How common is it for mages of two different Orders to clash against each other, or priests of different Gods to fight one another?

I had an idea for an adventure where the players come across a small town where everyone there serves a certain god, but their leader has led them astray, abusing his power and brainwashing his town, even to the point of turning on outsiders for simply intruding on their business.

Of course it would be easy to make it a chaos cult, but would it fit the setting to have them be mislead followers of Morr? And having a Morr follower in the group, could I have two followers of Morr fight each other? Would Morr even let the Priest misleading the town continue to use his spells?

I would also love to know what happens when 2 parties of similar makeup, both containing a mage and/or a priest, have a disagreement and come to blows, does this fit the setting? Could 2 Bright Wizards have a fight out in the streets? What happens when 2 followers of Sigmar suddenly have a reason to fight each other?

Any feedback would be great!

Thanks,

Tom

I'm a relative newcomer to the Warhammer world, so I don't know how fictionally appropriate this would be, but given an enormous complex world, I think it's safe to say it could happen once, and it should in your campaign. Conflict is the heart of drama, and Good vs. Good can be more interesting and compelling than Good vs Evil. Cults make a great stock villain, but if every town harbors a secret conspiracy, it'll get old and dull. But having two groups who both believe they are right and want the good outcome come to blows makes for a much more interesting dilemma. Not only do I think you should go with this idea, but I fully intend to steal it.

Great, let me know what you come up with.

I would love to hear ideas where this could happen, realistically. I could see Wizards fighting it out, but priests? Wouldn't their God not supply them with favour if two followers of Sigmar clashes (unless he only gave favour to the one clearly in the right).

While gods are above reproach, their earthly representatives are... well.. earthly. Flinging spells about like idiots is perfect for even the most minor of insults when bright wizards are involved, they do love going off the handle.

As for preists, well, Sigmar might be a bit ticked off with the whole preists fighting each other, espousing unity as he does, but for the likes of Ulric, he'll be there with popcorn and little "yay!" flags. So, depending on the god, maybe no favour becomes available, maybe more favour becomes available.

I think you guys credit the 'good' Gods with too much decency. I've got no doubt that priests can fight each other.

(Quick real world example: Some Christians interpret the fundamentals of Christianity to mean 'don't hurt anyone, treat even your enemy as you'd like to be treated', while others are cool with the death penalty and starting crusades. As yet, God hasn't made it clear definitively who is right.)

Basically, whatever you want the priests to be fighting about, I'm sure you can come up with some theological explanation for why they're right. Whatever it is they're arguing. I know the Old World Gods intervene more actively than those of the 'real world', but I think it's still easy to see them taking a big picture, hands off approach, and only really taking an interest when something really unusual happens.

This is a grim and perilous world after all. If the Gods didn't continue to reward lying, cheating, hypocritical priests, the world would be a very different, much nicer (and much less interesting to roleplay in) place. I think to lose the favour of a God you've got to do something pretty spectacular. Or be a player character trying to do something for the benefit of mankind...

Of course the gods fight each other! They just don't do it openly, and not in the aggressive way the chaos gods do.

The "normal" gods all strive to have a united Empire, and all oppose the chaos gods, but that doesn't mean they like each other

It's pretty much a known fact that Ulric and Sigmar priests hate each other. But Verena and Ranald would also be very likely to not be very fond of each other...

Shallya and Morr priests also have different goals, one wants to save everyone, while the other is strengthened by death.

Myrmidia and Ulric also seems opposed, while both loving war, Ulricians would call Myrmidians cowards for retreating from a combat, and Myrmidians would call Ulricians crazed beasts for throwing themselves in an already lost battle.

Sigmar priests would see a company of Myrmidian priests on the battlefield as a threat, as they're likely to gain more fame/honour from the fight, which the Sigmar priests would want to use political.

Wizards are the same really, but since all wizards are less accepted in society, I guess they might be more inclined to support each other, especially if it's against a cult.