Cults that can be merged to one adventurer

[Akhôrahil]

35 minutes ago, Crel said:

Did they replace it with Ban, in RQG?

Yes (p. 436).

Ban also makes a heck of a lot more sense - a priest can boss over his temple, but your Initiate status is between you and your god. 

[Joerg]

7 hours ago, g33k said:

I consider the Lay/Initiate boundary to be when you sacrifice permanent POW to a deity, not just temp MP's.

The same can be said when you join a spirit cult for one of its rune spells (if it provides one) or the acquisition of an unusual spirit spell.

Under RQG, having joined several such spirit cults may give you some ace in the sleeve for special effects. As these rune points appear not to be counted against your CHA limit, a CHA-challenged character might have to go this way to collect a decent number of rune points.

Such special spells may be mainly a heroquesting MacGuffin, useful in certain predicted situations. Still worth acquiring, and firing off to achieve something you and your party would be very hard put to achieve otherwise.

Or they may be regimental specialities. Think Argrath's Warlocks and their unit cults.

 

7 hours ago, g33k said:

I think a God can tell (by way of Rune Pools most likely; but also just -- because they're Gods, and we don't need mechanics!!!) when an existing Initiate goes slutting their POW around to other deities, or conversely comes to offer POW with the lipstick stains of another deity on their collar...

Can they taste Spell Trading, too?

Theyalans aren't monotheists. And even Malkioni acquire rune magic from cults in a theist way these days if they aren't zzabur caste sorcerers.

[soltakss]

8 hours ago, g33k said:

I think a God can tell (by way of Rune Pools most likely; but also just -- because they're Gods, and we don't need mechanics!!!) when an existing Initiate goes slutting their POW around to other deities, or conversely comes to offer POW with the lipstick stains of another deity on their collar...

If they are jealous that might be a problem, otherwise it is fine.

Illuminates can mask this kind of thing to be able to join hostile or even enemy cults.

 

[soltakss]

In the God-Talker section, it says ...

Quote

God-talkers may be initiates of their cults, or may even be Rune Priests or Rune Lords of a closely associated god. Godtalkers have some of the privileges and responsibilities of Rune Priests, but not all. Retired Rune Priests may be freed from many of their responsibilities by requesting demotion to God-talker status. God-talkers are often the only people to tend shrines.

... and ...

Quote

Necessary requirements for God-talkers are usually identical to those for Rune Priests.

... and under Rune Priest Requirements, it says ...

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Becoming a Rune Priest is not easy. To be a priest in a cult, a candidate must:
. Be an initiate of the cult in good standing with the temple priests and possess at least one Rune affinity shared with the deity with a rating of at least 90%, and either a Loyalty (temple) or a Devotion (deity) Passion of at least 50%.
. Possess at least 5 Rune points dedicated to the god.
. Have a POW of 18 or higher.
. Have a skill of at least 50% in Worship (deity) and in four cult skills (described later in the Cults section of this chapter).
. Have a vacancy at the temple as determined by the gamemaster.

So, a God-Talker must be an initiate of the Cult in good standing and many be a Priest or Rune Lord of another cult. this could mean that the prospective God-talker was an initiate of both cults before becoming a rune Level in the other cult, or it could mean that only Rune Levels can become Initiates of other cults.

Also, someone must have mentioned this earlier in the thread ...

Quote

Membership in Multiple Cults
It is possible for an adventurer to be an initiate of more than one cult. They must pass the appropriate tests, and this always requires that the cults be compatible. They must also tithe to each temple, and perform properly and completely all duties and responsibilities to each temple. Adventurers must maintain a separate pool of Rune points for each cult they are a member of, and the number of Rune points they may possess with that cult is equal to their CHA. 

 

[Lordabdul]

8 hours ago, GAZZA said:

You are never required to sacrifice POW once you become an initiate. You probably will, especially if you're a PC, but you're not required to. And it is far from clear to me that a lay member isn't saccing MPs at worship ceremonies.

Under RAW, lay members are required to sacrifice 1 MP during cult holy day worship. Initiates are required to sacrifice 2 MPs, and do all their duties and tithing (1/10 of income and free time). Whenever the character stops doing that, bad things start to happen, but there are no hard and fast rules on this the same way there are no hard and fast rules on how one gets fired from their job, kicked out of their parish/temple/synagogue/etc., and so on.

8 hours ago, GAZZA said:

And I'm sorry to keep harping on about this, but we don't know what spirits of reprisal are in RQG.

They're spirits that come after you. They can be anything that the GM deems appropriate. When in doubt, lacking imagination, or short on time, use an elemental spirit. Otherwise, Cults of Prax has examples of Spirits of Reprisal for most cults (not quite all), so the upcoming Cults book will probably have some more examples as well.

I'm a bit confused by this desire for precise rules and stats... for example, it says that temples are often defended by a wyter, and that Earth temples rituals are also often guarded by Babeester Gor initiates... do you consider this to be "non-existent rules" because we don't know what kind of spirit these wyters are, or because we don't have stats and equipment for the guards? I don't know, just.... make something?

