Chapter II Interlude - The Awakening: Revival of the Titan Pantheon Faith (WIP)

Mead Oath - War of the Viking OST

The Awakening, the revival of the old gods... A religious upheaval which swept across Wolfenium in its first century of independence, the Awakening movement aimed to reverse centuries of attempted cultural and religious assimilation by their former Crystallian Amythysian rulers and restore to the followers of the old Titan pantheon the right to worship. What ensured were decades of religious persecution, expulsion and genocide of thousands, if not millions of Orthodox Crystallians, and the near total conversion of the Empire from a multi-religious nation to a Titanist-dominated society. Aided by the newly empowered Jaeger orders and their pagan patrons, the once powerful Crystallian clergy in Wolfenium was utterly eradicated, and common people forced to renounce their faith at the threat of their lives. While the pagans eventually completed the task of reversing the encroachment of the church and reviving the dying faith of the old gods, the price paid for the carnage was staggering. What sparked such brutality and distrust between citizens of different faith despite centuries of relative harmony prior, and how did the Awakening transpired to become the single bloodiest religious movement in Wolfen history?

Origins
In the 19th Century C.E., the land that was to become the Empire of Wolfenium had a vastly different demographic compared to the present. A land ruled under the Amythysian Remitonov dynasty, close to 60-70% of the population were adherents of the Orthodox Crystallian Church. Through the lure of economic privilege and discriminatory taxation, many of the coastal areas were converted to the faith of the Six Crystallian gods, and many more form significant populations in the cities and towns deeper inland. However, such incentives proved less effective in the rural areas, where the inland trade routes had been left to decline in favour of the maritime trade routes along the Straits of Sapphiria. And deep-seated traditions rooted in Titan pagan beliefs made conversion unprofitable, if not risky, for the nobles residing in the interior plains. For the church and its infamous Inquisition, enforcing religious homogenisation in the plains proved far more difficult without the infrastructure and support they could obtain from coastal areas. In the end, inquisitions proved fairly ineffective, and the royal court in distant Alisagrad had little option but to tolerate their remaining pagan vassals, on the option that they do not proselytize their faith.

However, despite this status quo, many of the Titanists in the inner states felt ostracised, treated as second-class citizens as the Church profited at their expense. Uprisings in past were quelled with great difficulty, due to logistical problems, and the onus was often left to their pagan rulers to suppress the revolts. Inevitably, many who had become disenfranchised took to vigilantism as an answer. Calling themselves Jaegers (German: Jägers, English: hunters, Gothic: 𐍅𐌰𐌹𐌸𐌾𐌰𐍃, Waithjas), these rogues sought to undermine the Church with banditry and terror. Tactics employed before reformation included kidnappings, hostage taking, extortion, raids and mass murder. While it was debatable whether their actions had an effect in maintaining the loyalty of pagans and pagan sympathizers, it did attract the attention of the Inquisition, and raids were frequently, if intermittently conducted in the plains to eradicate the Jaegers. By the time of Wolfen independence, some 40,000 Jaegers had been reported to be present. In contrast, only 1600 confirmed Jaegers had been killed in the raids. But perhaps the most infamous incident which prelude the Awakening was to prove the turning point in the conflict for the souls of South Astol was the Ingolstadt Monastery Raid in 1673 C.E. Staged by the Jaeger band, Raven's Eye (German: Rabenauge, Norse: Hrafnauga, Gothic: 𐌷𐍂𐌰𐌱𐌽𐌰𐌿𐌲𐍉, Hrabnaugo), under a man known only as Arnsbjorn, the band was recruit an embittered twelve-year-old Orthodox Crystallian nun from the monastery for information. Opening the way for their deadly raid, the informant was to become and future architect of a mass religious upheaval that would parallel a scale of destruction unseen since the Great Schism of the Crystallian and local Titanist faith - Magdalene von Ingolstadt.

Rise of Magdalene

Rise of Darkness, by Vittorio Coloniai, a landscape analogy of the past of Magdalene von Ingolstadt, first Groß Völva (Grand Seer) of the reformed Titan Pantheon Faith

The movement as a whole had radically changed in her hands, even before the founding of Wolfenium. Since succeeding Arnsbjorn, Magdalene, who would be granted ownership of the Bishopric of Ingolstadt after the revolution, was a woman scarred by her past. A nun from Ingolstadt Monastery, the girl was subjected to the deepest depravities ever seen in the Church. Far from the gaze of Avastopol, errant clerics engage in debauchery and orgy, running a covert brothel with their stable of nuns impressed as prostitutes for the city's wealthy. In her youth, Magdalene was a pious child, believing in the tenets of Amythyst's promise of salvation and justice. In addition, her magical potential, identified by a visiting team of Inquisitors led by Father Andrian von Cluj, equalled even the Angels and Venusiyans, with a past unknown even to the clerics who took her in as a baby. However, his efforts to take her to Köln as an Inquisitor disciple proved fruitless, as his duties to the Church superseded his sense of justice. Legends spoke of a last minute promise by the inquisitor to the young nun to bring her back to Koln. However, having failed to meet the deadline for the meeting due to his services elsewhere, it was said to have broken her already wavering faith in the Church and its gods, one which the Raven's Eye, perhaps unwittingly, exploited.

