>From: "Roderick and Ellen Robertson" <rjremr_at_...>
>
>If your tradition includes, say, both Water Spirit and Fire Spirit
>practices, they might be "enemy" to each other even though both practices
>are in the same Tradition. A practitioner would have to choose between one
>or the other, but not both.
As you and/or Greg had defined it before, a "religion" is that group of entities that get along with each other, even if this is forced because the entities don't like each other. The example always given is that Humakt and Challana Arroy are diametrically opposed, yet are part of the same religion (Storm Pantheon) because, basically, Orlanth says so.
For spirits, yeah, you might have a water practice and a fire practice, and they might not like each other. But the spirits probably don't wage outright war on each other. And the practitioners will probably face the same social requirements as well. Two practitioners of these "enemy" practices may exchange dissatisfied glances with each other, or even have words at times. But they probably don't actually come to blows over their differences. Both spirits are allowed by the strictures of the religion, and that means that you can't treat each other like criminals.
As Rory puts it, there are true "enemy" spirits and such in that the religion declares these to be outside of the right way - none (or very few) of the leader entities of the religion accept these other entities, and so, in fact, you probably do move to have such entities removed when found, if not destroyed.
If you want a shorthand for this, call those who are against each other, but inside of a religion, "Opposed." And those who are outside of the religion entirely and opposed to it (independent aren't neccessarily enemy spirits), "Enemy."
So Humakt is opposed to Challana Arroy, but an enemy of Shargash (I'm guessing). The fire spirit practice is opposed to the water spirit practice in your tradition, but an enemy of Malia.
If Malia is an accepted spirit in the tradition (not just propitiated, but accepted), then I don't want any part of said tradition. You get what I mean.
Mike
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