Why can't priests fight?

[Indirik]

Any elder can enlarge temples.

The half-priests thing is due to the problem that came along with the introduction of religions where many realms created their. State religions and then mirrored the realm power structure in the religion. The elders were just the normal realm power structure all over again.

[Anaris]

What I am not sure about is why only priests can be founders,

If the religion was founded without priests, it would immediately start falling apart. (Yes, this does require the elder-priests things.)

enlarge temples

Not true. You only need to be an elder, IIRC.

and why half of elders must be priests.

This is to ensure that religions are serious about actually converting the peasantry.

If you can't convince enough people to be priests to keep the religion alive, then I'm sorry, but you don't really deserve to be a religion anymore.

[Eldargard]

Good to know that any Elder can enlarge temples! Thanks for clarifying! I still think that religion might be better if priests were not required in any form. I am not sure why the state-religion thing is so bad. Doing something like that really limits the potential reach of a religion. What are the benefits? Easier to keep regions happy? Protection from foreign religions?

[Draco Tanos]

How can a religion be if it has no priests?  That just seems...  Silly.

[Anaris]

Yeah, that's not a religion. It's a theological debate society.

Which is perfectly fine to have—it's just that it's called a "guild".

[Penchant]

Good to know that any Elder can enlarge temples! Thanks for clarifying! I still think that religion might be better if priests were not required in any form. I am not sure why the state-religion thing is so bad. Doing something like that really limits the potential reach of a religion. What are the benefits? Easier to keep regions happy? Protection from foreign religions?

And I really think realms should be able to exist without nobles. That way there can be a realm made and ran by adventurers. They might not actually have any land though but whatevs.

[Eldargard]

That is just the problem. Earlier on the argument was made that a priest was simply a preacher. That any noble could be a priest of a religion simply by being given the title. Therefore warrior priests were already possible. The relevant post is quoted below. Anaris agreed with this post.

'Priest' is not a title, it is a description of what you do for a living. A more fitting description may be preacher.

Religious titles can be given to any member of the religion through the religion rank system. "Prince Bishop" is a rank that both warriors and priests can attain.

If you want to be a fighting mace-wielding ordained person, then you are a warrior who fights for his religion.

You can even oscillate between warrior and priest on a pretty regular basis, and I have seen many characters do that quite effectively, They can be roleplayed as the crusader-monk type who picks up his sword to go fight heathens when needed, but remains a priest when at home for long periods of time.

I agree that a religion needs priests. Now what is a priest? A Noble that dedicates himself to the religion and has been awarded the title priest or the priest class who was, apparently not really a priest but just a preacher? It seems to go whichever way is convenient I guess.

Want a warrior priest? Sure, just create a priest title and give it to the warrior. The priest class are just preachers anyways...
Want a religion without priest classed nobles? What? that is just stupid you need priests to have a religion. Only preachers can be priests!

Nice double standard...

[vonGenf]

Want a warrior priest? Sure, just create a priest title and give it to the warrior. The priest class are just preachers anyways...
Want a religion without priest classed nobles? What? that is just stupid you need priests to have a religion. Only preachers can be priests!

Nice double standard...

Anaris' point stands. You are prefectly allowed to create a guild, name its members priests, and have a bunch of nobles debate religion without ever preaching to the peasants. This has been done before (the Chaos Requiem for example).

However the whole religious infrastructure of religion in BM is geared towards preaching to commoners and then using your influence on these commoners as a weapon. The rest is just RP. If you don't have priests, then the whole infrastructure falls apart... and your RP remains, which is perfectly fine.

[Solari]

It is also worth noting that—at least, last I checked—priests can be marshals, VMs, or generals. Mind you, they don't field a unit, so you'll want a backup there to enforce formation discipline. But there's nothing stopping a realm so inclined to elevate priests to roles that are central to battle.