Pope Patrick's War ( Dawudid Empire )

Pope Patrick's War is the name given to a conflict fought between the Dawudid Empire and the Socialist Democratic Republic of California in the early 21st century. Though the Dawudid Empire and the Socialist Democratic Republic of California were the main combatants of the war; the Great Louisiana Dominion and its Househead Hubert III, the fourteen year old son of the mentally and physically stricken executor Harrison Elfrink gave the final orders for the Louisiana Dominion to fight on the side of the Dawudid Empire.

Other states, such as the Shawshone Queendom of the Mormons and the Free Washington-Oregon states fought on the side of the Californians.

Possible Causes of the War
There were no single causes of the war. Instead, many factors led to Pope Patrick's War. The United States east of the Mississippi River was a dying carcass with rural and small town suburban populations in Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio declaring their alligeance away from the collapsing United States of America and aligning with the Louisiana Dominion and the Elfrink-Trinkler-Schilling-Dauterive Paternal Entente. The decline the United States left the Californians, at the time; a state still a part of the US in a panicked state. California eventually declared martial law. The police forces within California become militarized. During the martial law, a left-wing politician within the former US Democratic Party ranks; Patrick Mahoney rises to become California's governor. Patrick promised an "era of peace, strength, unity between races and religions" and made himself the head of his own religion; the Reformed Catholic Church. However, Patrick Mahoney was in reality far from tolerant, he was barely a peaceful man with nothing more than utter and irrational contempt for the Dawudid Empire and utter envy of the wealthy ruling Houses of the Louisiana Dominion.

Patrick Mahoney and the newly established Socialist Democratic Republic of California became ever paranoid of the Dawudid Empire. The SDRC became an excommunicated "condemned" nation by Pope Paul VII of the Roman Catholic Church. The Church had labeled the "Reformed Catholic Church" as a heathenous, heretical knock-off that paid absolutely no attention to the Church's tradition and Biblical scriptures. The Missouri Synod Lutheran Church, the Roman Catholic Parish of Louisiana, the St. Louis Orthodox Enclave of St. Nicholas were quick to join the criticism against the Reformed Catholic Church.

Lambert Airport Incident
Lambert Airport was attacked by terrorists of Californian origin after a failed attempt to rig liquid explosives into jet engines at St. Louis Lambert Airport. The airport was attacked by 23 masked men armed with M-16 rifles, Uzi submachine guns and desert eagle pistols. The mastermind of the attacks are identified; Alexander McCarthy; a man of American origin that lived in Taiwan, Australia and moved back to California as a technological chief of Pope Patty's regime. Another mastermind was caught by the St. Louis police force and is identified as Alexander Ng, a Chinese national from Hong Kong who was sentenced to death by death match against a grizzly bear in the St. Louis Infinite Losers' Kumite at Busch Stadium. The Mahoney regime made failed attempts to deny the incident. 6 St. Louis Policemen, 1 Missouri National Guardsmen and 11 civilians died in the Lambert Airport Incident.

Persecution of Eastern Orthodox and Traditional Catholic Christians
Under Pope Patrick, the Californian government began to enforce increasingly oppressive measures to ensure the success of the regime's social experiment. Those loyal to the Pope in Rome, Orthodox Christians, and those considered disloyal to the the state were persecuted, often violently, on the grounds that they had been engaged in seditious acts. During the infamous Barstow Massacre, government forces surrounded a and barricaded a Roman Catholic convent, firebombing it and killing 23 nuns, and raping several more. The Church in Rome, which had already been moving towards the reform and repeal of the Second Vatican Council, condemned Mahoney's schismatic sect, which lead to further tensions between the Reformed Catholic Church and the Roman Catholic Church. Mahoney responded by excommunicating several Roman Catholic Bishops, seizing their churches, and replacing them with bishops of his own choosing. Pope Paul VII reacted by issuing the encyclical Ad Pacemque Rationem, (Towards Peace and Reason), but the request went ignored by the SDRC, and persecution continued.

Military Aggression
At the behest of several Catholic members of the Imperial Chancellery, Dawud I agreed to give refuge and safe passage to persecuted Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians. As a result, many Californian Christians settled on the western border of the Dawudid Empire - as well as in Phoenix - forming small communities where they were allowed to practice their religion freely. While the Dawudid Empire considered these refugees to be lawful citizens of the Empire, the SDRC claimed that they were dangerous terrorists. The SDRCLAF (Socialist Democratic Republic of California Liberation Armed Forces) lead an invasion with the pretense of capturing Vassilis Mertsiotakis, the Metropolitan of the newly-created Orthodox Diocese, and Michael O'Connell, the former Catholic Archbishop. Skirmishes broke out, with the SDRCLAF scoring early victories against independent militias, as the Emperor, afraid of worsening his relations with the Pope, awaited for a response from Paul VII on how to proceed with dealing with Mahoney's forces. Paul VII soon agreed to an alliance between the Holy See and the Dawudid Empire. The SDRCLAF was routed outside of Phoenix only four days afterwards by the right-hand of the empire, Alexander Ibn Edward. This was said to be the official start of Pope Patrick's War.

Outcome
San Fransisco fell to the Dawudid forces on _, capturing Pope Patrick. Pope Patrick was quickly exiled to Rome to await trial on heresy and war crimes. In the wake of the Californian defeat, the Reformed Catholic Church named the 23-year old John Larson as Pope John XXIV. John, was not spared, and was executed by hanging by the Occupation Government, along with the leadership of the SDRCLAF.