The idea behind the "Your job as worship" is that you're using your Merchant (frex) abilities to emulate a single god. You bargain the way he did, value your goods the way he did, take only this kind of payment the way he did, etc. When you start emulating two gods, your "merchant" abilities start interfereing with each other - This god loves to bargain *this* way and use these phrases. That one does it some other way - which might or might not be antithetical to your first god's way - Issaries Goldentongue's merchant abilities are different from Etyries are different from Lokarnos.
Here's a f'rinstance. Sure, they all sell stuff, but Issaries sees it as a game and enjoys the give and take of haggling; Etyries acts as if it's a life or death struggle and goes for the best price even if it harms his customer; and Lokarnos sets a price and defends it stubbornly - buy his goods at his price or move on. If you try to emulate two of these different merchant gods, suddenly you're sending mixed messages to the gods - not good for your "piety"!
Same thing with any other activity - the little hymns you hum or whistle when you're plowing, the prayers you say before (or during!) battle, etc. Start messing up your "little" rituals and soon you're messing up big time.
So no, I *still* say that you can't double-Devote, even to two gods that share the same "Profession" as your hero.
>> Godly (10w4+) levels of Seventh Soul would allow you to godly things
> (like
>> levitate, or ignore walls because "they are part of the All"), but
> that's
>> because you've got God-like ability ratings, not simply that you're
>> Illuminated.
>
> So with sufficiently high improv penalties the ability can be used to
> resist any aspect of the all?
Sure. *With suitable penalty*. And against suitable resistance. It's probably easier and cheaper in the long run to just learn a bit of magic to fly, walk through walls, or read minds.
> One of the things I noticed in the way the rules work is that any
> non-cloistered Illuminate will tend to meet challenges from the All
> pretty well beyond any possible starting ability so
> a. They will increase their Seventh Soul ability very fast
> b. They will spend most of their time occluded.
>
> Is that the impression other people get from the rules?
That's the way Greg said it works. That's *why* the Lunars control it as they do. They don't want occluded people wandering around (or dying in droves). Even with the best support system it still happens, but not as much as it would if there *weren't* such a support system in place. (Actually, this version is much milder than his original instructions).
RR
He was born with the gift of laughter and the sense that the world was mad
R. Sabatini, Scaramouche
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