4's, 9's and blessings

[Darryl]

Ok, I've been reading some of the strategies posted here for creating pretenders and I have a couple of questions.

Why do people value "4's and 9's" so much? I figure the 9's part is because that is the max for magic, but what about the 4's? What do you get at level 4 that other levels don't? And why does this seem to be such a popular combination?

Also, what does any of that have to do with blessing? To be honest, I don't really understand blessing or what it does. I just saw so many people posting about it that I set my priests to do it. I read the description in the manual and still don't really get it. "Your troops receive additional powers if your god is powerful enough to claim a divine title"? What does that mean?

And should you bless every round? Are they cumulative? I tried checking the manual and Sabers' newbie guide to no avail.

Darryl