Wars aren't only fought on the battlefield. The peasants of Aurvandil don't care if the armies of the North haven't marched on them (and aren't aware that they can't feasibly do so because of a game mechanic) they care that your foreign policy is so dicked up that virtually the entire continent wants to destroy you, and they are between them, and you.
A war doesn't need to hit home to be protested.
This is the Medieval era.
