History of Ayer'hess

This civilisation was started by a colony of mind-flayers slaves from multiple species whose ship had crashed and which could therefore revolt against the remaining mind-flayers. This civilisation was extremely advanced technologically speaking but was weak in terms of magic.
They disappeared because of an epidemy that swiped the entire population. This epidemy came from the lasting effect the mind-flayer slavery had on the first colonists which caused the appearance of incurable diseases after 10 generations. Although most of the diseases were solely genetic-related, some originated from pathogens. Opening the dungeons left behind by this civilisation is always a gamble for rulers, as it will surely bring riches but might also be accompanied by an epidemy of the diseases kept waiting in the decayed corpses or test tubes made of unknown materials, or simply because of the decayed corpses themselves.

This era saw the rivalry between dino/lizard-folk and sentient arachnids. A great deal of poison- and strength-related artefacts remain today, although some of the technology from the previous civilisation was passed down to them and they also developed quite a lot of the magic system that would be passed down to the future civilisations. But the rivalry that brought them up ended up being their doom, as warfare became deadlier with magic and technology, and the mutual hatred of both empires was brighter than ever. Nowadays, although many dreams of finding one of their deadly weapons which would invariably bring great fame to their name, most kingdoms have forbidden access to any dungeon or ruin identified to be from this period. Some kingdoms have even forbidden the teaching of this civilisation's existence to anyone but the most loyalist of researchers. This is because such weapons or armour can become a destroyer of nations in the wrong hands and thus nearly all kingdoms of this realm have tacitly agreed not to use them for war.

This era is the better-known one, thanks to both the number of standing ruins, but also to the use of their relics in all kinds of manners, such as warfare, medicine, or even everyday use. The Falkaron Empire of the Elves was also known as the Magic Empire due to the omnipresence of magic. Every citizen was either able to manipulate magic or had enough magic items to compensate for it. Sadly, this empire didn't bother studying history, leading both to the destruction of many important ruins to make place for new structures as well as to the very destruction of this civilisation: A pandemy surged from the remains of a haphazardly demolished tomb from the first civilisation and the surrounding countries took this opportunity to destroy the weakened state. It stood approximately between 900 and 400 years ago.
It is to be noted that it is the first known era whose end didn't include the total annihilation of all sapient species.