Cults/associates/etc.
Well, I was thinking about this discusion regarding initiation into "The Orlanthi Pantheon" and came up with this. Say you turn fifteen, and you're told it's time to become a man, and you blow power on the Orlanth. Now, you are required to attend all the associate cult rituals and give up the magic points. And lets say that 75% of the population is happy with that. Now, some people are specialist or power hungry or adventurers. They are the ones that join Orlanth Adventurous, Lankhor Mhy, Humakt, etc. Now, what I was thinking, was that if you joined a specific part of the pantheon, you would be able to funnel your magic points in a more effecient way to your boss. However, you would not be able to funnel 'em as well with the associates anymore. Say we are using the tentative "1000 magic points makes it a shrine" scheme, and say people who are initiates to the pantheon (Maybe known as a general "Orlanthi Lay Member" or something) can donate at a 2:1 ratio to any of the members of the pantheon. However, initiates to that particular god can donate them at a 1:1 ratio. However, when an initiate worships in an associate ceremony, he only gives at a 5:1 ratio. (Maybe if he actually participates in the ceremony, i.e. takes the role of his god he can donate at a full or better ratio.)
This would encourage a broad initiate base, with lots of people helping all the cults, but would also allow a bit of specialization. Sure, a town might not need seven Lankhor Mhy initiates, and God knows they can't SUPPORT a hundred, but having one or two that tend a shrine and takes his place during sacred time wouldn't be so bad.
Another reason why each village/group might have one of each of the pantheon is power. If there is a small shrine in every village, and it can be maintained by one initiate and two hundred "lay members" then each of the specialized initiates might be able to get the low holy day power bonus. (Ok, power check.) It's not a lot, but if you can guarantee that seven~ten clansmen will get a power check once a month, it might give your clan an edge over those vermin over the hill.
Ack, I didn't mean for this to be so long, so I'll cut out here. I haven't thought about it enough to come up with hard numbers, or decide how divine might be gained, though I would probably say that a certain amount of common divine is available and the special "available at all shrines" spells would be available from each of the associate cults. When somebody decided at age 20 that they were going to specialize, that would all become divine "from" the chosen god.
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