The solar system that this universe takes place in is centered by an enormous yellow sun. There are twelve planets that circle it but only one is habitable for life. Outside of that, four of the planets are gas giants and the remaining seven planets are extremes of rock, ice, broiling atmospheres, or devoid of atmospheres altogether. Each of the planets can be seen in the night sky as bright reflective stars. They fall into total alignment every 2000 years.
The planet that the continent of Morandia is located on is a large Gaia world that is the sixth from the sun. It has no known name but it is often referenced with terms like earth, gaia, the world, or other such terms that denote the setting. It takes one full year (12 months) to rotate around the sun, and has two moons. The larger of the two moons is a bluish white color in the night sky and is called Sargos. The smaller of the two moons is a purplish white color in the night sky and is called Sereneth. Both moons have a universally accepted spiritual place in many of the cultures on the planet ,with Sargos represented as the male half and Sereneth as the female half of the various cultural lore. There is also magic at play from the moons that governs the seasons on the planet. Instead of seasons being months, each season lasts roughly the full twelve months out of a year, where the entire planet changes general temperatures from hot to cold for that entire time. The four year cycle of the seasons can be monitored by the movements and positions of the moons. The planet itself is mostly an ocean world with a singular large super continent on it (Morandia), centrally situated in the southern hemisphere of the globe. The northern hemisphere is entirely oceanic. The sky is blue, the oceans run deep, and the climate is mostly temperate across the entire landscape regardless of the current season because of how much water there is to moderate planetwide temperatures. Weather ranges from calm clear skies to raging hurricanes depending on the location, terrain, and time of year. Elevation plays the biggest role in biome temperature. Closer to sea level is the warmest, and the higher the elevations rise, the colder it gets. At the southern areas of the planet and tips of the continent, there are areas of permanent, frozen over shelves of ice, and icy waters that are virtually impassable. Because of the abundance of water and atmosphere, the continent itself tends to be very heavy on vegetation in most places. There are several mountain chains, with the tallest peaks around 8,500 meters above sea level.
With humans being the dominant race in this world many of the language and cultures throughout the world parallel real-world nations and countries. British, Spanish, French, German, Mongol, Japanese, and Chinese language and cultures are referenced to help provide uniqueness to the various people and provide easier descriptive use of those motifs. All races who grow up within human dominated regions and provinces, will speak the native tongue over their own race's language most of the time. For the non-human races they each have distinct cultures and languages that fit the typical fantasy stereotypes. Elves are elegant and pretty and speak elvish, orcs are mean and strong and speak orcish, dwarves are stubborn and stalwart and speak dwarfish, halflings love food and drink etc. Essentially the world is designed to be a sandbox of medieval human life and fantasy races, and by keeping them closer to the usual stereotypes it allows for easy understanding of each of the races and cultures, without having to get heavy into the lore. To ensure all races and cultures can easily communicate with each other, for the purposes of language in the story, all races can speak “Common” (English) in addition to their native language. However when they speak in "Common" it will have a distinct accent reflective of their native language.
Because Friends and Fables has limited mapping resources it is difficult to fit the scale of this world onto the map. In the game to get from one side of the map to the other is around 2,000km and the measurement tool places that at a 14 day walk. Which does not fully fit the scale or realistic travel times of the world (2,000km should take 2-3 months to walk with rest factored in). The continent is meant to be around 15,000km in size and would take 8-10 months to cross from one side to the other on foot. Due to the limitations of the game map, creative imagination will have to be used. Distances should be around seven times the amount on the measurement tool, and walking distances on the tool should be adjusted as they are not realistic to begin with. Depending on the terrain, walking should take roughly 1-2 hours per 10 km, with around 50-80km per day being a full day’s worth. Horse/Wagon travel at a brisk pace should be 30 minutes to an hour per 10km and the party can feasibly travel closer to 80-160km in a day. Travel by flight or by ship varies based on the speed of the vessel or method of flight.
Both magic and technology exist in this world but it varies dramatically where the players are geographically. Some places are primitive wildernesses with fantastical magics and players are hard pressed to find necessities. Other places are bustling metropolises where magic or a form of steampunk technology is readily available. These things are not so powerful that they upset the overall balance in the world, and are instead meant to be enhancements to daily life, or the overall story. Avoid stakes or magic/technology that completely ends character arcs, upends the balance of power, or could result in cataclysmic changes.