Vixen's Dungeon

Denial

Anger

Bargaining

Depression

Acceptance

The three stages of the Shadow:

Surprise

Alarm

Also what is life like for the average people you see? Are they medieval european peasants or something closer to something else? Is the economy still predominantly focused around the production of bread and textiles? Is that labour gendered?

I have met spellcasters, yes! Most notable among them would probably be Gzalbadyrhh the Magician, who I would assume to be 6th level based on the title. And I have recently become one myself, having finally finished my apprenticeship under Gzalbadyrhh and become a 1st-level magic-user!

I've not done a survey of the land so the spellcasting demographics are largely a mystery, but I would assume less than 1-in-1,000 due the to abundance of non-classed people in addition non-spellcasting adventurers.

I am to the best of my knowledge not in Faerûn. As for the laws of physics, I know that during combat people aren't literally taking turns, so time works the normal way at least. I think the most sure-fire test of this is to see how quickly someone falling reaches terminal velocity, but regrettably maths and physics were never my top subjects so I might not be qualified to run that experiment. But I think for the most part things work as they would over there.

Right now based on what I’m reading, I see spell slots as a storage limitation, not a “mana” limitation. Do they explain that in the DMG and not the player’s handbook?

No worries on the rules lawyer thing, you just unintentionally gave me a good example of what that looks like. I figured it was most likely a genuine question.

To get to your follow-up, yes, it's a storage limitation, specifically for memorising spells. Because that's what you're doing, you're not preparing spells like in 3rd Edition, you're literally pressing the mystical gestures and words into your memory, from whence they will be wiped after use. The rationales are a bit different for magic-users and clerics but the same basic principle applies, and in both cases you draw the actual power from an outside source, as powering a spell yourself would kill you.

Can my level 1 priest prepare Command, cast it, then pray again later in the day to prepare Detect Magic?

Sure, should your priest have sufficient Wisdom to grant a second 1st-level spell, or you rest for 4 hours in between.

armed with catapults and ballistae.