"Have a seat, traveler. What brings you to a place no one remembers?"

. . .
The world is older than it seems, and its stories have no one to listen to them anymore
Talveld is a world of vast forests and vanished stories, where every event echoes in the souls of travelers who tread these lands. Mysterious towers called menhirs, whispering stories of forgotten times to those who know how to listen. The sky that cracked in two on the day the Weeping God turned his back on this world. The Garden of the Forgotten Gods, gradually transformed from an existing place into a legend that stirs the inquisitive minds of adventurers. It is said that one who comes there will be able to ask two questions to one of the Forgotten Gods, the only question is what is their name and which of them to ask?

The past has long since fallen asleep, leaving behind only the subte and faint whisper
The races that once feuded with each other now live in quiet peace, having suspended all feuds. Although, the echoes of the former war are so firmly ingrained in their souls that the freedom-loving forest cats still dislike the proud kitsune who call them pets. The once turbulent world, shaken time and again by self-proclaimed princes of darkness, discoveries that turn upside down the accepted axioms, wars and exciting legends as if frozen in a single moment. A quiet, peaceful, mysterious moment.

The devastating war that took place more than two thousand years ago hit the world so hard that most of the knowledge dissolved into the ether, and scientific progress completely restarted, going in a completely different direction. No one knows why here and there in the world stand mysterious menhirs whispering their stories, no one knows why the giant trees protecting the countries that rest on their branches live so long, having grown so large that no mortal can ever reach their tops. The once-powerful people buried their pride long ago, nearly perishing in the merciless flames of eternal war. Amusingly, humans have remained one of the most numerous races, despite the fact that they survived only thanks to the will of the divine - there is no other reason to find.

The strongholds of humanity
The countries rest on age-old trees that know no old age. Indeed, monsters have long since stopped raiding them, having realized the futility of doing so. The territory outside the cities, overflowing with mysterious buildings, ancient ruins and forgotten plains, though considered little explored, far from the familiar world that rests on the branches of ageless trees, also lives its own life. Distant settlements, travelers, devoted to wanderings, vicious creatures, now and then harassing the living - this world is not dead either.

The dead who don't slumber
Among the vast landscapes of Talveld, spirits also slumber. The deceased that once walked the material lands are now forced to languish in the same world, only on a different plane of existence. Previously, one of the lesser-known gods had helped the spirits get to the next world, but as we know, Talveld has no more gods left. Now the duties of a god have fallen on the shoulders of the Priestesses - once a year they organize a sprawling ceremony dedicated to seeing the spirits off to the other world, in which all the shrines and all comers participate. Naturally, the spirits have a choice - no one forces them to leave, but... Still, a god is a god. People cannot and will not work without rest to see off the spirits as soon as they are dead.

Shrines come in many forms, there is no clear description for them, but as a rule, it's a fairly small structure, often located somewhere in the woods. People come to them to ask the spirits for help with something, to ask for advice, and much more. People still believe that there are spirits of the earth, spirits of the forest, water, crops and other things, but, in fact, the spirits only put the right thoughts in the minds of the right people and do something with their hands - they can interact with the material world, despite their amorphous and otherworldly essence.

Now, let's delve a little deeper and talk about the details. Spirits can exist in the material world as well as in their own, if they have been conducted from the world in which they are stuck after death. Spiritualists, in order to communicate and interact with spirits, use and study the special energy that spirits exude and from which the world is woven. This is not magic - although, spiritual energy is similar to mana in nature, they are still two different things.

. . .
So you got lost in the woods, stumbled upon an abandoned shrine and met... its priest?
(There are some interesting places in the surrounding forest where the simple plot will take you, so yeah, don't drop too early :с(I will probably add more places later xd))