Alban crusades

Alban Crusades
Situation in 1217
Date 1217–1250 Location Garima Ostrozava Drevstran Brumen
Belligerents
Holy Audonian Empire	Ostrozava Valdavia	Lushyodorstag Waldreich

The Alban Crusades were a series of crusades proclaimed during the 12th and 13th centuries by the Fabrian Church and Holy Audonian Emperor Louis I against nontrinitarian heresies around Lake Kulpanitsa, mainly Albanism (from which the crusades take their names) but also the Docetic beliefs which had spread from the Lushyodortag to the Holy Audonian Empire, especially in the Gariman regions of Morinia and Abrodita where the faith was known as the “Lush Heresy”.

Ultimately, while the Crusades failed their main geopolitical goals, thwarted to the north by the rise of the Valek Dynasty and blocked in the east by the alliance of the Lushyodorstag and Waldreich, they did lead to a great cultural shift in modern day Garima, where religious persecutions and destruction provoked by one side or another led to the complete disparition of non-Fabrian communities either through conversions, massacres, or deportation. Additionally, communities in modern Transkarminia took up Fabrianism as a result of the crusade, setting the stage for centuries of religious differences and wars in the region.

Background

Inside the Aulic Empire

Holy Aulian Emperor Louis I ascended the throne in 1213, at a time when the empire had been weakened by civil war. Louis sought to better unite the empire under his rule by way of subjugating the eastern provinces, which were neither wholly Aulian nor wholly Catholic. Garima was rife with heretics who practiced Albanism, and the lands beyond Garima were even stronger in their heresies. Hoping to not only expand his power into Garima but also conquer the neighboring lands to the north and east, Louis launched the Alban Crusade with the blessings of Pope Martin I in 1217.

The Crusades

Lusatian Crusade

Since their arrival and installation in the Furodomark, the Lushyods have practiced piracy, extortion, and depredation on their neighbours and other countries surrounding lake Kulpanitsa. Their main opponents and victims were the eastern fringes of the Aulic Empire, from Polnitsia to Suedia. But Lush bands were also often employed by these same states as mercenaries, be it on water or on land. It’s notably these mercenaries, who often ended up playing important roles in the military gestion and protection of the “Gariman Principalities”, who spread with them Docetism.

These Lushyods and Docetics populations, numbering in the thousands at most, were quickly stripped of their privileges and forced to either leave the Principalities or convert to Fabrianism. Those who didn’t convert or left ended up forming roaming bands of highwaymen and raiders, who plundered the Abrodita, Morinia, Suedia, or Mosela before being chased by Crusaders. Many did not return to the Lushyodorstag but instead found refuge in the hills of Lusatia where they became the allies and vassals of the Duchy. Indeed, the Lusatians, often the eastern bulwark of the Empire and first victim of the Lush but profoundly Emendatic at heart, had rebelled in anger against the Ordo Praedictorum’s promulgation against Heresies. An attempt at organizing an alliance between the Duchy and its ancient enemy of the Lushyodorstag went nowhere and despite a long resistance organized first by the Duke, then after his defeat by the Emendatic Monasteries themselves, Lusatia would ultimately be forced to accept the presence of predictors on its lands and to banish all Emendatic monks within its borders.

The long and exhausting Lusatian Crusade resulted in the division of both Morinia and Lusatia among the crusaders. Docetics and Albans would not be the only victims of the Audonians: in their wakes: jews were expropriated and deported as well, forced to flee the Empire. They would join the cohorts of refugees leaving for the Lushyodorstag where they would be settled in Military-Colonies by the Lushyods on the border with the Audonian Empire.

But soon, the crusaders' attention shifted further eastward as the chaos left by the Crusades allowed the Lushyods to organise and perform large-scale raids unimpeded. To once and for all protect the Empire from this threat, Pope Martin I published new Promulgations against the Docetics of the Lushyodorstag but also against the Aletheists of Sudentor and Waldreich as well.

