Let's engage in a world building exercise. Ask and answer questions about your homebrew world/setting
There's a popular trend on Reddit at the moment that they're struggling to engage with. The idea is that someone will post the question
"Ask me anything about my world"
And this does two things. It gives them an opportunity to show off their setting, and more importantly it gives them a prompt. Someone may ask a question you don't have an answer to, so you're supposed to come up with one. Doing this enough will help you flesh out your world in ways you may not have considered on your own.
I think the reason this is failing on Reddit is because there are a dozen people jumping on the bandwagon and filling the RPG subs with spam, which is causing other members to lash out at them out of fatigue.
I think we here on Tildes could probably handle it a little better, and it would be better served as a single thread. Top level comments are for asking questions, and then anyone is welcome to reply to those with their answers. By sharing the same pool of questions this will allow us to compare and contrast our worlds with our friends here and maybe help spur on the creative juices.
What is something, or someone in your world that is forgotten to time, but will be of importance now or in the near future?
That the "world" is actually one continent that was magically severed from the much larger world to create a sort of penal colony for magicians who committed some terrible sin. This happened almost a thousand years ago and the magicians confined in the Riven Lands almost annihilated themselves in the subsequent Mages' Wars, so all knowledge of the outside world was lost. The magic-shunning civilization that developed in the Riven Lands has no idea that they are not the entire world. They think they came up with the name "the Riven Lands" to describe the chaos wrought by the Mages' Wars, but in reality it's the one thing that's survived from before - the nations that exiled them named the continent when they caused it to become riven from the rest of the world.
The Talus and the Fomorians, to an extent.
Essentially, around a millennium or so ago, the world was largely dominated by two groups, the Talus and the Fomorians. Both were essentially god-like and ruled over the mortal races of the world, mostly in a tyrannical fashion. The Talus were large creatures that appeared to be made of stone, while the Fomorians were an ethereal Fey race. They were always hostile towards each other, but eventually it turned into an all out war. The war took a heavy toll on both sides, and eventually the mortals they had subjugated rebelled. However, one morning the mortal races awoke to find the Talus and the Fomorians to have disappeared.
In the present day, knowledge that the Talus and Fomorians existed and were tyrants is common knowledge, but exactly how their civilizations functioned and how their advanced technology and magics worked is largely lost to time. There's good business in recovering old Talus artifacts or exploring Fomorians ruins, and the rich and powerful will pay good money for anything of interest that can be found.
Who do the people of your world revere? Does anyone pray to the Talus or Fomorians? Have they adopted lesser gods in their stead?
In the present day, no. They're more comparable to the Roman Empire or the Mongol Empire. Ancient civilizations that people look back on and study. While I described them as "god-like", that was mostly shorthand to try and give an idea of where they stood in comparison to the mortal races.
In their times, the Talus didn't want or need worship. There's no ruins with statues of the Talus or ancient texts that describe ways to worship them. The most people have been able to piece together is that the Talus were scientists and engineers, creating and designing complex machines or items that wove magic and technology together.
Some people do follow some ideas that the Talus left behind, but those ideas are less about worshiping the Talus and more about things like self reliance. The idea that the gods aren't needed or don't deserve to be worshiped. Some who follow this ideology go so far as to say that the gods aren't even actually gods, but in reality just extremely powerful mages who have managed to trick a large amount of the population of the world.
The Fomorians accepted worship but didn't necessarily care if their subjects did. They were the more tyrannical of the two, but they held onto their power by just being more magically gifted than their subjects. They didn't fear rebellion and so they didn't need to instill another layer of protection for their rule by turning their subjects into worshipers.
The actual gods that people worship, both in the era of the Talus/Fomorians and in the present day, physically walk among the people. They aren't all powerful and omniscient, they have their limitations, and they can often be found at large temples dedicated to them. They were also subjugated by the Talus (which might give you a better idea of just how powerful the Talus were), although they were given more freedom than the mortal races.
Who or what is the current dominant power in your world?
If you had asked this question two hundred years ago the answer would have been simply the Imperialist Human kingdom of RorSkel and the Stratocratic Orc nation of Bhal Ugron. These two factions waged war for decades. Caught in the middle of this strife was the largely neutral nation Anhelm, who sits to the east of these two giants.
Even though they suffered the collateral damage of war waging along side of, and sometimes spilling into their territory, they gained vast wealth by trading to each of the other factions. This wealth was used to build up fortifications of their own to ensure that whichever faction won wouldn't be able to turn their attention to Anhelm next.
Bhal Ugron was largely beaten back to their borders but it's hard to call RorSkel a 'winner' in the conflict. After suffering major casualties and racking up substantial debt to Anhelm they may have defeated the Orcs and captured new lands, but the bills were coming due.
During this time a religious uprising swept through Anhelm like a virus. A man many view as a prophet worked his way up through government and is largely accredited with making the decisions that led to Anhelm's great fortune, and his God was to thank for the inspiration. After being ordained into the highest position in the kingdom he capitalized on RorSkel's tight position, offering to buy up large swathes of their hard fought for land. With the money they owed, and Anhelm's large standing fortifications and new holy army, they weren't in a very powerful bargaining position.
Anhelm is now the dominant world power, and funds countless missions throughout the lands. While they don't appear to be threatening their neighbors militarily, it's obvious they're trying to take over the world through faith.
What is the primary means of travel in your world, and how does its speed/ease/utility or lack thereof impact the people? Is it safe to travel, in general?
For long distance travel people generally take trains. The trains are steam engines, but are magically powered through the use of elementals. Cars also exist, but their use is mainly confined to cities as the great distances between large settlements makes it difficult to pave roads. Tickets are generally cheap enough for most of the population to easily afford and travel between large cities will take at most a few days by train.
Otherwise though, people use horse drawn wagons and carriages to travel between smaller settlements. It's mostly safe, although highway thieves do exist and are a big enough threat that travelers will often hire protection. If you go far enough away from civilization you'll start running into more monstrous creatures though.
What are the subtle markers of difference that remind people that your world is not our world? There are probably the big things like Elves walking around, but I am thinking something more like, "as sure as peaches are poison" from the Wheel of Time.
This is a more esoteric idea but how does sentience or souls work in your setting? Is it simply advanced cognitive machines hooked up to a power source? A natural chemical process that terminates after death. Or is it something more spiritual or even divine? An undying spark that relates to reincarnation, salvation or an afterlife. Or something completely different?