Re: Social Cult Ranks or Devotees vs Initiates

From: bethexton_at_...
Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2005 14:43:54 -0000

• In HeroQuest-RPG_at_yahoogroups.com, Ian Cooper <ian_hammond_cooper_at_y...> wrote: >>
  > Devotees owe the most: 140 days more than the communal
  > worshippers. That equates to 3 1/3 days per week. A
  > lot of this is private religious observance, the
  > devotee has a personal relationship with god, but if
  > you have a religious position such as godi or priest
  > some of this will be tied up working with the
  > initiates (that 1 1/3 days they spend, leaving you two
  > days for private observance).
  >
  > Now players never like to hear this, because they love
  > to have 'kewl' powers but devotees are religion geeks
  > with a serious time penalty. They have an abnormal
  > interest in religion and spend an inordinate amount of
  > time on it (lots of us here know all about being
  > geeks). This requires community support, and as Mark G
  > points carries the whiff of zealotry and fanaticism.
  > You cannot spend that kind of time on worship related
  > acts and sustain yourself. I know some folks try to
  > fudge this away - oh, the time commitment is
  > irrelevant, you can fulfill it doing your job - but in
  > my game its not so. Power comes at a cost. Same as
  > being a weaponthane, you need to be supported.
  

Hmmm, I was rather under the impression that the increased time commitment of devotees was largely spent emulating their gods--a devotee of Odayla spent a lot of time hunting, a devoteee of Barntar spent a lot of time in the fields, a devotee of Minlinster spent a lot of time brewing beer and mead, and so on. That is, devotees of craft and provider gods I think _have_ to craft and provide as their gods did, and that 60% time reflects that.

I'm not disagreeing that they need a community around them, because if you spend most of your time focussing on the fields you probably don't have much time to talk to the neighbors, carve a new storage chest, practice with the fyrd, or any of hte other many small things that need getting done--you are a farming geek. Like a neighbor of my parents who is a professional pianist--he doesn't do household or yard maintenance dealing with tools, because he won't do anything that could risk hurting his hands.

I don't know how many specialists a community can support, but I suspect that it is rather higher than 3-5%, provided that you have the right mix of specialists. However a community with many devotees will in some ways be less flexible than one without so many, and will probably be more prone to internal fractures, as less people have the flexibility to help keep all the internal relationships strong. A Barntar devotee might be a great farmer, but he doesn't have any of the Allfather magic that most carls have, for example.

I realize that perhaps our difference is a fundamental take on what teh devotee's time is used for. I guess my take is that it is all about sacrifice, and the devotee sacrifices some of his or her individuality and free will as well as time, both better emulating his or her deity and better embodying him, her, or it.

Of course, YGMV :)

--Bryan