radmonger

IMG sacrifice adds to the power of the cult, not the god. More people who have sacrificed for more rune magic is a more powerful influence on the world; a stronger army, a more productive economy, and more informed decision makers. Which can support more and larger temples with more and larger wyters, who hand out more magic. Apart from that effect, the 'power' of a god has the same relationship to the power of a cult as it does in the real world. When people believe something, they act on that belief. This can change the world. People who believe in the Great Compromise don't study, or quest, for the magic that would break it. Except, of course, as a deterrent, retaliation or preemptive strike on what someone else is doing.

The canonical example here is Samastina, who left Nochet to consult with Cragspider, and later got tangled up with Broyan and eventually became Queen. I'd agree some explicit guidance would be nice. there is a lot of room to expand on the rules in the 'Between Adventures', and in particular make it clear how that relates to cult obligations. But it seems straightforward that Ernalda is the goddess of Esrolian nobility. Samastina would have profession noble. Going on ritual quests of matter of national importance is the job of nobility. So all her adventures counted as cult business. If she had instead ran away to be a sailor, she would have been in dereliction of her duty, and might have suffered from spirits of retribution until such time as she either reconciled or left the cult. If she had instead not been a noble, but a priest, then things would have been much more difficult for her, and she would have been abandoning cult obligations by running off without the consent of her family Grandmother. So a GM running a campaign in which that was true, but who wanted her adventures to happen, would have to have her grandmother decide it was official Family business. There is a profession for full-time murder-hobos, the bandit. Orlanth Adventerous is perhaps unusual in playable cults in that it would consider that acceptable behavior, providing the PC spared non-combatants. took captives, had no dealings with slavers and demanded only the customary ransom. This is abstracted as the tithe cult members must pay, even if they have that profession.

The previous blog entry described how clans work in the Runequest rules. However, in Dragon Pass, almost all clans are organised into tribes and tribal federations, which add an extra level of complexity and options. As such, to a clan member, being part of a tribe offers opportunities that a clan by itself could not support. In Runequest a tribe is an alliance or federation of clans. Tribes typically number in the thousands or more, so it is unlikely for anyone to know everyone. Unlike a clan, a tribe doesn't naturally generate a wyter, or community spirit. This means that leadership at the tribal level will require explicit magical infrastructure to support it. This is described in the Runequest rules as a cult. There are two types of tribal organisation described by currently-published cults: In Prax, the Waha cult teaches tribal khans to summon a legendary founder. In and near Dragon Pass, the Orlanth Rex subcult anoints tribal kings (also know as a Rex). It is likely others exist elsewhere in Glorantha. Waha Tribe The animal nomads of Prax are organised into tribes, where each tribe is a specific type of riding animal (bison, high llama, and so on). As nomads, they have very limited access to temples, which must be portable to move with the herd. So they mostly rely on shamanic priests of Waha, and Eiritha priestesses trained at the single major temple complex of the Paps. Each tribe is ruled by a single individual known as the Tribal Khan. Waha shamanic priests teach the legitimate Khan the Rune Spell Summon Founder, which is both proof of the legitimacy of their status, and a means of enforcing it. In most tribes, it is those Waha shamans who picks the Khan. But in the Morokanth and Sable clans there is a tribal queen, a High Pirestess of Eiritha, who has a a joint leadership role, and a major say in picking the Khan. Dividing the tribe into clans (which raise children) and warbands (which don't) is at the discretion of the Tribal Khan, who appoints their khans. Some clans have a long tradition and a khan would be unwise to permanently splitting them, or appointing an outsider as their khan. Others are just temporary divisions, forced by military strategy, or the necessity of avoiding overgrazing of a single area. Storm Bulls warbands are led by a Storm Khan, and are largely independent of the tribe, fighting their own battles with Chaos. The cults of Waha and Eiritha provide the necessities of survival, and so are the foundations of society. Magic beyond that necessary for common survival is a matter for the individual, and is typically treated pragmatically. The temples of settled people often offer useful magic at a lower price than a tribal shaman would charge. So a tribesman might well be an initiate of Orlanth or Humakt, and it would be impossible for anyone unfamiliar with the tribe to know whether they got that status from a Pavis temple or a shamanic spirit cult. Orlanth Rex Tribe The Orlanthi tribes of Dragon Pass are organised alliances between clans, which are the fundamental social unit. Clans can leave one tribe and join another while keeping their identity. All tribes have a small town or fort, which contains a selection of tribal temples. These temples are available for worship and magical instruction by all clans, and are maintained by the revenues the clans pay to the tribe. This revenue also supports the tribal king and his retinue, and any warband the tribe maintains. Almost all residents of the town are members of one of the clans of the tribe, to which they pwn their primary loyalty. Tribal leadership is organised around the subcult of Orlanth Rex, representing Orlanth's claim to be King of the Gods. The tribal Orlanth Rex temple to is responsible for selecting a tribal king to rule the tribe. Atribal king must worship Orlanth, although it need not be their only, or even main, cult. They receive an especially powerful allied spirit in the form of the tribal Guardian Spirit, even if they are only an initiate. This spirit is typically not a community wyter, as the tribe itself is not a permanent settled community. Instead, it is often bound into tribal regalia held by the Orlanth Rex temple. For example, the Colymar tribe is based around Clearwine Fort. As a traditionalist tribe, the Colymar send their militia to war when needed, led by the thanes of each clan. Other tribes instead organise those thanes into a permanent military formation, such as the Headhunters of the Culbrea. Header image: Cardiff castle mural showing Silurian tribesmen fighting the Roman military. By Steve F-E-Cameron (Merlin-UK) - Self-photographed, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2052071

