Project Dominion was an arcane weapon developed by the nation of Troverth during the first Realm War. its purpose was to pacify enemy armies to allow for easy victory, but its true capabilities were much more sinister.
Project Dominion spawned off another Troverth research inititive, Project Overlord, which was an attempt to summon and bind a Demon Lord. Much of the components used for Project overlord would be repurposed for Project Dominion. The project was spawned by the Troverthian arcanist Mae Tadako, one of the lead researchers on Project Overlord. She surmised that one could use the same magic they used to bind demons on mortals in a way that would remove a mortal's ability to enact violence. To prove her theory, she created a small prototype device which she tested on herself. Seeing the results, the Troverthian Prince Feng Yuhan commissioned the creation of an engine that could enact its magic realm wide. His intentions were to use it on enemy armies, while Mae Tadako's intentions were to use it on the entire realm.
To acquire the necessary components for the project, Prince Feng Yuhan connected Mae Tadako with the leonin merchant Don Diego de Ladrones who began to smuggle rare artifacts across the Phantom Front. Some items of note included the spectacles of an ancient vampyre prince, the fossil of a Mind Flayer, Aboleth mucus, a Gith sword, and the wand of a powerful enchanter. these artifacts would either be used as pieces of the arcane engine or subjects for research into enchantment magic. Don Diego was also responsible to supplying large amounts of ether, a rare and powerful arcane liquid, that would be used to power Project Dominion. But as the project continued, Don Diego would resort to instead supplying Troverth with unrefined ether, which was cheaper to obtain and easier to find. The only downsides were that unrefined ether is highly reactive, and to get the ether, Don Diego stole it from Glendoveer and ended up on the elves' radar, leading to the information about Project Dominion getting leaked to the larger continent.