The Seventh Age had ended with the proclamation of Ursula I by the Gods Themselves, the first time since the creation of the Empire they had appeared in the sky over Axis. It yet remains a mystery why this was so important to them. Only a dozen years into the rule of Ursula the First, discontent over her governance had grown, as amazingly a peasant girl knew little about running the largest empire in the world and thus was somewhat a captive of her advisors, leading to disjointed policy. Also the old Emperor had his supporters. Civil War loomed, a prospect nobody wanted particularly given the gods seemed to be involved. In desperation the Archmage was asked to find a way out of this mess. She considered, and then after a week's consultation and study proposed a solution. Empress Ursula had a son. The old Emperor had a granddaughter the same age. The two were quickly married as soon as decently possible, and thus any prospect of civil war was averted. This gained the wizards a great deal of credit and clout in the empire and a probably undeserved reputation for wisdom and common sense.
A little after this, they say the Elf Queen took a human mage as a lover. Most elves deny this and say it is a human legend. It's definitely true, however, that the elves started being more free with sharing their magics with the humans around this time... was this a wise decision? Time would tell, but the wizards profited greatly and their skills waxed. What was to come, however, would define this age. It was another gnomish Archmage, a century in, who led the expedition. Did he know what he would find, or was he after something else? Unclear. What he recovered, however, was the singular arcane methods and dweomers of the Wizard-Tyrants of the Gnoll Empires, a civilization which may have predated the snake people, or possibly occurred during it. And they were powerful beyond all expectation. Wizardry in the empire exploded. Sometimes literally. Mages became like minor demigods at the higher levels of art. They built wonders across the land, delighting and often terrifying people. It was a second age of cogs, except this time the wonders were that of magic, not artifice.
A common wonder of this age was the Many Viewed Mansion, where a house would have lovely faces and views and porches.... in multiple cities and estates. The Duke of Clyde's Stately Home had no fewer than 47 locations across the Empire. The Prince of Shadows was known to have LOVED this. It made things so, so much easier.
Other notable wonders include:
Historians have debated the biggest drawback of the Gnoll-Magic beyond, well, leading to invasion. That depends on who you ask. Some say that turning the wizards into walking demigods badly destabilized the politics and power structure of the empire. Many agree that the empire became unhealthily dependent on it, just as it had on automata in the second age. And of course there was the odd magical disaster, such as when everyone in the city of Tellenburg aged backwards 37.8 years, causing all young people to cease to exist and many old people to lose valuable skills. Then too many of the more terrible magical oddities such as the Owlbear come from this period. Everyone agrees though that the invasion dwarfed them all.
It was at the close of the second century of the age that a long highway of the Iron Sea was suddenly tamed. None of the wizards had done it. The explanation became clear when the First Gnoll Armament, thousands of ships and transports, landed. Thus began an age-long war of survival for the Empire, the Gnoll Wars.
The good times were over.
Some wizards walked the planes in this era, seeking power and allies against the Gnolls. Where in the planes did the Wizards find succor against Gnoll-kind?
Very few people, looking at what is now Concord today, would have imagined its origin as a war fortress. Because while the Dwarves and Elves have been brought together by the Empire in the prior age, the war against the Gnollish invasion was what truly forged the bond. Against the invading horde, friends to none of the three races, all three were forced to work closely together. Jealousies over magic vs. mechanism were forgotten, as the greats of Elf and Dwarf worked together, mixing disciplines to create powerful war machines to fight the invaders. Foundries sprang up around the Twine of the Three, and smoke often obscured the light of the Beacon, which now illuminated a watch-gallery placed at the very top. Dwarvish artisans worked with High Elf magic users to try and fashion the Beacon itself into a weapon of war. The Wood-Elves built training grounds, and houses of storage, supplies for the Elven Rangers who formed a watch-network and scouted out the invaders, armed with arrows tipped with special arrowheads forged by the Dwarves, receptive to spells and magical energies. Dwarves manned fortresses at nodes of the network, planned and placed by the forestry skills of the Wood Elves, and supplied through tunnels planned by the Shadow Elves - though not without much wariness and rancor on both sides. Until the time the war was over, though, they couldn't afford to indulge in their racial frictions - survival was paramount.