I do suspect there is a gap in the rules if you look at the shaman and profession rules. Vishi is no longer an apprentice shaman, serving a master. But unlike an actual shaman priest, he also does not have profession priest. He does not make his living by selling spells, either at full rate, or at the customary discount implied by being a member of a community. Economically, Vishi has profession warrior; he is part of Argrath's personal retinue. It's been canon since White Bear and Red Moon that raising units of professional magicians (warriors as opposed to nobles or priests) was one of Argrath's big innovations. Now professions mostly matter for character generation, but they are used in downtime. So a new profession like 'war mage' or some such might more accurately reflect his status. And of course downtime matter for cult obligations, in that if you have an occupation that reflects the cult/community goals, you are unlikely to fail to meet them. An Issaries merchant spends his time buying and selling stuff, with a certain cult-obliged level of generosity and fairness. Issaries is pleased, and does not send any spirit of retribution.

That makes altogether too much sense for this thread; they are men of all castes, not none. To make up for that blunder, have the theory that the cults of Humakt and Yelmalio are descended from, or influenced by the Horali caste. And so their gift/geas system is more or less mechanically identical to the Rightness blessings that Horali receive. So a Horal caste cult writeup would only have initiate status, and no rune magic. Just a big table of powers and behavioral restrictions, and one or more mechanisms for selecting them, likely with regional variations. The Zzaburi who magically support the caste cult are not themselves members; they just have to have mastered the cult runes. So a powerful Zzaburi could support many cults, although the common practice is to specialize.

https://www.plantuml.com/

The anomaly here is Issaries, who has two types of priests, one of whom used to be (in older write ups) Rune Lords. The travelling princes of trade are rarely going to take a whole congregation with them on their travels. Though I suppose some caravans do get quite large? I am minded to say that is a reflection of the special nature of Issaries; he can be temporarily accepted in any community open to trade. I would say no. As a default, the whole clan is a single community, typically tied together by the bonds of marriage. When things aren't that way, politics happen, and the clan may split. A regular priest or initiate in one of the clan temples has access to the clan wyter by being part of the clan. More details here.

While it is not afaik explicitly stated in the rules, for me priest inherently needs a wyter in the same sense that a shaman needs a fetch. It is their means of interacting with the Other Side; they can't priest without it. And a wyter is a community spirit, so a priest needs a community. Some personally leave the mundane world, and interact with the Gods of the otherworld directly without a proxy such as a wyter, fetch or whatever sorcerors use,. Those people are called heroes. These are supposed to break the rules, but I suspect some people are gong to need written permission to do so.

