The Black Mob

The Black Mob was an Etrancoasti Pagan underground group that was active roughly from ~520 AEKE to around ~620 AEKE. They began as a vigilante group or religious cult (see below) that defended the Etrancoasti citizens from bandits, thieves, kidnappers, murderers and the Inquisition. During Rikwi's Pagan Rebellion, they transformed themselves into an organized police force employed by the State of Hulra, then after the rebellion, they became an insurgent group.

The Black Mob was named after their tradition of using pitch to colour their own clothes black and dying their own hair black, in order to ease stealth during the dark nights.

Vigilantism
The group arguably made their appearance during the 520's. The first official records about the group were made in 536, the time the authorities have officially recognized a group of pagan criminals wearing pitch-black clothes. At the time, the Black Mob was responsible for committing vigilante actions, fighting against the Inquisition, and assassinating tax-collectors. Very often, members of the Black Mob fought among themselves over loot and extorted money out of the people they were supposed to protect.

Several members were caught and forced to confess information about the group, revealing that they primarily worshipped Moerrar and Woertha, the earlier of which has become nearly forgotten by other Pagans, the latter which has become a subject of scorn and despise rather than worship and reverence. This information meant that the group was a cross between a religious sect and a vigilante group, rather than exclusively the latter.

During the 540's, they started dropping the cult-like characteristics in order to "appeal to a wider audience" - in other words, to all pagans, rather just Moerrar-worshippers and Woertha-worshippers - membership rose. Still, the group's leaders came exclusively from those two groups.

Rikwi's Pagan Rebellion
The group actively took part in Rikwi's Pagan Rebellion, that took place from 563 to 576. When the rebels successfully managed to drive out the authorities by late 563, the Black Mob reorganized itself into a police force working for the State of Hulra. They would operate prisons, patrol areas to deter criminals, discover Titanist priests and other counter-revolutionary elements, and put them into their prisons. Since most criminals were openly pagan, the group used the "former-thieves make the best policemen" logic to recruit among former bandits to boost their numbers - since most of the openly-pagan criminals were patriotic enough to put their skills to use for the Pagan cause rather than their own personal needs, membership arose again.

A sub-group of the Black Mob known as Woertha's Eye operated as a secret police during the war, as well as spies.

As the tide of the war started turning against the pagans, the Black Mob started losing its discipline, infighting between each other and extortion from the civilians once again started. Food and other resources would be extorted from peasants and transported into the secret hideouts of the Black Mob. As the Etrandish came to conquer back the land and re-install the pro-Etrandish Titanist Etrancoasti nobles, the Black Mob gradually retreated to their secret hideouts, but not without pulling out the "scorched earth policy" first.

Insurgence and decline
As the war ended with a Titanist victory in 576, the Black Mob became a pagan insurgent group that would continue to fight from the underground well into 620's, as they gradually faded into obscurity. The last records about the group come from 611. It is assumed that after the 620's, the group got disbanded and the last members joined other underground pagan resistance groups.

Legacy
While the Black Mob itself did not leave a lasting impact on the future of Etrancoast after war - becoming little more than a mere nuisance to the authorities -, the former sub-group Woertha's Eye did in fact inspire the Titanist Inquisition, who would copy this pagan secret police's methods to build their own spy network in Etrancoast after the war.