The colonies established on the Ecliptic Archipelago by Primus quickly grew thanks to their prosperity. Unfortunately, Primus was not prepared for this growth and failed to supply adequate food to the colonies. After several years of being undersupplied food and with no communication from the mainland, the Ecliptic colonies started to farm for themselves. Once they were able to supply themselves, the colonies cut off their ore tributes as protest for the poor handling of the situation.
Prince Hippomane responded quickly, mustering a fighting force and sending it to attack the colonies. The unexpected assault was initially successful, but the colonial populace quickly formed guerilla units, and in a few months the fighting had bogged down into a vicious war of attrition. Despite the horrific news coming back from the front, Hippomane ordered the forces to push on, confident in the Primus military to conquer the colonies. The populations of several cities and provinces of Primus found the continuing war to be increasingly offensive.
One and a half years after the start of the Archipelago War, Porta Liber was the first city to declare its withdrawal from Primus. Within two weeks, before Primus had even formulated an official response, the three southernmost provinces of Primus declared themselves to be the United Republic of Phthalos, declaring the sub-government that had been developing to be their new ruling body. Though the Schism began quickly, it would take until two years into the war for the final city states to declare their independence.
Primus had been nearly cut in half by the Schism, and with a significant portion of its fighting force leaving to their now-independent homelands, Hippomane was forced to concede the war. The colonies of the Ecliptic Archipelago quickly formed a confederation, calling themselves the Federated States of Ecliptica. For Primus, the devastating result of the war brought up questions as to the validity of the monarchy, and soon a reform was forced upon Hippomane to hand over a significant portion of his power to a generally-elected parliament.