Faith's Hosts (Achysia)

The Faith's Hosts, officially the Hosts of the Holy Faith in Our Sixteen Gods were a popular movement and an alliance of rebel forces founded and organized by Theiarch Zarkeon in Achysia after the fall of the Achysian Monarchy. The Theiarch founded and organized peasant armies with the aim of fighting the Kathic Republic and their puppet regime, the Achysian Republic, and with the ultimate objective of restoring the absolutist Radiant Crown and liberating the Haliarchy. The hostites of the Faith were mostly peasants, led by priests who encouraged their religious loyalty in order to convince them to resist Kathia and her client republics.

Though initially only formed by poorly armed and trained bands of peasants, the Faith's Hosts slowly turned into an organized army as the war progressed, receiving weapons and funding from the Faith and the other enemies of Kathia. Never able to match the Kathic forces in terms of tactics and prowess, the hostites always compensated for their weakness through sheer fanaticism. The hosts of the Faith played an important role in the eventual collapse of the Kathic client republic in Veranium, and pledged its allegiance to the Supreme Regency Council, fighting the Kathic troops until the end of the Republican Wars, before getting involved in the Achysian Civil War of 1818-1823. The support of the Theiarch Zarkeon's forces was invaluable in the eventual victory and restoration of the absolutist Emperor Velisarius, in May 1823.

The newly restored imperial monarchy however decided that having such important military forces under the control of the Faith was dangerous, and the Faith's Hosts were disbanded as part of a series of reforms collectively known as "the Imperial Renewal".

Several groups attempted to claim the legacy of the original Faith's Hosts, and the name also began to be used collectively to refer to any religiously motivated rural rebel groups in Achysia up until the War of Transition in 1948.

Nomenclature
The official name, as present in the Haliarchal decree that granted Zarkeon and his followers the right to bear arms in the name of the Faith was the "Hosts of the Holy Faith in Our Sixteen Gods", a name which was usually shortened to that of the "Faith's Hosts". By choosing the name of "hosts", Zarkeon was trying to emulate the military tradition of the Elyrian, Veranian, and Achysian armies, and it would appear that the name was also chosen under the hope that it would attract the remains of the disbanded Imperial Army into its ranks.

Since most of their members were however illiterate peasants, the Faith's Hosts were also popularly known under many nicknames or symbolic names, like the "Crimson Hosts" or the "Hosts of the Bloody Flower" after their emblems.

Zarkeon's Campaign
The Theiarch quickly started to amass important forces all throughout the historically rural southern Achysia, harassing the Kathic forces sent to deal with them through guerrila actions in the rugged terrain.

"''"Arise, sons and daughters of the Gods, subjects of the Radiant Crown! Arise for your Faith, arise for your Emperor and for his family! The Kathics have shed the blood of our blessed imperial family, have imprisoned our most Holy Haliarch, have kidnapped our beloved princess, have desecrated our temples and stained our fields with the blood of the innocents. Will you just stand and wait as they destroy the Faith, as they do the bidding of demons, as they come to take away your wives and daughters? Will you just lay in your guilt of not having defended your Emperor while he was fighting for you? Rise, people of Achysia, let us march to fight the invaders, let us hunt them out of our homes, out of our realm, let us avenge our Emperor and our Despot, let us break the barbaric chains holding the Haliarch, let us liberate our princess! May the banner of the Faith grant us victory! The Gods shall be with us!"

~Theiarch Zarkeon, in a recruitment speech in his native province of Varathia''"