I like relspells. But they should be both A) flavour spells, and B) not give a definitive advantage to PvE or PvP.
Athorien definately gives an advantage to both with their spells, hence why people join for them. Damage spells are virtually useless, as by design they have to be weak to keep non-spellcasters(fighters, rogues, (priests)) from having incredible spell damage for relatively free. That was what you guys always told me, anyway.
It also does give a reason to rise in rank, but... when you look at most of the spells available, they're lacklustre and don't even really give much in the way of flavour. Outside of their name. I've made suggestions for how I think Dias spells could be improved ... I admit, some of them are probably OP as hell, but I'm not good at the balance game >P
So you either need to gut out the over-powered, edge-decisive Athorien spells, or bring the other religion spells up-to-par with Athorien's religion spell power.
Removing the spells for just a small resistance or stat bonus... isn't really something I'd like, but it would drive the RP point.