Skulfur vs Vozdravija
On the 22nd of September, the world of Abexilas was struck with the announcement of a new war right in the middle of the central continent. The Fjarldom of Skūlfur had declared war on the leftist Suvkolist State of Vozdravija. Both sides called on their allies to back them, and it seemed like a heated confrontation would precipitate. However, since the announcement, no battles have occurred and Abexilas is still waiting for either side to make a move. How did this happen? The Fjarldom of Skūlfur is a diarchy ruled by two Fjarls, who are supported by a High Council and an elected Low Council which enforse laws and assist in running the nation. In diplomacy, the Fjarls ask the High Council or any other entitled individuals to conduct interactions on their behalf, or else do it themselves. At the outset of their declaration, they were supported by a number of nations such as the USA.
Meanwhile Vozdravija operates in a system similar to Zilatra and other Xeroist-based nations with a General and Deputy Secretary, a parliament (the Sejm), and 5 commissioners running branches of the executive. For a time, Vordravija itself was explicitly Xeroist until their leadership decided to branch off and do the classic leftist move of rewording one sentence of an ideology and naming it your own, naming themselves Suvkolists and operating under their leader, Klova's, own philosophy called Petrovic Thought. Thus far, they have been notably backed by Drackar and hired Paragon as support in the war.
The problems began around 3 months ago, when the Skūlfur town of Vaelora began relations with Vozdravija, getting to the point that they made a request to secede and join Vozdravija. The government approved this deal, but when the High Government and Fjarls discovered of it the deal was invalidated and the operation shut down.
However, despite this denial, Vozdravija continued to make attempts to gain the claim, making multiple offers of increasingly large sums of money along with Non-Aggression Pacts to appease Skūlfur, which were denied. Eventually, after a few months of diplomatic shenanigans and investigations, the Skūlfur government gained access to Vozdravijan Discord servers which they claimed were attempts to rebel using the Meta Alliance to help Vaelora and another claim called Aesirhof to secede. Vozdravija denies there was anything malicious to the servers and claims they were old, but the Skūlfur government had been quickly removed from the servers in addition to seeing that the servers were made recently.
After this, Skūlfur held a trial for the Vaelora mayor, finding him innocent, before turning back to Vozdravija. The Fjarls made a scheme to punish them, with the larger goal of investigating their own diplomatic ties and seeing who truly supported them. They sent a massive fine for reparations to Vozdravija for the incident, which they denied before beginning diplomatic negotiations moderated by the Valdic Union. No solution was reached, before personal circumstances took Klova out of the talks. The Fjarls repeated this, but grew suspicious that he was stalling, and determined that he had been secretly contacting their friends to hire Paragaon and get the support of Drackar. This perceived shenaniganery, the buildup of all the trouble in addition to some bad reputation Klova had from Eldham, is what Skūlfur claims led to the war declaration.
However, the story grows more complicated given further ulterior motives from Skūlfur. They have also claimed the war is an "experiment" to see who is truly their allies and that they may not even go to war. In addition the Vozdravijans point to statements suggesting that the war for Skūlfur is just an excuse for them to grow their own power and influence in the region, such as saying they want to "clear the valley" Skūlfur is located in.
One last twist is that the war comes as the Fjarl, North's, last act before retiring after 3 years of leading the Fjarldom. He plans to begin a "new era" for Skūlfur as a great nation led by his future successor, Filmcom, and the war is seen by him personally as the door to a new period for him and the nation. All of these motives complicate the seemingly simple story of a land dispute.
Since the initial declaration of war, no battles have been fought and not much has been done between the two sides, leading to great speculation. The Kassylian state media incorrectly claimed the war had been fully called off, while the government of Vozdravija claimed that nothing had happened due to infighting in Skūlfur. Apparently , the Fjarls hadn't received full governmental approval for the war declaration, and many citizens were against the war or otherwise confused about its murky motivations. Additionally, Vozdravija believes that their Drackarian allies had intimidated Skūlfur against fighting a costly and risky war against the financially wealthier Vozdravijans.
In the end, the conflict between the two nations is complicated and unclear. Both sides have unclear intentions for fighting the war and have made questionable decisions throughout, leading to the current indeterminate situation. Diplomatic talks are occurring, and it remains to be seen whether peace can be achieved, war can be achieved, or if the two nations will forever be locked in stalemate.
October 4th Update:
Within the past few days the war has been officially ended between Skūlfur and Vozdravija after Skūlfur backed out of the conflict. According to Klova, this was due to complaints from the citizenry, pressure from their allies to negotiate, and the backing of Drackar to the Vozdravijans. Additionally, Vozdravija was able to muster up more funds that Skūlfur, in addition to sympathy from the people of Skūlfur considering how murky the war declaration was and the friendship between Skūlfurians and Vozdravijans. The motivations of the conflict and the solution to lasting peace are still unclear, but at least for now the war has been averted.