Siege of White Cliff

"A crawling foulness will overcome you because you did not shut the gates of your heart to iniquity."

- Prophetic saying from the Litany referencing the rat plague

The Siege of White Cliff was an event that jump-started the existence of the Empire of the Isles' foremost religion, the Abbey of the Everyman. It occurred at the current site of the city of Whitecliff, in Gristol, and was the final battle of the Rectification War. It resulted in a series of prophetic sayings, one of which referenced the rat plague.

The Siege of White Cliff
The Siege of White Cliff was nothing more than the final battle of the Rectification War, which had begun in 1705 against other religious denominations and followers of the Outsider. Following the completion of the Abbey in Dunwall in 1708, large gatherings of Overseers traveled to Whitecliff. There, a religious cleansing began wherein Overseers laid siege to the population of Whitecliff, "purging" the region of "heretics, witches and thralls of the Outsider." Overseer John Breton, who aided the Abbey during this siege, was run through with a spear by followers of the Outsider. The Abbey's founder, High Overseer Benjamin Holger, was killed in the battle by a knife driven through his eye.

Legacy
Immediately after the battle, a month of ceremonial rites, speeches and invocations by various Overseers were transcribed and carried back to the Abbey, forming the basis of its holy text, the Litany on the White Cliff. The Siege would ultimately see the Abbey of the Everyman emerge as the prominent religion across the Empire of the Isles. Furthermore, the Abbey would be declared the official state religion in 1711 by Emperor Yefim Olaskir.