Farmer's Rebellion of 4E 338

That night, your caravan spends the night in a collapsed barn. Charred wood gives a hint to the fate of the people who once used the structure, but you're just thankful for something to get you and the group out of the rain.
That night, you get a strange dream. It's filled with sounds of screaming, fire burning across the plain, farmers with pitchforks stabbing through guards. In one particularly vivid moment, you feel fire snake up your legs and realize that you are the farmer, this pain is yours, this rage is yours, this-
You wake, bolting up in your bedroll. One of the people with the caravan sighs loudly, causing you to startle again.
"The people may forget, but the blood on these stones never can." she says cryptically.

Farmer's rebellions are not particularly rare in the grasslands of Sedesta, but the one some forty years back in Loria was the most bloody one in the continent's history. Started by a simple farmer from the small town of Viron, the rebellion quickly spread to most major cities of the nation, causing untold destruction as the Lorian Army desperately and brutally put down the uprising.

A Fuse

The Kingdom of Loria is known for its rather undemocratic nature, unlike many of the other nations of Sedesta. Unlike the others, who long ago changed over to an oligarchic or bureaucratic structure with or without a monarch, Loria still concentrates most of the power in the hands of the King. This power structure is duplicated at the village level, often leading to dissatisfied peasantry.

A Spark

The conflict began when Émli Wafora, a common wheat farmer from Viron, was arrested for treason. Her husband, Vankos Wafora, turned her over to the authorities after a Gnoll attack left them destitute and she began to organize the community against the local lord. What the lord of Viron didn't know is that Émli's position in the community led to a desperate battle to free her from her imprisonment. She later captured and killed the lord, taking his estate as a base to plan further action against the oppressive structures of the Kingdom.

An Explosion

Émli took aim at the aristocracy, and she and many other rebellious farmfolk of Viron began to sneak into community meetings in nearby villages to create organized resistance against the nobility. From Viron, it spread across the Lorian Plain towards Paqueli and Lerdelore. By that point, the Army had gotten itself installed in villages and towns to help protect the impending harvest. Members of the newly-instituted Farmer's Collective of Loria caused them trouble at every turn, although open war was not yet permitted.
The return of the lord of Viron's daughter Sora Viróna led to the first skirmish between the rebels and the aristocracy. Sora, chased from her home, pulled every string she could to get the attention of the nobility of the region. It didn't take long before the farmers under Émli's command fled north, but with every town they visited, their numbers grew and bodies of guards piled in their wake.
Then the unthinkable happened; Émli strode into Lerdelore, and she handed herself over to the authorities. Sora quickly drafted a list of crimes, and a trial attended by thousands was held in the Star Chamber. That is when the truth of her plan was revealed; her followers began to form mobs in the streets while the authorities were distracted by the proceedings in the city's central district. The ensuing unrest took months to put down; Émli was killed before her trial could be concluded, and her followers were trailed back into the countryside. It wasn't until early autumn that the last rebel was found and executed...or so the Kingdom claims.

Wreckage

Loria's economy in the south still hasn't recovered from the destruction caused by the uprising. Many farms were torched or destroyed by retreating forces on both sides, causing a great loss in harvests that is still felt by some to this day. The occasional rebellious individual is executed for claiming to represent the Farmer's Collective, but otherwise the Kingdom has done everything in its power to ignore any consequences of this, putting most of its energy into ensuring that no rebellion of any kind will succeed at reaching the same number of people as this one.

Conflict Type

War

Battlefield Type

Land

Start Date

Alquil, 4E 338

Ending Date

Nobaquil, 4E 338

Conflict Result

Lorian forces victorious

Location

Loria

Belligerents

The Kingdom of Loria
Farmer's Collective of Loria

Related Prose

It Eats At Our Table

Effects on Culture

The only the most factual accounts of the rebellion are permitted within the Kingdom. However, that hasn't stopped the handful of former rebels who still hide among the populace of cities like Lerdelore and Paqueli. Books such as the account of Émli Wafora's role in the rebellion are banned, but copies have been found in raids of traitors' possessions in the decades since. A couple of academics at the Starshine Academy have even coined the term "Waforanism" to describe the political ideology based on the self-determination of farmers and other peasantry espoused by Émli and her followers.

"They would sell your souls to the devils if it made them even the slightest bit richer! If you protect them, you only make it even easier for them to kill you! You need to stand up and fight! It's the only way to keep yourself from joining the hundreds of skulls they will crush under their feet when they next do war!"

— Émli Wafora

Reward for the capture and arrest of one Tilanër Posorano, wanted for sedition, incitement to treason, aristocide, conspiracy and destruction of noble property. Information leading to fulfillment of this warrant will be suitably rewarded at the Army's discretion.|A wanted poster in Paqueli about a high-ranking member of the Farmer's Collective