Talk:Components
Noah: Ah, this is excellent. Something left somewhat open-ended here is what actually constitutes a holy symbol (a subject very near and dear to Wirschen at the moment). Can a Christian priest bind two sticks together and have a working cross for spell casting? Does it have to be blessed somehow by the spiritual order (i.e. if a smilodon devours your cross in the middle of America, are you totally boned until you return to Christian lands)?
I think perhaps the defining factor is that a holy item has some permanence to its shape, and that some craftsmanship went in to its creation. Therefore two sticks bound together in a cross shape would not constitute a holy item, but a cross carved from two sticks, bound with twine and set with tar would. I think if every holy item needed to be blessed there would be far fewer houses of worship and fewer still offshoot branches of an established religion. How would the first Bogomils get their symbols blessed?