I think to anyone outside the highest circles of the Church or realm, it all came as a very sudden explosion. It was literally almost over by the time I actually caught up with all the letters and had a chance to start responding to events. I mean, I knew that there had been tension between Selene and Caspius, but they seemed to be getting along fine recently until this blew up all over everyone.
As for Theuderik, it shouldn't matter if his character was well known or not. A priest was murdered, at his own altar, in an extremely brutal fashion and his body was defiled. Holy War or not, that is a marked escalation. I find the lack of furious outrage as a result to be quite the let down, truth be told. I joined Sorraine specifically because of the Church and how it was advertised to be a religion-first, realm-second type of deal, but to be honest all of the dramatic conflict so far has been between the Church and the realm, not between the Church and other churches and it seems like at least half of the Church would rather make nice with other religions than play hardball. Some people are actually blaming Caspius for Theuderik's death...