[HoE] Something About a Sword (potential Spoiler seperated from main text)

[Ralph Dula <rdula@ezonline.com>]

Hi:  

A few hours ago I turned in some of the cardboard crack known as Pokemon to
a local game store, and I used some of the credit I received to get
Something About a Sword.  I've two questions.  The first is that the
Templar Eliot Ritter is depicted as having a home town, from which he
patrols the surrounding area for trouble.  From everything I've read so far
in HOE I got the impression Templars were supposed to wander the Wasted
West, never staying in one place (except Boise) for very long.  Did anyone
else have that opinion, or is it just me?  My second question/complaint
will be seperated with spoiler space, as I have not finished reading the
book yet and I don't know if what troubles me is a major plot point or not.

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Okay, the church Ritter resides in has become affected by the equivalent of
the Blessed miracle Sanctify, due to the extreme faith the townsfolk have
in Ritter.  What the #$@$ is up with this?  The setting of HOE is one in
which the Reckoners now walk the earth, their evil perverting everything,
yet the townsfolk are able to have such faith in Ritter that they can tap
the ambient mystical energy of the Wasted West to duplicate the magic of
the Blessed?    

I'm not going to lie, part of the reason I'm mad is that I've written an
adventure where one of the main characters is a Blessed in the Wasted West,
and he has used the Sanctify miracle for an amazing effect (an effect I
won't put here since I hope the adventure might someday make it to the
Pinnacle webpage).  Now, it seems, that it wouldn't matter that said
character was Blessed, because if people have extreme faith in a person or
ideal they can now summon up the power of Blessed miracles in the Wasted
West, even without the appropriate Arcane Background.  Does this bug anyone
else?

-Ralph