In the years following her induction, Magdalene's growing radicalism and newfound zeal began to take root within her order, reforming the Raven's Eye from a loose mob of dissatisfied bandits into a highly trained and fanatical guerrilla force, all while its leader Arnsbjorn, grew old and increasingly sidelined. Ironically, while perfectly in the position to press the now elderly leader to resign, Magdalene retained a pathological devotion to her 'saviour'. As one would describe, it was an atypical case of Stockholm Syndrome that proved psychologically traumatizing for her captors. Ultimately, with the ranks of the Raven's Eye choked with Magdalene loyalists, Arnsbjorn had no option but to defer her as his successor. In any case, given her powers, intellect and charisma, there was no one else within the Rabenauge that was more fitting for the role. Arnsbjorn's death in a raid by Crystallian inquisitors quickly cemented Magdalene's position as the head of the Rabenauge. With the last of the old guard from her childhood gone, the Rabenauge quickly completed its transition into a feared personal guard for the Jaegermeister, one that would form the core of a far greater army in the days to come.

Titanist Reformation

Independence was granted to much revelry to the Titanist population. For the first time in centuries, followers of the Titans were free to worship their gods in the open, without fear nor hesitation of the Inquisition's shadows around them. Ordered to shut down all offices and release South Astoli prisoners, the inquisitors were repatriated to Amythyst by the authorities, or renounced the use of force in proselyting. The former Exarchate of Koln, formerly under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch in Avastopol, was elevated to the status of an autocephalous church, with all parishes in South Astol affirming communion with the new native jurisdiction. But this empowerment was but skin deep, as Orthodox Crystallians now fear the emergence of the new pagan hegemony in South Astol. As the Wolfen constitution was put into paper, it became clear that the article detailing religious freedom in the Treaty of Tristania all but fake. Altered at the urgings of Magdalene and her backer, King Augustus of Eden, the article specifically restricted the actions of the Orthodox Crystallian Church, with no mention of similar impositions on any pagan organizations. Indeed, no central structure in the Titanist hierarchy existed prior to Wolfenium's inception, but all that changed on Autumn of Year 1813 C.E.

Convening a meeting in the provisional Reichstag building, the Wolfsburg Theatre House, just weeks after the signing of the treaty, Grandmistress Magdalene of the Raven's Eye Jaeger band, one of the few to have participated in the War for Independence, issued a widespread invitation to all pagan seers to the new capital. Her decree stipulated a need for reformation of the Titan faith in a bid to restore and strengthen Titanist belief in South Astol. While some had reservations heeding the call, owing to Magdalene's origins as a Crystallian convert, many came to the capital anyway. But few expected reformation to come overnight, but Magdalene had every intention to enact the changes she viewed were necessary to begin reversing Crystallian control over the soul of Wolfenium.

Many seers reacted strongly against Magdalene's appointment. For them, the Jaegers were a fringe group, some of whom were bandits who had only paid nominal lip service to the gods, while others were cult fanatics bearing warped interpretations of known scripture. The idea of a former Crystallian nun attempting to elevate the spiritual authority of such an unruly mob over their own was pure heresy, made worse by fears of the introduction of Crystallian-influenced doctrines into the reformed faith. However, Magdalene had the full backing of the Edenite seers by Augustus' mandate, and the arrival of some one thousand, four hundred Jaegers to pledge allegiance to her was enough to pressure the remander of the seers to do the same. With the Council of Wolfsburg, Magdalene was elevated to the highest authority in the new national Titanist Church. Having earned the religious backing of the Wolfen seers, by persuasion or force, Magdalene was now free to enact her campaign of terror against all religious opposition. This culminated in the razing of the Crystallian Cathedral of the Six and the purging of any Old Titanist priest who refused to follow her agenda or held on to non-doctrinal traditions.

Persecution of non-Titanists

Crucifixion is but one of many methods used by the Jaegers to punish Crystallians and deter crypto-Crystallans. Many others are far too gruesome for display.

