The Hundred-Year War between Midland and Tudor shaped the entire political and military environment before the Eclipse. Generations grew up under the shadow of war. Mercenary companies became essential. Fortresses, borderlands, supply routes, and noble alliances mattered as much as royal declarations.
Midland was exhausted by the long conflict. Tudor remained a major rival and military power. Many ordinary people knew only taxes, conscription, food shortages, wounded soldiers, and shifting borders. This makes the post-Eclipse world feel unstable even before supernatural events are considered.
The war created the conditions for Griffith's rise. The Band of the Hawk began as a mercenary force and became one of Midland's most important military assets. Their victories gave common soldiers and nobles alike a reason to believe in Griffith's dream. Their later disappearance therefore leaves a massive emotional and political hole.
For the campaign, the war's end should not feel like peace. It should feel like the battlefield has moved into society. Veterans are unemployed. Forts are damaged. Widows seek compensation. Nobles hide failures. Mercenaries look for new contracts. Bandits multiply. Officials want records erased. Holy See agents want moral explanations for worldly collapse.
Use war residue everywhere: abandoned camps, unpaid soldiers, broken supply wagons, contested farms, old siege tunnels, missing patrols, and villages that supported the wrong army.