>From: Stephen Tempest <e-g_at_...>
>
>But mixing religions was extremely common in more ancient times - it's
>only really the Judaic tradition that insists on exclusive worship of
>a single god.�
You must be assuming that magic works in the real world. Because otherwise what would it matter who worshipped what? The question is who can you get magic from. So let's assume for argument's sake that these people could get magic (they certainly thought they could). What does that mean about the universe? One of two things:
Basically either the Gloranthan dieties are different somewhat than our real world dieties, or similar, and the cultures that you're citing are simply all mixed up and don't get any magic.
Now, that's just Greg's interpretation of his universe, you can easily make that vary. It's just that this is how it's been explained to me. Which is not to say that all dieties prevent worship of all other dieties or spirits, etc. Simply that there are a lot of restrictions that they individually have, especially outside of their pantheon/tradition (though that's not a hard boundary, from what I gather).
Now, where those restrictions lie in the canon is even less well laid out. Do Erissa and Challana Arroy allow mutual worshippers? Or are they at odds with each other as enemy gods because they ally with different gods and compete to control the Aspect of Healing? (This is a rhetorical question, but if somebody feels a burning need to answer, go ahead). If there is an answer to this question, I don't know where it's to be found. So if you want to portray them as allowing mutual worship, there's not much stopping you (now somebody will point out that they battled to the death in the lightbringer's quest or something, I'm sure). Largely it's up to you to figure out what gods allow mutual worship.
If somebody were to make up a chart with what they thought were the gods that allowed mutual worship, that would either be a great boon, or a great bane. I'm not sure which. :-)
This extends not simply to use of magic - you can't con your way into a religion either. Because the initiation allows the god to test you and tell the priests/spirit-talkers involved whether or not you're actually worthy. That is, the same restrictions on magic are restrictions on gaining the knowlege of a religion through joining. On the other hand, if all you want is "Know Myths of Buserian" then you can probably simply read up on it somewhere. And "Friend of the Buserians" is probably feasible.
Mike
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