Even before Fredrick's official declaration of the South Astoli Alliance, Magdalene had long been active at proselytizing within her key support base within Eden. During the rule of King Augustus, Orthodox Crystallian power was systematically being dismantled in favour of Magdalene's radical missionaries. When the bishoprics of Eden were dissolved, most of the monasteries and abbeys fell under the control of the Raven's Eye, and later the Reformed Titanist Church. As such, from her first headquarters in the newly constructed Ingolstadt Monastery (built over the ruins of her old abbey) Magdalene began calling forth the restoration of the faith, organizing mass baptisms numbering at the thousands in its largest gatherings. Many including crypto-Titanists, as well as nominal Crystallians who saw the benefit of aligning with the new Titanist order. Enacting measures to boost the welfare of the unprivileged, Magdalene ordered the establishment of thousands of schools, orphanage, hospitals and other facilities within Titanist domains, all aimed at granting benefits to Titanist followers and enticing others to 'return' to the fold.

However, when it became apparent that many communities in the Titanist-controlled lands remained staunchly Crystallian, Magdalene began imposing more drastic measures, with the full approval of the king and other like-minded lords. Villages suspected of Crystallian worship became routine targets for raids by the Jaegers, often with the help of Titanist mobs agitated by Jaeger agents. Many lords, among the first to convert to Titanism at Magdalene's behest, turned a blind eye to Jaeger atrocities, even contributing police or army formations when the opportunity arise. In short order, Eden's three hundred year old Crystallian community was virtually decimated within a generation, as with many other communities within the Edenite sphere. Jaeger activities soon expanded with the borders of the Empire, as orders established strongholds as far west as Ronan and the Weintraube peninsula. As a result, the only states to consistently and successfully bar Jaeger deployments within their borders was Belka and Köln, both of which would become a constant thorn in Magdalene's efforts to convert the population.

In particular, Belkans, or followers of the Belkan Saint Church, was to become another prime target for Magdalene's crusade. Condemned as idol worship for their belief in their Saint Kings' divinity, both the Belkan monarchy and the Titanist Church consistently antagonized and resisted each other's efforts. However, unlike the Crystallians, the Belkans, under the Sägebrechts, were almost exclusively confined within the safety of Belka's borders, their laws a barrier to Magdalene's armed 'missionaries'. It would only be until the end of the Wolfen Civil War that the Belkans began to experience the full horrors of the Awakening and its initiator.

Strangely, despite official Titanist rhetoric condemning all non-Titanist worshipers as heathens to be turned at the sword, Magdalene's treatment was not equivocal. Reformed Crystallians, most of whom were Vinchians or Wolfeners with ties to Vinchi, were mostly allowed to practice their faith. Relations with the Topazcan imams, who shared a mutual hostility to the Orthodox Crystallians, were also cordial. Perhaps the most ironic was Magdalene's covert aid to Venusiya, a theocratic, Emeraldian Crystallian state whose hostility towards non-believers rivalled even the Titanists. But, as the Grand Seer herself justified much later, her selectiveness was based on the practicality of the situation, which placed Orthodox Crystallians and Belkans as her greatest and most immediate threats.

Resistance

Patriarch Andrian of Koln, last patriarch of the Autocelaphous Orthodox Crystallian Church of South Astol, before its abolishment.

However, the Orthodox Crystallian community was far from defenceless, even as Magdalene's moral authority began to infiltrate even the Crystallian bastion of Köln. As per the terms of the treaty, the authority of the Orthodox Crystallian Church in South Astol was split from the control of Ecumenical Patriarch of Avastopol, and handed over to the Autocelaphous Patriarch of Köln. However, most of the bishoprics prior to independence was dismantled, many of which fell into the hands of Magdalene's personal control. Tasking with answering the wave of violence forced upon them, Patriarch Andrian formed a new order to combat the rising violence against his followers, Society of Amythyst.

An elf just like Magdalene, Andrian had previously sought to reform the Crystallian Orthodox church as an inquisitor, weary of the growing corruption and collusion between the priesthood and secular authority. Wolfen independence had, ironically, put him in the position to reform the autocelaphous church, clearing the priesthood of corrupt practices such as the sale of indulgences. However, the new patriarch also knew how precarious the Crystallians' situation had become. With scant protection from imperial governments, he trained his newly formed Guardians to resist Jaeger raids and attacks on their dwindling strongholds, as well as improve their diplomatic corps to win over dissenting lords. In addition, he secretly made arrangements with the Patriarch of Avastopol, now led by his old colleague, Patriarch Issac V. While a clear violation of the Treaty of Tristania (which barred correspondence between the churches) and a dangerous pretext for Magdalene to rally support for a full crackdown, Andrian was aware of the doom that awaited his believers, regardless of his adherence to imperial law. Thus, he arranged vital escape routes for Crystallian refugees into Amythyst and Vinchi, a lifeline that would save millions of fleeing civilians from the Jaegers' wrath. Until his death in the Battle of Köln in 1869 C.E. (59 I.C.), he would remain an obstacle to Magdalene's ambitions, thwarting her efforts to impress her radical Titanist religion by the sword.

