Steam Engine
The end of the dominance of magic and the rise of technology can be attributed to multiple factors: technological, political, demographic, and philosophical.
The thing most scholars point to as the start of the Industrial Revolution and the Modern Era is the proliferation of steam technology.
The invention of the steam engine allowed factories to proliferate regardless of natural energy sources. This meant that production could scale and expand at a scale never seen in history before. This, combined with other factories, inevitably lead to the downfall of the old Magocratic Empires the rise of modern nation states.
Access & Availability
Outside of the various Elven Realms and the remaining Magocracies, steam engines are widely available though are considered to be largely obsolete. Power plants still use steam, but in the form of modern steam turbines.
Industrially, machines tend to powered electrically from a power grid rather than from a local power source. Though, with growing environmental concerns, some factories do have green energy solutions on site such as solar or wind.
Discovery
The first steam engine is disputed. The Gnomes created a device that used steam to create an artificial vacuum for pumping water out of mine tunnels, but used geothermal heat for its boiler.
Others created different piston steam engines, but they tended to be costly, inefficient, and could only be used for pumping liquids.
The most important inventor in popularizing steam technology was a [Dreneth] Inventor by the name of [Gustav Watt]. He developed a more efficient rotary engine that could see itself used in any factory that needed a gear turned. From lathes to looms, this technology would be implemented throughout the world and act as a driving force of the Industrial Revolution.
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