Spiritual (or Astral) Rank

[dataweaver]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

In most cases, this probably involves having a Patron who gave you your Rank, and a Duty to said Patron.

Bear in mind that this sort of thing is exactly why Social Engineering: Pulling Rank is a thing, with the Patron being implicit in the Rank. And when deciding the pricing of such things, Spiritual Rank almost certainly involves a patron with Special Abilities and HighlyAccessible: in terms of Pulling Rank, if any sort of Rank should give access to Supernatural Aid (p.17), it would be Spiritual Rank.

Indeed, depending on the nature of the spirits in the hierarchy, I might even be willing to bend on its recommendation that supernatural smiting and spirit summoning not be allowed as supernatural Fire Support and Muscle, respectively. In effect, Spiritual Rank could be used as the basis for a magic system, essentially by applying Pulling Rank to Divine Favor instead of a mundane Patron (replacing the Petition and Reaction Rolls with an Assistance Roll) and suitable to followers of a god who makes extensive use of angels or similar spirits as intermediaries rather than getting involved personally. Something vaguely like In Nomine, for instance.

And yes, this would be more suitable for priests than for shamans; I would almost certainly require Clerical Investment as a prerequisite for this kind of Rank, and would have it double as Religious Rank. For Shamans, I'd be more inclined to use Social Engineering: Keeping in Contact as the social mechanics serving as the basis for their magic system.

These differ from more traditional Divine or Spiritual magic systems in that the spirits involved are more directly involved in the world, instead of being abstracted away and kept behind the scenes: campaigns where Template Toolkit 4: Spirits or the equivalent sees regular use. That said: much like Learned Prayers in Divine Favor effectively couple a Divine Power to the Divine Patron, I could also see Divine or Spiritual Powers similarly coupled to supernatural versions of Pulling Rank or Keeping in Contact.