The theme of Star Chaser Story MUSH is fantasy adventure inspired by Japanese role-playing games. The emphasis is on "where will they end up next?"-style exploration and questing, with the lore and politics as a backdrop to provide adventure hooks and ripple-effect consequences of the players' actions. The setting is Rithera, the Sundered Lands, a world long ago divided by a war between the gods which split a single continent into three and scattered spirits, elementals, and eidola across them.
Most people know that the world is governed by the four elements of passionate Fire, flowing Water, irrepressible Wind, and solid Earth and the three domains of Creation, Destruction, and Purification. Few peoples agree, however, on how this world was formed and what became of the gods. For example, on the western continent, the Oradians believe that their queen is a reincarnation of the Goddess of Purification. On the eastern continent, the Holy City Revonus and Ashald wage war over different interpretations of the same deity, whom they believe to be the sole true god with the others being devils responsible for the eidola. Almost no one save the secretive Loremasters know the truth: that the three deities sealed themselves away behind their respective Gates, one for each domain, when Rithera was sundered and have never since returned.
Every individual is attuned to one element and one domain, representing one's temperament and inclinations like zodiac signs, though few are aware of their own attunement. Much more common knowledge is that "aether" is the magical energy that may be transformed into elemental power through practice and discipline. This essential force is typically subdivided into "inner aether," which warriors and martial artists cultivate to enhance their strikes and movements, and "outer aether," which magic-users and magitech-wielders manipulate to cast spells or produce similar effects. One's domain tends to enhance a certain function or intent rather than a specific ability. For example, lighting a fire with aether is not intrinsically of any domain, but someone attuned to Creation might find it easier to make a cooking fire the perfect temperature, Destruction to hurl a fireball, and Purification to heat a forge to repair a sword. Even those who are not magic-users tend to have their natural gifts or tendencies line up with their element and domain. That said, elemental affinity does not necessarily restrict what magic-users can do or what elements they can manifest or control. And magic that does not belong to any obvious element, like illusions, either may result from a blend of different-aspected aether or can be produced by different means, like via wind to cause a mirage or fire for a trick of the light.
While aether makes possible tremendous feats of the sort you'd see in an action-packed anime, most people are not flinging fireballs around. Magitech, or inventions using crystallized aether to draw on ambient energy or magnify the latent power of untrained persons, also remains fairly rare for now. The most powerful individuals, like the Four Devas of Castia, are as strong as Dynasty Warriors characters on the battlefield, but that's about as badass as people get. While most governments maintain standing armies to deal with wandering eidola or monsters, in weak states like Granse, adventurers like the Vanguards are relied upon to keep the peace.
Though most adventurers are humans, some are beastkin, Rithera's second most populous humanoid species. The furri-- uh, beastkin possess features of animals or monsters like furred ears or scaled tails and were created alongside five great Beasts, one of each element plus one to lead, to govern the world in the gods' absence. This mission is long forgotten and the beastkin have mostly integrated into human societies while the Beasts roam the planet still, their locations mostly unknown. But the beastkin have recently dwindled and scattered due to persecution by the Korotus Empire, some retreating to an island enclave. Humans sometimes fear beastkin for their supposedly heightened strength or senses, but in actuality their differences from humans are usually cosmetic -- with some heroic exceptions.
These are exciting times: recent events have begun to shift the balance of power in Rithera. Ten years ago, the rugged upstart nation of Castia, located near the Gate of Purification, defeated a navy sent from the eastern continent by the Korotus Empire, which lays claim to the Gate of Destruction. As Castia continues to build up its military to the alarm of its neighbors -- Granse, Oradia, and Verdios -- a new and fearsome leader, Emperor Algien, has risen to power in Korotus. And only a couple months ago (before the start of play at SCSMUSH), shockwaves were sent throughout the world again when the city-state of Cosmopolis, isolated on an insurmountable plateau at the edge of the eastern continent and sealed to foreigners for over a century, reopened to trade. Rumors say that Cosmopolis had cut itself off to contain a phenomenon called "Proliferation," caused by the Gate of Creation leaking Creation-aspected aether to produce an impenetrable jungle and waves of monstrous foes. But a small party of adventurers sealed the Gate, simultaneously rescuing Cosmopolis and cutting off the source of aether it had greedily relied upon in the past to fuel the development of its jealously-guarded magitech. Thus, driven as much by desperation as their new freedom, Cosmopolis has begun trading its magitech with the outside world. Few can say what repercussions this will have.
But none doubt the power of adventurers to change the fate of this world...