(Everything here is my own opinion, therefore it may be wrong and other opinions may disagree.This is an unofficial guide and therefore is not supported by Simutronics or Universal Studios. )
 

How to fill symbols with spells
 

Go and purchase a new symbol or figurine from one of the priest shops you can find in each quadrant in Athens, in  Thebes, Midgard or Alexandria.
 

   Impudence

Since we have to deal with IMPUDENCE it is advisable to forage for items you can offer to your deity to keep them happy.
This can be any foragable item or any junk item you find.
I used to offer rocks for impudence. Rocks are in abundance everywhere and Mother Gaia Mother to us all is very pleased if you offer them :)
You can find 11 rocks in about every room in Athens and other cities, but if you prefer anything else as offering..feel free.
Since I live in Egypt I offer red poppies, which are found in the streets of Alexandria.
You incur impudence when you prepare spells and when you use spells.
A good measurement in offering is this:

Impudence like a child : offer one item
Impudence like a teenager : offer two items
Impudence like a warrior : offer three items
anything higher then that, requires 4 items.
4 items is the maximum amount required to bring your impudence back to nothing , so you are free to use your spells, or keep filling a symbol.

Note:  Recent changes in foraging have distorted this somewhat, since we can forage now for more items in a longer RT. At my level it has lowered the items I have to offer and the time I have to forage, for young priests this might have increased.
 

Like everything in life, you have to study in your young years and can enjoy the fruits of your hard labor later.

So check your impudence after each spell cast into your symbol/figurine and lower the impudence when the gods start to get angry. The royalty spoiled brat is the final warning to offer or get slapped by the gods.
 
 
 

How to prepare the symbol for a spell 
 

Before you can store a symbol/figurine with a spell, you have to use Mystic Weave on a brand-new symbol.
 

The ritual of Mystic Weave grants the ability to change the fabric of a holy relic in such a way that it becomes capable of storing the essence of magical energy.

So hold the symbol or figurine in your hand and PERFORM the RITUAL 3001

Lets show you how this will have to look by a simple example:

perform 3001
You concentrate your efforts on performing the ritual, Mystic Weave.
bless my sym
Calling upon the will of Zeus, you let your fingers lightly dance back and forth over the cow symbol while speaking, "May this simple symbol be blessed in the name of Zeus."
pray
You utter a quiet prayer to Zeus feeling confident the ritual has been properly performed.
>
Your hands begin to glow with mystic energy.
cast my sym
You gesture toward a cow symbol.
A whirlpool of shimmering energy forms around a cow symbol.  Spinning faster and faster, the energy vortex suddenly collapses in on itself as if the symbol absorbed it like a sea sponge!
 

easy, ain't it?

Now you have prepared the symbol to be filled with your very first spell !

You might also have incurred if you are brand-new some Impudence, so check it regularly. In time you get a feel how much Impudence you have incurred. Also with time low level spells will not incur any impudence anymore.

Phew...

Now lets prepare a very important spell for any priest Spirit Trainer..short ST.
As we have been told by our Guru this spell will soon cease to exist, but until it goes..use it..its one of the best spells we have.
Any spell has a life span. The more often you train in magic , the older you get, the longer will your spell last. MY ST lasts over 1 hour, I have stopped counting.
 

So here we go:
 
 

How to fill a symbol

Perform 1001
You concentrate your efforts on performing the ritual, Spirit Trainer.
chant Zeus
You quietly chant the name of Zeus.

Round time: 10 seconds.

>
pray

You utter a quiet prayer to Zeus feeling confident the ritual has been properly performed.
Your hands begin to glow with mystic energy.
cast my sym
You gesture toward a cow symbol.
A wisp of glowing energy begins flowing between you and a cow symbol.  Swirling in the air for only a moment, the energy is quickly absorbed into the symbol and vanishes from sight.
>

now any normal symbol can hold 20 spells, so its always advisable to fill your symbol until you get the message ...
You gesture toward a cow symbol.
A wisp of glowing energy begins flowing between you and a cow symbol.  It swirls slowly round and round the symbol as if waiting for something to happen... then the swirling stops and the energy dissipates into the air.
 

Now every other spell works in the same manner.
 
 

How do I advance and train?
 

When you are ready to advance to the next level you will get a message which will tell you so. You also can check how close you are by typing exp (for experience) it will show you which level you are, how much experience you have, how much you need to advance to the next level and how many training points you have left.
 

You will have to get an OFFERING to offer to your deity. Each god varies in what they like, but each god will accept LAUREL LEAVES.
To acquire these leaves, you need to FORAGE  for them, a good place is just outside the Peiraic Gate, or in the Palace Gardens, so will see that a lot of rooms actually are foragable.

So you have your leaves and some dinars in your pocket.

Go in your temple, offer the leaves (or whatever else your god accepts) and offer as many dinars as your next level will be.
At level 21 you will only have to offer 20 dinars, so something to look forward too !

Then pray... and I will cheer and shout:   Happy Birthday!!!
 
 

Now comes the question of training...
 
 
 

Training for priests

Priests have to choose which part the want to take. When I started I had no idea what to choose, so I just went with the first one, which was Spiritual.
I have since changed to Alteration, and have now studied every path, since we have not yet more then 14 spells per path, and I am old old old.

So whatever you choose, you have to first see the High Priest Selinas in the archway in the Alethinos temple in the NE Quad of Athens. You will have to ask him for training and choose an option.

Then when this is done go and see the priest in your path. My High priestess is Dispersa, and I guess she is very pleased with my studies: )
I always study twice in alteration magic. Even with not many spells, the odds of being successful in casting increases with age.

Here is an example :
You gesture toward a barbarian.
[MA 1041 vs MD 341 = Threshold 25 - AvA mod 5 = 20.  D100 69, Success!]
 

MA stands for Magic Attack      MD for Magic Defence
 

Now it is really up to you how you choose your further training, but I followed the warrior path, which means I train twice in weapons and then once in dodging. So even without my spells, I am still able to kill my enemies rather well.
 
 

  Experience and growing older

When you start out in Athens you will advance rather quickly. you are on a fast learning curve which subsides at level 3. Each new level you need more and more experience to advance until you hit the maximum with 30 000 experience per level.
I found the hardest time was between 8 and 13 so I call this time growing pains.
Mind you we all hit these times at different ages later on as well. It won't help to scream and shout and beg for divine intervention...
The only thing which will make you grow is hard work and stamina. No mater how low you "pulse" each moment will age you :)

There are now more substances out there to help you grow then we had when we were young.
We had to advance just by our natural abilities, and not many people used draughts or forges or poisons. Simply because they weren't around.
Keep in mind that Vaftel and Garrock are at a very high level and they are selling you what they need to hunt at those levels..it was not intended that a young one can hit a critter 20 levels their senior!
But this is all up to you the player, how you want to play your character, if you want to be grow naturally or fast and use steroids.
::hums::

Priests can grow older by hunting and performing their rituals in the temple. I always spend about 1/5 of my online time in the temple as a rule of thumb.
Normally I perform my rituals late at night so to be ready for the next day.
 
 
 

My hunting technique

I basically live with only a few rituals. I have all the ones I know stuck away in bags (Oh heaven ! I need a bigger sack!) but I only use the following spells:

ST (Spirit Trainer) which lowers my to hit
EM (Eternal Moment) which freezes a foe for 8 seconds
Acts of faith which calms a critter, one of the most important spells, when you are hunting alone.
Stroke of Fear
stunns a critter for up to 5 minutes. The opponent hides and needs to be advanced upon, so you will get with usage some nice muscles in your legs..the only drawback is that you can get confused about which critter to spell up, when in a swarm.