Use this as a compact tone guide when starting the campaign.
The war is over, but no one believes in peace. The roads of Midland are full of veterans, refugees, priests, merchants, and liars. The Band of the Hawk, once praised as saviors, has vanished into rumor. Some say they deserted. Some say the crown erased them. Some say they followed their white falcon into a place no map records.
A red stain has appeared in the land, and the people nearest to it no longer sleep well. Animals avoid old roads. Bells ring without hands. Priests argue over whether the signs are miracle, punishment, or heresy. Nobles send men to burn records before anyone asks the wrong questions.
The player characters begin as ordinary people caught in the first aftershocks of a hidden cosmic disaster. They do not need to know the truth yet. The truth is moving toward them.
The world should open with human fear: a missing patrol, a desperate priest, a refugee wagon, a forbidden route, or a war relic that should have stayed buried. The supernatural should appear slowly, first as wrongness, then as evidence, then as terror.
Core promise: this is not a story about stopping the Eclipse. It is a story about what people do after the sky has already closed.