So why no non-human initiates?

Emirikol said:

Yeah, was wondering about that as well. I'm very new to the Warhammer world so I can't really tell how the deities / beliefs of other cultures have been represented previously. I would have though that maybe they would have added some equivalents in supplements, but we've already had Black Fire Pass that covered the Dwarves and there was nothing of the sort included. Or perhaps the Runesmiths were thought to embody the spiritual / mystical aspect for the Dwarves given their more pragmatic traditions.

If we're going to see a supplement covering Bretonnia and Athel Loren that would be the perfect opportunity to introduce some new spiritual careers.

The spirituality of the empire also seem more dogmatic than that of the rest of the world (excluding High Elves?) which could explain the need for a hierarchical system whereas the Mystic and Seer careers could cover the basic needs of spiritual characters of non-human origin perhaps?

In an animistic tradition there's not the same need for indoctrination into the faith, if the elements or the spirits of the wild communicate with you then, congratulation, you're a Mystic or a Seer.

Because no church would have them and their culture wouldn't let them. Dwarves and Elves both go about the way of worshipping their various deities in very different ways. Dwarves technically don't even have gods. They pray to ancestor spirits, while the elves resort to a more mystic, personal way of worship. Since both communities are pretty insular, they wouldn't really come into contact with other religions until their belief system is well and truly formed. Even an orphan dropped at an isolated shrine could expect to be noticed and picked up one of his kind eventually. Finally, an initiate is supposed to develope and become a shephard to his people. Explain that to the village where a weird pointy earred gangly freak has just walked into the village saying "I shall be the rock of your faith!"

BAM.

Villagers introduce him to the real rock of their faith. Then a few more.

Really, shame on you for asking. Not letting elves become wizards seems a bit odd, but initiates? It's like... Well I can't think of a good reference but it just aint right!

Well, the ancestor cards already are a "connection" with the gods. IMHO (and thats a really humble, because I sont know WF very well) the human gods give power to humans because humans worship and need it (balancing the scales, because humans are a weakling race comparing to the resilience of dwarfs and magic of elves). Dwarves remember his "gods" with tales and songs and that gives them power.

Elves I dont have a single clue.

Dwarfs are incapable of manipulating winds of magic, they use different form of sorcery, that would be runecrafting. They enchant weapons and armors, and in far past, cooperated with dragons to craft runes onto walls of strongholds and other ancient places (the heat from dragon's breath was needed in the runemaking process). Runesmith is calling you may choose in one of the expansions, but I don't know which one.

Elves have own magic, that almost only they can learn. Elves live longer, and can master arts of High Magic for even centuries, something impossible for human beings. Playing elf learning way of High Magic would be just **** boring, as they tend to shut themselves in towers, only learning spells for decades. Maybe they will be available in upcoming epic expansion, but I doubt it.

By the way, humans learned to use magic, in the form of eight collegues, from Elven Archmage, Teclis. In other form, not split into single winds, human mind is too prone to corruption when learnign to manipulate them. That is why humans can master only one wind of magic, without grave danger of descending into madness and falling prey to Ruinous Powers.

Seems there are a couple of different ways to understand the question.

One would be to take "initiate" specifically as an initiate of an Imperial Cult like Crazy Aido did. In which case I agree with his conclusion that a non-human initiate in an Imperial Cult would seem really strange.

Then you could understand the question in a broader sense as I did and wonder why there aren't any spiritual careers specifically for the other races, which I still feel would be a good addition to the game.

So far there is only 1 non-human expansion, being the Dwarf one. So I'm not going to comment on Elves for now

The dwarf culture sits on 3 pillars from what I can tell:

The smith : Crafting/artisan/mining/industrious work/forging/runes/...
The Clan-elder : Community/history/connection to the ancestors/grudges/...
The warrior : any martial aspect/protection of the above 2 parts

They don't really have a spiritual career, because their culture is not really a spiritual one in the way the Empire lives.
I guess you could sort of call it animistic with the focus on the elements, stone, fire, metal, ...
The closest you could come to a spiritual career for dwarfs I think, is to have a career that really identifies with the purest form of one of these pillars. They would be careers that other dwarfs would look at with appreciation, no matter what kind of a bastard the character might be.

I'm thinking:
- Runesmith
- Thane
- Ironbreaker

Two other reasons why you wouldn't find many:

- A dwarf has to have a strong connection to his ancestors and tradition. If he does not, he usually does not consider himself worthy, and might take up the slayer oath. Hence why not many dwarf initiates

- Blind faith in specific gods is less required, since people can actually SEE miracles happen through priests. As the fluff teaches us, the gods are primarily fueled by the belief people put in them. Which limits their influence to areas with a lot of believers in it. So converting people would work a lot less efficiently as it did here in our world. If you don't see anything happen as a dwarf among other dwarfs, while a priest of Sigmar is standing there, explaining/trying to convince you, you'll simply go with what you know and apply it to the situation: "Oh, he must mean Sigmar is an ancestor to the humans, and they venerate him as such. Got it."

can't edit it anymore, but I seem to have had my head elsewhere.
I meant Grudge Keeper instead of Thane.

The thane being a form of nobility, much like the Empire has.