Nazarene Uprising of 1748

It was the fourteenth day of the tenth month of the year seventeen hundred forty-eight and Princess Emilia Antoinette, Chancellor Charlène Jolicoeur-Schafenweide sit together with the heads of all branches of the Scuta Aemilia, in the chancellory in Stadt Taktwinkel. They are discussing the mutiny that took place over the last two days, after dark grey clouds over Aemilia sparked great fear, especially among a more extreme part of the Ludwiggian Reformed Church, which thought that the nation would be subjected to divine judgment. A preacher, Johannes Erdnuss, had called for rebellion against the state, which he saw as demonic because of its dabbling in South Cibolan Witchcraft and the demands placed on the church, especially with the Prinsessenvertaling being the only allowed translation of their Holy Scripture. On the night from the 13th to the 14th parts of the Exercitus Aemilia had revolted, they had taken their weapons and grouped in the Lanzerwald. Mutineers in the Panzerkorps Ludwigshafen even had taken Panzergefechtswagen II with them, to which the Equites Caeli responded by scrambling F-9 Ashavan II fighter jets and targetting these tanks, seven of which were found and destroyed, two of which were still missing.

Princess Emilia Antoinette rubbed her forehead, the situation had escalated so rapidly over the last few days and she was quite tired from the day before, when she was washed up on a sandbar and spoke to the Eternal Mistress, who nearly caused flooding when she wanted to see her descendant Herodias Blutwasser in person. She understood that the people were freaked out by the events, she was too, but she couldn't understand the demands of the extremists within the Ludwiggian Reformed Church, to go back to their old translation, the Stadtparlementübersetzung, which had so many problematic parts, which surely couldn't be the intention of a benevolent god, which the Nazarenes claimed they worshipped. And now there was an armed conflict, a civil war, and both the robberies of the mutineers on weapons depots, and the strikes of the Equites Caeli had resulted in the loss of life, it had become difficult to resolve this situation diplomatically, and while the federation still had military supremacy, she didn't want needless spilling of blood. She questioned the commander of the airforce about her reasoning for deploying deadly force, and the commander explained how everything they had done had been according to doctrine, how it had been proportional, and how it had been mostly effective. It was awful, but it was right. The commander of the Exercitus said that he had no reason to believe that more mutinies were underway, but that was an assumption, it felt bad to doubt his words, and he realised that she didn't fully believe everything he said, he didn't either. He hoped he would be right, he hoped that his faith in his soldiers and officers would not be betrayed once more. He too, had done what needed to be done, the Exercitus had started to build entrenchments around the cities that were deemed to be at the highest risk of attack, his dragoons had been out in the forest looking out for the mutineers, so that they could be found. And what then? Destroy them? Reason with them? It would depend on their actions, doctrine said that de-escalation should be sought, but that the military would strike hard against any force, external or internal, that would threaten the cities of the federation.

One company of the dragoons that had been deployed to the search mission was that of Rittmeisterin Angela Rettich, she guided her group through the thick forest north of Gödelitz, she knew most of the people under her command but she had been assigned a pale young woman, with a shining amulet on her neck. On her horse, she rode next to the young woman and asked her who she was and what her specialty was. "My name is Sigrid Friedrichssohn, I am a medic, Frau Rittmeisterin.", the young woman said. "Why did the major assign you to us then? We already have four medics, one for each of the patrols in my company." the young woman shook her head, "The general did not tell me why I had to join this company. I have had training but I have no practical experience in the military, this is my first formal assignment since I was initiated." "Initiated? Are you a chaplain, young lady?" Sigrid hesitated, unsure what to tell her superior, who grew annoyed and told her to explain herself fast, "I graduated in necromancy, Frau Rittmeisterin." she offered, and Angela Rettich was lost for words. The rittmeisterin was not a witch herself, she had been raised in a Nazarene household and while not religious herself, those norms and values, she still carried them with her. She had an open mind to most witchy things, she didn't understand the taking of auspices, but it was an important ritual in the military so she abided by those traditions. But necromancy? Even in the Confoederatio Aemilia that was a taboo subject, it sounded repulsive to bring back the dead. The young necromancer recognised the shock in the eyes of her superior and quickly added, "We usually don't animate corpses, we try to gain knowledge from the dead, from their spirits. Reanimating a corpse is very difficult and hardly ever leads to the result one hopes for." The rittmeisterin mumbled the word 'usually' under her breath and thanked the young lady, gave her horse the spurs and returned to the front of the company, to join her wachtmeisterinnen.