Prince Tarkalor was once told 'there is rock wool in the foundations of your keep; this will kill all who breathe it'. He replied 'it is better it stay there'. This is sometime taken to be a reference to his reliance on Telmori bodyguards. author unknown, early Hero Wars era Tarsh: Ernalda, give us the serenity to accept what cannot be changed. Orlanth, give us the courage to change what can be changed. Sedenya, give us the wisdom to know the one from the other

True, but there are few reasons for becoming a shaman-priest over than a pure shaman, other than what the latter can do for a community. As pointed out above Vishi is a shaman of the White Bull, not a shaman-priest of Waha. Is there perhaps an issue with the Lightbringers book being published, but the Spirits one not, so the purist option isn't front-and-center at the same level? The general fix here is to interpret 'doing things for the cult' as 'doing cult things for their community'. A Humakti Rune Lord fights for the clan, a Barntari Godtalker feeds it. Neither would ever get called away from doing so by some nebulous 'cult' duties that don't correspond to something in-game that such characters would be expected to do All that is then necessary is to ensure that the PCs are involved with the same community. A clan is perhaps the most natural way to do that, but there are many others; a tribe, a warband, a ships crew. One time Greg resorted to the bag of stabling option.

Being any kind of priest to a community is like owning a horse. Very useful for doing horse-stuff, very awkward to bring into a dungeon. If you can deal with players owning horses, the same techniques apply to communities. ignore it; you leave your horse tied up off-screen and it is there when you return. Even if you came out of a different exit to the dungeon. run mostly outdoors adventures require players to realistically deal with hiring someone to guard their horse. invent an explicit magical item like a Bag of Stabling. kill their horse. For option #3, the 90% time/income would be literal if they were supporting the community by mercenary adventuring, and explicitly compensating someone to do the boring parts for them full-time. Your apprentice can't bless the crops as well as you would, but maybe you make silver that will buy enough grain to make up the difference. Which is quite likely not a sensible trade-off for the relatively minor power bumps that being a Priest gives. RQ:G is not RQ2 where you needed to mechanically become a Rune Priest in order to get reusable rune magic. So, if you are taking this approach, PCs should generally only become priests when they are going to be spending at least some time with that community.

The thing I would really pay again for is just a slimmer hardback book with all the stuff that overlaps with things published since taken out (sample characters, cults, spells, weapon lists, ...). More of a 1.1 than a 1.0.4, but still...

A lightweight alternative to that is to create a blog on this site; I suspect quite a few people miss that menu option...

That is exactly what I meant by 'exotic slavery magic'. Such things must be created by magical specialists,which implies at least a whole cult, maybe a society, organised around enabling chattel slavery. Modern Dragon Pass is not that society. It is not short of labor; the limitation is the magic needed to make land farmable and defended. Calories consumed that do not produce Rune Points are lost to the economy. So there is no viable economic case for slavery; the culture reflects that. IMG, slave collars were mostly imported from Fonrit, via Esrolia, by the Lunar-supporting Red Earth faction. They were normalized to some degree during the occupation period., but Orlanth Rune Lords like Kallyr and Broyan never accepted that, as per the prohibition on slavery in the Lightbringers book. When she came to power, Queen Samastina banned that trade as offensive to Orlanth, decreeing Ompalam to be a chaos god. Some still use them in secret. But if an Issaries herald was shown captives being held in such a state, all rights to a fair ransom would be lost. Freeing the captives by force would be not just permitted, but a general moral obligation. A lot wouldn't, just as a lot wouldn't kill their captives. But even fewer would establish a shrine to Ompalam to gain slavery magic. That would be open chaos worship, and so a direct challenge to the entire Lightbringer worldview.

The existence of the Lightning spell mean keeping unwilling Orlanthi captive requires disproportionate effort; you have to have more guards than prisoners, 24/7, and never allow unsupervised access to the open sky or a storm. This is never going to be economically viable. There is exotic slavery magic that can do so, some imported from Fonrit, but all Orlanthi consider that explicitly chaotic. Most prisoners are on honor system, backed by the fact that if they escape they will likely be recaptured. And physically escaping without paying ransom doesn't void the debt, which would then have to be reclaimed by other means. So what happens to those whose ransoms are not paid? If they are sold, it will be to Morokanth, who will convert them into herd beasts and ultimately eat them; this is not chaotic. Or, pre-Dragonrise, to the Lunars, who are, but what can you do? They might just be killed, if no-one present is their kin. Unless the captives are from far away, or there has been a bitter feud for a generation, there will almost always be some second cousins' wife that would render this option chaotic. They may adopt them into the clan, especially if they can attract a husband or wife. Serving a term as a year-wife/bedhusband would count. Without a spouse, their status would likely be that of a thrall, as they own no property. Not every clan is generous or rich enough to support those who have nothing to offer but their labor. They might be returned to their clan, as a public act of generosity for which a favor will be owed. They might pay cult membership fees for an Asrelian mine work gang, knowing the Earth has dire punishments for those who desert her. This is the one that is closest to chattel slavery, and some Orlanthi consider it suspect. Queen Samastina may have recently reformed it, or have plans to do so that require the PCs help. Or they might be given directions to the nearest dangerous ruins, and made to swear an oath, possibly magically backed; return with payment, or not at all. Some of these would count as slavery or forced labor under modern law. But not to the Orlanthi, to whom violence is always a legitimate option. So a debt incurred by someone else using violence better must be honorably settled. Even magic, like a Humakti Oath, used to enforce such payment is not chaotic.

