The Great Fog Riots were Altdorf's most recent event of civil unrest.[2a] They were instigated by the revolutionary Yevgeny Yefimovich. The riots occurred in the midst of the series of murders committed by "the Beast" and coincided with the thickest fog the city had seen in centuries.[1a]
The riots were especially deadly in part because of the large number of armed men in the city, even apart from Yefimovich's revolutionaries. Because of the fog, the city watch were joined by members of the Imperial Militia, Palace Guard, and Order of the Fiery Heart. The Citizens Vigilance Committee, a vigilante group set up by the Hooks posted themselves on strategic bridges. The League of Karl Franz, notorious for their brawling, went down to the Street of a Hundred Taverns for their annual "Imminence of Winter" binge. And many prostitutes chose to carry weapons while the Beast was still at large.[1a]
In the early afternoon, Yefimovich and his associates began distributing a new pamphlet claiming that the Beast was a member of the Aristocracy, which included Prince Kloszowski's most recent poem, "The Ashes of Shame."[1a] The riots were also thought to be in response to the recently-enacted Thumb Tax.[2a]
Although there was a minor clash between watchmen and the Citizen's Vigilance Committee in the early afternoon, the first casualty did not occur until around three in the afternoon, when a group of revolutionaries at the One-Eyed Wolf killed a hapless Estalian nobleman. By five in the afternoon, the death toll had risen to 18. The first fire in the city, meanwhile, was set at the house of Amadeus Wiesle, an unpopular East End moneylender.[2a] Yefimovich's revolutionaries also started fires in the East End.[1b]
By the time the riots were in full swing, the Hooks and Fish formed a temporary alliance and were tossing templars and watchmen into the river. The League of Karl Franz, meanwhile, abandoned their drinking event and joined the fray on the side of the Imperial establishment.[1c]
At the height of the riots, Yevgeny Yefimovich himself led a mob into the Mattheus II inn, which was then hosting a party including several Electors and Ambassadors. But in the midst of the struggle, Yefimovich was revealed to be an altered, and his mob quickly became disorganized and directionless.[1d][1e] News of Yefimovich's true identity spread very quickly through Altdorf. For the most part, the riots died down by sunrise, although a few fights occurred during the next few days. By the late afternoon of the next day, authorities put out the fires in the East End. The Imperial Court, however, did nothing to aid those whose houses had burned down, a faction which then composed a quarter of Altdorf's beggars. The revolutionaries failed to achieve their goals, and hostility between the commoners of the city and its aristocrats returned to normal levels.[1f]