Thanks Juggernaut; I pretty much have been thinking along those sorts of lines myself. The people of the empire are pretty new to the world, having fled an ancient menace through magical means (sort of Riftwar-esque), and this civilization was long gone before they arrived. I'm thinking they were very powerful though, and would have built things that stood the test of time. So yeah, I'm leaning toward the intact (at least mostly) city as well.