Excommunicated as a Priest: what does it entail? Can you still gain devotion through other means?

Antreus

I thought this was interesting. From an RP standpoint the devotion you gain passively comes from following the Bloodsworns very clear rules and strictures to the letter. Okay, that makes sense. But, can you be excommunicated and still use devotion effectively by doing Good deeds to get it, e.g., immolation for example.

If you're excommunicated, then do the restriction on Healing still apply? Do you gain devotion for leading people into prayer that aren't devotionists?

Melodie

As of this moment, as a priest, once you are excommunicated there is no way to regain devotion.

You will still have whatever amount you had when you were excommunicated - that is to say, if you were 98%, then you will have that, and if you use any abilities, you will drain it, slowly (or quickly, if you're dumb). Immolating corpses does not regain any devotion. Leading rites of prayer also do not regain you any devotion. You will not regenerate it naturally.

There is no devotion restriction in Healing if I recall correctly, unless that has changed recently.

One major thing to note: Summoning your angel does take a small amount of devotion, so once you run out, you can no longer summon her, either. So eventually you'll chop off the majority of two skills. There are some abilities within each that do not require devotion, but I'm not going to list those here, something for you to discover.

Trilliana

I'm gonna call the only awesome excommed Priestess I know, @Melodie

Antreus

Haha - what a riveting introduction, @Trilliana‌ .

Trilliana

@Antreus Only because I don't know! Meli's been through it!

Antreus

Yeah, that's what I'm hearing. I just find this topic so fascinating.

Antonius

I'm pretty sure nothing has changed, so the answer is no. There shouldn't be any way to regain Devotion whilst Excommunicated.

Antreus

Thank You @Melodie‌ , cleared up a lot of things for me. I had no idea that it took Devotion to Summon your Angel which according to the Scrolls states as the light within you. And there's a story in the Mythos that reminds me of this.

So you fundamentally lose two skillsets and play the game of Limbo, "How low can you go?", with no counterplay to garner devotion. That said, I think the fact that you lasted that long is quite incredible. Since this RP mechanic is so harrowing I wonder why they don't simply make Apostasy the thing which you class into - lol.

Continuing on..   , how much Devotion are we talking about when you resurrect a player? This one is for @Melodie‌


One reason I broached this question is that the Devotion scroll it appears misleading. The first condition seems to be an option one must take if excommunicated. The second condition seems like a perk you get by being a devotee to the Bloodsworn and one they are happy to remove if you don't obey their rules.

One major thing to note: Summoning your angel does take a small amount of devotion, so once you run out, you can no longer summon her, either. So eventually you'll chop off the majority of two skills. There are some abilities within each that do not require devotion, but I'm not going to list those here, something for you to discover.

This is new to me just coming back to the game. I had no idea both skill sets were entwined like that. If one could immolate corpses or gain devotion through acts of devotion, then just having enough devotion to summon the angel would be nice.

Alas, when it comes to Tecton's knowledge drop on Healing blessings being restricted to allies of Targossans and Targossans and no one else, coupled with the threat of losing two skills.. how much of a choice is just the illusion of a choice?

An "Angel reflects the Light of her charge's soul", (HELP PRIEST). I guess you could always be an excommunicated, dragon priest who is concerned with "moral right and with making the means by which something is accomplished as important as the goal towards which she is working". It's a long and lonely road Melodie, almost like the Odyssey.

Gaining Devotion

----------------

Gaining more devotion points happens in two ways:

1) Immolating dead adventurers.

- Whenever you immolate a dead adventurer, you will gain devotion points,

with the amount dependent on the level of the person you are saving:

the higher the level, the more devotion you get.

2) Automatically.

- Once an Achaean day you will get devotion.

Melodie

There is absolutely no way to regain devotion IF you are excommunicated. That includes immolating. All avenues of regaining devotion are cut off, mechanically, through the excommunicate command (this is a physical command only able to be done by the Deacon of Celestia, Aurora, and Deucalion). You are notified if you are excommunicated.

As to it being a long and lonely road, ha, don't get me started. A year and a half ago was a very different time for me than it is from now. I am trying to stick to the mechanical questions and less about my personal experiences, though - I don't want to muddle your questions with personal bias on my end.

Antreus

Good is an absolute and unchanging force spawned by Creation for thepurpose of ensuring the continued prosperity and advancement ofCreation.

Jeslyn

Melodie said:

One major thing to note: Summoning your angel does take a small amount of devotion, so once you run out, you can no longer summon her, either. So eventually you'll chop off the majority of two skills. There are some abilities within each that do not require devotion, but I'm not going to list those here, something for you to discover.

Interesting! I guess I'm just so used to the fact of summoning my angel that I forgot that it took 325 devotion points to summon her. At my current pool of 65,000... I would have only 200 times where I could summon her. If that's the case... then it would probably be easier to be excommed as a paladin than a priest. (disclaimer: I'm not looking to be excommed anytime soon... hehe)

Aodfionn

IIRC, you also need some tiny amount of Devotion to be able to summon your angel as a priest, even though it has (I think) a cost of 0 Devotion. 

We talked some last night about your ideas IG. Looking forward to the rest of that convo, @Antreus‌

Melodie

The cost is like... 300~ devotion to summon. Ish.

I know because once I got excommunicated, the only thing I did was summon my angel, and at the end of about fifteen years, I was down to about 18% devotion or so. 

#themoreyouknow