House Atreides would actually be a pretty good match for Duke Raus from RQ2 Borderlands. Also, by far the most valuable substance in Glorantha is Truestone, the mineral sacred to the Praxian nomads. Long exposure to truestone gives the tribes their characteristic hatred of chaos.

Pick a move, adapt the plot. For example, following: Casino Rex: opening action scene: fight some raiders, capture a strange box of brass tokens the scary clan grandmother briefs you that the tokens you captured bears the mark of the Talar of Casino Town. further investigation shows that the leader of the raiders was a notorious Wolf Pirate, Harrek's right hand man. turns out he is heavily into gambing at Casino Town, which has sorcerous means of collecting debts from even the most powerful. a plan is formed to ensure the Wolf Pirate loses money he doesn't own to the Casino. the clan shaman gifts you some new spirit magic You meet with an unexpectedly young and glamorous Asrelian widow, carrying the 20% of the clan's wealth that will bankroll your gambling. And so on.

RQ3 introduced: - cults deviating from the standard template, so not every cult has rune lord. - different cultures starting with different skills - a full range of profession - sorcery Even the fatigue rules were some kind of attempt to stop players walking around in metal armour 100% of the time.

As Jaldon is not only mortal but dead, heroforming would involve first dying, and then having his spirit possessing your corpse. Most people with the power to perform the ritual prefer to use a pre-existng corpse. Ideally Jaldon's original, but any he possessed before will do.

