The Supernatural World
This world follows the history of our own Earth mostly the same, with a few differences. Obviously, one difference is that Superhumanity exists, and it has left its mark on many major events such as the World Wars, and the cultural battle between the United States and the USSR during the latter half of the 1900s.
While Superhumanity and Supernature weren't well understand or widely studied until recently, as more knowledge and understanding has accumulated, there has been wide-spread academic acceptance that the Supernatural, while rare before and mostly written off for a while as fairy tales, has truth to it, and that it is a natural part of reality. That so many powerful Superhumans have been appearing seems to be a natural consequence of how much faster and how much MORE the modern world is. There is also healthy debate between academics as to whether Superhumans are humans with special abilities, or new species of their own. While data confirming this is limited, it is theorized that all Supernatural creatures, including Superhumans, have DNA differing from their base species; whether their DNA changes over their lives or just their gene expression changes is still the subject of ongoing research. Even Superskilled or Superintelligent individuals have these genetic differences, enhancing their ability to think and understand. The innovations of such individuals can often be copied in lesser form by non-Supers, however.
As part of this increased understanding of the Supernatural, there have come theories that ancient civilizations' myths might have a degree of truth to them, though exactly what those truths are can be hard to decipher; these myths were ancient peoples' attempts to try to understand and cope with Supernatural creatures and individuals. A god might have just been a particularly powerful Superhuman, worshiped at the time for their poorly understood abilities; heroic figures like Hercules might have been real; and more and more evidence points to the existence of creatures like dragons, basilisks, medusae, giants, etc. If an ancient tale claims a castle was burned down by a dragon, it just may have been. Still, some myths are probably just that: myths to flesh out the rest of the culture's mythical beliefs about Supernature.
Another aspect of the world's acclimatization to Supernature, magic has been largely demystified, and has spread out into many broad fields with rigorous standards, in a similar fashion to scientific fields of inquiry. While magical teaching is mostly only for those with aptitude, otherwise normal individuals can gain some degree of skill through dedicated practice and study. A handful of magical colleges exist, which offer training in not only magical skills but also practical skills that would be taught at normal colleges.
