The War-Torn Century

The tenth century AFE, commonly referred to as the War-Torn century, arrived as the Revivalist Era was ending. At this time, the aggressive conversions of the followers of the lesser gods had devolved into outright aggression and persecution. It was this spirit that lead to the first Great Crusade, often referred to simply as the First Crusade. This is not to be confused with the first crusade in Elrich history; the crusade that came first would have been grouped with the lesser crusades.
The First Crusade began in the year 899 and lasted through the year 901. It functioned as the first attempt since the third century to suppress belief in the lesser gods and would set the tone of the rest of the tenth century. The war was highly unorganized. The followers of lesser gods were unprepared for the war, and they were unable to organize themselves through most of the war. The eightists themselves did not organize into a collaborative offensive force, instead functioning in a relationship more akin to an allegiance than anything else.
This disorganization within the opposing forces led to a similar disorganization in the war itself. There were few of what could be classified as true battles; the war was fought in a series of skirmishes and massacres. The two armies fought in vastly different ways. The theme of the eightist army was that of a mobbish violence. Ideological fervor took the place of significant tactical planning; commanders were promoted more for their zealotry than any other qualification. Ranks above sergeant were little more than titles, and the high command had only a slight presence.
The followers of the lesser gods, on the other hand, focused on organizing a defensive. After the war began, they quickly developed channels of communication through which they could relay news. Once this was in place, the casualties on their side began dropping dramatically. A few of these communities would launch counterattacks, but most instead created barricades to fortify their neighborhoods from the attacks.
The followers of the lesser gods, however, were at a huge disadvantage: the majority of the soldiers were followers of Embraz, the Goddess of War, and the mercenaries of either Embraz or Umoast, putting all the experience on the side of the attackers. Huge numbers of the lesser gods' followers were killed over the first year and a half of the crusade.
Over the last quarter of the crusade, the followers of the lesser gods worked to disappear. Individuals, families, congregations, and in three documented instances, whole neighborhoods would sneak away from the cities in any way possible. They moved en masse to lightly inhabited places and created their own settlements, most of which were located in the Jaggback Range. There they formed wide-spaced communities called 'sprawls.' By avoiding the eightists, they managed to create a temporary peace.

After the first crusade, relationships between the eightists were very tense. The sense of unity between followers of one whole pantheon disappeared, and believers were left as followers of one of the gods instead of worshippers of the pantheon.
The idea of monotheism began among the elitists culture of the followers of Zaeradan, King of the Gods, around 905 AFE. Worshipers began denying rites and celebrations pointed towards any of the other gods, eventually denying any other god's title of godhood, demoting the rest of the pantheon to demi-gods and, not long after, all the way down to angels.
Monotheism can be seen developing among Hartera's followers next in direct retaliation against the monotheistic trend of the Zaeradanites. The rest of the major pantheon was quick to follow.
The followers of the lesser gods, on the other hand, experienced quite a different phenomenon. Having to work together to fend off the attacks of the now dispersed eightists, the followers of lesser gods developed a sense of community. A new identity emerged among these people, and they began calling themselves 'lesserists.' This communal, pantheonic identity grew over the next twenty years to become stronger than even the eightists of centuries before. Lesserists would worship any god equally. Instead of having one main god and acknowledging many more, the Lesserists would worship the god relevant to what they were doing at any given moment, praying to sometimes a dozen different gods they would acknowledge in a single day.