Sudentor Crusade

Audonian crusaders and priests enter Sudendorf

See also: Crusade of Sudentor and Holy Realm of Sudentor

The victory of the Gothic Kingdoms over the Lushyods of Viragstag cemented gothic rule of the lands that comprise modern day Brumen. Two Gothic powers dominate the region: Waldreich to the west and Sudentor to the east, each with dozens of vassal kingdoms and city-states under its dominion, whose majority of population adhere to the Aletheic faith. Their adherence to the Aletheic Church placed the Gothic kingdoms within the sights of the Audonians. Though Waldreich became the undisputed hegemon of the Goths, the Sudentor remained steadfast and strong in asserting its continued independence from its neighbor. Though smaller in size and population, Sudentor augments its troops with foreign mercenary troops primarily from the Lushyod kingdoms. In spite of this, Sudentor faced two pressure points on its eastern and western borders. To the west it was locked in a constant struggle to maintain the loyalty of its vassals and stave off Waldreich's efforts to reduce upon Sudentor's sphere of influence. Meanwhile to the east, refugees who fled eastward to escape the crusaders in 1217 from Garima flooded into the Kingdom's lands. The influx of refugees brought social and economic instability for Sudentor and forced the kingdom to divide its already limited economic and military resources between the eastern and western fronts. The start of the Alban Crusade against the northern Lushyod kingdoms severely depleted the supply of mercenaries Sudentor relied upon to augment its depleted armies. In the spring of 1219 the Audonians began their first series of raids against Sudentor. Little by little the Audonians were able to gradually whittle down Sudentor's defenses. By the winter of 1219 the Audonians laid siege to Sudendorf though the kingdom's monarch, the capital's defense was helmed by the kingdom's monarch: King Eldrich II. The siege of Sudendorf was ended in the spring of 1220 when House Günther, a noble house of Sudentor, betrayed their king and opened the gates to the Audonians, effectively ending the siege. Eldrich II was executed after he refused to bend the knee and renounce his faith in the Aletheic Church. In his place Anton I of house Gunther was installed as a puppet leader of the newly established Holy Realm of Sudentor, a vassal kingdom of the Audonians and established the Fabrian Church as the kingdom's official state religion. Eldrich's wife and sons were succesfully evacuated by the surviving members of his royal guard and fled to the remaining free lands of Sudentor in the south. By 1221 the Alban Crusades resulted in Sudentor's fall from a major power to a mere isolated rump state. During this period of time the kingdoms of Waldreich and Hoffnung had established an alliance and held any further Audonian advancements in Gothic lands.

First Lushyod Crusade

The aim of the crusaders was to take all the Lushyods ports to destroy the Lushyodorstag' economy which relied on piracy and trade. The city of Niurgen (modern Nyugrataj) at the border with Morinia, quickly fell and the Audonians pushed further north unimpeded. Meanwhile the newly crowned Lushyod King Aledar I had gathered both his army and his fleet at the port city of Halvar, behind the protection of the river Kuch. Incapable of crossing the bridgeless river, the crusaders couldn’t take the heavily defended city. The siege ended when contingent of Lushyod troops got past the Audonian lines using their fleet and launched a devastating assault against the crusaders' camp. The retreating crusaders on their way south would have to continuously deal with the Lushyod' fleet threat, which retook many of the port cities before the crusaders could reach them. Only a handful of crusaders successfully returned to Morinia. After his victory, Aledar launched a large scale plunder of the Audonian Principalities.

Second Lushyod Crusade

Duke Edric I of Nyrundy, who had played a decisive role in limiting the effects of Aldar' raiding parties, took the leadership of a new Crusade with the Pope and the Emperor blessings. More careful, Edric and the other crusaders plundered many of the coastal cities and ports but never managed to go further inland, the mountaineous Furodomark giving the Lushyods ample natural protections against the Audonians. From there, they could easily retake lost lands once the crusaders were gone, launch rapid assaults when the situation proved favorable, or even organize punitive expeditions directly against the Aulic Empire. Thus the crusade devolved into a series of raid and counter-raids from both sides until the idea of a military takeover of the Lushyodorstag was abandoned, and the Aulic Empire fell back into a defensive strategy against Lush pirates and raiding parties.

The Heterodox Alliance

In 1225, Aledar I met Franz I of Waldreich, Alrich II of Hoffnung, Konrad IV of Bewahren, and Hilda I, Queen Regent to the exiled monarchy of Sudentor. All five monarchs swore an oath to retake Sudentor and re-establish an Aletheic monarch on the throne and to support one another against the crusaders. This Heterodox Alliance, as it is known by historian, would launch conduct a series of raids against the Holy Realm of Sudentor in the early months of 1228, probing for any potential weaknesses in the kingdom's defenses. Major military campaigns were initiated the summer of 1228 and by January 1229 the alliance had retaken Sudendorf. Hilda I reclaimed the title of Monarch of Sudentor, whereas Anton I was executed for treason against the Goths. By 1230 all Audonian presence in Sudentor's lands had been repelled. To prevent future crusades by the Audonians, Hilda I ordered the construction of defensive fortifications along Sudentor's eastern border. Waldreich and Hoffnung, seeing the advantage of having Sudentor be a buffer state against the Audonians, provided economic support for the newly re-established kingdom. Construction began in the spring of 1231 and was eventually completed by 1236. The 141 km (87 mile) long fortification came to be known as Hilda's Wall. The members repeated their oath to protect and defend one another' realms against further crusades, maintaining the defensive pact. In 1231 Aledar tried to convince the rest of the Alliance to join him in a new campaign against Elbogen, a city which had been once a vassal-state of the Lushyodorstag until it was taken by the Audonian Empire in the late 11th century. Waldreich and Hoffnung answered this call and lent support for the Lushyodorstag. The Lushyods campaigns against Elbogen ended up going nowhere and were stopped in 1235. Raids and counter-raids would continue across the border between the Heterodox and the Empire for many more decades.