> I would not use the word "wrong". The reason that
> misapplied worship continues is that it is still
> effective enough to be useful.
I agree with that.
> If it works, why do
> they care about whether an entity is a god or a
> spirit? If they need the magic an entity grants, they
> worship it in the way they know how.
Again, not a problem.
In fact, misapplied worship as part of a general tradition makes sense to me.
(A highly animist culture like the Praxians deciding Humakt is powerful and worth
getting magic from learn his magics in the way they know how to get magics ---
and thus he becomes the Sword Man to them.)
> Most people never HeroQuest to the God Plane or Spirit
> Plane, except to visit their god or spirit's home. So
> what happens outside it is totally irrelevant for
> them.
I must have misread something, I thought you implied you could tell just by the nature of that home.
> Hmm. Maybe. I re-read the Aeolian Church online
> write-up again and also re-read the Church of St. Aeol
> from the HeroQuest book. It seems to me like the
> worshippers know that this is misapplied worship. It
> does not expressly say either way, so we are making
> inferences, but here's the stuff that makes me think
> they know.
> The entities that Aeol fought were divinities. He
> found a way of worshipping them that made peace with
> them within the confines of Malkionism, by venerating
> them.
>
> "Aeol was harassed by the local priests and their
> gods, but he revealed his way of worship. He showed
> that the gods could be venerated, and he promised that
> worshippers would also gained access to Solace and the
> Invisible God."
>
> That says to me: These are gods, but you can venerate
> them as saints and still stay true to your religion,
> which is both heroic to discover and pragmatic to do.
I have to disagree there. Read HQ voices and such and it seems to definitely imply that the Aeolians think the poor Heortlings are ignorant pagans who don't realize that their "gods" are really just saints. Both sides think the other is practising misapplied worship.
> The other interesting thing about saintly orders is
> that the commoner does not engage in direct veneration
> of the saints. So they could be as ignorant as you
> please about the "true" nature of the saint venerated
> by their order. (I have to say, I am a total
> ignoramus when it comes to wizardry and such, so if I
> misuse terms and misunderstand the rules, it's just
> cuz I'm stoopid.)
Oh, absolutely. But this applies everywhere. Normally people don't concentrate, so this sort of thing isn't noticeable even on a game level. But while the people don't know the numbers, the higher ups DO go on HeroQuests and such. I don't like the idea of it being so obvious what an entity "really" is.
LC
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