>>There are lots of things that need doing that aren't "evil" but
>>don't require a priest, (cult) shaman (who is a priest in the sense
>>that he intercedes on behalf of others), or wizard (ditto).
> Name me these lots of non-evil things that a priest can't
>do for you for the same money or more probably less than some random
>hedge-witch. And remember that there's plenty of acolytes, wizards,
>and shamans around for hire.
As I stated in my earlier posts: minor divinations, curses, and other woven magics that pursue individual goals, as opposed to the group interests represented by religion.
>>practically all shamans are cult-based, whether hsunchen, spirit
>>cult, or otherwise
> Yeah, so? The fact that shamans have a cultural background
>doesn't mean they can't do magic for others.
But in practically every human culture we know about, there have been independent magicians. Some were originally religious in some other place, but became independent when moving. Others arose locally and rejected the group/religious route for a more personal one, albeit within a tradition.
As I said in an earlier post, there is a continuum from establishment to independent. Magicians can move along this continuum through time, as can whole magical traditions. Kolatings used to be the main priests of society before the (re)organization of the Orlanth cult. That was a long time ago, and now they're hedge witches.
In _Stolen Lightning_, O'Keefe offers his ideas about the universality of independent magic. I'm not sure if I agree with his hypothesis on why the phenomen is so widespread (some of his evidence is pretty thin), but he does cite several examples of independent magicians. The Trobrianders, for example, use magic constantly when fishing or doing other activities where luck plays a factor; this magic is wholly non-religious, just the repetition of formulas. Ancient Rome was rife with magicians from all over the Empire, so many that there was a ban on "Chaldeans and Mathematicians" (I love that).
I could go on and on, but the point is that independent magic serves basic human needs, and you'll find independent magicians wherever you have enough social development to have specialists. And this is despite the fact that human religions also do magic--blessing fields, performing miracles, etc. Unless Gloranthan humans are fundamentally different from the ones here, we should find independent magicians there.
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