>How do underground, hidden cultists manage to hide their membership in
>enemy cults for any period of time? It seems like Krarshti (for example)
>must have ways of existing in normal society, yet normal society is
>apparently full of people who have trouble baring themselves to their
>"cover" deities.
Some parts of Heortling society are alienated from their kin. There it isn't so much hiding one's true cultic affiliation beneath a veneer of respectability, it's more a matter of not turning up to worship the gods with your fellows. They might think nasty things about you when they see you from time to time, but until they actually have some feeling that you are doing Real Bad Things, you are safe as can be.
Secondly there's also the phenomenon of worshipping Strange Gods within Heortling society. So long as you behave like an Orlanthi in terms of kinship responsibilities etc, and make known that you are beholden to another god and so can't turn up to worship Orlanth like everybody else (Kolatings, Yelmalions, Aeolians, Torkani have this excuse), most Heortlings won't be too suspicious.
TIEN: This one's easy. Practice the archaic Orlanthi tradition of headhunting and your neighbours think you are merely strange. This is best done if your kin also join, and there's a unit in Dragon Pass on Argrath's side called the Headhunters. This has the advantage that you can build a temple to your god, stick the heads outside and claim you are worshipping your ancestors/strange god/what have you. So long as the heads are the heads of clan enemies and you act in all other ways as a normal Orlanthi, you are safe as houses. Problem: what to do when the Uroxi calls. Solution: stick Uroxi heads outside your temple.
KRARSHT: Since this is the goddess for those who seek power, her worshippers would be either loners or at the bottom of the social pyramid. They tend to be scheming to gain secular positions of power or influence (local landowner, merchant prince etc) rather than positions that have a religious basis (such as clan chief). Although they will be classic strange god worshippers, they can brush aside suspicious heortlings by giving them the Amway smile and trying to induct the questioner into their cult. Soon the local clan doesn't want to know.
THANATAR: Hmm. trickier than Tien. Since he's an enemy god of Lhankor Mhy and has mastery of some of Lhankor Mhy magics (cf the snicking of Elasa's head and access to Treack Markhor), I daresay that Thanatari should be able to conceal themselves as a Grey Sage and even participate in the rites to Lhankor Mhy (as supporting evidence, this scenario does happen in KoDP).
CACODEMON: umm. got me here. I've never been all that happy about the disparity between the worship of Cacodemon in all its grotesque glory and the nature of the Ogres to conceal themselves and make more Ogres. In any case, their primary means of concealment is magical and they can always do the strange god schtick.
MALIA: Two types of worship here. The first and more common is the whole clan worshipping Malia to stay away. Not very honorable but at least you don't get offed by your kin for doing so. The second worshipper would be a crazed loner, who actively summons disease spirits and works curses. They generally fall in the category of outsider: they are not part of Heortling society so nobody knows too much about them.
ANNILLA: I don't think she's worshipped among the Heortlings.
--Peter Metcalfe
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