The previous blog entry described Rune Cults in abstract rules terms. This by itself is enough for running an adventure-focused game, where rune cults serve a game function much like that of D&D character classes. However, many people prefer a community-focused game, in the style of the Red Cow campaign or Six Seasons in Sartar. This requires a somewhat deeper understanding of how the rules portray the setting, in particular what a clan is. In the RQ:G rules, the term clan is used in much the same way as in popular anthropology; a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent, especially when part of a larger group such as a tribe, nation or empire. Membership of a clan is by birth, marriage or adoption; being a member of more than one clan is normally not possible. Clans typically make a better focus of a community-focused campaign than cults themselves, simply because they allow a greater diversity of characters. Using the default character generation rules, all characters are born into a clan. However, there is little in the explicit rules that explains how clan, tribe and cult relate to each other. So, as these rules are intended to be usable for running such community-focused campaigns, this blog post takes a closer look at how this works. To do this, we look at 3 examples of clan-level community: a Valind clan, organised around a single temple, led by a priest a great temple to Asrelia, organised around a single large temple led by a chief priest, presiding over subservient cults an Orlanth Thunderous clan, organised around a pair of temples to Orlanth and Ernalda, run by a chieftain For each case, there are three perspectives; the Otherworld of gods and spirits, the mundane world of people and temples, and then the game rules that describe them. Note that in Dragon Pass, almost all clans are organised into tribes and tribal federations, which add an extra level of complexity and options. These will will be looked at in the next part of this series. Valind Clan Some clans support initiation into only a single rune or spirit cult; clan and cult membership are synonymous. Clans following this pattern are commonly run by the senior Rune Priest, Shaman Priest or Rune Lord. It is possible for a senior initiate to temporarily lead a clan, but such a clan will be greatly magically weakened if a more appropriate replacement is not soon found. It is not possible to be a full member of the clan, or marry into it, without being or becoming an initiate of the clan cult. The clan maintains a community spirit, or wyter, which provides a bridge to a specific deity on the God Plane. Such a deity is almost always massively more powerful and long lasting than a spirit directly contactable by a shaman. The clan wyter is responsible for detecting and enforcing any behavior taboos or restrictions described in the cult write-up. It knows what the community knows, and what the priest and deity tell it. So a secret successfully kept from the clan, and not revealed during worship, may stay a secret. It also teaches cult spirit magic, at the discretion of the community leader. Many clans have additional spirit magic available from their wyter; some rare ones provide specialist Rune magic too. As such clans are literally a monoculture, they perhaps represent a better place to have come from than a setting for a long-term campaign. Perhaps as this somewhat matches the contemporary real-world usage of the word 'cult', it's a common misconception that all Gloranthan clans are this way. However, while they are a clear minority of clans, they do exist. Examples include: Hsunchen clans such as the Telmori Clans following Valind, from the glacier lands where agriculture is not possible Isolationist or refugee ethnic groups that follow Daka Fal ancestor worship Tusk Riders following the cult of the Bloody Tusk. Riverfolk following Heler or Engizi. Some God Learners speculated that this was the primordial form of social organisation from which all others derive. Others thought that it was the easiest to create, or recreate after a catastrophe. So usually it would be newer than other, more complex, forms of religious organisation. Some cult-based organisations like Storm Bull warbands, Yggite pirate crews and Gagarthi bandit gangs have a similar organisation internally. However, they are not usually counted as clans as they rarely bring up children. It would be highly unusual to be born into one; instead you join them in adulthood. Asrelian Great Temple Sometimes, great or major temples of a cult own and control their own lands, within which people are born and raised. Within those lands, the cult is entirely dominant, structuring society as much as a primordial clan does. Other examples include the Paps in Prax, Old Wind in Sartar, and the Shaker Temple in Tarsh. However, due to the size and magical power of temples of that size, an additional level of complexity is present. This corresponding to the RQ:G term subordinate cult. Some great temples and temple complexes, whether they count as clans or not, support subordinate cults. These are run by Specialist Priests, typically of Godtalker rank. These report to the temple High Priestess, tend a shrine, and worship a lesser deity who resides at the otherwold home of the great deity in question. Such specialist priests are recruited from the general population of cult initiates; there is not a separate community of those dedicated to the subordinate cult. Consequently, there will pretty much never be a full cult writeup available, as the number of actual members of the subordinate cult is negligible. The net result is that if the subordinate cult provides rune magic, it is available to all cult initiates, subject to the discretion of the Chief priest. This could be considered to be cult association, but with a single cult managing both ends of the relationship. For example, in Esrolia, the independent Great Temple Asrelia's Retreat maintains a subservient cult to Aleshmara, a Pamaltean deity. This was initially set up by persuading a priestess of that cult to cross the ocean and set up shop in the temple. The daughter of that original priestess initiated to Asrelia when she came of age, and now tends the shine her mother established. That provides the Rune Spell Bounty to all Asrelia cult members who visit the temple. This process was ruinously expensive in both wealth and magical power, but the cult hierarchy considers it a sound investment. Great temples can be interesting and useful places to visit, if only because they contain magic available nowhere else. However, they make a poor setting for a typical campaign, as there is still only a single cult that initiates must belong to. Orlanth Thunderous Clan One common pattern of clan worship is where a clan supports two temples to two associated cults, representing deities who are husband and wife. Normally, when a clan worships two cults, this causes divisions within the community,. This weakens the wyter and commonly leads to the split of the clan into two. Having the two cults be segregated by gender, and then tied together by marriage avoids that. The two temples share a shrine (or sometimes two shrines) representing the bond. This makes available the two rune spells listed under the associated cults section of their writeup. For example, for a clan focused around Orlanth Thunderous and Ernalda, the shrine would make available Heal Body and Cloud Call. The work of tending the shrine is shared between the two priesthoods. The clan is led by a Chieftan, who ideally should qualify as a Rune Lord and/or Priest. Note that the rules section 'Chief priest' applies to either; the chieftan of an Orlanthi clan is only required to be an initiate of Orlanth. As the Orlanth Rune Cult write-up is split into subcults, it is necessary to specify which one the clan temple corresponds to; in this case Orlanth Thunderous. The Ernalda cult write-up is not so split, so the temple is described by the writeup directly. This should not be taken to mean that all clan-level Ernalda temples are identical, merely that there is no systematic pattern to how they vary. This type of clan is recommended for a community-based campaign, as it is possible, with some flexibility, to accommodate initiates of many different cults into the clan. For all genders, initiation into the clan precedes initiation into a specific temple, cult or subcult. taking the form of a minor heroquest as described in 6SiS. This gives the new adult access to the Otherworld palace Orlanth and Ernalda share. From there, forming a connection to any deity who lives at that palace, including most of the Lightbringers and Ernalda's family is normally automatically successful. Those who chose to form such a connection become initiates of that specific god. If using the RoS rules, this counts as a friendly transfer between cults. Those who do not transfer remain in Orlanth or Ernalda. Those who fail the adulthood ordeal must successfully initiate to some other acceptable god in order to count as a full clan member; hunter gods are the most common alternate path. Those who do not find such a path are usually supported by the clan, so long as hope remains that they some day will. Exceptional performance at the adulthood initiation heroquest can earn a single use of any rune spell available to the clan. This is generally taken as an omen. For example someone who starts as an Ernaldan and is awarded the Lightning spell will likely be directed to the path of Vinga. In the abscence of such a clear sign, the clan elders use their best judgement, taking account of both the needs of the community and the wishes and capability of the young adult. Completing initiation to the level represented by the default character generation rules (i.e. 21 years old with 3 rune spells and a reasonable level of cult skills) requires access to a full temple,which will likely not be present locally to the clan. If the temple is available at tribal, or tribal association, level, this is routine. Otherwise it may require a long and dangerous pilgrimage to a foreign temple, who may or may not accept the candidate. It is GM's discretion whether his can be assumed to have taken place before play. If not, they will have more RP than spells known. Ernalda's other husband-protectors include Argan Argar, Flamal, Lodril, Magasta, Pamalt, Strom Bull, Yelm and Yelmalio. So any of these deities can replace Orlanth. although only Yelmalio (sometimes called Elmal), Lodril and Argan Argar do so in the Dragon Pass region. In Prax, it is her daughter Eiritha who is married to Waha.

