For the most part, this world is normal enough. At a glance, it is reminiscent of Earth's Medieval ages. Not just Medieval Europe I mean, it's not some kind of weird homogeneous world. You've got your kings and kingdoms, but there are also feudal shoguns, shapeshifting tribal shamans... and... magitech empires... Ok, so maybe it isn't that similar. Not past the surface anyway. It's history is riddled with wars unlike any we have ever seen, clashes of ideology on a scale technology cannot hope to match. For while the common folk are little different from our own, this is a world of larger than life heroes, wielding and being wielded by forces not even they truly understand.
The powers of a hero are not worldshaking though, not in all but the rarest of situations. They are powerful, they are driven(usually), and they bend history around themselves. But all this is not a matter of simple strength. A hero's true might is the way in which their every action shifts the tides of a war they cannot even see, all of humanity caught in the ebb and flow of the Paradigms. For heroes here do not have ideals. They ARE ideals. And when two heroes clash, the loser's ideal is weakened. When a hero kills a villain(Which is, in the end, just another sort of hero), deep beneath the ground before his plans have even begun to move, the world becomes just a little bit brighter... even if no one ever finds out. It is these ideals, these Paradigms that give rise to the different cultures of the world. The paradigms of The King, The Teacher, The Engineer, The Mage. The dominant Paradigm of the area is powerful beyond belief, technologies and magics simply ceasing to work in lands where they hold little sway.
So, hero. Where are you from? What Paradigm do YOU follow? Who are you, and what do you seek for the world?