The Steitz Peasant Revolt

An uprising, is a common enough occurance. Villages across the world have had groups of peasents rising in defiance of their fedual lords at some point in history, but such events are largely easily supressed and put down. However, there have been times where such diseent and social unrest, isn't stopped so easily. Sometimes a small ember becomes a raging whirlwind of violence as a full rebellion comes into being. One such revolt would take place in Ashenfeld, and reach such heights that even the church was to be changed from this event.
Now, in truth, despite the hard life lived by the peasentry in Ashenfeld, it is only when unique circumstances present themselves that the lower class begins to plot, and the causes of the Steitz Revolt is largely attributed to firstly the plague. In the year 2978, a plague outbreak began to spread, a plague known as the Vaylin plague due to it beggining in the village of Kylvale in the Murton Province. While the plague has long since been erradicated, it did quite a number on the local area of Murton that took decades to fully recover from. However, thanks to the ministrations of local healer nuns and doctors, the plague eventually declines. 
Now when a region has just gotten out of a plague, it is common for most fedual lords to, albeit briefly, relax on taxation for a time to allow the region to recover. However, that did not happen this time, in fact the local lord of the land, one Lord Miles Forge, increased the tax rates of the area, citing the loss in productivity and manpower as cause for the raise. While some like to imagine the unrest was instant, it was more a slow starting fire at this point, grumbles and scowls but nothing serious as of yet. Another event seen as largely fueling the fire of the situation is when the duke of murton at the time, one Duke Anthony Kendall, famously joked with Lord Miles that "It is of good fortune that a simple cough is of no excuse for hard toil and work", which while no ones sure how such a joke got out to the public, was not a good look regardless.
However, things truly begin to pick up in the year 2980EC, when a healer from the original outbreak, one Liane Steitz, started to speak up against the local goverment for its callousness. Liane was something of a folk hero for the locals of Kylvale, having been on the frontlines of the plague since nearly the beggining, and it is from her spending entire weeks without sleep that she helped save countless lives, and so when this same folk hero was decrying the callous disregard Lord Miles had for the people, as well as even to some extent the church for simply being ambivelant to the whole situation, well it got people talking. While Liane would protest in the streets for a few months, sadly her life was cut short as Lord Miles had her arrested in a join move with some local church officals (many believe Miles bribed church officals but in truth no evidence has ever been found) and accused her of corruption and heresy. They claimed the Mozras, the demonic mother of plagues, had tainted her soul and body, and it was only a matter of time before another outbreak occured. Afterall, she was there since the beggining, and mysteriously while victims died all around her, she remained fine. While typically such accusations go to a holy trial, what followed can hardly be called a "trial" and more just Miles watching some priests yell at this healer nun for a while, before they publicly burned her at the stake as a witch and a heretic.
Now the unrest turned from grumbles to shouts and calls for retribution of this travesty. Though it was still localized, the unrest was spiraling quickly, and soon in the year 2981, the first blow was struck. As some locals were helping unpack crates of newly aqquired rifles for Lord Miles personal guard, many watched in shock as while the guard was milling about together, the peasents unloading the boxes simply turned the rifles onto the guards, and opened fire. The first blow was struck with the thunderous echos of rifle fire killing some 35 men in an instant, and all hell broke loose. Calling themselves the Steitz Revolutinaries, this budding rebellion quickly formed with one of the masterminds of the original shooting being one Zach Bell, prosletizing for the overthrow of Lord Miles and the right of the common man to rule themselves. The local village guard was quickly overwhelmed, and Lord Miles with what remained of his personal guard were forced to flea the village, heading through several towns before reaching Murton proper. However during that, the rebellion began to expand, going further past the ideals of just Kylvale being democratic, many began to campaign for the entierty of Murton to be democratic, maybe even the entire kingdom.
What followed was a year of bloodshed as rebel forces began to loot local armories for weapons and fortify their position, while expanding outward into other towns and villages. Towns not even aware of the original situation were suddenly caught up in violent riots and clashes with local guards, as some would side with the rebels, others the local lords, and others simply lost in the whirlwind of confusion. There are even rumors that some of the fighting was spurned on by spies from Ardita, as the peasents were armed alot quicker than what was expected (even some talks of Sobrussian clergymen operating in the area) though these rumors have had no solid proof as of yet. Regardless, Duke Anthony was now distraught that a rebel army could potentially be at his doorstep of Murton proper. Tasking Lord Miles with ending the rebellion he thought he caused, Lord Miles would fight with a small detachment of warriors from the Legion of the Ram to meet the main bulk of the rebel forces in the battle of Lunenwe Field. The battle, was a complete failure, as the loyalist forces were ambushed by the rebels and a few mercenaries and routed, with Lord Miles captured and then soon executed in front of a roaring crowd via being broken upon wheel.
Seeing this utter failure, and worried that not only would this rebellion open up the potential for attacks from the Deadlands, Duke Anthony petitioned the church for aid using his connections to the church, and was granted a force of clerical warriors and a veteran crusader commander by the name of Sir Cedron of Grayham. With the churhes help, the rebels were counterted quite effectively and eventually all but completly stomped out in the Battle of the Slor Bridge, being the main route to approach the city of Murton proper. 4 out of the 7 leaders of the rebellion were captured, with the rest either dying in the battle of going into hiding, and those captured were swiftly either executed or taking into the clerical dungeons of the Church of the Flame. Civil unrest took years to quiet down, but the church wisely played a card they thought would help. It was on the year 2982EC, that Liane Steitz was officaly pardoned by the church, and in recognition for her brave actions during the plague, was cannonized as a saint of Rudvite. While this did not solve all the civil unrest, as the rebellion went from a religious to a class conflict rather quickly, it did help, and eventually the land quieted once more. So ended a short but violent instance of rebellion, spawning not from one event but from an avalanche of embers that eventualy caused a storming inferno.

Conflict Type

Rebellion

Start Date

2981EC

Ending Date

2982EC

Conflict Result

Rebellion suppressed, but Steitz was Cannonized as a Saint of Rudvite