The Age of Towers

After the ice had melted, there was a focus on rebuilding, and the forefront of this was the practitioners of magic through out Iroralis.
It saw new technology being invented and new schools of magic being uncovered.
The city of Verrim sprang up practically overnight, and its leaders, The Masked Council, held great ambition so much so they forcibly took control of the leadership of the continent, and made Verrim the seat of their power - thus beginning the Age of Towers. Any city that apposed the rule, was quickly crushed under a torrent of magic. The lights within settlements for many were snuffed out, and this creeping brutality lasted more than nine years. Slavery of the less common and more monstrous races, as well as those less magically inclined become more prevalent and a booming business within. The poor were also forced outside of city walls and into slums, they were also taxed heavily and conscripted into the armies of the land. Also during this period, religious freedoms were stifled and anyone showing magical potential outside of the selected families was either killed or locked away.
By far, the darkest days of the Age of Tower were towards the end. They introduced tactics and magics to fuel armies beyond human limits, leaving their bodies altered and mutated by foul, dark, necromantic magics. Their minds became warped and twisted to favour mindless bloodshed and domination. The Masked Council's forces became the perfect weapons of war, their ranks blessed by the unholy touch of the Betrayer God known as the Strife Emperor.