Well, priests and rune lords of Orlanth Adventurous and Thunderous within Sartar are religiously subordinate to the Chief Priest of Orlanth Rex, aka the Prince of Sartar. So loyalty to the Prince restricts their desire to be independent, and the magical power of the Prince restricts their ability to be so. Wheras godtalkers of Barntar within most of the Lunar provinces are (as I understand it) religiously subordinate to the local Ernalda Priestess. So if they were to unlawfully (i.e. unsuccessfully) rebel, they would be exiled from the clan. But all belong to cults that worship aspects of Orlanth, and would be accepted at each others temples. And none worship Ernalda, or the Red Emperor. Using the rules as written, I think you can describe that situation. It just needs you to be 100% consistent about using the terms sub cult, associated cult and subservient cult correctly. Good luck with that.

Is it actually stated anywhere explicitly in the rules that your initial cult skills come from your selected subcult? I mean, it's common sense that, under normal circumstances, a PC would be actually brought up, initiated into and educated by one specific subcult. And so, if they are different from the default, that is the cult skills you would get. If you read threads like this, it is pretty obvious that quite a lot of people fundamentally do not get how the RQ:G rules about deity, cult, subcult and clan are intended to work. Some even seem to think that if Elmal and Yelmalio do, in some deep metaphysical sense, share an identity, then the culture and even personalities of their followers must be the same. Or that a political reorganization of clans and tribes changes something about the nature of a deity. As I suggested above, the simple word subcult bears a lot of the blame, as it implies a hierarchical relationship that doesn't necessarily exist. Things might be a lot less confusing if the rules were like: However, given Chaosium are 4 books deep into publishing the 11-volume Cults of Runequest, such a rules update is unlikely. So the only real option is to explain. the rules as they do exist.

The sentence prior to it say 'Initiates are under the protection of Ernalda's local husband'. That does not imply a guarantee that the local chief and his 20 or so thanes will defeat everything threatening such an initiate. Merely that they will be obliged to try. In doing so, they would as a minimum expect the support of the clan militia. Note that changing the duration back wouldn't affect anything much, as planting time would be a crunch time for access to RP anyway.

As a GM, that's no problem. Just have their mentor say: Right now, the fields are doing fine, me and the senior initiates have things in hand. We need you to prioritize dealing with _plot_. I think that has been eratta'd?

Ernalda has access to a 1-use spell, Restore Magic, that restores 1D6 Rune points. So most priests would be able to meet their obligation if they really needed to. Of course, the cost would be disastrous; they would need years or even decodes to fully recover. Hence it is a vital contribution to the viability of the community that initiates do not all call on the obligation at once. Most initiates should be blessing their own crops, or perhaps farming so well they do not need magical support every year. Any advanced initiate slacking in their obligation to take on a share of the crop blessing rotation would at least face social pressure. They might end up having their lands reallocated to someone who will care for them better.