After years of internal tension, the weakening authority of the Crown of Falinor in the face of competing noble factions is made apparent by a declaration of independence from the Okyran Dukedoms, with most other tributary states following suit. An open war of rebellion breaks out between these tributaries and the Kingdom, complicated by widespread peasant uprisings and a tangled web of intrigue and assassination within the Kingdom that has all but escalated into full-scale Civil War. The Golden Era of Falinor in the West seems to have come to an end.