>> How would one establish a shrine to a sub-cult or a hero cult in an
established temple? <<
Most efforts should be directed to roleplaying it. How will it be fun for your group to do it?
My suggestion is not to trivialise it, but to make it important, something they will remember doing.
One possibility follows... In this they probably will have earned whatever magic they get.
A start could be by informal discussion with the high priest of the temple. The hard part is probably getting them to agree this hero displays a worthwhile (in terms of their culture/background) aspect of the deity and so is worthy to be worshipped at his temple. Does the priest know of the hero? Is it worshipped at other nearby temples? How did you hear of this etc? Can you convince the priest to do divinations to confirm that the hero should be worshipped just because you ask?
Changing the tried and true worship practice at a temple should be no trivial matter, lest the change diminish the true worship or be heretical.
This could involve a plot hook of performing some task(s) for the priest, including a recreation of what you believe / or the divination revealed to be one of the major feats which made him a hero. A shrine can include some physical object (relevant in some way to the hero/saint), so obtaining that/them could be part of the object of the task(s) / heroquest(s).
Okay. The priest could agree with all this, and the task(s) were succesfully completed. So it gets planned at the next high holy day the shrine will be created and sanctified. The priest formally asks a question, "Does anyone here know of anything new of our deity?". Your character(s) takes it from there. Before the entire temple they describe (or act out) the history of the hero and his courageous acts. You then describe your efforts of emulating the hero and the results achieved.
And of course the logical conclusion is your deity, through their agent - the priest, has given an explicit blessing for these proceedings. The priest and the congregation (who have already been advised and were expecting (and hopefully looking forward to) this dedication) give their blessing.
To show your belief, donation of POW should be required from those who quested. The more POW the better. And even more magic points besides. Hopefully the congregation will also donate magic points.
Only then perhaps, should any magical benefits be gained, and depending upon all of the circumstances (including all power / magic points expended), perhaps none until next high holy day.
Having someone who is already initiated into the herocult may make make it easier to persuade the priest, but the act of setting up the shrine should still involve all of the congregation. There is a better chance then that the shrine will be magically endowed or won't lapse after you leave, especially if you involve other co-religionists (not necessarily PC's) on any of the quests.
Of course this may cause some "side-effects" later on. Frex, in a certain situation, the hero could themselves appear in answer to a DI, or your characters get drawn into a situation where they must act the part of the hero against some of his old enemies...
A more practical concern may be where to place and how to house the shrine in the temple. Costs of extensions anyone? :)
Brian
fantome_at_ozemail.com.au <SPACE RESERVED FOR RENT>
End of Glorantha Digest V4 #264
WWW at http://rider.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/Rolegame/glorantha.faq.html
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