What about elders who deliberatly sabotage the religion by making it so that nobody wants to be part of it anymore, eh?
Jonsu and Alaster took actions that would obviously hollow it out from within. Alaster even went about and kicked a bunch of people. I really don't see it any differently.
The true followers of the religion are those who oppose it being usurped and perverted. Not those who decide to go along with whatever clown was put at the top without anyone being consulted.
There is a substantial difference between making major changes in a religion's doctrine or political structure from the top, and simply doing your level best as a priest to
turn peasants away from that religion and close down its temples.
If your character does not believe in Sanguis Astroism as it is currently structured, then he should no longer be part of it. The
only reason you have for remaining in it is so that you can reduce the number of people believing in it—an act that is obviously antithetical to the actual goals of any religion—without having to do the work of setting up a competing religion, or run the risk of being attacked by the peasants you're trying to convert to a competing religion.
I don't care if the religion in question is Sanguis Astroism, the Blood Cult, or Yet Another Pointless State Religion. No one gets to
pretend to be a believer or priest of
any religion just to deliberately reduce the religion's following. Damaging the religion politically out of ambition and attempts to take control of it, even to change its doctrine to something they know would be disliked by a majority of its current followers, are a completely different matter.
