The time commitment of communal worshippers is 28 days - the public ceremonies. These folks have a low level of commitment, so you can't ask to much of them, they don't get much in return.
Initiates owe 56 days over this. That is one 1 1/3 days a week (42 weeks in the year). IMO that represents a local service with the godi of the stead once a week, about 2/3 day, and about another 2/3 day helping the godi out with religious duties (blessings, preperation, etc). Note that at the initiate level you get more back, but this is still not a personal relationship with god, you work via the intercesssion of the priest, so its not private religious observance.
Devotees owe the most: 140 days more than the communal worshippers. That equates to 3 1/3 days per week. A lot of this is private religious observance, the devotee has a personal relationship with god, but if you have a religious position such as godi or priest some of this will be tied up working with the initiates (that 1 1/3 days they spend, leaving you two days for private observance).
Now players never like to hear this, because they love to have 'kewl' powers but devotees are religion geeks with a serious time penalty. They have an abnormal interest in religion and spend an inordinate amount of time on it (lots of us here know all about being geeks). This requires community support, and as Mark G points carries the whiff of zealotry and fanaticism. You cannot spend that kind of time on worship related acts and sustain yourself. I know some folks try to fudge this away - oh, the time commitment is irrelevant, you can fulfill it doing your job - but in my game its not so. Power comes at a cost. Same as being a weaponthane, you need to be supported. So I have never believed that clans can afford more than 2-5% of their population being devotees, a similar proportion to the number of ecclesiastical workers in medieval times. Nearly all such devotees will thus hold either full-time positions as religious workers, or be thanes and the like. Thus they would tend to have power because of their position, and the fact that they have that position enables them to be a devotee.
All IMO of course.
Ian Cooper
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