David Eddings' Elenium and Tamuli series: amount of church knights

[LibraryOgre]

So, here's my thought:

The Elenes didn't know about magic. They knew Styrics did magic, but they didn't know how they did magic, just that they did. So, when they went to the Styrics and said "Teach us magic and we'll protect you from Otha (and the other Elenes)", the Styrics said ".... ok" and sort of figured the Elenes didn't know what they were asking.

So, the Styrics taught them magic-as-mechanics... say these words, wiggle these fingers, and that happens. The Styric gods were content to let this happen, because the Elenes were then obliged to protect their followers (somewhat).

When "all our magic is prayers to our gods" came out, the Elenes looked at each other and said "Well, ****, we might've coulda asked our gods", the Styrics were smug, and, IIRC, Dolmant immediately forbade anyone from trying it out on a whim.

[hamishspence]

To be exact, when "other gods besides the Styric gods do offer their worshippers the ability to do magic", Patriarch Emban was the one who tried to forbid any experimenting, to those who'd just found out.

[LibraryOgre]

To be exact, when "other gods besides the Styric gods do offer their worshippers the ability to do magic", Patriarch Emban was the one who tried to forbid any experimenting, to those who'd just found out.

There we go. That was it.