religious "rankings"

[kengr]

I'm working on yet another story idea. this one is taking a thought I had a while back and turning it in a different direction.

Anyway, what I need is some vocabulary for "ranks"/"levels"/whateverin a religious group.

Things like novice, initiate, and so forth.

The one I especially need is for a sort of "pre-novice", somebody who thinks they may want to belong, but hasn't officially/formally committed yet.

Note, this will be in a polytheistic society, but I'll be using the same rank terms for all the various groups (to keep from confusing readers (and me!))

So there will be groups/orders/cults dedicated to various god or aspects of gods.

Anyway, for the "entry level" I've considered things like student, postulant, aspirant, etc. None seem quite right.

This is a world where gods (and goddesses) are quite real and magic works. It's going to be sort of 20th century equivalent, but a very *different* 20th century given gods and mahgic. the language is nominally English, and I'm (somewhat unreasonably) assuming things like Greek, Latin, and all the others are available to steal words from.

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Comments

[siliconshaman]

I think the word you are looking for is 'neophyte.' maybe?

[we_are_spc]

That's what I was thinking, too, but I couldn't remember the exact word. :)

-T~

[warriorsavant]

I think postulant works well.