noble family.   There are magical places in the folklands, hidden in the wildest and most secluded places. They cannot always be found, and their location can change at any moment. These Unbeaten Paths are indiscernable from the usual wilderness to the untrained, and many people wander into them never to be seen again. Those that survive are forever changed, gifted (or cursed) with magicks heretical to the teachings of Visitism. Monsters that would otherwise easily conquer the folklands make these places their home, as they must sustain themselves with the latent magic to support their impossible physiologies.