Excerpt from "2nd Owl War of Nefetria"

The arcanist guilds of the 2nd age had achieved high political power going into the 2nd Owl War of 1281, largely because of their use as military leaders and soldiers in the first war's battles. Some city-states at the time were even ruled by the guild heads, a practice shunned today because of chaos that ensued from their rule. This led to instability when important magical progress began to be made in the Syrinx nation.
The Syrinx nation, made on a large floating island over the area now known as the lost sea, had held unstable relationships since the ending of the first war. In an attempt to force the cooperation of the Syrinx people, heavy trade embargos had been placed on them. However, a high affinity for magic allowed them to easily trade with Gaza, who at the time laid outside the jurisdiction of many of the great kingdoms of the time. Because of this, the Syrinx magic continued to prosper and grow while the human's below desperately tried to keep up. It is lost to time what spells were known and taught commonly in that day and age, though it is rumored in some old texts, the validity of which remains largely untested and even disputed by some circles of scholars, that the ability of teleportation and mass control of the environment was not only possible but done regularly.
Eventually the desire to trade with the floating nation came to a head, with city-states demanding the embargos be lifted. In an attempt to appease the magical guilds while not appearing weak, the kingdoms instead declared war on the floating nation, hoping to take it over for themselves. The Syrinx being the aggressors in the first war was used as justification that they as a people could not be trusted, and most of the war front was run on propaganda of the owlfolk.
Fourteen years after the war began, humans were close to claiming victory, and so the Syrinx, in a last act of desperation, allowed much of their floating nation to crash into the sea. The effects of this large magical essence to this day makes the inlet on Nefetrai, now called the lost sea, unusable by ships. All that is left of the old floating nation is the Island of the Oracle, acting as a sort of reservation of Syrinx who have to this day refused to join with modern society.
Battles continued on for another 2 years before the Syrinx surrendered unconditionally. This marks the end of the 2nd Owl Wars, and would set the tone for the largest of the magical wars to follow in the years to come, The Final Conflict, which would go on to mark the end of the 2nd age.