>>How much do gods know about their worshippers? Are the requirements
>>to become an initiate (and then a priest or rune lord) enforced by
>>the god itself, or just by the cult heirarchy?
>
>The gods know what their priests know and some of what their initiates
>know. They know what their initiates tell them and what their priests
>and Lords think. They loose track of their followers only when they are
>in the sacred areas of enemy gods.
>Others will now proceed to disagree.
Actually I would agree with this to a considerable extent. I'd be inclined to add that gods also know a great deal about what goes on within their realms. Thus Yelm in some sense 'sees' everything that happens in sunlight, since he has his face turned that way, but knows nothing directly about what happens indoors, underground, or at night, because he can't see it. Likewise, Orlanth knows a lot of what happens wherever the air moves freely. Issaries knows what happens within his markets. The major exception to this is that they are unaware of what happens within a consecrated holy spot of any other diety. Thus Yelm cannot 'see' into an open-air temple of Orlanth, and neither can see into an Issaries market.
This does make Yelm, Orlanth, Ernalda, Xentha, and a few other dieties quite knowledgeable, but then that's part of why they're so powerful. Getting a diety to reveal what it knows, on the other hand, is a different matter. After all, major dieties have a lot of pay attention to, and answering requests for minor facts is not something they don't have a lot of time for (with exception of Lankhor Mhy, who specializes in obscure facts).
Andrew E. Larsen
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