War of the Holy League

The War of the Holy League was a conflict or series of conflicts mainly within the Dominion of Dvekmenia that also spilled out into the rest of Sossis, and involved actors from throughout Oecumene. It is usually taken to be the third and final phase of the Eusossian Wars of Religion, following the Wars of Enzimian Expansion. Like the previous wars of religion, while the War of the Holy League had a highly religious component to their motivation, it was also fueled by Enzimian political ambitions: Enzim sought to bring the Dvekmenu areas further into their socio-political influence.

Background

Once Enzimian rule and Furanist cultural hegemony had been consolidated in Eussis, Enzim turned westward towards Sossis. Since the founding of Furanism, missionaries had gone over to Sossis to attempt conversion of the peoples there, but during the Little Dark Age and the rapid expansion of Furanism, these missions became far larger, more frequent, and more successful. Especially during the Wars of Devolution various Dvekmenu nobles began to convert to the new religion and impose it on their subjects, and religious tension began to foment. The role of Furanism became a major obstacle to the creation of the Dominion of Dvekmenia, with both Furanists and pagans fearing domination of the dominion by the other faith, and this point became one of the major reasons for the extreme decentralisation of the state. A tenuous balance was struck, then, between the Furanists and the pagans that threatened to erupt into war several times, but ultimately held until the consolidated and rebounding Holy Enzimian Empire issued the Alvoradã Decree in 2461, pledging to defend the faith and its adherents worldwide. Upon the news of the decree, the tenuous peace in Dvekmenia began to unravel as Furanist polities began to consider war, taking the decree to mean the HEE would come to their aid against the pagans. Various polities within the dominion on both sides began raising and training armies, mostly illegally or through various obscure loopholes. Delegates from 35 Dvekmenu Furanist polities met in Enzim in Hierarch 2462 and signed the Holy League and Covenant for the Worldly Defence of the One True Faith (Varaso: La Lega e Convenho Sançãо pro la Defença Mondiala da la Crença Sola Vera/Dvekmenu: Ѭнылы Сеназъ и Соенъ длѧ Зимкала Вауцильа Едны Прейвы Шауцъ), establishing what became known as the Holy League and formed a formal alliance between these polities and the HEE. It was in its essence a defensive pact, but largely for political reasons, as both the Dvekmenus and the Enzimians expected and desired a war, but did not want to be seen as the aggressors to any third parties, especially Tira Vella. The Holy League established the largest inter-state alliance since the Tselyian Accords more than a thousand years prior.

War of the Holy League

Date: 2466–2499
Location: Dominion of Dvekmenia
Result: Treaty of Zapadloke

Belligerents

Holy League:

• Holy Enzimian Empire
• Furanist Princes:
• Grand Duchy of Lyuskovy
• Duchy of Freontsa
• Duchy of Ugriya
• Principality of Dresh
• County of Keylits
• County of Moren
• Other minor Dvekmenu polities
• Sunaid Alginate (after 2482)

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Anti-league Alliance:

• Dominion of Dvekmenia:
• Kingdom of Ros
• Duchy of Alvaleryn
• Duchy of Dzalbolya
• Duchy of Upper Dzabolya
• Principality of Kostovia
• County of Volga
• Barony of Myroschyov
• Barony of Saryshev
• Other minor Dvekmenu polities
• Areltya (after 2482)
• Plyuria
• Derash (until 2480)
• Vreziya (until 2482)
• Tira Vella (financial)

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Part of the Little Dark Age

The creation of the Holy League did not immediately lead to war, however. It would take a precipitating event, and on 6 Riverflood, 2466 a Furanist temple was burned down in the village of Izgra in the Duchy of Freontsa, near the border with the County of Volga, which was predominantly pagan. Duke Navar claimed pagans from Volga had burned down the temple and issued the Izgra Remonstrance, demanding Volga apprehend those responsible and hand them over for punishment. Volga remanded the order, stating there was no evidence the temple was burned by pagans, let alone pagans from Volga, and that, seeing as Izgra was within Freontsa, and therefore outside Volga’s jurisdiction, Freontsa would have to conduct an investigation and give Volga a list of suspects they believed responsible, at which point Volga would make their own inquiry into the listed persons. Freontsa took this, especially concerning Volga’s own inquiry before a handover of suspects, to be covering for the culprits. Freontsa began to hold that the culprits were from the nearby town of Viysk, and demanded that they be allowed to search Viysk for the culprits. Volga denied this request and stated they would hold their own investigation into the matter. Freontsa responded by illegally marching armed men into Volga to investigate Viysk without Volga’s permission. The emperor of Dvekmenia now intervened to attempt to arbitrate the situation. It was a difficult situation as the emperor was pagan, and thus Freontsa rebuffed every attempt at agreement put forward as being too sympathetic to Volga. The attempts at arbitration lasted several weeks when news broke that a Freontsan soldier had been killed by locals in Viysk. Freontsa immediately withdrew from the negotiations, calling the event an act of war on Volga’s part, and began an invasion of lower Volga on 2 Sunmarch, 2466. Very quickly, per the terms of the Holy League, the other Dvekmenu signatories declared war on Volga, and soon followed the Holy Enzimian Empire. As this happened, many other pagan states declared themselves against the Holy League and came to the defence of Volga. Very quickly Dvekmenia developed into two opposing sides: the Furanist Holy League, and the rapidly coalescing pagan alliance. The emperor further tried to arbitrate the situation, but it very quickly grew out of control. He attempted to stay neutral as long as he could, but likely in part due to his own pagan beliefs, and as well because of the involvement of the foreign HEE, he sided against the Holy League. On 23 Sunmarch, 2466, he issued a writ of prohibition demanding the cession of hostile activity and disbanding of armies on the part of the members of the Holy League. Due to the severe limits of the imperial office, he was not able to issue a formal declaration of war against the Holy Enzimian Empire; however, he was able to declare all Enzimian subjects enemies of the realm. With that, assistance to the Enzimians became a crime of treason. Most polities not in the Holy League had either formally declared by this point, or soon formally declared, war against the members of the Holy League and the HEE.

Aftermath and Effects

The war was finally brought to a close in 2499 with the Treaty of Zapadloke, signed in the city of Zapadloke in the Duchy of Alvaleryn. The dominion kept its emperor, independent of Enzim, and nominally of the same rank and prestige as the Enzimian Emperor, though in actuality the position was now largely powerless. This now largely ceremonial nature of the emperor can be seen as the final step of the Wars of Devolution, establishing the various states within the dominion as de facto independent and sovereign. The Enzimian Sanhedrin was also subject to and affected by this and lost a great deal of power outside of Enzim itself. Though such ideas were slower to be implemented in Eussis, the Treaty of Zapadloke served to create the modern concept of sovereignty.