The Great Divide

**The Great Divide** (formerly known as The Third Conquest on the Lauch front) was a war between the Lauch Empire (Lauchette and Loyalist Hallengard) and the Hale Alliance (Aedwin, Hallengard, Ostar and Greenfields), which declared independence.

## Origins of the conflict

After the truce ended, Edmund Warde, the governor of Aedwin, advised that the Emperor bring an end to the conflicts as the battles left The Hales in ruins and many farms torched, which lead to mass starvation. His suggestion was dismissed and the invasion was launched.

The first wave of invasion was majorly made up of Aedwinian and Hallengardian levies. While Hallengardians were very effective, very few Aedwinians could withstand the harsh environment. The tensions were already rising, as the citizens of Aedwin would often rather rebel against the Lauch recruiters, than to be forced into another devastating battle. It didn't take long for Edmund to deny the reinforcements and, shortly after, declare independence for the Empire.

## The Battles

The Aedwinians sank most of the Lauch ships overnight, which not only prevented further invasions to The Winterlands, but also trapped the remaining Lauchmen on The Hales, who chose to reside in Hallengard.

Emperor Simmonet feared that the rebels could ally with the Winterlanders, so he hastily sued for peace, and ended The White War.

Meanwhile King Edmund started to enlarge the number of the rebels. First he invited Kedran Herrenhold, the governor of Hallengard, who denied the call. However, the offer did cause unrest in Hallengard, resulting in the settlement splitting into two separate kingdoms. Ostar joined the Aedwinian uprising, and eventually The Guild of Greenfields rose up on the rebel side.

The first three Lauch waves landed successfully and defeated the Ostari and the Aedwinian defenders, despite their objective being to reinforce the loyalists in Hallengard rather than laying a siege. The invaders traveled north and occupied Greenfields, which was used as a retreat point.

After the defeats, Aedwin shifted strategies to naval warfare and started to produce more warships armed with ballistas which proved to be effective, as Aedwin won nearly all of the naval battles, and prevented most of further reinforcements from reaching the shores.

King Edmund used this opportunity to join the Hallengardian war in order to aid Free Hallengard. Although they were losing, the combined forces managed to push back the loyalists. Gorge Haberford made an offer to spare anyone who was willing to lay down their weapons. Many accepted the proposal, and only after few days Kedran surrendered and the Hallengardian civil war ended. Tragedy stroke shortly after, when King Edmund Warde was assassinated by the remnants of the loyalists.

The rest of the Lauch and loyalist regiments were forced to withdraw from Hallengard and retreat to Greenfields. Having no confidence in Greenfields' defensive capabilities, they executed the remainig members of the guild and the torched the town before marching south-- only to be met with the party of Perich Warde, the younger brother of Edmund, now the king of Aedwin.

The Aedwinian soldiers won the battle but the damage was already done. The Greenfields massacre and the death of Edmund reshaped the war and the Aedwinian focus; many captives were executed, while sparing and capturing Lauch levies became more rare.

With the new aggressive approach, it didn't take long for The Hales to organize a mass naval invasion. The sieges started as soon as they arrived, and after two months, Lauchette sued for peace.

## Aftermath

The alliance shortly dissolved afterwards, and the rivalry between Hallengard and Aedwin reignited. Ostar was vassalized by Aedwin.

Lauchette remained neutral with the new kingdoms of The Hales, although many speculate that they're just waiting for the right time to revive their empire.