The Age of Affliction, or 7th Age, is said to have begun with the outbreak of the Black Sam epidemic, followed promptly by the Clavic Empire's coming into power. This is due to the series of calamities that marked the "beginning of the end" of the world, which includes a devastating plague, mass infertility, the brutal rise of a dictator, starvation, lawlessness, and the emergence of a debilitating new drug called adoxipham.
Some who are more optimistic refer to it as the Age of Influence instead, owing to the simultaneous rise of a new way of thought that permeated the political and cultural landscape. This new wave of thinking, called Influism, inspired uprisings, revolutions, secessions, and entirely new forms of government to supplant many of the ruling dynasties.
It is the current age in the Everwind Series.