Context

Some of you might be wondering what sort of background/world/context this game exists in. At any rate, I have, so here's a general idea...

So there's this valley, which connects the villages in the highlands with the larger cities in the lowlands. Lately, a dense fog has enveloped the valley, which has bereft the land of any form or stability; anyone who attempts to enter this haze is dismembered at once. A handful of individuals, however (i.e you) are pioneering a series of devices that will enable adventurers to explore the chaotic valley. These brave souls hope to find the source of the flux warping the valley and return order to the land.

Don't ask exactly what Base is...I imagine some sort of suit/transport device that provides a form for the character. So, when the Base of anything is destroyed, the individual exposed is immediately ripped apart by flux. The act of drawing cards represents the notion of flux - of seizing wayward currents of energy and harnessing them into attacks. When you level up, you master a bit more control over your surroundings.

Monsters, I reckon, wouldn't have conventional shapes. They wouldn't exactly be "monsters", but latent concentrations of ether that have adapted to the flux with quasi-stable forms. The higher the Base, the more solid the monster.

I'm not exactly sure how to explain the shop, either...perhaps some sort of telekinetic device that can summon items from the towns/cities to your character's inventory. That said, I probably ought to change the currency from gold into some sort of unit of ether/force. At any rate, in a slipstream, the high frequency of flux present hinders communication with the outside, and thus renders the shop inaccessible.

...I don't know if this helps anyone actually play the game. But it helps me as a developer to get some rough idea of the context.