The worst defeat of the Elves was the Battle of Underwood, five years into the Second Gnoll War (3584 IY). The Gnoll army had advanced into the heart of the Wood Elves' network, leading the Shadow Elves to plot ambush; with the High Elves providing magical support, the Wood Elves stealthing through the forest to attack, and the Shadow Elves emerging from their underground tunnels to attack the rear. What destroyed them was a sudden attack from the twisted monsters of the Underworld, long brooding over the punishment they had taken from the Elves in the prior age, and thirsting for revenge. After destroying the Shadow Elves' contingent, they boiled out of the tunnels instead, enveloping and destroying the Wood Elves.
Far worse than that, though, was the attack of the Alhoons on the High Elves. Sliding in on the paths of magic, combining psionics and magic, the undead monsters wreaked havoc on the brains of the spellcasters, leaving many mindless and drooling husks. The damage they did was not something that would be recovered in a generation, or indeed many generations, until the time the High Elves might once rise again. In the end, the Wood Elves came out with the least damage, and formed the backbone of Elven strength for the rest of the Age. But none forgot the evils visited upon all three.
The Siege of Montblanc is considered one of the major turning points of the War. The Elves sing many songs of their deeds at this battle. It was a time of desperation. It was a time of glory. As the remains of the Elven forces retreated, the denizens of the Underworld retreated - even they didn't care for Gnollish looks - but the victorious Gnolls looked ready to destroy everything on their own. But as they retreated, the dwarves made their preparations, for the ruins of one of their great cities lay beneath Montblanc. As the Wood Elves made camps in the foothill forests and licked their wounds, as the remains of the High Elves were cared for by their arboreal kin, the Shadow Elves met with their erstwhile Dwarven opponents, and plotted.
Reinforcements came through the tunnels, as the Gnolls wore down the forces on the surface. When all looked lost, the Shadow Elves burst out from hidden exits, alongside the dwarves who guided them, sweeping through their tired bretheren and driving off the Gnolls, saving their kin and earning their (grumbling) gratitude.
Elves and Dwarves built war machines together in this age. One such was the Fire Turtle. It didn't look that impressive; an upward-pointing cone about 10 yards across, a metal shell with a flexible lip that reached almost to the ground, hiding the wheels it rested and moved upon. But the small row of tubes near the base provided a clue to the machine's function, as did the six metal rods sticking out about halfway up the cone. When it moved close, enemies would hear a hissing sound, followed by roars of flame from the tubes, joined by lightning forking off of the metal rods. Sadly, it was too heavy and slow to be of much use in fast offenses, but it was invaluable as a rock of defense.
Ursula I (3333 - 3379): Born a peasant, she was descended from the First Emperor and apparently if you followed the rule of the eldest child always inheriting, she was the proper heir. She had the power of the Emperor from the moment of coronation, but that didn't mean she was competent to rule. She became the puppet of her advisors and her reign was marked by discontent and noble in-fighting. Before Civil War could erupt, however, her daughter, Ursula II, married Ezio, the grandson of the last of the Golden Emperors, and things soon stabilized, though the Imperial Dynasty had fallen from the power and wealth of the Golden Emperors. The Empire was less centralized in this area and nobles had more power. She also thwarted the invasion of the Aristocrat, from Ascolais.
Sven III (3488 - 3521): During his reign, the Gnoll Wars began. Before that, he had finished the job of restoring the Imperial Roadnetwork, only to see it help his enemies invade. He died fighting them.
Historians have noted a dearth of work describing the Imperial perspective on the Gnoll Wars. Some opinions on why this is the case have been offered by later historians.
Basically, after Underwood, the war goes badly. VERY badly. The elves and dwarves keep from being wiped out thanks to Montblanc, but the Empire was on the verge of ruin. The Emperor and most of his family died in the Imperial Palace during the fall of Axis, although an heir survived. At this point, the current Archmage decides she has no choice and locks herself in her study with the tome the black college brought back from the planes. It isn't clear what she did, especially because she had to be scraped off the walls and ceiling and floor of her study afterwards, but all Gnoll-type magic within 500 miles of the continent ceased working, and stayed broke.
The Iron Sea went berserk and swallowed the navies of both powers. The Gnolls went mad. The wonders and wizard-devices of both sides failed. What was left was an broken Empire, tumbled back into a new dark age, mobs of peasants sullenly hunting infinite Gnoll deserters to lynch.