Though the era following the Great War brought relative peace, it had come at a terrible cost to the once-united peoples of Accipita & Faucon. Yet it was not the heartlands of Faucon nor the mountain reaches of Accipita that suffered harshest in the War, but rather the Halcyon Midlands - the great valley that cleaves them apart.

A channel practically unbroken from north to south, bordered by twin ranges of mountains, Halcyon has held both strategic value and fertile farmland owing to its place in the center of the westerly winds. To the east lay the ancestral Faucon plains, to the west, the arid highlands of Accipita. Save for the faultline upon which the Valley is set, the Midlands could have been a peaceful place to live.

But as would happen between feuding kingdoms and their descendants, strategic positions and hard geographical borders make for long standing contests and unrest. Though the Crusades had brought violence upon the valley before, the fracturing of the Empire did nothing to stop it. Centuries later, by the time of the Great War, the Midlands were as much ancestral battlegrounds as they were prime farmland to both Hawk and Falcon.

The long years of the Great War had cost both alike greatly - but none paid more than the peoples of Halcyon.

Faucon missionaries and Hawk humanitarians alike would grow common within the region post-war, lending aid to a land caught in the crossfire - a land alienated from both sides. The pacifist Principality of Halcyon would arise. In a time of healing, a time of cooperation, even Falcon and Hawk nationals grew to tolerate eachother in the Midlands - and eventually, would come to call it their home.

It could only be the middle ground itself that found true peace, of course.

Within Halcyon, things are often simpler, contained, as if sheltered by the mountains. Beyond them, the world moves on, and powers greater than any before move to mobilize in a new era of warfare, and people tend to choose sides. To live in a different world, you are going to have to act - and as the Hawks side with the Union, the Falcons follow the Federation, and ancient rivalries burn again, Halcyon looks to be caught in the crossfire once again.

Some people see the winds change. Unrest builds and chafes against shortsighted delusions of peace.

The International Peace Coalition itself intervenes, but when you send Falcons in Dove clothing to try and take Halcyon, all that seems to happen is people get driven from their homes. Refugees are cleared from the midlands amidst a blunder of a stabilization while others take up arms to defend their homes.

As Faucon bears tides of refugees, a trend emerges - those that flee are Faucon nationals. Those that stay are not.

Some would call it coincidence - for Falcon, it's an excuse.

The Faucon League declares war on the Accipitan Republic, calling their supposed ploy to annex the Midlands, and Hawk responds in kind to Falcon. Their forces are mustered, and as the borders are crowded, the Doves are caught right in the middle as the Halcyon Crisis begins.

Their objective: Retake Halcyon.