The ancient wars between the Others and the Dwarves & Elves

20000 years ago the elves & dwarves encounter a new race, the "Others" who live in a type of magic bubble & which could not survive in the elf/dwarven bubbles, which they tried to get along with intially, but eventually led to strife & major war (especially after the barbazu appear). The elves found a way to push their high magic bubble across the east until it left the lands.

16000 years ago the elves & dwarves fight the barbazu (their beards are tentacles) & their scarier tentacled masters when their powerful bubble pressed in from the west, & 80% of both populations die in the victory. The barbazu are the shock-troops, capable of raiding into the elf/dwarf normal magic bubble & appear in the tunnels of the dwarves & settlements of the elves.

Humans started appearing around 8-9000 years ago.

Ten of the most powerful elves & dwarves who survived gathered the super powerful magic items (from barbazu & elves/dwarves) to dispose of them. Are casting a ritual at a city/fortress called P'Tolus (a major site of dwarven/elven learning where they learned each others' magics and invented things). When people return to see what happened (100's of years later) these 10 and 200 others have all disappeared & now there was a huge lake that wasn't there before & a huge spire jutting 1/2 mile into the sky. It's made of stone, but the dwarves don't feel Toreg in it.

Human city near spire, called A'Spire, was one of the earliest human settlements, ~500 years old. Now the largest of human cities in the settlements. None of the dwarves in Janate have been there, but they know that some dwarves live there.

300 years ago the "elven cataclysm" happens.

First orcs encountered after this.