[Lolzytripd]

That's acceptable I suppose, though I wish it wasn't being presented as just the logical progression from guards, I would like border skirmishes, tense rivalries and possibly even these factions being the antagonists themselves in some scenarios.

As an example lets say that a member of the church believes a notable vampire/lich they've been looking for (not necessarily a player but a plot element for conflict) is hiding in altlasia and they send a strike force into the foreign land without warning so the target doesn't have time to react, but this creates political turmoil and minor conflict with the altlasian houses as they don't fully understand the mercalan religion and worry that these crusaders may instead be after some of their own, possibly darker secrets or relics.