The nature of divine apostles

[ScaryMJDiamcreep]

In my world, there are many deities, and these deities need to have an apostle walking upon the earth in order to retain their divinity. Each deity has a counterpart that is in some way their opposite, such as light and dark, truth and lies, or life and death, and a deity is practically (im)mortal enemies with their opposite.

When a deity chooses their apostle, they grant the apostle a bunch of spells in the field that the deity represents. This ranges from the apostle of Truth being able to sense the true value of anything they touch, to the apostle of Time being able to freeze, fast-forward, or reverse time. Apostles are always people who had the capability to become mages, even if they are not actually a mage, for otherwise they would have no mana pool from which to cast their deity's spells.

I have two questions:
What would be the role of an apostle in the world? Would they just act as an anchor for the deity's divinity, or would they act out their deity's wishes?
Also, what would happen if two opposing deities were to end up making the same person their apostle? Would the poor person implode/explode from the sheer amount of divine power flowing through them and the conflicting nature of the two forces, would they go insane, or would they be fine?

 

[elemtilas]

Since apostle means "one is sent forth" the obvious role would be that of a devotee of the deity in question who goes out into the world in order to teach, cultivate worship among other devotees and serve generally as spiritual guides, mentors & prophets.

An apostle of two opposing divinities would be interesting. It could be that such a one might cause balance to the worlds of the divine & human. Perhaps force the conjunction & fusion of the opposing forces. Perhaps unify the two deities into one. Interesting times ahead, when once the two deities realise the potential complications of such a situation! Petty deities of this sort might decide that self-preservation is suddenly the most important thing of all: if they have other apostles, those might be sent to destroy the anomalous apostle.

 

[ScaryMJDiamcreep]

I see it as there being only one apostle per deity at any given time, but they aren't given immortality, just perhaps an extended lifespan. I also imagine that apostles are revered by the common people, and feared by other mages and anyone stupid enough to try and fight them. Especially the apostle of Death. Trying to defeat them seems a bit unwise, even for the insane people.