Venceian Crusade
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The Venceian Crusade was, according to legend, a planned Crusade which would have been undertaken in the 13th century against the Venceian state by Levantine Catholic crusaders. The story of such a crusade first appeared in histories in the 16th century, and by the 19th century they were widely believed and included within most histories of the crusades in both Sarpedon and Levantia. Modern scholarship methods and critical reviews in the early 20th century led to the crusade subsequently being deemed fictional.
The legend describes Venceia being the target of a crusade following the recession of the threat of the Oduniyyad Caliphate in Sarpedon, with the crusade being intended to establish families of Levantine nobles in charge of the former heartland of the Caphirian Empire. The legend states that the Pope sought these lands not only for their material wealth but due to their supposed independence against the Papal will. Versions of the legend vary on when the Crusade was to take place, but the most widely recounted ones state that Șerossaccir Odobricci launched the Odobriccid reunification of Caphiria in order to prevent this conquest from taking place. Accordingly, the legendary Crusade played a foundational, if indirect role, in the establishment of the Third Imperium, and it justified that entity's existence as a firmly anti-Levantine polity.
Most scholars believe the story of the Venceian Crusade was devised only after the Great Schism of 1615. How it became widespread is a topic of debate among historians, although a majority believe the story began as a misremembered recounting of the historical crusades among clerics in the Caphiric Church and were recorded as historical truths. The "canonical" version of the story involving Șerossaccir Odobricci is agreed upon by most historians to be a clear effort at legitimation of the then-reigning Third Imperium, and most view its inclusion within most versions to be a clear indication of where the legend began. Despite being later revealed as a mere legend, the historical "fact" of the Venceian Crusade was used in many global histories and played a major role in Caphirian histories of Levantine Creep.