> In fact, it is fairly rare, even among the Heortlings, who are
> religious fanatics compared to most other peoples, with adult
> initiation rates close to unity (in contrast, initiation in Dara Happa
> is not much more common than devotion is among Heortlings). Most
> people need to live with the help of as many gods, spirits, and
> whatever else that they can bribe, and cannot afford to shun some
> powerful local spirit because they are "nominally" theist (except that
> the spiritist/theist/wizardry trichotomy is beyond what the average
> Gloranthan knows or cares about).
Basically, "the rules" and "the culture' don't mesh well. "The Rules" cover the various forms of magic in detail, and that amount of paper spent on them make them seem more important than they really are *to the inhabitants of Glorantha*.
Were I to work on a new Glorantha HQ rulebook, everything above the initiate-equivalent level of magic would be in a seperate "Advanced magic" chapter. With copious notes about how this stuff is really rare. So would Concentration. More emphasis would be placed on Community Magic (the little stuff - Common magic, the magic of your local pantheon/spirit tradition/church). While I would not make it impossible to start play as a Devotee, I'd make sure players knew that it wasn't normal by any means. People look at you wierd, and act differently towards you (sort of like how normal people "act differently" around a raving street person...)
Of course, Players want the splashy magic that Devotee-level magic gives, because it's much more impressive. So we still end up with the dichotomy between "normal Gloranthan Heroes" and Player Heroes. But the rules *can* point out that Devotees and the like are "unusual", and let the player choose to be so.
RR
He was born with the gift of laughter and the sense that the world was mad
R. Sabatini, Scaramouche
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