Quote Originally Posted by AlohaRover View Post
Thanks for the feedback so far.

I guess I just want some bit of backstory so that the micro events make some sort of sense.

i guess its the concept of great evil that I need to keep in mind. I need to STOP thinking about real world events.

My current thought is-
Every 500-1000 years someone attempts to take over the entire world and the battles are so huge that vast areas are wiped out or in their rise to power they go just a little too far in their magic and blow everything up (think nuclear winter or meteor impact type of event) so years of no sun almost every thing dies. Small pockets of the different races start to make a come back and spread.
Someone rediscovers an old power and the cycle repeats.
Planetary reset...
Good aspects: allows societies to wipe each other off and explain lots of nice ruins, etc.
Bad aspects: It took nearly 1,000 years to get from the Iron Age to the Medieval period. "Nuclear Winter" = pre bronze age. You will reset society back to nomads.
Conclusion: 1,000 years is too short a cycle. A 2,500 year cycle may work better (even accounting for magic).

Sentient Beings
Have as many sentient beings as you need, the Gods are creative suckers.

Common Causes for Empires Dying
There are generally 3 main causes for the end of an empire
1. Another new empire with good Generals (see The Ottoman Empire, the War of the Roses, end of the Teutons, Egypt vs Alexander, etc)
2. Getting old, socially sick (think Romans) and slowly collapsing (100-200 year death)
3. Getting scrubbed out by an unforseen tragedy (disease wipes out whole cities crippling economies, major resources propping up the empire run out, droughts cripple the populace and consequently cash flows out of the empire to buy food)