> 1. Devotees to a god cannot also be devotees to a hero.
> 2. Only devotees to a god can be devotees to a hero.
> 3. No time obligations overlap.
> 4. Time obligations can overlap (3&4 said by same person at different
> times, IIRC).
> 5. Etc.<<
>
> I've been trying to follow the discussions of 1 & 2. I think some of
> the confusion seems to stem from whether there is any difference
> between a "subcult" ,such as Hedkoranth being a subcult of Oralnth
> Thunderous, and hero cults, such as Asacar the Black being a subcult
> of Bisos the Hazar in the Wesley Quadros character writeup. Could
> someone please clarify this?
You can only devote yourself to *one* entity - whether it is a great god, aspect of a great god, plain ol' god, or a hero. You *cannot* Devote yourself to two entities, even if one is an aspect/subcult of the other. You *may* Devote yourself to one and be an Initiate of another. You may even Devote yourself to one god and be Initiated to another god altogether, but that is rare and requires cultic (narrator) approval. Obligations might or might not overlap in specific parts, but on average you need to put 60% of your time/energy/money/resources into maintaining a Devotional relationship and 30% into maintaining Initiation. If you combine worship of two or more entities, you add your obligations together to figure out how much time/energy/etc you are putting in to being a worshipper - and you cannot use more than 100% of your time/energy/etc.
Here's what the rules say:
"Most gods have more than one affinity, and more than one feat that they can teach. Subcults focus on the worship of petty gods or heroes, or focus on a single affinity or even a single feat of a god. Some subcults provide variants of the god's primary affinities to their followers. Petty gods are minor gods of a pantheon, deified heroes, or isolated aspects of a god. They are worshipped individually, in addition to the worship of the primary god or goddess. Any level of worshipper may worship a subcult, taking about 10% of his time and resources to do so.
Subcults are normal in cultures that practice initiation, and both initiates and devotees may join subcults to learn their magics. Most worshippers in a subcult are there to learn the special magics or skills provided by the cult. A few are truly devoted to the petty god or hero. A character need not record membership in subcults and hero cults if he just wants to learn their special magic.
True devotees of hero cults often have the ability to heroform. Heroforming allows the devotee to incarnate the hero and is explained further in Chapter 2 of the Narrator's Book .
Subcults and hero cults are often not named, though there is nothing to prevent a narrator from coming up with new feats and affinities and describing the subcult that can provide them."
Re-reading the text, I can see the problem in the use of the word "subcult". The "subcults" mentioned in the above extract refer to the worship of entities who teach one feat or affinity. Unfortunately, we used "subcult" in the Keywords chapter to refer to aspects of gods. This was a mistake on our part (hindsight is 20-20).
So how do you tell the different subcults apart? basically if a "subcult"
has more than one affinity it is really an "aspect" of a god and needs to
have
its own Inititaion or Devotion. If it teaches only one affinity or less
(only
one feat), then it is a subcult and comes under the 10% rule extracted
above.
So Hedkoranth (3 affinities) must be Initited to, while Vanganth (1 affinity) can be worshipped with only 10% of your time.
Roderick
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