Newbie enjoying undead, looking for advice

[Sandman]

Aside 3 - every once in a while, when playing LA Ermor with dominion 10, I get a message that my troops have been beaten somewhere, and I pop to the location to find a place with reasonable amounts of my dominion way the heck in the middle enemy territory where I have never been. What's going on here.

It's a special event that sees another player attacked by 'ermorian cultists'. If they win, you get the province and a handful of troops. It's linked to misfortune and death scales, IIRC.