Nonconformist Reformation



''"The Zundrbarian people know what is best for them! And it is time for an end to fall to the religious teachings, and for us to return to the old ways!" ''

Overview
The Nonconformist Revolution was the union of the churches that belonged to each individual Titan coming together. The Nonconformist Revolution took place during the Antebellum period of Sven Sootbeard's reign before the War of Three Hammers.

The Nonconformist Revolution was a major revolution in the terms that it combined the different churches that were dedicated to the Titans.

The war began after the death of the Line of Bjorn, who were in support of the Titans being worshipped individually. The Line of Magnus under Sven Sootbeard regained power, and were in favor of one single church that worshipped each Titan to be established.

Many of those who supported the line of Bjorn were against this, and a small civil war broke out after Torgen Sootbeard of the line of Thinrund- a cadet branch of the Line of Sven proposed the Ninety Five Directives- ninety five laws to the ruling of the new religion, known as the Faith of the Makers. Torgen's proposition went to Chalzad Sootbeard, one of the minor branches of the Sootbeard clan. Chalzad slew Torgen for his so-called heresy, and for slaying a Sootbeard- the line of Magnus was viewed that it was attacked.

Chalzad was at the time, the head of the Church of the Titans. He was kin with one of the oldest Dwarves in the town- Calgrim Whitebeard, a dwarf who was as old as Zundrbar, and claimed to be able to speak with the Titans. Among the ninety five directives was a commandment which stated that no dwarf should represent any of the Titans.

Causes
The causes of this were primarily the growing liberal feelings in Zundrbar against centralization. The conservatism that had prevailed under the rulers of the Line of Bjorn was now contested by Sven's new liberal proposals. Additionally, the loss of the line of Bjorn also coincided with economic instability in the wake of the Great Plague of +1300-+1400. During the Great Plague, the Church of the Titans claimed that more worship would be needed to remedy the Dwarves of this illness, and many decided to leave the church.

Before the slaying of Torgen, the Church slew many Dwarves under the claims of heresy, primarily the growing sense of engineers. This brought a large divide in Zundrbar between those who favored the advancement of technology and the sciences, and those who valued the importance of religion more so and considered the so-called "new-arts" to be heretical in nature. This divide created many sparks, although the sparks turned into a blaze with the involvement of the royals after Torgen was slain.

Belligerents
There were two main forces, the forces that supported the centralized church, and those who were against the centralized church. The royal crown house-the Sootbeards of the Line of Magnus, supported the decentralization of the Church and the allowance of new faiths into the Zundrbarian Church of the Titans. In addition to having the support of the crown, the Engineer's Guild and Geologist's Society supported them.

Despite having increased military reserves, the nonconformists were not stronger than the conformists. The Conformists were supported by the Ankoer Bank, The Miner's Guild, the Blacksmith's Guild, and a well armed militia. The miners and blacksmiths believed that the engineers were taking jobs away from Zundrbarians and turning their backs on tradition.

Events
After the war began, there was a day known as the Night of Shards, in which those who supported or were nonconformists themselves were raided and stolen from. This included the guildhall of the Engineer's Guild, which was severely damaged and most of the creations and schematics were torn apart, stolen, or burned. The Night of Shards killed thirty merchants who were supporters of the Nonconformists, and twenty armed citizens, at the cost of ten conformists.

The conformists retreated afterwards to the Forge and Pick Districts where they gathered their works and planned other attacks. The Nonconformists remained in Zundrbar, although at the cost of numerous hit and run attacks by the conformists, stretching throughout the first full year of the war, which in total yielded one thousand casualties.

The Nonconformists first began by trying to shut down the miners. There were many small battles that involved the taking of individual mines and converting their resources to supply the Nonconformists with ore for the engineers. The first attack took place after the Winter Veil celebration ended on January 3rd, +1502. The final hit and run attack took place on November 30th, +1502. The day after November 30th, the Nonconformists besieged the largest mine in Zundrbar- Thelgen Rock. Thelgen Rock was a meeting place for the Conformists and supplied their blacksmiths with most of the ore they required.

The siege ran from December 1st, +1502 to March 5th, +1504, when the Conformists were running out of supplies from the smaller mines to fuel the ongoing war effort. Finally, on March 10th, +1504, the Conformists made a full surrender, and the leader of the Church of the Titans, Chalzad Sootbeard, was taken into custody, alongside many of the other high leaders of the church. On March 31st, +1504, after twenty one days of fair trial, each of the leaders of the Church were taken out and shot in a firing squad, and the guildmasters were pardoned. The citizens of the Conformists agreed to lay down their arms, and the Miner's and Blacksmith's Guild was forced to pay a sum of twenty five thousand gold to the Engineer's Guild to rebuild the old workshops and guildhall which were destroyed in the attacks.

Outcome
The outcome was a victory for the Nonconformists, and many of the Conformists decided to leave Zundrbar and settled other areas such as Menethil Harbor. The Conformist Church of the Titans was destroyed, although many of the preachers were allowed to maintain their title as preacher in the newly formed United Church of the Pantheon. The United Church of the Pantheon worshipped all of the Titans as a whole.

During this time, one thousand Zundrbarians died. The deaths came mainly from the siege of Thelgen Rock, which yielded around five hundred dead miners, and was one of the largest deaths of any Zundrbarian military campaign.

Effects
The effects of this were an increased sense of liberalism in Zundrbar. The liberalism did end however in the 300th year of Zundrbar during a series of conflicts known as the Zundrbarian Civil War, which divided the citizens between either allying the growing settlements of the Wetlands or remaining independent.