> Venerators, the broad mass, do not have magical powers but bestow
> their power on priests through the community particiaption chart in
> HW. This is distinct from theism in that veneration does not
> incorporate sacrifice.
Correct. The venerators do benefit from the magical powers their 'priests' (recte: liturgists?) are empowered to bestow on the congregation, but they don't "cast spells" themselves.
> Saints are like gods but not(?). They are venerated? but certain
> devotees (?) can gain powers from these saints (via the IG, right?)
> Are these properly devotees, and is their worship veneration or
> sacrifice?
Saints are venerated. Sacrificing to a saint would be pagan "misapplied worship". Good Malkioni would only ever venerate a Saint. All the powers available from the Saints come from their understanding of and relationship to the Invisible God, who is the only God we good Malkioni acknowledge. Saints are not thought of as "Godlike" by Malkioni: "godly", perhaps. I don't recall if members of saintly orders are called "devotees", but I suspect they shouldn't be (to avoid confusion). Certainly, Saints should be venerated and not sacrificed to.
> Does this imply that saints are not as exclusive as theistic gods,
> and that one devotee may address more thqn one saint?
I believe one could, but there would be increased time requirements (as with multiple initiation), and it's possible some (or most?) saints are exclusive. Check out the Magic Rules chapter for Sorcery to see if anything specific is said there, and be prepared for wholesale revision in 2nd edn.
IIRC, Trotsky's Loskalmi manuscript had some new ideas for dealing with membership of multiple holy orders, but these would all be unofficial, unpublished, intellectual property of Issaries, Inc., etc.
> Do saints have the breadth of power that theistic gods do (number of
> affinities, feats)?
They should be significantly more specialised.
> Do saints act as exemplary models or actually bestow power?
Yes, both.
> Where does this power originate? From the mass of
> venerators?
No, from the Invisible God.
> If you (erroneously) venerated an animist spirit, would you use the
> misapplied worship rules?
Yes.
> Would you then treat the spirit as spirit or saint, mechanically?
Yes. :-)
An animist would treat it as a normal spirit; a venerator could either obtain saint-like powers from it (at double cost), or animist-like powers (at double cost), depending on how the Narrator interprets the notoriously vague and doubtless binwards-heading rules for Misapplied Worship.
> What would you do to model ancestor veneration?
Call it misapplied veneration. Pay double cost to get lame powers, saintlike or animistic according to taste.
> Any comments appreciated.
Hope so! Further discussion gladly entered into.
Cheers, Nick
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