The Ones Who Came Before

The Ones Who Came Before were a race of people that inhabited the Imperial Heartlands a few thousand years before the founding of The Empire. Their whole race appearing to have vanished into thin air, their ruins dot the landscape of the Heartlands. From the peaks of the Iron Mountains to the boughs of the Nachtsturz Wilds, to the Coasts of Imperial Bay. No body or bones of any kind, or any depiction or indication to what the Ones Who Came Before even looked like has ever been found.
The Ones Who Came Before are known to have been proficient artificers, with many of their ruins guarded by golems and other automata as well as magical traps. Artifacts from these ruins are known to fetch a good price from collectors.