The world of Venleitche loosely resembles our own early medieval Europe, but with a Neopagan twist. The dominant religion is duotheistic, worshiping a God and Goddess who each take different forms according to the season. People live in a sustainable way, moderating their population growth, leaving little to no waste from their activities, and carefully ensuring that the next generation will have a world to live in that is much the same as their parents' in terms of available resources. Other religions do exist, but given the way that magic works in the world, they either follow a similar path of sustainability, or burn themselves and their lands out in short order. Gender and sexual identity are considered a matter of individual choice to some extent, although the magic makes the nature of a person obvious, in a way that we'll explain shortly. Conflicts do arise between religions, between political factions, and between individuals. Sometimes these are solved by talking it out, and other times by violence. This is not a perfect world. It's a world in dynamic balance, and sometimes bad things happen, and then people try to set it back to rights and restore the balance.