Cairlannder-Godwynian WarPart of the Wars of ExpansionThe Banner of the
Kingdom of Cairlann during the reign of King Karsis the Pious
After the defeat of Cairlann's great foe Vermaris during the Cairlannder-Vermarian War, King Karsis rose to the throne of his late father, King Kendric the Proud, inheriting a realm that had tripled in size in the years prior. Yet many challenges still laid ahead for the young king. Vermarian separatists at the eastern shores had proclaimed themselves to be the true successors of Vermaris and had broken off their Barethian overlords to form a realm of their own. Meanwhile to the north, the Kingdom of Godwyn had taken full advantage of Cairlann's troubles to conduct incursions into Cairlann's northern borders during the war. Raiding and pillaging became commonplace, and Godwynian ambitions would suggest the conquest of Cairlann to be their next prize. Yet, Godwyn hadn't formally declared war at this point.
Seeking to unify a fractured realm weary of war and rebellion, King Karsis turned to his beliefs in the One Faith as Cairlann's new beacon of hope. The young king devoted a great deal of his work towards the religious unity of Cairlann and its neighbors. He sponsored missionaries, erected great temples of the One Faith in foreign lands, and established Crown Hospitals and Monasteries made openly available to all walks of life. His initial pacifist approach was met with mixed reactions. This was in part because he had allowed the separatists to secede from former Vermarian lands without reprisal, yet had gained a vast, loyal following among the common folk for his charitable works. Karsis even managed to court favor from the western Kingdom of Myseros, a realm notorious for their expansionist hostilities against its neighbors.
However, this pacifist approach would not last for long. Godwyn remained ever stubborn, clinging to their paganist beliefs despite repeated attempts from King Karsis to convert them in a vain effort to stop the raids. When his latest envoy to Godwyn insulted King Vegard, Vegard nailed the missionaries to crosses upside-down and subsequently expelled all Cairlannders from his lands. Karsis was furious. Unwilling to allow this injustice to go unpunished, King Karsis marched his army across the River Virana into Godwyn, sparking the Cairlannder-Godwynian War.