Triarchist Crusade
Holy war waged by The Empire and in particular The Church of the Holy Celestial Pantheon against Triarchist heretics, predominantly in the north and northeast of The Empire between 970 and 980.
Triarchism had existed in Ettrea since the later days of the Old Empire and very likely before that, but had been tolerated by the Church until it was denounced as heretical by Patriarch Gregorslad in the eighth century. Even then, although heretics were mostly removed from the Church hierarchy or forced to conceal their views, no action was taken by the Church against triarchists in the wider community. That is until Patriarch Leod, backed by Emperor Otto IX called for a crusade against the heresy in 970.
The Patriarch appointed Harald, Duke of Ottarstein to lead the Church forces. Harald was tasked with rooting out triarchist heresy. He recruited initially from various holy knightly orders, although as the war carried on, paid mercenaries, landless knights and lesser nobles seeking monetary gain formed a greater and greater percentage of the Church army.
The Synoppeian historian Hautemec den Bravio travelled with the crusaders to observe the crusade. He noted in his 'Report to the Emperor Concerning the Events in Sigsland' that Harald's initial orders were vague and did not actually require him to wage war against the triarchists. Hautemec suggested that it was the religious zeal of the holy orders that escalated Harald's mission from simply removing triarchists in the Church hierarchy and among the nobility in Sigsland to outright war against anyone suspected of triarchist thinking. Hautemec argued that Leod and Harald wanted simply to convert the ordinary people of Sigsland back to orthodox worship and away from triarchism, but that certain religious orders, including some so secret that they operated outside of the control even of the Patriarch of Aztium used the crusade to achieve their own ends. This is the most controversial claim in Hautemec's work. He did not name those secret orders, or their leaders. However, he did allege that some of the most violent acts committed by Church forces during the Crusade were carried out at their behest.
Hautemec's work is much more critical of the Crusade than works published in the Empire. He repeatedly questioned the morality of military actions by Church forces, and highlighted abuses against the common people. He tried to list every village and town punished (many completely destroyed) for the apparent sin of sheltering triarchist sympathisers. He recorded the history of noble families robbed of their titles for the crime of being triarchist.
The Crusade was not a war marked by many large battles, simply because for most of the war there was no organised triarchist leadership. Averi, Count Martell, a noted triarchist hurriedly recruited an army to face the Church army entering Sigsland from the west, but that army was routed at the Battle of Elfbridge and Count Martell captured and executed. It would take several years for new triarchist leaders to emerge. During those years, Church forces spread out across Sigsland destroying settlements which were seen as triarchist, hunting for important triarchists and laying siege to and destroying the castles of triarchist nobles. There was no triarchist leadership because apart from their philosophy, triarchists generally had little in common. There were noble triarchists and peasant triarchists, New God worshipping triarchists and Old God worshipping triarchists, human triarchists and non-human triarchists, urban triarchists and rural triarchists.
In the end what united the triarchists against the Church forces was the atrocities carried out by those forces. And they eventually found two leaders. The first was a Wood Elf folk hero, Wuldemin. Wuldemin had been one of a band of itinerant folk heroes operating in the Iril Valley - the 'Humble Companions' (ironically a band led by a Church cleric), but that band fell apart and Wuldemin took up arms against the soldiers and mercenaries using the name of the Church to oppress common folk who happened to be triarchist. The second leader was Boras, Count of Enlingen a local noble who was secretly a triarchist.
Boras recruited an army from his county - supposedly a loyal Church army, but in reality an army of secret triarchists. They were present at the Siege of Krunebrug and turned on the Church forces when Wuldemin launched a surprise attack with a Wood Elf army that Harald, Duke of Ottarstein had no knowledge of. The Church forces were routed. Harald and many more senior officers in the Church army were killed. Mercenaries (many of whom had not been paid in months) abandoned the Church cause. Most of the ambitious knights and nobles in the Church army also left, seeing little chance of gain if they stayed. Ordinary soldiers mutinied and abandoned the cause. When word reached Patriarch Leod of the disaster at Krunebrug, and of the atrocities carried out by soldiers in the name of the Church, he sent a representative to negotiate with Boras. Boras publically renounced his triarchism (but was rewarded with certain lands confiscated from other triarchist nobles), but secured a certain degree of tolerance for triarchists in Sigsland and Leod's representative announced the end of the Crusade.
Ten years on from the end of the Crusade and many parts of Sigsland still bear the scars of war. Whole villages and even towns were razed to the ground. Refugees moved to the (mostly safer) cities and those towns not tainted with the heresy. Many castles were sacked and nobles overthrown. Baronies, counties and even duchies have been left without a ruling noble, or had a longstanding noble family replaced. Roads that were once safe for travellers are now the haunt of bandits - soldiers (from both sides) who never went home. But the region is recovering.
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