Introducing the Plains of Ig

The Plains of Ig are my stab at a more or less coherent fantasy setting for my home campaign. It's growing somewhat organically through play and a few ground rules I set up to try to avoid the bog standard. Imagine if Nausicaa met Monster Hunter and they had a sword and sorcery baby. Everything here is subject to change/revision without notice.

1. Giant insects occupy the top of the food chain, similar to dragons play, which don't exist in the setting, but less rare and also non-intelligent. The empires of the past were all toppled when the population of giant insects surged, scourging the surface of most life before turning and devouring each other. Their exoskeletons still rise above the plains where they were slain.
   
2. Society is in the middle of a dark age, with only basic trade and agriculture being maintained in small villages that dot the land. The empires of the past live on only as stories told around the bonfire.
3. Metal is rare, the seams of ore closest to the surface are almost entirely played out, and mines attract monsters so quickly it's almost impossible to mine for long.
4. People have learned to make do with stone, wood, obsidian, and bone as a replacement for metal. Elves fashion tools from giant insect chitin, and dwarfs craft a super hard ceramic. Think Monster Hunter, with weapons and armor jury-rigged from the teeth and hides of the monsters the PCs kill.
5. Gods don't exist, or if they do they're prehistoric forces without consciousness. Clerics don't exist, and therefore magical healing does not exist.