The year is 1877, and the Continent is at peace. Everywhere the old borders are being pushed back, from distant lands to feats of knowledge and science. Torchlight has given way to gaslight, with the Electrik beckoning from the future. Yet there is still much that remains unknown, as the rising wave of science has only made it more clear that some things never can be explained… and never should.
The Industrial Revolution has been more gradual here, and correspondingly less disruptive.
The Continent itself stretches from Frisia in the west to Czolgov in the east. Frisia, your home, is a peninsular state with a merchant and colonial Empire not dissimilar to the Britain of our world. Czolgov is an autocracy, poor and backwards, secretive and paranoid. Between these two sprawls the vast bulk of Greater Theutonia, a patchwork of free cities and statelets very loosely unified, perpetually at war with itself somewhere.
South of this, the states of the Eastaland begin their march away from the continent at Diocletianople. West of that one comes to the backwards lands of Upper Wendia, and the positively time-lost lands of Lower Wendia, where they say gaslight is still looked at as technology from the future. Further still, beyond the mountains, one comes to the client states of the See of Lune, and past that to Barcaleno and its sun-baked plains and failing monarchy, its white-garbed peasants toiling in the heat.
Culture
The culture of the Continent closely resembles late 19th century Europe with a few important distinctions, the biggest of which is gender roles. People on the continent recognize three social categories of gender: Men, Women, and Ladies.
A Man is a male person with agency. He is expected to fend for himself, be brave and honorable (or brave and a cad if he’s a blackguard), and perform his duties even amidst dire circumstances. He is expected to be cool, levelheaded, and capable, and to put the welfare of Ladies above his own.
A Woman is a female person with agency. She is expected to fend for herself, be brave and honorable (or brave and a cad if she’s a blackguard), and perform her duties even amidst dire circumstances. She is expected to be cool, levelheaded, and capable, and to put the welfare of Ladies above her own.
A Lady is a person who is voluntarily without agency. She (at least 70% of Ladies are female) is expected to maintain high standards of virtue, compassion, ettiqutte, and deportment. They expect to be protected, and while being brave and levelheaded is not forbidden, nobody expects it of them. They engage almost entirely in passive activities (sewing, cleaning, cooking, etc) and are expected to defer to the decisions of Men and Women.
As a rule, it is considered perfectly normal for a Man to court or marry a Woman (and vice versa), or for a Man or Woman to court or marry a Lady (of any combination of genders). It is somewhat scandalous and disapproving-frown-raising to have a romantic relationship within your own gender role, however… Man/Man, Woman/Woman, or Lady/Lady. This only extends within gender roles: a Man could marry a male Lady and nobody would think anything of it.
The other major difference is Religion:
The original faith on the Continent was the Old Faith, also known as Druidism or Witchcraft, a polytheistic practice focused on spirits and the natural world. This was largely wiped clean with the Redeemer and the spread of his Monotheist creed, and now only survives in the most backwards, insular parts of the Continent, usually in secret.
The Redeemer’s creed established itself in two centers; the Orthodox creed of the Patriarchs of Diocletianople, and the Popes of the See of Lune. These two existed uneasily until the western Schism brought an end to the line of Popes, replacing them with the Reformed Lunan Redeemed and the Lunan Antipopes. Traditionalists broke away, mostly in pockets in Frisia and northern Theutonia. Diocletianople, meanwhile, fell to the Sejmam Tarks, and the Patriarchy moved north to Czolgov.
In general the Continent has seen far, far less religious strife than the real world, being more given to heated debate and spiteful sermons than pogroms or massacres. This isn’t to say there have been none, however, particularly in times of war when people are prone to commit atrocities on the thinnest of excuses.