When Grand Duke Gaspard attacked Empress Celene of Orlais in an attempt to claim the throne, we assumed business across the country would suffer greatly. To counter propaganda suggesting she was overly tolerant of the elves, Celene was drawn to crush an elven uprising in Halamshiral, and Gaspard's attack there destroyed her forces and cut her off from Val Royeaux. She escaped back to the Orlesian capital (with a hundred mad stories explaining how), at which point we started closing down the family shops, expecting Gaspard's army to carve a bloody path through the Heartlands and up north toward cities loyal to Celene.