The Magnapuri Empire, or simply "The Empire", is the largest and most prominent state of the Elfborn there has ever been on Cursum, so much so that the calendar favoured by most nations, the Imperial Standard, marks its start date as 0 YM, the founding of the city of Magnapur. Magnapur was founded by Magnus Primus and a collective of elves on the Darkward side of the Strait of Hanavadi, in the ruins of a great lizardfolk city (formally owned by Genida). It is poorly recorded if this city had been ruined before Magnus Primus arrived in the area, or if the abandonment was somewhat influenced by the elves. At this period in history, most elves in the region lived in small local settlements or nomadic tribes, but Magnus Primus used his powerful sorcery to sculpt great white marble towers and palaces from once ruined buildings and ziggurats. Many flocked to join him on his great endeavour, becoming what is known in more modern times the High Elves, though some, suspicious of the great sorcerer choose to take their families and lands away from the ever growing city, later becoming known as the Wood Elves. To this day the ruler of the Empire is referred to both by name and by title as the Magnus, though some female rulers have taken the alternative Magna.
It is recorded that Magnus Primus cared for little outside his city, save for collecting tribute, primarily in the form of food, from various smaller settlements around the strait. This did not last for his successor however. His grandsons, Magnus the Magnificent and Magnus the Younger both branched out, building more cities in Magnapur's image, though neither could quite achieve the greatness of Magnapur. Magnus the Magnificent came close with Pundrapur, at least initially, but his failure to account for the more extreme weather conditions led to great flooding and ruin until the city had been significantly rebuilt at least three times. As such, the centre of government stayed settled in the marble city, where it has resided for at least a thousand years.
Some of Magnapur's rulers took a distinctly different approach of expanding the Empire. Magnus the Seafarer sailed Counteroundwards and founded settlements on much of the coastline Counter-Darkward of the capital. Others were far more bloody. Magna the Subjugator conquered vast swathes of land from assorted Wood Elf factions to the Darkward of Pundrapur, enslaving many tens of thousands. It was under him that the true slave caste of Magnapur was founded. Whilst not strictly abolished or regulated, in the past most of the population had been free men, with perhaps a few indentured servants owned by the upper echelons of nobility. Now however, there was a great number of slaves, growing continually as successive rulers enslaved or replaced their previous tributary states. Magnapur also conquered much land from Genida, pushing the lizardfolk back deep into the forests and jungles. However, they never captured a large population of lizardfolk slaves, either due to the genocides of Magna the Quarterer, or the highly successful liberation missions of Gor-il-soq.
Eventually, in around 380 YM, the slave population significantly outnumbered the free high elves, causing great concern for the rulers of a mass revolt. Magnus the Binder presented a solution, a great work of magic that captured the true names of all those born in servitude to the Empire. He additionally founded the Fleshweavers, a cabal of wizards and unsavoury scientists who twisted the very bodies of the slaves to their will. Through selective breeding, as if trying to birth the best livestock, and liberal application of body altering magic they bred the younger races of the Elfborn. Short strong dwarves to work as miners, masons, quarriers and smiths. Cheerful, weak and creative halflings as servants and cooks who were too small and weak to overpower their masters. Delicate, precise and ingenious gnomes to work as artisans both arcane and mundane. Large, strong goliaths for the heaviest manual labour. Some were kept as close to the original elves as possible, save perhaps made more beautiful, to perform more sordid tasks, becoming known as Dark Elves for the practice of sneaking them into prestigious homes through lightless underground tunnels. The most numerous though were humans, average and adaptable to act as labourers, primarily in agriculture but in any other unspecialised task. While the other races were shorter lived than the Elves, out of desires to keep them subservient, and to not breed a race superior to its creators, humans were made to be the shortest lived. This was both done out of fear of their numbers, and for their use as fertiliser for the fields.
Not all of the Fleshweavers' creations were successful however. An attempt to create an effective slave army on the orders of Magna the Bloody backfired multiple times, with the creation of the Orcs, Goblinoids and Ogres. Each time a race bred for conflict struggled, either with its refusal to follow orders from weaker individuals, its violence in peacetime, or simply an unruliness leading to internal fighting. The Fleshweavers tried to exterminate their failures, but many escaped to the borderlands on the edge of the Empire. As such, by the 700s the cabal had started to die out, and fewer and fewer were being trained in their methods. With the slave races created, they were considered no longer to be necessary. The final nail in their coffin was the founding of the Mindweavers in 768 YM. The Mindweavers solved the issue of an effective military not by breeding and sculpting flesh but by manipulating the minds of existing Elfborn slaves, creating the Broken Men. Broken Men are created via a psychological and psychic mental breaking, removing their ability to do much more than follow orders, including their ability to feel pain, leaving them remorseless killing machines. Learning from their predecessors, the Mindweavers planned to avoid obsolescence by making their Broken Men products eunuchs, so there would always be a need for more to be created in future.
In 1011 YM, the great work of Magnus the Binder was destroyed by four rebellious slaves who burnt the Book of Names .
Magnapur divides its Languages into High Magnapuri (spoken by the masters) and Low Magnapuri (spoken by the slaves), though Low Magnapuri has many regional variants across the Empire. Similarly, slaves worship the Gods of the Slaves while the wealthy worship the Gods of the Masters.