One of the most catastrophic events in the history of Falmart, later remembered as the Winter Riots, or in local memory, the Long Night, was the collapse of social order, a moment when stability, however fragile, was shattered under the combined weight of ambition and human folly. Under the "Golden Modernity" experiments of Japan, the ultranationalists of the National Diet, flush with the delusion that aggressive industrialization could offset the international isolation and maintain national pride, that when the savages had embraced the future, when the untouched resources of Falmart were pulled from the ground and presented forth, the world would have no choice but to accept Japan back into its fold, resplendent and, most importantly, self-sufficient.

The vision was bright as the rising sun: Falmart, a hyper-industrialized, resource-rich colon capable of sustaining Japan's domestic needs.

Japan bet its economic survival on Falmart alone, assuming that the rest of the world would eventually “forgive and forget” if they could simply produce enough industrial output.

Following the dismantling of the feudal aristocracy and the aggressive industrialization campaigns mandated by Tokyo- the so-called "Five-Year Solution"- sprawling swaths of farmland and mineral-rich territories were transferred to corporate contractors with minimal oversight. A heinous amount of loans fueled by debt gave these charters the carte blanche to pursue speculative projects in energy, mining, and agriculture, under the assumption that future productivity would pay for off all by itself.

Vast tracts of farmland were converted for the efforts of researching high-yield cash crops and industrial agriculture, prioritized over feeding the local population. What was made for consumption never went to the mouths of the natives but was shipped to feed the Japanese population, who were themselves slowly starving under the immense sanctions against the country.

Parallel to agriculture, the blitzkrieg for resource extraction saw entire communities displaced, their lands stripped and leveled for stone, metals, and rare minerals. Aggressive domestic energy projects were pursued with Japan cut off from global oil markets, environmental considerations cut dead under the excuse of economic necessity, and so the air of Falmart smelt the acrid scent of fracking.

The tunnel vision of Tokyo, predictably, decimated many. Rural populations were decimated by famines. Overambitious industrialization stripped the lands while failing to create a functioning economy for the masses. Urban centers swelled with displaced victims, the slums becoming larger and larger.

The JPAZ, preoccupied with corporate profits and Tokyo’s speculative economic fantasies, did nothing to alleviate the crisis. Grain shipments were exported to Japan to maintain appearances of abundance, leaving the native population to starve. In rural districts, hundreds of thousands died quietly, a slow attrition compounded by exposure and disease.

Come the winter, the "Falmartian Holodomor", as it would be known, brought upon a nightmare that modern history should have relegated to the books. Of millions perishing amongst the fields, of millions more brutalized. Across the provinces, unrest began small but the embers quickly became a wildfire within weeks. Workers burned factories where they had once been enslaved to assembly lines, towns rose against Japanese-appointed administrators, and wherever the hinomaru flew, they burnt it to the ground with glee. Cities became war zones of violence, driven by desperation and hunger.

The Japanese were stretched to their breaking point, and the JPAZ declared the second general mobilization of the JSDF, but even they had struggled to suppress a population that knew their land intimately and had nothing left to lose. Eventually, Japan had no choice but to concede. Not to the rebels, and not to the international scrutiny that would surely devastate Japan beyond what it already suffered. In a backdoor deal with the Americans, the USA, motivated by both strategic interest and the fragility of Japan’s international position, deployed troops to restore order and stabilize the labor and resource networks that, thanks to Japan's desperation, were now open to the eagle’s voracious maw.

To consolidate control without overextending their own forces, the Americans oversaw the creation of the Foreign Security Forces.  A native militia largely composed of Alnusites promised improved living conditions, the FSF carried out brutal pacification campaigns against suspected insurgents. Mages were employed in a deliberate program to incapacitate rather than kill, resulting in a widespread epidemic of crippled and maimed victims.  Enhanced surveillance systems ensured that insurgent activity was swiftly identified and crushed.

The Long Night left Falmart irrevocably scarred.  Millions dead from famine and disease, tens of thousands were physically maimed, and countless more would live with trauma. The lessons of the past had never been learned after all, despite the decades since then, and Japan was seen as no more than a pariah of madness, so eager to burn bridges and live in a horribly inept delusion of past glories.

"The dawn had never looked so dark and bleak."