[snip]
>Thus, 300 clan members does not = 3 shrines or 1 temple or whatever,
>as they may each support the maintenance of several shrines. So in
>this respect, a shrine is likely to need the support of at least a
>decent-sized constituency within the clan (although there will
>always be exceptions, such as if a few especially powerful or rich
>individuals have a say), but the number and type of working
>religious institutions a clan can support is determined by wealth -
>cows.
OK, given these comments and those by Peter Metcalfe and Greg Stafford, we can assume that old population limits are pretty much a thing of the past (although a site with 500 regular worshippers will be more powerful in some sense than an identical site with 50 regular worshippers). What's important is whether some person or group is willing to foot the bill to keep the site "open."
If this is correct, does anyone care to hazard a guess about the number of sites in an (entirely imaginary) "average" clan? Pretty much everyone will have a temple to Orlanth and a temple to Ernalda, but how many shrines and/or other temples can a clan of 500-600 adults reasonably support? There was that King back in the RQ days who joined so many cults his tithes were reaching 100%; when is a clan likely reaching that point with shrines and temples?
Peter Larsen
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