Thane Uprising

The **Thane Uprising** - also known as the Northern Hills Revolt of 2084 and the Burning of the Hills - was a violent uprising in the Northern Hills of the Arathi Highlands, fought between human Thanes and Trollbane Loyalists between 2084AD and 2087AD. This conflict broke the back of the proud remnant Thanes and chieftains of the Northern Hills and their allies from across Stromgarde - and even the Alterac Mountains.

## Prelude

### Thane Resurgence

During the millennia since the foundation of the Empire, the once numerous Thanes had been slowly but steadily replaced with other, more specialized roles and more innovative sociopolitical models. Feudal lords assumed hereditary titles, appointed mayors and magistrates assumed leadership over towns and regions not worthy of being considered a true title, and professional soldiers usurped the military role of the thane.

This trend was briefly reversed for two centuries, between roughly 1800AD and 2000AD. Traditionalist factions took power in the capital and provincial centres and looked to the now largely outdated Thanedoms for inspiration. Many titles and roles were assumed back into their originators, though the new thanes lacked the original status as military retainers in most cases.

From a number at around five hundred in 1800AD, the ranks of the thanes reached two and a half thousand men by 2000AD, when the tide turned again and modernists began to disassemble the new model and revert it to the 'superior' and 'more advanced' bureaucracies and hierarchies that had been freshly displaced.

### Mounting Tensions and Modernization

The thanes were a grand institution with ancient roots; a perspective held by both traditionalists and modernists. The modernists, however, contended that their day was done - they belonged solely to those ancient peoples who had lacked the wisdom of the modern era. To this end, they began approaching the aristocracy and the bureaucracy in order to see the typically non-hereditary, quasi-noble Thanes converted into two distinct branches of government.

Those thanes who held landed title should, the Modernists cried, become barons in the service of the Counts, Dukes, and King. The instability inherent in non-hereditary systems combining civil and aristocratic elements was dangerous to the good of the realm; and accordingly, these titles should not just be converted to barons, but also be split, placing the role of the judge and tax collector into a seperate bureaucracy (it must be noted that the bulk of the modernists in the early stages were in fact such officials themselves.)

To secure their goals, the Modernists bribed and persuaded the nobility with all means possible. Lavish gifts were offered and feasts held to sway prominent figures, and gradually, the nobility began (with royal assent) to assign 'lesser' titles to take the place once held by Thanes, and provincial governors to take over their civil responsibilities. The progress was remarkably swift, and by the outbreak of the Uprising, the Thanes numbered just over seven-hundred men, primarily in the Troll-March and the border-provinces of the Thandol Valley. In the more urbane areas of the Highland, they had been almost universally replaced, and there were none at all to be found in the lands surrounding the capital.

### The Murder of Duke Charles

These tensions came to a head in 2084, when Duke Charles of Ostmire was murdered while visiting with Margrave Joachin. Charles was one of the most dedicated modernists in the Arathi Highlands at the time, single-handedly responsible for lifting his duchy up from its poor and ignorant ways. The great campaigner had come to the Northern Hills to try and persuade the Margrave to dismiss the thanes and to install provincial governors from the growing ranks of the secular university graduates.

He was successful, and this ultimately cost him his life. As the debate drew to a close and Charles prepared to hand over a sizeable sum (one hundred gold gros), the already notorious Thane Ezekiel Thorson stormed the Margrave's hall, where his men slaughtered Duke Charles and his retinue. Thorson had learned of the Duke's strong and persuasive arguments in favour of removing him and his ilk from power, and decided to end the matter decisively. The rebels absconded with the gold, and the Margrave sent men in pursuit to bring them to justice.

By the time they succeeded, over two thousand men would be dead.

## Open Warfare

### Major Engagements

#### The Fiendeyrr Campaign

Fought in the East against the rebellious Thanes of the Fiend's Coast

#### Battle of the Wall

Alteraci-based sympathizers attempt to breach Thoradin's wall.

## Ramifications

### Economic Ramifications

#### Northern Depression

The brutal slaughter that followed the uprising is held responsible by the inhabitants of the Northern Hills for the bleak lifestyle that has prevailed in the region since. With the vast majority of the population slaughtered in retaliation (and to break the support of any remnant Thanes considering revolution), it took several centuries for the region to begin to recover to any real extent - centuries in which good farming land was lost to creeping bogs (with no one to maintain the dykes along the Black River), trolls freely raided and further devastated the population, and the Northern Hills crept further and further into obscurity and economic despair.

Today, the region has still not reached its pre-Uprising population heights, and remains severely economically depressed. Where mining and quarrying was once a major factor in the region, today the bulk of the inhabitants are subsistence farmers or soldiers, and the developing middle class of other regions nearly totally non-existent. The name of Legate Stein of the Black Steppe is cursed still.