My thoughts on this are probably at one end of an extreme, but...
IMO devotees are economic specialists - magical specialists agreed - but specialists none the less. All the other herders take on the grunt work of looking after Ortossi's herds, butchering them in the autumn etc, so that Ortossi can concentrate on his religious practices and provide better magic as and when they need it.
This relates to surplus - the clan has to support specialists of all sorts (warriors, thanes, devotees, craftsmen, merchants, etc.) from their surplus. It is not that those specialists do not have a job, it is just that the job prevents them from actively providing for themselves.
Sure the Barntar devotee is out with you in the fields, but he is most likely helping you in your fields, ploughing your strips, clearing your stones, not his. In return for this you gift him a tithe of the field he helped plough etc. A godi is a devotee who acquires a congregation.
It caused a bit of controversy on the Stormsteads list, but personally I tend toward the medieval ecclesiastical population of 1.5% for devotees, priests and godi in Orlanthi culture. I think it is a bit too small and depending on the clan's magical/economic strength might go as high as 5%, but I don't think it is much more than 1 in 20. YGMV.
That said I do not have a problem with players choosing to be devotees, if their character conception is that they are one of that 1.5% so be it. I regard them as the exception, not the rule.
Ian Cooper
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