theurgists

Theurgists is the in-universe term for "divine spell caster" in Scarterra. Divine magic is typically called "theurgy" in lieu of calling it "divine magic".   Scarterran theurgists are either favored souls meaning they are born as living conduits of divine power or anointed who acquire their theurgy later in life, usually but not always as young adults.   All theurgists gain their power from the Nine. The vast majority of theurgists gain their power from one of the Nine, and a tiny percentage of them get their power from all of the Nine collectively. There are known theurgists that gain theurgy from some of the Nine. It's either one deity, or all nine.   Roughly 1 in 200 mortals in Scarterra are theurgists. This means theurgists are relatively common in Scarterra though powerful theurgists remain pretty rare. A majority of theurgists only learn between one and three divine spheres over their entire lives and hit a proverbial ceiling at the second or third level. Theurgists who choose to walk the the Dragons' Path often become very powerful and those who survive often become very influential within their priesthoods and in the world at large.   Anointed are believed to awaken their divine potential from a combination of three things: piety, strength of will, and the needs and desires of the deity in question. Religious groups that are on the fringes of society seem to produce proportionally more anointed than mainstream religious groups but because mainstream religious groups have more members, mainstream temples tend to boast greater numbers of anointed overall.   Anointed outnumber favored souls overall. Favored souls are proportionally much more common among nomadic people than civilized peoples. Favored souls also make up a disproportionately high percentage of the most powerful theurgists because they are more likely than anointed to walk the Dragons' Path   Favored souls are almost perfect split 50/50 among the sexes for every deity that has favored souls. Anointed tend to have a 50/50 split overall but Maylar, Zarthus, and Hallisan have a small male bias and Mera, Nami, and Greymoria have a small female bias.   Maylar and Greymoria have roughly as many anointed as they have favored souls. It is believed that they have a 50/50 split or maybe a 60/40 split in favor of anointed.   Zarthus and Nami have the second most favored souls. It is believed that they have a roughly a 70/30 split. Among the priesthoods of these four deities, favored souls and theurgists are generally treated as being interchangeable.   Korus and Mera are believed to have a roughly 80/20 split of anointed to favored souls. Among the priesthoods of Korus and Mera it is widely believed that favored souls are created to serve their deity's will in places where their formal priesthoods have little sway or influence. Favored souls of Korus and Mera are not given special treatment by their respective priesthoods, but they will try to aid the presumed mission of the favored souls in question if they can susus out what this holy mission is.   Hallisan and Khemra have very few favored souls. Well under 10% of their total theurgists. Khemra's favored souls are given special status and privilege and are referred to as Eclipse-Touched.   Phidas has no favored souls at all. Most of Phidas' priesthood] states that Phidas has no favored souls because he does not need or want them. Phidas' detractors say that Phidas is metaphysically incapable of empowering favored souls. There are a lot of speculations and myths about what might happen when and if Phidas' first favored soul appears.   There are no favored souls of the Nine collectively.