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| Drevstran Intervention in Ludvosiya | |||
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| Part of Ludvosiyan Wars | |||
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| Belligerents | |||
| Drevstran | Ludvosiya | ||
| Commanders and leaders | |||
 Farza VII | |||
Drevstran Intervention in Ludvosiya, or Farza VII War, was a conflict between the recently-created Triplpe-Crown of Drevstran and the Ludvosiyan Commonwealth that lasted from 1814 to 1841. It can be divided into three phrases: the initial naval campaign and the occupation of Hvratztan and Arazija lake ports, the invasion and military campaigns in the aforementioned republics, and finally the decades-long siege of the port-cities until finally a peace treaty was signed between the belligerents and the Drevstraneses garrisons were evacuated.
Farza VII War is generally counted among the Ludvosiyan Wars, a series of post-independence conflicts that saw the Commonwealth fight against all of its neighbors at one point or another with the survival of the Free Republics on the line. The Drevstranese Intervention itself was triggered by Ludvosiya' anti-clericalism and religious purges, and aimed to protect the Aletheic Church and re-establish the Arch-Presbyter of Kulpanitsa over coastal Hvratztan, all Arazija, and Drevstran as it had been under the Velikoslavian Empire. Drevstran' goal in the war shifted over the years, depending on military successes and defeats, but the religious question remained the main diplomatic concern of the Triple-Crown.
During the war, the Island Republic of Zostro would remain part of Ludvosiya despite being de-facto fully sovereign and treated as such by Drevstran who never invaded it over concerns in the human cost of a potential landing. Zostro de-facto neutrality helped secure its post-war position within the confederation notably in the shipmaking industry as its sister-republics naval sectors had been crippled by the occupation. The war, and the duality of Drevstran' diplomacy that was both trying to negotiate the return of religious freedom in Ludvosiya while also at time covertly supporting the Commonwealth against its other enemies, would be the baseline on which relations between the two states would be built later on, a mixture of defiance and temporary cooperation on specific questions, always with cold underlying tensions.
Before the War
Collapse of Velikoslavia
From the 1770s to 1802, Eastern Belisaria was engulfed in a period of warfare now known as the Thirty Years War, a clash of empires between Velikoslavia in the west and Mesogeia in the east. The Velikoslavian Empire was a collection of feudal entities, autonomous regions, and local republics and the system that held all of those lands together collapsed during this era of warfare. War debts limited the ability of the crown to buy loyalties, the violence and pointlessness of the war, including the drafts, war taxes, and dissidents repressions, disillusioned many on the Empire and accustomed local people to take the matter of their defense and finances into their own hand. As peace settled in and the imperial government wished to re-establish its absolute control over all its lands, those free republics revolted and began fighting first for their autonomy in a constitutional empire and then, as the political doors for this solution closed one after the other, for full independence.
In the far-south of Velikoslavia, the Duchies of Drevstran and Yugstran were the Empire' sole access to the Periclean Sea. But since 1691, the Duke for these two principalities was the King of the Lushyodorstag, an independent neighboring state. While the Lushyod Kings answered the call of the Tsar and participated in the Thirty Years War, the Lushyodorstag remained neutral, only sending expansive mercenaries. The Lushyods had also been de-facto in charge of the southern front and the maritime war on the Periclean, often playing a complex game trying to meet their feudal obligations without risking too much themselves.
Relationship between Velikoslavia and the Lushyodorstag was thus tense in the wake of the War. As the Free Republics began their uprising, Farza VI refused to conscript the Duchies' population to help in the repression. Instead, in 1804, Farza VI abdicated as Duke and allowed the Parliaments of Drevstran and Yugstran to proclaim the independence of their Principalities. One of their first act as independent countries, as per Farza VI' plan, was to call on the Lushyodorstag for help and protection. Lushyod soldiers replaced the Imperial troops sent the year before in counter-insurgents operations and occupied the Principalities. In 1805, the Parliaments invited Farza VI to rule once more as a Constitutional Monarch over Drevstran and Yugstran. The King accepted, and thus the Triple Crown was born.
