The Dark Elf Riots

Revolution

The Dark Elf Riots is a bit of a misnomer, as many of the mortal races joined these riots at the time. With growing unrest about the unfair arrests and subsequent witch-burnings of many Dark Elves, Orcs and Goblins, the common folk turned to hiding their friends and loved ones from the witch hunters. Many of them living in cities would end up leaving for safety reasons, as witch hunters would often respond to false accusations and torture a false confession out of prisoners.   However, this unrest would eventually boil over into protests: many protest groups peacefully picketed outside temples at first, and also protested at both the Cleric and Paladin training areas of the College of Wanderers (even though there were members of these adventurer classes who had joined the protests at the time). These protests would eventually devolve into riots upon the temple's violent attempts to quell this growing resistance.

Temples were stormed, statues were broken, and even priests supporting the witch hunting cause were kidnapped. And this wasn't limited to just some cities: these riots went on wherever there were witch hunts. The rioters were surprisingly organized, acting in unison as if it had been planned: Orcs, Elves, Dwarves and and Humans would cause a diversion, Goblins would snare the ones responsible for breaking the riots up while they ran to act, and in the chaos, the Dark Elves carried out the actual kidnappings, spiriting the supporters of the witch hunters away before they could even blink. Every mortal race systematically used their talents for the sake of good, and eventually, the witch hunters started losing their hold on the commoners. Those who hadn't dared speak up before now dared to act, adding to the numbers. It was the supporters of the witch hunts who now had to be afraid: the hunter had become the prey. In the present day, only a few witch hunters had survived the revolution, and joined the Cult of Azdar during its rise to power.   Politicians struggled on how to handle this massive uprising, and eventually settled on giving in to the demands of the rioters and ending the witch hunts. However, they decided on a compromise to the temples as well: they heavily regulated the practice of Necromancy in order to prevent its use for nefarious means. This would assure that the cultural practices of the Dark Elves would no longer be penalized, but that the temples wouldn't have to fear a rise in incidents relating to the more evil practitioners of Necromancy.