Behold the desert-world Kuula–home to tough, predatory things. Here, food and water is hard-fought, and the sun can kill in a single day. From red sands emerge dark, varnished rocks, and much of the life shelters underground–or in caves. Above ground the Oru rule, a quarrelsome race of multi-eyed humanoids, evolved from the caves and the oddly carved labyrinths older than their kind. Humans live nomadic and exiled, relying heavily on their few sorcerers who in turn are exalted. Though barren by most civilized accounts, Kuula boasts a bountiful spirit in the form of magical energy permeating the atmosphere. The issue then? Very few can channel this energy into life. Of those who can, humans are the most numerous. It is for this reason that they have been hunted and diminished.
But the winds of change blow often on Kuula. Unwitting travelers from another world find themselves thrust upon the desert and must quickly adapt. Such otherworlders arrive in a precarious state. On the one hand, they must brave the hardness of the desert and its creatures; and on the other, almost every otherworlder holds potent potential for sorcery.
The Oru's sentience, coupled with predator-strength, has put them at the top of the food chain. The average male is as strong as the top percentage of humans. They have developed tools of bronze, and erected strongholds of stone and clay. Their biggest rivals–aside from their even more brutish, four-eyed cousins–are the invertebrate monsters that roam the desert. Giant spiders, beetles, scorpions, and more are all competition when looking for shade and water. Fortunately for the Oru, their eyes are adapted for nocturnal movement–infrared and ultraviolet imaging part of their talents.
But there are places even the mighty Oru won't venture. The first is the sea. What monster sits below the waves is unknown, but sea travel has been doomed for many centuries at the least. The second is the jungle. Very few have dared far enough up the rivers to see vines or canopies. That realm belongs to beasts, or demons, depending on the adventurer telling the story.
Humans live on Kuula in either exile or slavery. Veronica is the premier human sorceress on Kuula, and the self-asserted Queen of humanity. She holds some legitimacy, in that she is the daughter of former King David, the first (recorded) human sorcerer on Kuula. Her father's kingdom lasted nearly 200 years, sitting profitably between the warring six-eyed and four-eyed Oru. Veronica was barely old enough to remember the collapse of David's kingdom, his betrayal by the Oru, and the subjugation of her kind. Now an adult, she rules a desperate tribe of humans and scours the desert for tools to regain supremacy. She believes the day may come sooner than she ever hoped, as she discovers a powerful new spell–the same that brought David from his world.
The majority of humans inhabiting Kuula are not sorcerers at all. Since the fall of the kingdom, sorcerers have been systematically reduced by fearful Oru warlords. Even Veronica can hardly boast a single band of them. Still, many humans brave the desert to live in a society of their own, and are happy to serve in the ways they can.