War of the Heretic Princes (concept)
The War of the Heretic Princes (or The Heresies) was a massive wave of heretical thought in Chevalie that nearly ended a near millennia of uninterrupted worship of the 'Lifepath'.
The wars were a result of a long history of Clerical Control of Chevalie that came to a head in 999 IS when the preacher Urso Becledièvre declared several 'accompaniments' to the interpretation of the Lifepath and began preaching for radical changes from mainline thought. While clerical soldiers initially tried having him arrested, soldiers of the Duke of Sauvessagne guarded Urso and then Duke Michel Frink used this new religious conflict to declare himself free from the Conclave of Raocourt and his responsibilities to the church, reclaiming the Right of Choice and imprisoning any Wayfather who refused to give him full control of clerical lands and functions.
The event was widely circulated across Chevalie, and new faiths by emboldened preachers began appearing almost monthly. Secular warlords were fast to use these new faiths to secure their rule, and the situation deteriorated so quickly that it is credited with causing the collapse of the Deyvidian High Kingdom shortly after its reunification.
While the Conclave was slow to react and struggled to find its footing after such a great challenge, it finally began a true response in 1011 IS with the Council of Ex and its declaration of Becledièvre and any other mendicant preachers as arch-heretics, as well as officially declaring the crime of attempting to disrupt the Waypath worthy of death. This would begin nearly forty years of religious warfare across Chevalie, which would finally end in the Agreement of Raocourt, which saw the various religious leaders either executed, exiled, or returned to the fold, and the secular warlords once again swearing themselves to Lifepath orthodoxy. Despite the Conclave's victory, however, the long history of Clerical Control of Chevalie was effectively over.