Wolfen Civil War

The advent of the Wolfen Civil War provided an unprecedented opportunity for both the Reformed Titanists and Crystallians. While the war itself had mainly been a dispute over the crown's growing centralized authority over the feudal vassals, the Grand Seer was quick to view this as a final crusade, one which would prove the superior divine authority of the Titans over the 'false' gods of the infidels. With both Belka and Köln spearheading the Federalist alliance, Magdalene staged a fanatical propaganda campaign, painting the otherwise secular conflict as a holy war, a religious crusade against the 'revanchist infidels', who sought to undermine the authority of the crown, and hence, the Church. Patriarch Andrian, while initially wary of throwing his support behind the Federalists out of concern for Magdalene's retaliation, was encouraged by Prince Johann of Köln to pool his resources behind their effort. With the Jaegers and Guardians firmly with the Imperialist and Federalist, causes respectively, the war rapidly took on a religious bent. But with this new dimension, many feudal lords quickly became conflicted over their allegiance to their faith and their liege. Reformed Titanist lords who rejected the consolidation of power risked excommunication from Magdalene as apostates, while non-Titanists or Old Titanists who remained loyal to the crown faced mounting pressure to convert. This is especially true in the Ronan valley, where the hodgepodge of statelets became the main area of contention between the two sides. But in the battle for souls, Andrian ultimately refrained from using the war as a pretext for evangelization, a matter Magdalene exploited to the fullest.

As more lords and populations turn irreversibly to Magdalene's church, the Federalist alliance slowly chafed under the larger, more industrialized forces of the Imperialist coalition. A lack of Amythysian and Vinchian support for the Federalist cause, and the Venusiyan alliance with Imperialist-aligned Eden, only cemented the Federalists' fate. The fall of Köln, and the last stand of the Guardians in the evacuation of its followers, extinguished any hope of preserving the faith against the Magdalenist crusade. Belka soon followed right after, its capital of Dinsmark occupied by the Imperialists, and its last Saint Queen, Olivie Sägebrecht, slain in single combat against the Wolfen Empress, Erna Scarlachrot-Staufen of Alstein.

Imperial Rule

The Imperialist victory in the Wolfen Civil War marked the end of organized resistance against Magdalene's Awakening. The destruction of Köln and Belka had now given her full reign to destroy the Autocelaphous Orthodox Crystallian Church and Belkan Saint Church. Within a year, the former had been declared null and void 'due to dwindling numbers', as the Crystallian community plummeted to just fifty thousand. Their final eradication, paradoxically, was delayed by the tyrannical usurper, Kaiser Wolfgang 'the Mad' Sommer, as he sought to impress his own 'Sol Invictus' cult against the Titanists. It would only be until 1872 C.E., when the remaining Orthodox Crystallians were finally expelled from Wolfenium with the amendment and ratification of the Treaty of Tristania with Amythyst.

The Belkan community, meanwhile, continued to put up a stubborn resistance. While Magdalene had hoped that the death of the Sägebrecht's bloodline would destroy the credibility of the Saint Church, Belkan resolve to hold on to their identity in the face of Edenite oppression had only strengthened. Resistance groups, encouraged by the Belkan government-in-exile, continued to menace and impede Titanist evangelical activities. Such resistance was aided, ironically, by the passing of the Ordnung by the new imperial government, curtailing the authority of the feudal lords, including Magdalene. Forced to disband her Jaegers and merge them with the secular Sonderbranches under a national military, Magdalene's ability to convert the remaining non-believers could no longer be backed by force. While the Grand Seer would pursue the total conversion of Belka to Titanism to the end of her tenure, Belka's populous remained largely Belkan Saint worshippers. In contrast, Titanist believers, mainly Ilyushians (East Asians) would increasingly turn to the Saint Church for solace against the increasing imposition of racial laws against their ethnicity. By the end of the Ordnung under the Wolfenstein dynasty in 1973 C.E., Belka had remained, against all expectations, majority Belkan Saint believers. It would only take a few years before Belkan Saint Church attendances were restored to pre-war percentages.