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A Religious Revival

Posted by Apostate on 11/22/17
The abolition of the practice of Thralldom has long been a cause celebre through most of the Compact, but foremost among those have been House Grayson and the Faith ever since slavery was formally outlawed five hundred years ago and sweeping reforms were done to the rights of serfs, such as freedom of travel without the permission of their lieges. So when the first Isles lord takes the progressive if questionable step of banning all thralldom in his lands by fiat, and having the immense economic crash and turmoil as a result, that the Faith comes to his aid. And so they did.

In an effort spearheaded by Legate Orazio, the Shield of the Faith, the Faith donates sums that would break some of the great houses. Close to four million silver, literal tons of goods and supplies, all transported by thousands of knights of solace, templars, disciples of every discipleship, and godsworn priests. The scholars of Vellichor are on hand led by Archscholar Bianca and assisted by Merek, the Lodge of Petrichor led by Leola, Thena overseeing the Knights of Solace, and every seraph within the Isles responds. They all come for a simple goal- to economically stabilize Kennex, to provide for its people, and to make certain that the experiment started by Marquis Ford Kennex doesn't fail.

The traditionalists of Thrax would be disappointed by how successful the Faith is at this. It's not just the absurdly huge amount of money they are willing to invest, but how capable many are investing it. Businesses are revitalized. Homes are built. Lands are cleared, and thousands of the faithful are coming to Kennex to live there simply to support it. The amount of damage repaired by the Faith is remarkable... but there's some side effects.

By and large, the Compact doesn't experience religious fanaticism very often. It's been centuries since the last good, old fashioned Valardinian crusade, when the Oathlands Orthodox essentially conquered the Northlands and forced every domain in the Compact to accept the worship of the Pantheon. But thousands of newly freed thralls were saved from hard lives of bondage, and then rescued again from starvation... and a very alarmingly large number are crediting the Faith directly with this. There are now thousands of new armed religious zealots in Kennex lands, many of whom seem uncomfortably close to venerating Orazio for his leadership in stabilizing the lands, and portraying House Kennex as sacred for making such a bold move in abolishing thralldom. Some are calling these new thousands of armed religious fanatics 'the Sentinels of Orazio' or 'Orazian Sentinels', in honor of the Legate's association with the Sentinel. The fanatics make it clear that they are there to see 'the bold experiment succeed', even if they weren't invited to at all by House Kennex. No one might have predicted it, and it isn't quite clear who, if anyone, has control over them.