Wulf made an interesting point -
> What
> physical/social structure is needed to join a subcult? Or a full
> cult? Do you need a temple within a day's reach? A week?
> Does the requirement differ for Initiates
> and Devotees (Devotees must attend temple every day)? Currently,
> we're saying you need a shrine/temple available about weekly for an
> Initiate, daily for a Devotee, but subcults, hero cults, etc. are
> covered by the 'main' deities' shrines. This, of course, limits the
> available cults, as we're limiting the numbers of different shrines
> in our clan to about the number that could exist in KoDP. So we've
no Humakti currently, and are unlikely to get any without a shrine.
YGMV, but in our campaign we're viewing temples and shrines more as social constructs than prerequisites for remaining in a cult. Having said that, a clan is probably unlikely to have its own members become initiates of a given deity without at least a shrine or preferably a temple being available _reasonably_ close by; any "exotic" cultists on the tula would thus more than likely be non-clan members or possibly adoptees.
I personally feel that _requiring_ temple attendance as a prerequisite is too limiting, esp. with regard to devotees; a devotee of Urox is more likely to be Out There smashing up chaos rather than hanging around nervously within a day's march of the nearest temple...
Having said that, any self-respecting cultist would _want_ to attend his or her temple/shrine as often as possible, but would happily perform private little "rituals" during their everyday lives; hence the proliferation of wee Ernalda figurines by the fieldsides, cairns of stones for Voriof in the high pastures, etc, I imagine dotting the landscape of Sartar. The occupation of priest is the only one I could imagine _requiring_ regular attendance to perform temple services.
Of course, I'm always open to persuasion... <grin>
Best regards,
Sarah
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