The show Reign on CW is very very very loosely historical fiction. Most of the plot lines seem to have some semblance of history in them. But there is this whole thing with pagans living in the woods who sacrifice people and make spells and what not. It feels completely out of left field. Is there any basis to this whatsoever? Are they supposed to be like a twist on the Jews? What's going on here?
I know nothing of the, I assume, television show that you're referring to. However, there were certainly people in the west of France whose religious views were regarded as "unorthodox" by the Church, such that there was a missionary campaign in the early 18th century to attempt to reestablish conventional christianity, ie the Catholic Church, led by Louis-Grignion de Montfort. It wasn't very effective. However, I've read nothing of human sacrifices or anything like that, it was, as far as could be seen, the remnants of pre-christian beliefs. Sacred groves, sacred wells, saints with odd names, with animal features, that kind of thing. An example from the later 18th century has a peasant offering a candle for the Archangel Michael, and one for his snake http://art.thewalters.org/images/art/large/l_ps1_37705_fnt_dd_t08.jpg . Savary's contemporary account of the war in the Vendee gives several examples of these. Admittedly, he's seeking to show the Vendeans as primitives, but that doesn't mean that there was some truth to his stories.
As much as I can see, you have to take anything in that show with a lot of distance as it is taking a lot of liberty from the historical canvas. As far as I am concerned I'm not a specialist but I did my humanities in France and never heard of such things as pagan cults, in the west or anywhere else. Keep in mind that France during a large part of modern era (let's say from 16th to 18th century to be very sketchy) was divided by religious war. Protestants were fighting catholics, with many episodes. St Barthelemy day massacre marking one of the most brutal for instance. To stay in the west of France huguenots were brought down and besieged in La Rochelle in 1627 and stayed even after a stronghold of the new religion. As Vendée was brought forth, I think you were refering the the Chouans, a catholic loyalist uprising against the French Revolution. But that's taking us a bit too much out of our series time frame as it occured after 1789.
Coming back to that serie and its pagan cults, I would say you can find a lot of stories and fantasies about pagans gathering in the wild to adore unholy gods. I wouldn't be surprised the religious tensions between communities at that time would have led to such "fairy tales". This would have served a purpose by dispising the other's rites back in the days and allowing for easy scenarios for series.