8 hours ago, GAZZA said:

We don't know:

• What happens if you leave cult A, bugger around godless for a while, and then join associated cult B. Do cult A's spirits of reprisal (whatever they are) stop? Is there a maximum time that can elapse before this would be true? Do spirits of reprisal ever stop normally for "leaving a cult" infractions?
• What happens if you join associated cult B while still being an initiate of cult A, and then subsequently decide you can't be buggered doing cult A's tithing any more. Do you get spirits of reprisal then? Is there a minimum or maximum time that can elapse while you are a member of both that will change the answer to that question?

• You get the spirit of reprisal. You didn't transfer to an associated cult, you left cult A and became an atheist. Gods will probably be pissed off.
• Good question. I would allow it -- I mean, it's not like you can immediately transfer from on cult to another (at least there's no mention of this being a thing), so there will be a bit of overlap. But as mentioned on this thread: roleplay it. Are you leaving cult A in good terms or not? What actually happened? For me this might depend on another question, which is whether the Spirit of Reprisal is an "automatic" thing that descends upon you directly from the God itself, or if it's something that a temple's Priest sends after you. Based on the wording from the rulebook, it looks like it's the former, so I guess it depends on how the God feels about it (and, therefore, how the GM thinks the God feels about it). Changing cults is a major event in a character's life, so this should be about the story, not about applying rules in the rulebook.

8 hours ago, Crel said:

Did they replace it with Ban, in RQG? Or was Ban also in previous editions? This is the first edition I've gamemastered, or read material of to a significant degree. Ban is basically an excommunication from a particular temple.

I find the Ban spell better than the Excommunication spell because it adds a locality and human aspect to the process: you're only banned from one temple, or one group of temples. This opens up opportunities for political shenanigans.

 

[GAZZA]

14 hours ago, Crel said:

Did they replace it with Ban, in RQG? Or was Ban also in previous editions? This is the first edition I've gamemastered, or read material of to a significant degree. Ban is basically an excommunication from a particular temple.

To an extent does that not raise the question? If it requires a (3 Rune Point) spell to sever an initiate from a mere temple (which is something I would have thought you could achieve via more temporal means, honestly - just have the bouncers eject the sucker), why no similar spell to sever an initiate entirely?

I understand that it's between the initiate and the god, but a priest is a designated representative of the god, empowered to a certain degree to act in the god's name within Time. Corrupt priests Excommunicating unreasonably? Sounds like an adventure plot to me.

That said I hadn't noticed Ban, to be honest.

[Goldennose]

In Adventure Book of GM Screen Pack, there is "Nameless", who is Runelord of Humakt and initiate of Orlanth. She still doesn´t have runepool or runespells of Orlanth. Is this the way these can be merged? You don´t get runespells from Orlanth, but you can worship it still. Or is this just an error in the book?

[Akhôrahil]

On 5/18/2020 at 7:57 PM, soltakss said:

So, a God-Talker must be an initiate of the Cult in good standing and many be a Priest or Rune Lord of another cult. this could mean that the prospective God-talker was an initiate of both cults before becoming a rune Level in the other cult, or it could mean that only Rune Levels can become Initiates of other cults.

One has to wonder how this meshes with having to spent 140% of your income on the combination of cults... is this some kind of The Producers situation where you have to make sure to never earn anything?

Edited June 1, 2020 by Akhôrahil

[Austin]

24 minutes ago, Akhôrahil said:

One has to wonder how this meshes with having to spent 140% of your income on the combination of cults... is this some kind of The Producers situation where you have to make sure to never earn anything?

I'm pretty sure there was an explanation somewhere--maybe Well of Daliath errata, but I thought it's actually in the book--that you donate your required percentage of whatever's left over after your main cult. So, the Rune Lord/God-Talker in this situation would give 90% of their main income to their RL cult, and then 50% of what's left over to their GT cult, and the last 5% of their gross income is discretionary spending.

Presuming they aren't, like a Storm Khan, the leader of their temple and have access to the treasury.

[Shiningbrow]

14 hours ago, Crel said:

I'm pretty sure there was an explanation somewhere--maybe Well of Daliath errata, but I thought it's actually in the book--that you donate your required percentage of whatever's left over after your main cult. So, the Rune Lord/God-Talker in this situation would give 90% of their main income to their RL cult, and then 50% of what's left over to their GT cult, and the last 5% of their gross income is discretionary spending.

Presuming they aren't, like a Storm Khan, the leader of their temple and have access to the treasury.

P278 has this, specifically in reference to a God-Talker, but presumably relates to everyone.

[gochie]

You can officially be a Humakti and Orlanthi...

Edited June 2, 2020 by gochie

[soltakss]

3 hours ago, gochie said:

You can officially be a Humakti and Orlanthi..

Or, at the very least, a Humakti and a Vingan

[Thaz]

On 6/2/2020 at 6:13 PM, soltakss said:

Or, at the very least, a Humakti and a Vingan

Subcult of Orlanth these days.