What's Kalamar about

0ghma on the Kenzer & Co forums (they were replaced by a Discord server) gave the following introduction:

This questions frequently appears on the boards, so I’m going to take a stab at answering it. Of course, you can always link to Dave Kenzer’s essay, but he’s telling why you should buy his product, and eloquently so. I have no stake in Kalamar financially, so here is my perspective. There are other good opinions on other threads, because of the frequency of this question.
First, however, let me start by telling you a little about me as a DnD gamer. I’ve been playing DnD since 1977. I’ve played a smattering of settings from Greyhawk to Forgotten Realms, not going too far into the more esoteric settings like Maztica, and playing a lot of home-brews both as DM and as a player. I played 1st edition through the publishing of 2nd edition DnD, and jumped to 3e as soon as it came out. I’ve played other RPG’s, notably GURPS, but have generally preferred DnD. As a DM I generally like medium magic campaigns that are more low- than high-fantasy, though I enjoy epic campaigns. (Epic in the sense that the players actiosn can save/destroy the world). I like campaigns that matter.
About a year ago, I started looking for a new setting to play in, having played too much in Greyhawk, and though I like the detail of Forgotten Realms, I’m uncomfortable with the high power/magic level of the NPC’s. I looked around a lot before settling on Kalamar. My review of settings got truncated, though, when I found Kalamar, because I started focusing on it to the exclusion of others.
The first thing I noticed about Kalamar was how it treated the gods and religion. Kalamar gives a pantheon which is worshipped by all races. There are no demi-human gods, so while the pantheon is large, it’s only one pantheon. Many settings give you their pantheon plus a pantheon for each of 5-8 races, sometimes sub-races too. That’s a lot of gods. Kalamar’s creation story is consistent and well-outlined. (I’ll return to consistent and well-outlined, as this is a theme of Kalamar).
Kalamar’s detail on religion is impressive. You get what different cultures call each god, you know how the clergy worship them, you know what gods are allied and opposed, and clerics get abilities which are unique to each god without destroying the cleric class as a whole. It’s consistent and well-outlined.
Next I went on to the setting itself. The setting is detailed without being directive. You are not told how to run the world, you are given the setting as your canvas. Kalamar has the countries, races, history and geography of the world of Tellene well-described and with an internal logic to it that is rare in a published setting. Again, it’s consistent and well-outlined.
Human sub-races are enthologically explained, without giving in-game bonuses to different races. Humans are all the same under the skin. Many human Earth cultures are mirrored, from the Fhokki (northern barbarians) to the Svimohzians (African cultures), which gives a comfort level for many players. It doesn’t get “out-there” with races like genasi and half-celestials. To me this is a good thing. I’d like to decide whether I’m going to allow a race with a higher ECL than one, not be told it’s an integral part of the setting. It allows for psionics without requiring it. (The golden halflings’ favored class is psion, but I house-ruled it in my campaign to be bard because I don’t want psionics).
The geography and the history of Kalamar are so well intertwined you begin to realize how weak other settings are in this respect. Knowledge of how terrain affects culture helps a DM get a grasp on the setting and there are no geographic oddities, such as a desert plunked in the middle of a swamp. If you decide to purchase the Kalamar Atlas, you find it’s even more detailed, with helpful appendices and charts. The world of Telllene makes sense.