Sorry if this has been asked before.

I know Prydaen and Rakash can get favors from their gods. I know Prydaen can pray to Eu, Demrris, and Tenelmor, and that prayer gives a little bit of Theurgy. I don't know how Rakash favors work, or if they can pray to their 3.

Is there any specific lore reason why Kaldar can't get favors from their gods?

Is there any specific lore reason why there are no rituals Prydaen can perform to their gods to get theurgy and devotion?

I've been told the Cleric's guild is an Eastern institution... Does that mean there can be no Rakash, Prydaen, or Kaldar clerics who are not part of the guild? They need to join the guild, to get the spells and communes, which are powered by the Thirteen, correct?

Another way of putting it, maybe... Are there clerics in other lands? Do they behave similarly to Eastern/Thirteen-abiding clerics? What kind of rituals and manner of worship do they do, to gain their powers? How would one roleplay such a cleric in the game right now?

What is the possibility of rituals, communes, alignments, etc., being created for such purposes? Would they require different spells, or different spell messaging? Would it simply be impossible, lore-wise, for a Rakash "cleric" (or whatever the term would be) to cast Fists of Faenella or an alternative, without joining the Cleric's guild and being taught the ways of the Thirteen?


P.S. I don't see a reason to bring up Aspect of the All God. That is entirely not what I'm trying to learn about here! Thank you.

P.P.S. Its super late and I feel kind of sick so I might not be asking the questions I think I'm asking. I'll come back in a day or two with a clearer mind and see if I can explain things better if necessary.

>>Is there any specific lore reason why Kaldar can't get favors from their gods?

To clarify, the gods of the Gorbesh are different than the gods of the Kaldar (which are the Immortals).

There is a specific reason the Gorbesh gods don't do favors, yes.

>>Is there any specific lore reason why there are no rituals Prydaen can perform to their gods to get theurgy and devotion?

Hand-wobbly gesture for this one. It could be argued either way.

>>I've been told the Cleric's guild is an Eastern institution... Does that mean there can be no Rakash, Prydaen, or Kaldar clerics who are not part of the guild? They need to join the guild, to get the spells and communes, which are powered by the Thirteen, correct?

It's culturally an Eastern institution, just as the vast majority of the Rakash, Prydaen, Kaldar and Gnomes have assimilated to worshipping the Eastern gods. The Temple does put the Immortals on a pedestal. They don't run off people who want to worship other gods, but there'd be sideways glances.

>>Another way of putting it, maybe... Are there clerics in other lands? Do they behave similarly to Eastern/Thirteen-abiding clerics? What kind of rituals and manner of worship do they do, to gain their powers? How would one roleplay such a cleric in the game right now?

The spiritual leaders of varying cultures in the setting vary a lot. Of particular note, the shamans of the Arid Steppe are Moon Mages. Needless to say, there's a lot of room for variety.

As part of the shared narrative of the game, your character gets their training where they get their training -- the Clerics Guild in this case. That said, nothing prohibits your character from having been the servant of a lay priest, studied under a wise old Prydaen, followed what they are told are the Rakash's true rites preserved from the West, or any imagined variation of thing like that. I am just loathe to suggest roleplaying in a readily falsifiable manner ("Well why did I see you learning magic from the GL if you never joined the guild?")

>>What is the possibility of rituals, communes, alignments, etc., being created for such purposes? Would they require different spells, or different spell messaging? Would it simply be impossible, lore-wise, for a Rakash "cleric" (or whatever the term would be) to cast Fists of Faenella or an alternative, without joining the Cleric's guild and being taught the ways of the Thirteen?

It'd be nearly impossible, but not in the way you may be thinking.

The problem is attunement, or the process of becoming a magician in the setting. It is extraordinarily rare (possible, but extraordinarily rare) for someone to spontaneously attune, in ~99.99% of cases a magician needs to learn under someone who knows the right way to attune a student to a mana frequency. In Eastern society that is almost exclusively the domain of the guilds, and they actively try to maintain their power blocs.

Beyond that, most holy magic is just holy magic. You don't need to worship Faenella to cast Fists of Faenella, nor does it call upon her in any cosmically meaningful way. It's a spell, named and perhaps designed in her honor, but it works on purely mechanistic terms.

The exception tend to be signature spells, which require the guild's confound (in this case, Devotion) to work. Those in some fashion do either call out to or require as a prerequisite some sort of divine connection going on and will fail unless it is provided.

-Armifer
"Perinthia's astronomers are faced with a difficult choice. Either they must admit that all their calculations were wrong ... or else they must reveal that the order of the gods is reflected exactly in the city of monsters." - Italo Calvino

I was certain the lore reason the Gorbesh gods don't give favors is they don't believe in coddling the weak.

>>I don't care what the current lore justification is. We used to have lore justifications for not having Prydaen and Rakash favors, too.

Mmm. Lore reasons that were a bit less of a hurdle than "these gods are philosophically opposed to the practice."