> >Safelstran cities are rife with secret societies of all kinds. It has
> >reached a level where belonging to one or several societies is just
> >the way of life.
> It is? I seriously doubt that the majority of Safelstrans are members
> of a secret society. I strongly dislike the idea that a Safelstran
> can entertain the notion of joining two or more secret societies.
Most Safelstran sects are similar to a secret society. And most Safelstran sectists belong to the state church or something similar to that as well as to their own secret society, guild, or similar.
It works out, I've played there.
> >Religious Societies
> >Political Societies
> >Arkati Societies
> Is there any meaningful reason why we should keep these distinct? I
> can't for the life of me figure out why a Religious Society must have
> a strong leadership, or why a Political Society must be purely mundane
> affairs seeking political power for its own sake, and why Arkati are
> somehow special in this scheme?
Try to play in Safelster, and you'll find it a lot easier to figure this out.
There are purely religious societies - my former sailor still paid service to Felstra even though his activities were almost solely fixated on firm ground, and various criminal groups tried to subvert or remove him. The Felstra community may be sizeable, but hardly influential. There are political or criminal groups without any magical clout, but still with sufficient influence to take you in. There are crafters' guilds who defend their trade secrets without any spirits of reprisal other than hired assassins, or in less severe cases, hired thugs.
Then there are the Arkati groups, who combine mundane and magical ambitions more fervently than most other combinations. And more aggressively... Orlanthi hero cults are as bad, whereas chivalrous orders or mercenary bands tend to be less secretive, and less magical - this isn't Loskalm.
Note that most of this goes for the urban populace of Safelster. Most of the rural Safelstrans will not belong to real secret societies, except obscure sects to the Green Lady, or maybe rural Loons.
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