Setting: The Arcane Empire

The Arcane Empire is the setting for the Magic School For Monsters book that I'm (still) trying to write. It is a land populated by human beings as well as magical races, rich in sorcery and under constant threat from the monster-filled wastelands beyond its southern border. Those are the two fundamental elements that define and inform everything else about the empire. 

Regarding Sorcery:

• Almost anyone can use sorcery. The right words and gestures, made together, produce reliable results. No real mystical understanding is required; words and phrases can be learned by rote, and most people know at least a handful of useful sayings.
  
  
• Speakers are the ones who study the grammar and vocabulary of sorcery, in order to assemble their own phrases; the best of them are able, through long practice, to condense long, precise speeches into shorter phrases that can be filled in with keywords specific to a particular situation.
  
  
• Scribes are able to render words and phrases into the hieroglyphs of the Forgotten Tongue, and so add magical qualities to ordinary items. This can encompass anything from creating a doorway that cleans you off when you walk through it, to marking a chest with a glyph that will explode when someone touches it, to adding powerful magics to a sword or shield. Scribes are highly valued by the Imperial military, and learning how to inscribe is one of the best ways to complete your service without ever seeing battle.
  
  
• Images also have power in Imperial magic. An image can be connected to a real place, or to a specific person, allowing a means of magical communication and transportation. This can be done with any size of image, but tarot or playing cards are especially common, particularly among Speakers. 

Regarding Monsters:

• The monsters come out of the southern wastelands, and would lay waste to the empire were the southern border not constantly defended. This is the primary role and purpose of the Imperial military, and the reason why a four-year term of service is required of all Imperial citizens.
  
  
• The monsters come in many shapes and sizes, but even the ones that most closely resemble humans are incapable of infiltration. Their actions, outlook, and understanding are simply too alien for them to pretend to be human. The more humanoid strains are also a relatively new development; Imperial records show no accounts of them prior to about thirty years ago.
  
  
• The monstrous Great Houses within the Empire are almost all the result of sorcerous attempts to create beings better suited to fighting the wasteland beasts (as are their more heroic equivalents within the houses of Light).
  
  
• Sorcery -- Spoken or Inscribed -- remains the most effective defense that the Empire has against monstrous incursions. Regular troops are trained in basic sorcerous attacks and defenses, but officers and specialists are expected to be Speakers themselves, or at least have a good vocabulary. Most have other gifts as well, either dark or light Arcana.