The Riptide
Do you know that if you put a frog into a boiling pot, it will try its best to escape. But if you put it when the water is still lukewarm and then increase the heat slowly, the poor animal will not notice what is happening and will boil alive. The riptide had the exact same effect on us. Something was wrong, but it was so slow that we failed to notice the change until it was too late and the Riptide has boiled all of us.
The Riptide was as progressive as The Great Tide was explosive. The decline of magic was a process that spanned decades, perhaps a full century. The Leylines carved by the Great Tide were still pulsating, powering the impenetrable defences of the Land of Mages. What they took for a downfall in their own abilities, whipping themselves for becoming too complacent was in truth outside their control.
Losing grasp
The magical might of mages came from the ambient mana, empowered in the presence of Leylines, but the outcome of their sorcery was defined by their mastery over this fleeting energy. The first sign of the Riptide was the increasing failures of complex rituals. At critical moments, threads of mana vanished or collapsed, despite the mages being masters of their craft.
Then, outbursts of raw mana were gradually reduced, with engines slowing down, but never to the point of failing. The blame was put on faulty old equipment that dragged the mechanisms of complex machineries. Finally, more and more basic spells failed too, until the profound connection between the mages and the essence of magic was permanently severed.
It feels like both of my limbs have been cut off. All I know how to do is through the use of magic. Imagine having to learn breathing from scratch, except it now burns with each inspiration, and freeze your throat with each exhalation.
The fall of the Land of Mages
Eventually, the protection of the Land of Mages failed too. For hundreds of years, it has been under constant attack from the Inquisition. The magical protection never faltered once, thus the mages began to ignore the assault, treating it as an occasional entertainment.
When the first boulder crashed into the cliffside instead of dissolving into the air, the weary siege troops were suddenly filled with a newfound motivation. They climbed the thousand stairs leading to the plateau to find the fabled land, full of dismal mages vainly trying to fix their crumbling kingdom. Clad with complex contraptions going wild and impossible buildings collapsing onto the ground, the destruction of the mage's country was well underway before the invaders put the first foot on the plateau.
They slaughtered the defenseless mages overnight, unmaking in a few hours the work of hundreds of years. They took few prisoners, if only, in their bloodthirsty rage. The rare survivors who managed to escape their burning home are now forced to live in exile, hiding their origins or taking shelter in the scarce places where magic is still present.
Sanctuaries
Some corners of the world seem to have been spared by the Riptide. For the most part, they are locations where Leylines formed a knot that kept them active even after the quasi-disappearance of magic. Though weakened, they maintain mana in the environment of defined areas, called Sanctuaries by the remaining mages.
Some sanctuaries are organized into communities, where the few survivors share the remnants of their lost power, while in others a ruler prevents their kindred from entering for fear of losing more than they already have.
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