Having looked at the Animist options it's time to take a look at how the Monotheists work. I'll start by looking at the Seshnela homeland, the Rokari church and three warrior Caste brothers, Robard, Rolan, and Rospere. All three start off with Common Magic and Lay Membership in the Rokari Church - the Sample Little Saints seem more suitable for the peasant caste, so I'll create a new one to which all three brothers belong.
Ector
The soldiers little saint, who helps those in the armies of the Lord
Charm: Harden Skin, Stop Bleeding
Feat: Marching Endurance
Spell: Sharpen Sword, Start Fire
The Rokari Church Keyword gives "Doctrine of Rokari Church" and "Worship Makan". It should probably also give the Mundane relationship "Member of [Congregation]". I'm not entirely clear if this is "Member of Rokari Church" or "Member of Specific Church" (so would I be "Member of the Church of England" or "Member of St Peters, Maney"?)
Robard chooses to remain just a basic lay member of the Church. He does
not have to concentrate his magic. His commitment is 10% of time & HP
and he has no magic of his own beyond his common magic. He can pray for
a miracle pitting his Worship God against a resistance of 10W9 (he only
needs to get support and ritual bonuses worth 125 to get a 0.5% chance
of success!) Providing he attends the Services every week he will also
get the benefits of the blessings provided there - These will be the
common blessings from the Abiding Book (p159) and the Theoblanc Papers
(p169) plus one "special" blessing from one of these sources. He
generally won't get to choose what the special blessing is (at least
without some sort of relationship to the Liturgist and/or the church).
These blessings last 1 week. The "standard Rokari Liturgist" has a best
skill in the range 10-10W, so each blessing will be worth +1 - +3.
Rolan chooses to become a Liturgist - in addition to the above abilities he adds Venerate Makan, Use Abiding Book and Use Theoblanc Papers. He replaces Member of [Congregation] with Leader of [Congregation]. His commitment rises to 25% and he now leads the weekly services providing the Blessings for his congregation, or sending out one of the curses contained in the scriptures on their behalf (and with their support). He can spend HP to improve his Use [Scripture] but not individual spells
To invoke blessings and/or curses the "Use Scripture" skill is matched against the default resistance of 14 (probably higher if cursing enemies outside of the congregation...) The rules say that multiple target penalties apply, but I think that where the target is the Congregation present at the service then it counts as a single target. Any level of success gives an automatic augment to the appropriate abilities. The rules suggest only rolling where the needs of the story dictate. Blessings invoked as part of a regular worship service in a consecrated church on a holy day with a normal congregation will soon rack up bonuses. Conversely a Liturgist on his own trying to bless himself with "Resist Heathen Spirit" when he chances on a shrine to Thed on an inauspicious day is likely to be in trouble...
Rospere joins a saintly order - Saint Gerlant (pp169-170) He gets Member of the Household of Great Fire, Know Saint Gerlant and Rule of Saint Gerlant as part of his keyword. He adds "Pray Right for Right" and "Reconsecrate Talismans" to his common blessings. I assume that a character starting as an Orderly gets the 3 free spells that a character joining in play does, but at the Keyword level. Since he is not a noble he learns spells from the Miracle of the Saints Vol IV. He must assign a Talisman for each spell, although it can be the same one for each spell (and will normally be his sword). He can not cast a spell without the talisman (but should normally be allowed to replace it, if necessary, between adventures for free).
Each spell can only be used once before being reconsecrated (which it will be automatically when attending a Household of Great Fire worship ceremony. Attending a different Rokari service, or a service dedicated to St Gerlant from a different Church will not work - this means someone who belongs to more than one order must attend each service). He can only learn spells from the Order approved Formulary, and can only learn each one/have a talisman for each one once. Each Spell can be improved individually.
It is expected (but not required) that he concentrates his magic and
does not use common magic.
