Military action
For thirty four years the Heathen Crusades resulted in military skirmishes and wanton vandalism performed by privately funded militias in the name of the Church of the Heathen Prophet.
After more than two millennia of slowly acquiring control of the Prophet's Woods through diplomacy and religious influence, the election of a new Chief Speaker ushered in a new era of Heathen expansion. Hungry for further power and not content with the slow progress from before, Chief Speaker Jakk Malix encouraged the faithful into a religious frenzy through the use of militaristic rhetoric when detailing the Heathen Church's mission to bring the news of their Prophet to the world. Thus began the Heathen Crusades. Throughout the next several decades privately funded militias, with full blessing from Church leadership, would assault their neighboring nations. Conquered nations were brought beneath the governance of the Heathen leadership, while those who resisted faced destruction of their lands and holdings until they agreed to submit. In this way the Church expanded its borders to include the lands of their neighbors, especially the Giftwood Grove. This period of rapid expansion was brought to a sudden halt due to a famine, caused in large part due to the Crusaders themselves. Destruction of farmland coupled with unease from the Church's prior trade partners resulted in a food shortage across the Church's holdings. It was only the Annexation of Arcturia and their Aquaponics which saved the Heathens from starvation.