Rumor had stirred the city into a panic.

You know how it goes, right?

A story begins to be told and a sizable enough portion of the population buys into it, transforming

it into something bigger, something more powerful.

You see, the king had issued a royal edict the year before that was meant to empty the

streets of homeless people all over Paris.

The rich nobility didn't want to see them anymore, and that included children, so the police

had been rounding them up and taking them to places of detention.

Oh, and one other little detail.

Those police officers were paid a fee for this.

Per arrest.

You can see how that might get out of hand, right?

So the people of Paris rioted, but not because they were rejecting a royal edict.

No, it was because a rumor had replaced the truth and taken control of the narrative.

A rumor that said that King Louis XV had become a leper and was bathing in the blood of children to cure himself.

People protested, threats against the king were made, and looking back the seeds of the coming revolution were planted.

All because people didn't want to believe the logical truth, but instead clung to a wild, fantastical fiction.

Thankfully, that sort of thing would never happen today, but it certainly begs us to stop and think about the power of rumor,

and the way in which lies and fabrications can take on a life of their own, oftentimes overpowering the truth in the courts of public opinion,

and it should cause us to rightly fear those moments.

Because if history is any indication, rumor can lead us down some very dark roads.

I'm Aaron Manky, and this is lore.

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