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====== No One Expects the Reverse Inquisition! ======

On Newhome during the centuries leading up to the war of dissolution, a movement adjacent to the pious dissolutionists arose whose aim was to hold corrupt clergy accountable. Its original name, if it ever had one, has been lost to history, but humans studying yinrih history often refer to it as "The Reverse Inquisition."



The movement was formed by pious laymen and women. Clergy, even those sympathetic to the dissolutionist cause, were forbidden to join. The group's modus operandi was to take advantage of the growing power of the secular government to punish wayward clerics who abused their power. A hearthkeeper's duty is to provide warmth and light to those around her, both spiritually and literally. The faithful are encouraged to offer tithes of their own free will and according to their means to enable their spiritual dam to fulfill her duties. As the Bright Way became more corrupt and worldly, "free will donation" became "mandatory payment", and the clergy gradually began justifying harsher and harsher consequences for those who didn't pay up.



At first, the reverse inquisition used legal and social pressures to eject offending clerics from their Lighthouses and support principled hearthkeepers to positions of power. However, as time went on, overzealous members began attacking hearthkeepers physically rather than just rhetorically. Their ire expanded to encompass not just clerics who actively fleeced their congregations but hearthkeepers who didn't vocally support the dissolutionist cause, and the group was eventually labelled a terrorist organization.



Over time, the organization devolved into simple anticlericalism, and the rank and file pious laymen were gradually replaced with militant secularists aligned with the Partisans. These new members began calling themselves "extinguishers", and simply attacked religious leaders of all stripes.



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