Quote Originally Posted by Scalenex View Post
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.
If the priesthoods are more powerful because they have armies of spellcasters, why are there even any secular queens? If priesthoods in the real world could rule states and feudal fiefs on equal terms with secular authorities, why wouldn't they totally dominate when they have real working miracles? Every king or queen in this world should be a high priest of one of the nine.