Technology and Magic
Technology
The technology level of the Westlands setting is comparable to the mid-Renaissance of Earth. This means gunpowder is a strategic resource, and that naval ships typically carry cannons to deal with threats at sea, and that militaries are adopting or have adopted mass-formation firearms tactics. However, the vast majority of skilled experts in violence do not rely on weapons that are slow to reload and have more chance of damaging your eardrums than your opponent.
Gunpowder weapons are too unreliable and inaccurate even for law enforcement use, where batons, various polearms, and swords are still the primary tools of the trade. Thus, adventurers are only likely to have skills in gunpowder weapons and explosives if they seek out that knowledge or come from a specific military background. Procuring and rearming these weapons as a private citizen is possible in a place like Bastion, but difficult elsewhere and practically impossible in the wild. Some nations have canneries for military use and have larger industrial investments for national security projects, but there are no industrialized nations per se.
Magic
Magic is common but not cheap; it is generally easier to accomplish something with engineering talent or alchemical expertise than to pay a wizard or cleric to enchant something permanently. However, nearly everyone knows at least one low-level magic user, if only of artisanal talent or modest clerical skill. Acolytes of major temples are typically adepts or low-level clerics, and Bastion has several competing schools of magic whose students, graduates and masters live and work in the city or its immediate surrounds. Magic is not so common that every ship has a windmaker or sea-cleric aboard, but these are not rare professions either if one is in the employ of a major shipping concern or the naval service of a nation.
Governments of the Old World commonly employ magic-users for official duties, and nearly every major power has a cadre of warmages and reserves of clerics available to assist in conflicts or disasters, even those where magic is generally taboo or considered an unsavory trade. In fact, sometimes spellcasters immigrate to Bastion to avoid compelled government service, if their nation carefully regulates magic use.
Magic items are generally rare. They are more often the provenance of churches and governments than individuals, excepting the few in the hands of the tremendously wealthy - or those who venture into the wild to find ancient relics of power themselves.
Deities (PHB, Appendix B)
Divine Pantheons are common in the world of the Westlands, but none are dominant and the gods or their servants rarely if ever appear personally. Instead, they work their will through mortal proxies, their paladin and cleric servants, and in the hearts of the people. Nevertheless, rumors persist of those who can draw on those powers directly without specifically worshiping a specific god or pantheon, simply from dedicated faith in an ideal or system of beliefs.
Alchemy
Alchemy is increasingly ubiquitous, as a form of portable and reliable magic for specific uses. Unlike spellcraft, it is relatively inexpensive, and lasts until it is needed. Nearly every well-financed ship carries alchemical stores to put out fires, assist in mending torn sails or broken timbers, or merely for preserving food for long voyages. Few are directly useful in combat situations, however: the consequences of sharing the secrets of gunpowder were so heinous that most alchemists swear an oath not to make weapons or enable violence.
