The Lost Era

The Lost Era was a theory put forward by scholars to explain the presence of certain magical artifacts, like Soul Stealer, and races such as the Dakriel that existed at the start of the Mage Wars but were too advanced to be created using the primitive magic of the time. According to the Lost Era principle, a second age of magic happened between the Fall of Roads and the Age of Darkness. At the time it was proposed, Antiquity was believed to have lasted only a few thousand years at most, and the "fall of roads" was thought not to have been a cataclysm.

History

The Lost Era hypothesis was put forward during the Golden Age and persisted for some time. While it never gained universal acceptance, numerous scholars believed they were "Close" to proving it once and for all. A key element was the lack of a firm limit on the Age of Darkness: with potentially several thousand years to account for, there were considerable possibilities.

Eventually, the theory fell out of favor after several prominent historians of the day failed to make it stick. It was forgotten and re-discovered several times, and finally put to rest during the Second Age when several prominent artefacts were dated back to the Mythical Age, or pre-antiquity.