Originally Posted by
Scalenex
Without listing a specific real world example, I will state that historically religious institutions have wielded direct or indirect political power. That was without having a small army of spell-casters to call on. It occurred to me that a medieval-ish fantasy world where the priesthoods have access to potent magic, the religious institutions would be more powerful not less. But with nine priesthoods competing, if a secular queen decides priesthood A is being too demanding she can throw her political support to Priesthood B who will fall over themselves to underbid Priesthood A.