A bunch of beings trying to survive in a broken clock
This page is for the main details to note for the setting, as a means of going for a more consice approach for the setting. None of these cards go for a specific story or setting within Chimeric, but they serve as a guide for what details to keep consistent. It's also worth noting these aren't meant to specify the type of storytelling aimed for either.
Magic and daemon attributes follow a more Eastern-styled framework, with an emphasis on cycles and duality. While it is mostly innate, writings of its function are around, but they are obscure in their utility to most, especially for magic users, as their use is innate, and identifying the makeup of magic users and daemons is more of an art or philosophy than a science.
They are functionally similar to oracles in Pathfinder, and most of them are descendent from those who were the byproduct of extreme circumstances, deliberate or not. They have had a complex relationship with daemons, being seen as intermedaries in the past, and as of recently, lawmen above daemons. The distinction between their powers and daemon powers is unclear, and tieflings, often kept as pets by daemons, demonstrate so, as they're functionally more extreme magic users.
Daemons are less evil than their inspiration, but have a more depressed tone instead. To humans, they're akin to gods, and although they parallel to human societies, they always fight amongst eachother and the outer daemons, and some hope to move away from humans to prevent any more harm. They can never really die, even if horribly maimed or vaporized.
With little known backgrounds, these are beings beyond the clock, and the few that do make it in try corrupting daemons and humans alike. It's believed they envy a quality of humans, but the reason for that is unknown.
Instead of a single world, there are a series of smaller worlds, all binded by gears. The earth is alive itself, and houses many buildings of civilizations past, especially in seemingly rugged mountains. Though, this isn't immediate until one goes deep into the wilderness.
There are tunnels which lead to different lands. The ones known are often carved with faces, and daemons keep track of certain ones as they maintain their network of daemon parishes.
A lot of the wildlife have an older appearance to them, from megafauna walking around, to forests being full of honey locuses and hedge apples. Like humans, they can be inflicted with a magic curse. However, this is much more rare than humans being inflicted with one.
Reference off of Late Antiquity and Bronze Age China here. Aspects to take and/or emphasize mainly concern change and time. Aesthetically, both are about equal, and otherwise, it depends on either source and their relation to those two themes.
In the current state, conflict has been bubbling up all around, from cities trying to maintain themselves, to migrating tribes, and wars erupting about. For the daemons above, a seemingly new order has risen, and although it has won over many daemons, its success has rumored to alerting outer daemons.
Aside from the references, there are a lot of Antikythera-like mechanisms around, even in less sophisticated parts. Despite appearing about, they are held in serious regard, as they're meant to be emulations of the clock.