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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6296898" data-attributes="member: 2067">The relevant thing I've been presuming is that "priest" implies some ability to enact rituals. Across cultures, there are three major events that always call for some ritual: birth, death, and fertility (human/otherwise). So "priests" in this general sense do naming ceremonies, weddings, harvest ceremonies, funerals, coming-of-age ceremonies, birth rites, death rites, etc. That's their function in a professional sense, that's their specialization, that's what the society they're in wants them to do, to preside over these uncertain times and get the invisible cloud-people to give it luck. In a D&D sense, this can imply that they are Divine in some respect (a cleric, or a shaman, or perhaps even a druid?), but it need not. There might be more Wizards who are Priests of Boccob than there are Clerics who are Priests of Boccob -- that is, when you're a follower of Boccob, and you want to name your kid, you take it to a wizard (class: wizard, profession: priest) and she casts a Divination spell and BAM, there's your name. Actual clerics of Boccob might be more like librarians or "defenders of knowledge," so they're who you go to when rumors of lost lore appear in the ruins in the blue dragon's vast wasteland (class: cleric, profession: scribe). A similar distinction might be made for Obad-Hai (druids with the priest profession do most of the priest-ing, while clerics serve more as ambassadors to cities in order to protect the wilderness, with their profession as perhaps Diplomat), or Kord (fighters with priest do the rites, clerics are referees in competitions!).In a non-hierarchical society within D&D, the majority of the Priests (those with the Profession of Priest, who do the ritual stuff) probably aren't Clerics (due to Clerics in D&D being associated with a certain level of tech -- heavy armor and metallurgy and whatnot), and probably aren't Acolytes, either (due to the implication of "training" for a particular religious role not making sense without much of a religious hierarchy controlling access). Maybe they're more Tribal (background)/Ranger (class)/Priest (profession), and their chief is Tribal (background)/Barbarian (class)/Governor (profession), and their best hunter is Tribal (background)/Ranger (class)/Hunter (profession).</blockquote>

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