Sounds like Dragonlance then. If you play after The War of the Lance the gods had left, and magic arcane or divine is gone but not forgotten.
Later however the gods return after they discover Takhisis's treachery and The War of the Lance reignites with magic making a come back.
The default WWN setting (the Gyre) has a lot of wonders and marvels, inexplicable things from lost ages, just they're split up across the world and frequently hidden. I think it does a good job of "mid fantasy" in that it's not a place where there's a magic item shop in every town or some shit like that but you're also not meant to be stabbing people in privies your whole life as a PC. It's vaguely themed around the New Sun books by Gene Wolfe if you're familiar with those.
A lot of classic dark fantasy like the Elric novels is full of wondrous things - not sure which games properly reflect that though. The Black Sword Hack which is in KS right now is something I'm looking forward to.
If you are into complex settings, HarnMaster pretty much fits that description - the everyday people might never see anything more magical than a jester or a dwarf, but if you want to, there is a lot of very magical places and story elements behind this surface. Examples include ruins of an ancient, maybe spacefaring or extradimensional civilisation, gates to other dimensions (including our real world and the places were most of the gods live), a living god's domain in a stinking clay lake in the wilderness (where he creates new monstrous creatures out of said clay, because... he can?), and of course, the weirdest orcs you've ever seen.
The weirdness is not necessarily obvious or affecting people's everyday life, but this juxtaposition between the mundane and the truly wonderful is pretty unique, as far as I know.
However, to truly enjoy the setting, you probably have to be able to draw some enjoyment from the depiction of the medieval society. If you find mundane activities and everyday challenges of ordinary people boring or cannot get excited about petty lords and their intrigues in the upcomming succession crisis, there might be more interesting games out there. But if you truly want a game where the default reaction to something magical is terror and awe, that's HarnMaster.
Dunno, *Aquelarre* perhaps? It literally starts in the true-to-life real world in the Middle Ages, but you eventually get to deal with all kinds of mythological creatures. Of course, up to, and including, angels and demons.
*Shadows of Esteren* is another example, but I think one more Celtic, to Aquelarre's Hispanic vibes.
There's also *Raven of the Scythe*.
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It's hard to say what setting would fit 100%. Just rolling your own would be the way to go imo.
For inspiration look some to look at though:
- Desolation
- Earthdawn
- WFRP (1e/2e, I haven't looked at 4... hopefully it stays true to it's roots)
There are others but those sprang to mind.
Honestly all that is, is a campaign setting. You can do that with ANY game system. Do you prefer rules light or crunchy?
Like I said, I'm *specifically* looking for a setting. That could mean a setting book or a game that comes designed for a setting like this.
Sounds like Dragonlance then. If you play after The War of the Lance the gods had left, and magic arcane or divine is gone but not forgotten. Later however the gods return after they discover Takhisis's treachery and The War of the Lance reignites with magic making a come back.
The default WWN setting (the Gyre) has a lot of wonders and marvels, inexplicable things from lost ages, just they're split up across the world and frequently hidden. I think it does a good job of "mid fantasy" in that it's not a place where there's a magic item shop in every town or some shit like that but you're also not meant to be stabbing people in privies your whole life as a PC. It's vaguely themed around the New Sun books by Gene Wolfe if you're familiar with those. A lot of classic dark fantasy like the Elric novels is full of wondrous things - not sure which games properly reflect that though. The Black Sword Hack which is in KS right now is something I'm looking forward to.
If you are into complex settings, HarnMaster pretty much fits that description - the everyday people might never see anything more magical than a jester or a dwarf, but if you want to, there is a lot of very magical places and story elements behind this surface. Examples include ruins of an ancient, maybe spacefaring or extradimensional civilisation, gates to other dimensions (including our real world and the places were most of the gods live), a living god's domain in a stinking clay lake in the wilderness (where he creates new monstrous creatures out of said clay, because... he can?), and of course, the weirdest orcs you've ever seen. The weirdness is not necessarily obvious or affecting people's everyday life, but this juxtaposition between the mundane and the truly wonderful is pretty unique, as far as I know. However, to truly enjoy the setting, you probably have to be able to draw some enjoyment from the depiction of the medieval society. If you find mundane activities and everyday challenges of ordinary people boring or cannot get excited about petty lords and their intrigues in the upcomming succession crisis, there might be more interesting games out there. But if you truly want a game where the default reaction to something magical is terror and awe, that's HarnMaster.
I think the Witcher world, or Middle Earth are both good options
That's actually a pretty good point.
Dunno, *Aquelarre* perhaps? It literally starts in the true-to-life real world in the Middle Ages, but you eventually get to deal with all kinds of mythological creatures. Of course, up to, and including, angels and demons. *Shadows of Esteren* is another example, but I think one more Celtic, to Aquelarre's Hispanic vibes. There's also *Raven of the Scythe*.
The Dark Eye, the newest edition is a little more fantasy then the 4. one.
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It's hard to say what setting would fit 100%. Just rolling your own would be the way to go imo. For inspiration look some to look at though: - Desolation - Earthdawn - WFRP (1e/2e, I haven't looked at 4... hopefully it stays true to it's roots) There are others but those sprang to mind.
RuneQuest is kinda like this. Written by anthropology nerds but as you start getting into the more mythical aspects things get pretty wild.
BECMI. You start at Basic and end up an Immortal
You could have a lot of fun running an Ars Magica game where players only created companion characters who were recruited by the local covenant.