Spark in the Tinderbox

The year 665PC sees the untimely and quite unexpected death of the Grand Theogonist Cornelius I. Appearing to have succumbed to spontaneous exsanguination in his bathtub, having being hale and healthy the very same morning, his death throws the Church of Sigmar into disarray. Conclave is called to elect a successor to the Holy Seat of Sigmar. Alas, the process drags on for weeks as contending Arch Lectors are variously found dead, have fled the city, or mysteriously withdraw themselves from nominations.

Meanwhile, the small but increasingly popular Puritan Movement gains support in the north. Regarded by some as an extreme branch of the Church, the Lector Boris Drazkharov nonetheless seizes upon the Puritan’s distaste for "idolatry" and "vanities" forming part of religious worship. The churches and shrines of Holwingen are systematically purged of their symbols and relics of Sigmar in favour of a more austere aesthetic. Churches in Mallenstein quickly follow suit. As the strength of the Puritan movement rises it begins to challenge the Empire’s other religious orders, considering the worship of other deities anathema. The Puritan’s scorn falls upon the faithful of Manaan, Morr and Ulric. Non-Puritans are derided and castigated for not adhering to the worship of the One True God and Saviour, Most Holy Sigmar.

Puritan zeal is whipped up by the Machiavellian Lector Boris. Priests of these other faiths soon find themselves persecuted across Holwingen, and rapidly, the rest of the north. Boris personally goes to great lengths to vilify the priests of Morr. Scores of that brotherhood suffer at the hands of the Puritans and many of Morr’s temples and shrines are put to the torch by Puritan lynch mobs.

After three months of delay, in Sigmarheim the Conclave is finally ended with the appointment of the new Grand Theogonist Ignatius I. He is appalled at the excesses of the Puritans in the north and calls for immediate cessation of their activities. Conversely, with Boris Drazkharov fanning the flames of religious fervour, the Puritan movement labels the newly appointed Ignatius a heretic for tolerating any who would stray from Sigmar's pure light.

The Grand Theogonist issues a warrant for the arrest of Boris Drazkharov and number of other Puritan leaders. However Boris finds support in his cousin, the Count Ivan Drazkharov of Holwingen. The armed escort sent to apprehend Boris is intercepted en route and the men are massacred by Holwingen state troops.

This incident causes outrage and draws the attention of the Imperial Court in Sigmarheim. With tensions beginning to reach crisis point, and a schism threatening to sunder the Church, the Emperor has little choice but to dispatch the soldiery of House Alptraum to take Count Ivan and Lector Boris into custody, so that they may be brought before the Throne to answer for their actions.

But the Drazkharovs are ready. As the Alptraum troops take rest and make camp outside the town of Weissbruck on their route northward, an army raised at the Krähefort descends out of the mist on the Holwing Hills.