Disintegration of the Cafferen military

The Disintegration of the Cafferen Military was a rapid disarmament and dispersal of armored soldiers into the farms and fields which began almost immediately after the House arrived to the Garden Coast around 84 A.I.

Origins

After having been given the Garden Coast after the victorious Goldengrove war, the Cafferen Peoples moved immediately to settle the region and claim its fertile lands as their own. Many had died or been maimed in the war, but even the healthy men decided to put their swords aside in favor of the rake and scythe. Some of this was to be expected, naturally, but the sheer amount of soldiers who went off to start farms of their own shocked the nobility. Even if Colemon Cafferen wasn't actively on his death bed by then, it was doubted that even his inspired leadership could stop the bleeding.

The Lord Jerion tried many things to keep some sort of a professional force in tact, including increasing their pay greatly, a horrific decision for the future. Yet, the Cafferens had been given the Garden Coast so that they may protect it with Andal steel against the Reavers of the Ironborn peoples, and there was some fear that if too many of the soldiers turned into farmers, the House may see their lands revoked by the Gardener Kings. Thus, the rapid decline of their military forces was kept secret at all costs, and unbeknownst to everyone outside the region, the Cafferen's military situation was far worse-off than it appeared on the surface.

Such a state of affairs led to several problems, one being the great amount of armor and weaponry left aside and abandoned in the homes of many settlers.

Much was reforged into very fine farming equipment, but for those who had not the skills nor the wealth to do such a thing, the tools for war which they had once used simply sat in a closet or shed somewhere. Many of these sets of armor and weapons would be taken by their sons and grandsons, who unlike the initial generation were quite zealous in their faith and eager to show their hatred for the native populace. In this age of religious tension, the brigand and bandits were thus usually armed with high-quality steel, if slightly rusted, swords, which contributed to the Religious Crisis of the Garden Coast. The lack of a professional wing of the military also meant that the Lord Theo Cafferen couldn't crush such rebels, especially as many of the soldiers he did have, along with their commanders, sympathized if not secretly supported such groups.

To keep what soldiers he could, when Jerion Cafferen was the Lord, he had increased the monthly pay of the troops several times over. This worked, and kept many who would have left from doing so, but it led to disaster in the future. When Jerion's son, Theo, took over the Lordship, the financial state of the Garden Coast was collapsing. The failure to reform the system of taxation and the increased pay of the soldiery was quickly leading the Lordship into a state of utter ruin. The reforms of Theo helped, but could not completely solve such great issues. He could not decrease the pay of the soldiers, for this would likely lead to a revolt, so Theo had to lower the size of his professional force yet more, leaving the Cafferen's with a despicably small military force. Of course, such a reduction was kept a secret from all others outside only the most inner circles of the Lord. As of 120 A.I. the crisis continues, and until it is reversed, the disintegration of the Cafferen military has completely weakened the state of the Lordship's ability to project power outwards and resist the influence of the Lords of Oldtown. Where once the Cafferen armies were a feared force to be reckoned with, able even to crush other Andals in battle like in the Goldengrove war, that is certainly no longer the case.

Aftermath

By 157 A.I. the crisis is far more mellowed than it once was. The successful stand against the Zealots on the Horrific Night did much to improve Cafferen military prestige, and the reforms of both the Lord Theo Cafferen and his grandson, the Lord Clifford Cafferen, did much to improve the economic foundations of the Garden Coast, which allowed for a slight military expansion in the following decades. Whilst the crisis may still bubble in the background, it certainly boils no longer, and it was believed that given enough time, enough peace, and the disintegration would be completely reversed.

In the 160's, the crisis finally and resolutely ended, with a military expansion organized by the Lord Clifford Cafferen bolstering the ranks of the professional soldiery, an event that was extremely significant, for any expansion at all of the military was unprecedented for any Cafferen Lord. It had been the rapid disintegration after the settling, and then a complete stagnation in the many decades which followed. But now it was expansion, the likes of which had not been seen in nearly 80 years. The Cafferen military military might was back, and it had little signs of decaying again, like it once had.

The Disintegration of the Cafferen Military destroyed the ability of the Cafferen Lord's to project power, and even to defend themselves. The issues which caused the crisis were deeply rooted in the foundations of the Cafferen Lordship, and it was because of those issues, and the crisis it birthed, that nearly led to the House's destruction. It took nearly a century, but with a strong economy and the settled religious issues in the Lordship, the systematic problems of the past were reformed and resolved. Now, at last, the Garden Coast would not have one hand tied behind its back as it fought off its enemies. Instead, the reforged power that was the Cafferen military could once again display its might to the greater world...