As I said before, I think that is why there are so many "homeland" units, following their traditional war gods/spirits. ILH1 even gives unit and commander titles for units from various regions (I guess that table does have a use after all!). Some people who join up/are drafted either won't have a warrior religion or for some reason aren't impressed with it, and they are the type most apt to be formed into 'new' lunar units, following lunar gods. Also, some ambition "career soldier" types from homeland units might also initiate into seven moms* or Yanafal Tarnils, maybe or maybe not also keeping their native religion, as a career move letting them move into a more "staff" position.
Well, except the practice in the real world, and I suspect even more in Glorantha, is to give people from a unit land grants in one area. So they can actually, in theory, maintain their religion even then. Although many may choose to move to a non-war god or spirit that better supports their new life. Maybe they can find that within their old pantheon/tradition, but if there are not the appropriate priests or shaman to teach them, then they might be inclined to adopt local practices.
Note also that according to Storm Tribe, although you lose your
affinity when leaving a sub-cult/affinity/god behind, the ability is
still there, so if you go back it isn't quite like starting from
scratch.
>
>
> Which of course raises the question of what the "army cult" *is*.
This
> looks horribly as if generating a Lunar solider as a PC is going to
be
> very difficult. You have to invent a cult/practise/whatever for the
unit
> you join, and there don't seem to be many clues in the ILH. (Well,
there
> are. They say you use the "soldier" religion from your homeland.)
I know the wording can get hazy in places, but surely most units have
guardians, not gods? Isn't it even mentioned in the guardian rules
somewhere about smaller army unit guardians sort of become part of
the larger army unit guardian (or I guess more relevantly that being
a member of the smaller guardian makes you a member of the larger
guardian?) Mind you, some soldiers may just use common magic and
their regimental guardian as their magic. That certainly works
especially for quickly raised units which may not have the religious
coherence (or numbers of initiates) to keep up the ceremonies for
initiates.
>
> > Let's say
> > that the character is a Yanafal Tarnils Initiate garrisoned in
Sartar
> > somewhere. I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that some of
these
> folks
> > had somewhat "gone native" and had joined the Destor cult in
secret.
>
> Yes, this would be how you add a *third* religion to the existing
two,
> and is why my proposed Lunar PC will not be concentrating her
magic... I
> want to keep story options open!
Given that each fully independant god you initiate to takes 30% of your time and resources, I suspect very few would fully initiate to even two unique gods, and certainly not three! However I very much expect people would pick up common magic practices whenever they are garrisoned in one place for long. If nothing else, you want to learn "not tasty to mosquitoes" when in the swamp, "see through dust" when guarding caravan routes through prax, and so on.
Regards;
--Bryan
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