I've actually been thinking about this, and have a question/suggestion.
Just for example, say someone is an initiate of Orlanth Adventurous, but would like to learn the thunderstone magic of Hedkoranth. It would seem to me that in the case of being initiated into a major aspect of a major god, perhapds you could be initiated into lesser associated cults as if they were hero/godling cults. In other words, they would take only 10% of your time and resources, but you would only gain access to one of their feats.
It seems to me that there are a lot of lesser gods that have traditionally been described along the lines of "Most of X's initiates are also initiates of Orlanth. X is served mostly by shrines in Orlanth temples." So, while these gods may be able to serve their relatively few full fledged initiates with 3 affinities, people already initiated into a similar cult could obtain the specialized magic without as much commitment....but would also help provide the numbers the cult needs to support itself overall.
I could see this being the case with a number of gods, like Mastakos and Heler. They may have a few dedicated initiates and devotees who put in 30/60% of their time, and learn 2 or 3 affinities, but they may also have a larger number of initiates who are primarily initiates of Orlanth, and who dedicate 10% of their time and learn Mastakos movement affinity or Heler's Rain affinity (or whatever their actual affinities are).
Of course, you could argue that there may be specific heros or godlings that fulfill this function. i.e. people wanting one aspect of Issaries magic don't treat Issaries as a godling, they get initiated to Spare Grain (Harst), and learn one affinity from him.
It just seems to me that this system would better support the lesser gods in somewhere like Sartar where "most" adult males are Orlanth initiates. Maybe this wouldn't be as necessary in Esrolia where men go into many different cults to offer different husband figures.
--Bryan
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