His Commitment is 25%, and he is required to Obey the orders rules (and
take "Obedient" as a trait. If he wishes to join another Order (and
they are not contradictory - one couldn't follow both Gerlant and Xemela
for instance) it would cost another 15%.
I'm not sure a Liturgist on their own (especially outside of an order) makes a good character for a "traditional" RPG group, although any group with one or more orderlies will want access to an Order Liturgist on a fairly regular basis - if they are leaving home to go "adventuring" this means either as a PC or a follower.
An Order Liturgist has a total commitment of 40% (10% Church + 15% order + 15% Liturgist duties) and may or may not learn spells from the formularies in addition to having the appropriate "Use Scripture" skill. Assuming neither did it in Character Creation lets look how Rolan and Rospere would go about it.
Rolan is already a Liturgist and wants to join the Order of St Gerlant. It will cost 3HP if he wants to be an Orderly and cast spells, or 1HP if he just wishes to learn to use the scripture "The Life of St Gerlant the Pure" - either way he must pass a test, beating a resistance of 1W with either an order virtue (Devout, Disciplined, Obedient or Stern), Rule of St Gerlant, or one of Worship Makan (-10) or a Relationship to a sponsor within the order. He can Augment with other two abilities.
Obedience is a virtue of the Rokari Church, so he may already have this at 17 from the Rokari Keyword. You don't get "Rule of [saint]" on joining an order, so we'll assume he has spent HP to gain this at 13 (I don't see it listed - presumably it counts as a mundane skill and costs 1HP to start +1 per point?)
So 17 +1 (from Rule of St Gerlant 13) +1 (From Worship Makan 17 -10) =
19
this gives him a 47.5% chance of success (allowing him to join the
order) a .25% chance of complete defeat (possibly slightly higher, since
my calculator doesn't yet include 'Bump Downs') which would mean never
being able to join the order. A tie, or any other defeat means not
being able to join yet (time to improve those skills). Having Joined the
Order he must still pay HP to gain the "Use Life of St Gerlant the Pure"
- this costs 3HP if he has concentrated his Magic, or 6 if he hasn't.
If he chooses to pay the full 3HP to learn spells then he gets 3 spells
at 13. If he chooses not to then he can later "upgrade" to this option
by paying a further 3HP - He may also need to pass the test again (let's
hope he's been improving those skills...)
In either case he does get Member of the Household of Great Fire and
Know St Gerlant at 13 and Venerate St Gerlant at the same level as
Venerate Makan
That's a cost of 8-10 HP (1 for "rule of [saint], 3 to become an orderly, 1 to Concentrate magic and 3 for use [Scripture], or 6 for use Scripture if Concentration isn't taken)
(presumably if Robard wanted to join an order as a non-spellcasting, non
liturgical member, assuming such a creature exists he would follow this
route and pay the 1HP. This would enable him to take part in the Orders
services and receive their blessings, but not create talismans or cast
spells?)
For Rospere to become a Liturgist he must pay 3HP and pass a test vs a
resistance of 1W using Worship Makan, Member of [Congregation] or one of
Doctrine of the Rokari Church or a Church virtue (Obedience (which is an
Order virtue) or as a Liturgist, Chastity and Poverty) - The other two
abilities can augment. He has (at least) 17 in all of them from his
Keywords so also has 1W chance - Since we aren't interested in the
degree of success or failure, this gives him the same chance as Rolan
(above) - although he can't get a complete defeat. (Any) Success gives
Use Life of St Gerlant the Pure and Venerate St Gerlant at 13. If he
wants to additionally learn to use the blessings from The Abiding Book
or the Theoblanc Papers then he will need to take those abilities at a
cost of 3/6 HP each, depending on concentration.
Note some Orders do not permit Liturgists to be Orderlies (or vice versa)
As always Comments and corrections are more than welcome. Next time I'll take a look at Adepts, Wizards and Sorcerers
-- +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Tim Ellis EMail tim_at_... | | Curiosity killed the cat - Why? What did it want to know? | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
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