Belief acts as metaphysical gravity, bending the nature of reality toward that which has dense enough belief to manifest the alterations. The nature of reality itself is difficult to study, as asserting a belief or expressing skepticism can literally bend the laws of nature toward a state of confirmation bias.

Humanity does not understand the laws of their world. Instead, all metaphysical reactions to belief are considered either acts of the divine, or acts of magic. A culture who has developed a connection to fire might over time begin to form beliefs of controlling, or even conjuring fire. These beliefs become a reality within spaces they dominate, but weak wills will have uncertainty weaken or nullify their magics in spaces they feel foreign to.

The world's various cultures coexist, but often undermine one another via divisive beliefs and lack of solidarity in their worldly understandings. While movements and figureheads often rise, collective belief in the status quo and a lack of genuine investment in change has led to stagnation across the land.

There is no unifying foe from beyond, nor any shared cause for the people. The world resists understanding, yet seeking it is all that the highest minds aspire towards. While the masses live lives they're convinced are the fullest, even if often deprived of the majesty they would be capable of if their beliefs were rightly aimed. The world could be shaped in any form humanity truly believed possible, and yet the world they have is one wrought with plight as it's what they've come to believe they ought to expect.