Have been re-reading the Castille 1e book and it got me thinking - who do you feel is 'in the right' in the Momtaigne invasion of Castille?
For those of you new to this here is a quick primer:
The Hierophant (leader of the Vaticine church) has disappeared. He can't be declared dead for 7 years if no body is found, and thus no new hierophant can be elected. In this power vacuum, the inquisition has risen to take a lot of power in Castille. The church teaches that sorcery is the work of Legion ('the Devil'). Meanwhile L'Emperor of Montaigne has announced himself as a sorceror and severed all ties with the church, declaring Montigne as a haven for sorcerors from the Vaticine.
So far that summary is broadly accepted 'facts'. What follows is more partisan:
Castille's view: the inquisition is supporting the young King and helping maintain order in a time of turmoil. The heathen Montaigne have invaded due to the egotism of their diabolical ruler.
Montaigne's view: Castille is straining under the yoke of a religious despotism that is dogmatically persecuting the innocent population and needs to be exercised from the world.
So who do you feel is the more sympathetic side?
Well, depends. Are you asking from a Character perspective, or strictly OOC type? For the latter, I would say that the Inquisition is the lesser of two evils. Also, knowing what I know, the Inquisition is directly the effect of what L'Emperor has done, so in that sense, Montaigne is in the wrong.
From a character perspective, it really depends on the character itself. I mean, my Castillian doesn't disagree with everything the Inquisition is about, except it's fear of knowledge. He has been targeted by the Inquisition more then once, and while they haven't called him a heritic and issued an arrest, he has suffered. But, even then, the Inquisition is easier to fight politically then the Montaine invasion.
Neither side is right. The Castillians had good reason to invade but not their Inquisition is no substitute for either a rightful a ruler or self-government. The Montaignans had justifiable reasons to fight back but not to invade to conquer and to persecute the church and the faithful. Both sides should sue for peace but a stubborn anti-church emperor and a anti-sorcery, anti-academic eschatological cult that's taken over the Vaticine heiarchy and the Castillian court would neither sue for peace with the assurance in each their own justification for continued war.
Castille needs a return of their rightful king Allende for Good King Sandoval is unfit to rule and allows the Inquisition to run unchallenged and the Montaignan invasion goes unabated. Montaigne needs a revolution to overthrow their godless oppressive Empereur Leon Alexander who has persecuted the faithful, encourages the blasphemous open and unchecked uses of sorcery (and thus encourages the open disdain for even more legitimate church teachings of reason and morality by implication), and makes wars with a far off isolation country that have no impact on his nation while oppressing the peasants to keep the nobles busy so they never think to challenge his authority.
In other words, both nations need to look each at themselves before pointing their finger at the other. Luckily Castille has such a finger pointing back with El Vago while Montaigne has the heroes of the people in the Musketeers. It's a small start, but it's a start either way.
The Inquisition was in the wrong for using Castillan forces to invade Montaigne. Montaigne is wrong for invading Castille. Good King Sandoval needs to get over himself and do the job of a king (which he is entirely capable of, at least in my games). Allende has clearly found his place.
Generally speaking you can be fairly sure that someone invading another country is going to be in the wrong. The one exception I can think of is some of the smaller wars among the Eisen princes, since Eisen is just a mess in general and there are some that have a good intention to unite the country once again.
Only the Vatacine didn't use Castillian Forces IIRC.... it used the Faithful. Some I am sure were Military, but it wasn't an invading force so much as a crusade type scenario, with peasants and the like being led into battle.