Aldarra

The first world to be blessed with the miracle of life is known by many names among its many inhabitants. Some of its names have faded in ages past alongside the civilizations that used them, while some endure the test of time. But most call her Aldarra.
  Aldarra is a world in a constant cycle of peace and turmoil. Most of its inhabitants know only a relatively small measure of their history, the tip of the iceberg, as the rest was drowned in flame and churning earth during a cataclysmic event, that which the Dwarves call The Great Sundering, and that which the Shandari call Aman's Realignment, in which the world was reshaped both physically and metaphorically. The rest of known history is a phoenix-like rebirth of nations, an age of creation and learning in which empires were wrought from ruins, and in which lost knowledge was recovered generation after generation.
  Though Aldarra has little coal and no copper, hindering its technological advancement, the use of magic is a formidable substitute. Enchantments fuel constructs, automatons, machines and contraptions, tools and weapons, driving progress but leaving the world entirely dependent on magic. Mages of all walks of life and all schools are highly sought after, and those with a knack for enchantments quickly find themselves accumulating vast amounts of wealth. But all good things are finite, and the use of magic is not without its toll.
  In addition to the dangers and the study involved in being a mage, magic requires aether. Aether is ambient, omni-present, an invisible force that soaks the air and every object in the world. Yet it is not renewable, and the cities of the world have long since run out of nearby ambient aether, making them into magical deadzones. Aether drawn from aether stones, mined primarily by the dwarves, prized for their ability to hold large amounts of aether and function as magical batteries, are too expensive of an alternative for most, and so it is liquid aether, distilled from magical creatures found in the depths of the oceans, that has become the fuel of the magical world. But the work is dangerous and the hunting grounds are highly contested. Tensions are beginning to run high, with greed and a dependence on this unsustainable way of living making men desperate enough to fight. It is inevitable that the great age of magic will end in war...or is it?