While some outside the religion might not care, others would. A pagan lord would probably pay more attention to a bishop or archbishop's mail than a common lay priest.
That's why there are elder priests and normal priests, the former of which have more options and can be clearly differentiated.
Two of my characters are elder priests. Neither of them show up any different than non-elder priests in messages. So either you're thinking of something else or you're mistaken.
By following those statements, Draco Tanos opened up the deviation to the clear distinction between elder priests and normal priests. By the original reply he gave, he is asserting that an elder priest would have more clout than a regular priest, albeit he is limiting his scope to messages alone. By my next reply, I say that such is indeed the case, but I never stated nor implied that it was through messages, merely that elder priests can be differentiated from normal priests already in our current system. And why should it only be through messages? We do not recognize those who are famous or high-ranking simply from contacts alone.
The fact that Draco Tanos assumed I was talking about messages is not my problem. And I think it is quite relevant to know that elder priests can be distinguished even now, because that does factor into the consideration of whether we want religious titles outside the religion.
As the system currently stands, one can see a renowned priest to invite for sermons, and one can figure out who is an elder priest if and when he takes over a region through religion. To have titles outside the religion would open the gates for some religion to fill the entire list of ranks, and if it grows large enough, we'll see some strange titles for every priest. What would the average lord who is not at all interested in the religion say about some priest with the title "Grand Chalupa"? I doubt he'd go up and say "Excuse me, but what's your rank in your religion? I have to ascertain that you are worth my time."
Ah, but wait, we already have a system to find out whether priests are "worth our time". It's called the invite priest action, in which a renowned priest can be invited for private sermon. If you're really that interested about his title in the religion, ask him. Obviously if you've invited him for a private sermon, that's the best time to do it.
Egamma edit: removed off-topic content.
