> Personally my take on it is that you have to invite
> the god into
> you. To become a devotee you have to be willing to
> give up being
> just yourself, you are now yourself but to some
> extent a vessel of
> your god. No longer do you call on him/her/it to
> exercise some
> portion of its might on your behalf, now you can use
> the gods own powers.
Oh, nice explanation! That's one I'm definitely borrowing.
> The common factor, in my opinion, in all the paths
> to devotion, is
> that somewhere along the line you have to give up
> doing it for
> yourself. You don't become a devotee because you
> want to be more
> powerful, you become a devotee by wanting your god
> to be more powerful through using you.
So the player may possibly be a munchkin (speaking as the player of a devotee myself!) but the Hero definitely isn't. I like it.
The other option I can see, leading on from this, is that they want to give up their individuality because they've had an experience that they can't cope with, and are effectively retreating from reality (well, that bit of reality). This couldn't ever be the full reason, or I doubt if the deity would take them on, but it could be a factor.
> I think this was covered reasonably well in "The
> Curse of Chalion" by Lois McMaster Bujold.
The only book of hers I haven't read. I will correct this. (Wot, no Miles??)
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