makeup of the world
There are three main planes of existence: Material Plane, Astral Plane, and Far Realms / Void. Material Planes are where most physical beings reside. The Astral Plane is the source of mana (magic), and is the home to mana-based beings. It can theoretically be used as transporation between worlds/dimensions, but beings that are not entirely made of mana cannot survive in it for long. The Far Realms / Void is everything outside these planes, and is probably full of scary things you can't comprehend.
The planet of the main world is called Litan. It is primarily made up of physical beings with some degrees of mana influence. As an example, dragons are about 50/50 physical/mana in makeup. Humans are likely about 90/10, and other races are even less mana. There can be considered to be four main "groups" of beings (not including undead-related beings or other complex topics). Draconic beings, such as dragons, dragonborn, and kobolds. Humanoid beings, such as humans, halflings, and orcs. These two groups are both intelligent and can be said to have notable "souls". And then there are animals and monsters. The differation between monsters and animals is that animals have low-to-no mana makeup, while monsters are usually above 50% mana makeup.
The main "exception" to normal beings having a higher physical makeup is elves, who have a makeup about 40/60 physical/mana. To the elves, this is a sign of their superiority, to others it's another sign that they're strange and foreign. They're officially classified as humanoids, but the oddness does give credence to their beliefs. Orcs particularly like to call them monsters over it.
orcs vs elves
While these two races famously don't really get along with any other common race, they especially despise each other. They're opposites in a lot of way. Physically they have opposite builds. They have very different viewpoints about the world but are intensely proud about their own. Orcs see bravery, honesty, standing your ground, and might of brain and brawn to be the most important traits to have. Elves like to find new and unique ways to shove themselves into situations while dealing with others as little as possible... tricky little magic users who take advantage of situations offered to them, with a focus on intelligence. In the end, elves see orcs as the lowest of the "lesser" races and orcs see elves as some form of advanced monster.
What's interesting is that they reference each other in their important historical mythologies... though with very different interpretations of a situation. Elves believe that they arrived to this world from another one, but after arriving, they were attacked by brutes who ruined any chance of returning, forcing them to adapt to living among lessers. Orcs believe they used to live on prosperous lands, but were forced out of them by the arrival of powerful monsters, and so ensuring strength and resillience in future generations is key. Historically, elves did take over orcish lands, which forced them to relocate into leftover, less sufficient lands, or become roamers, which further reduced their reputation.
introduction to the dragon continent
According to legend, a long time ago, the continent was said to be ruled cruelly by a 5-headed chromatic dragon. The people of the region, growing tired of living in fear, built up the Dragon Knights in order to take it down. It took a long time, and resulted in a lot of destruction, but the dragon was felled. However, it had powerful magic, and in its dying moments, attempted to resurrect itself like a phoenix. It didn't have enough strength to pull it off completely, so instead it was reborn... as five separate dragons.
Each dragon hatched at different times. One would grow, terrify the region for a time, then mature and leave. This would follow with another dragon, and another. Eventually, all five siblings were born. The last dragon born, the Red Dragon, is still immature, and still eagerly threatens the region to this day.
The Dragon Knights still exist in order to prevent further destruction from dragon attacks. They used to seek out the dragons in order to attempt to kill them, but this ended up causing more strife and aggression, so they generally do safeguarding and react to aggression, rather than cause it these days. The Dragon Knights are so famous, that people of other regions use the terminology Dragon Knight to define top tier soldiers or warriors, even if they have no active dragons in their own region.
As being too aggressive towards the dragons caused problems, a different system was set up, where each dragon would have a retainer that serves them. Doing tasks for them, delivering messags, being mediators... whatever a dragon wanted, or others wanted from a dragon, it would go through their retainer to prevent issues. This generally worked out well, though most people of this region are of short-lived species, which does make it a bit annoying to have to constantly replace retainers. Depending on the era, region, and specific dragon, being sent to be their retainer could be seen as a job, reward, or punishment.