Ludvosiyan Religious persecutions
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The Independence of Drevstran removed the threat of a southern attack on Arazija, allowing the Free Republics to focus their efforts on resisting Velikoslavia. However, events would quickly sour the relations between Drevstran and the Free Republics. The Aletheic Church was perceived negatively by parts of the Revolutionaries who saw the wealth of the upper clergy as corruption. Ultimately, the Church support to the Velikoslavian Monarchy made it extremely unpopular in future Ludvosiya and the various Revolutionary movements began targetting clerics and churches. Different leaders had different opinion on how to handle the situation. Only a minority rejected all forms of faith outright, considering that the People was to remain one and undivided. Other wanted to see the fusion of faith and the nation, getting rid of religious institutions and elaborating a form of State Deism. The minority of revolutionaries who had wished to oppose the Velikoslavian Monarchy but seeked to compromise with the Aletheic Church, especially in places such as Arazija, were marginalized by the Church' own staunch opposition to the revolutions. The radicalisation of their movement then often placed them as de-facto counter-revolutionaries.
The new Triple-Crown was itself an Aletheic majority country led by an Aletheist monarch, even though Docetism, Alban Nazarism, Judaism, and other faiths had strong ties to the royal institutions and were actively protected by the Monarch. Some Aletheic refugees managed to flee to Drevstran where they found a positive reception and their reports of the situation helped turn the public opinion against the Free Republics.
Drevstranese Reaction
Since the beginning of the Revolutions, the Free Republics and the Triple-Monarchy had maintained close contacts with one another. Some had even dreamed of Drevstran and Yugstran joining the Free Republics but the rapid re-institution of the Monarchy put a stop to the project. As news spread about the campaign of religious repressions perpetrated by the Republics, public opinion in the Triple Monarchy turned more and more against them (while still remaining overall distrustful of Velikoslavia). Farza VI, the newly crowned "Thrice King", signed in 1808 a decree granting refugee status to all Aletheic Clerics from the "so-called Ludic Commonwealth". Two months later, another decree would expand royal protection to all refugees from the Commonwealth altogether. These decrees would directly lead to the creation of the modern Azari and Korak communities of Drevstran.
For Farza VI, the entire operation was an occasion for Drevstran to secure its "spiritual independence": under Velikoslavia, the Duchies of Drevstran, Yugstran, Arazija, and Hvratztan were part of the same Ecclesiastical province. With the emmigration of the Arch-Presbyter to Angrast, Farza VI was now able to secure his control over the Aletheic Faith and no longer had to fear foreign intervention through religion. But while the king was content with the status-quo, using the Arch-presbyter presence to lift the condemnation of Iconoclast aletheism as heresy and to re-integrate Iconoclast presbyters into the Nazarist Communion, a faction of the court, centered around the Crown Prince, wished to do more to support the Church and expand Drevstraneses interests northward. Despite the aging king attempts at curtailing their influence, with his death in 1811 and the coronation of the Crown Prince as King Farza VII, the "War Devouts" Party became the new leadership of the Triple Monarchy. Peace partisans in the Parliaments of Drevstran and at Court slowly adhered to the King's project out of geopolitical concerns: the Commonwealth of Ludvosiya, attacked from all sides, was seemingly on the verge of collapse in the 1810s. It was argued that Drevstran had to intervene to get any benefit from the seemingly fateful partition of the Free Republics and to maintain a buffer zone between the Triple Crown and Velikoslavia.
In reaction, Arazija began to militarize its border and the rest of the Commonwealth made plan to build a Joint Fleet capable of playing a role in the Kulpanitsa Lake. The Triple-Crown publicly announced that such a lake fleet would be considered a provocation and a threat, to be dealt with accordingly. The Commonwealth and the Triple-Crown were now ready for war.
The War
On the 27th of February 1814, the Triple Crown declared war on the Commonwealth, seizing the opportunity of a mild winter to deploy their troops early. The "Lushyod Fleet" set sail to the archipelago of Zoztro where the Ludvosiyan Joint Fleet was harboring, alongside auxiliaries and private corsairs from the islands and elsewhere recruited for the upcoming campaign. Taken by surprised, the Battle of Zoztro was a disaster for the Joint-Fleet that couldn't escape from their ports. Lushyod vessels would continue to patrol archipelago water for weeks, tracking down any corsair that could've escaped and found refuge in natural harbors and other secluded creeks. the now stranded Commonwealth Navy' survivors began readying themselves, alongside local authorities and militias, against a potential mass landing that never materialized. The Drevstraneses, now that their mastery of the lake was secured, simply ignored Zoztro and moved to strike their main target: Hvratztan.
Hvratztan Campaign
Hvratztan, or Vratstran in Lushyod.