Old Ones

The Old Ones are a mysterious, old race of beings that existed during the First Era and have since disappeared, leaving evidence of their existence behind. Most of the knowledge modern mages know about the Old Ones comes from the ruins of their cities and recovered artifacts.

Appearance
The Old Ones are believed to be humanoid in appearance, surmised from a variety of artwork recovered within the ruins of Disjoint Cities. The artworks in question depict a group of humanoid beings with no distinct features or shape that mages believe to be the Old Ones.

No living visual confirmation of the Old Ones has been made; neither living nor dead Old Ones have been discovered, so their exact appearance remains unknown. As no evidence of surviving Old Ones exists, mages believe they may never know exactly what the Old Ones looked like.

History
Very little is known about the history of the Old Ones. Based on the dating of their cities and artifacts, mages believe the Old Ones began to build construct their real-space cities approximately 6000 years prior to the Third Era, but it is unknown when they gained sentience or even appeared on Phallica. Over the next two millennia, the Old Ones began to create fascinating technology that utilized magic to a level of power and efficiency beyond modern standards. Some of their creations survived to this day, and are viewed as great relics of power. Despite relentless studying of these objects, mages have yet to recreate or understand what makes them so powerful.

The Old Ones initially inhabited surface surface cities of which little remains, buried under millennia of growth and change. During their burst of technology, the Old Ones found the means to construct Disjoint Cities, sprawling settlements constructed in separate realities. Why the Old Ones desired to reside outside of real-space is unknown; mages hypothesize there may have been something the Old Ones were attempting to avoid, or perhaps they did so simply because they had the technology to do so.

Some time after the occurrence of The Great Opening, the Old Ones seemed to disappear from Phallica. Cities were turned to ruins, either by the Old Ones themselves or another force. Not a single Old One, living or dead, has been discovered, and mages believe either the Old Ones have gone extinct, or perhaps hiding beyond current means of reach or detection.