[Glorantha] Re: Changing (or not) reality via heroquests

Philipp Grawe:

> > Not quite. What experimental heroquesters do is discover new ways to
> > effectively and beneficialy engage with the world at a mythic level.
>
> See, this had me stunned. One of the big insights into Glorantha that
> occurred to me some time ago is that "If you change the myths you can
> change reality". I'd always figured this is how the big-time
> Heroquesters did it. They realised that you can change reality by
> changing the Heroplane.

You change the relationship between yourself, your culture and the world, which often can look like you're changing the world. Actualy you're just changing the way in which you percieve the world.

Obviously you can realy change the world at some level through heroquesting, in the same way that you can change the world physicaly - digging up mountains, burning down forests, re-routing rivers. Mere physical changes like this can be helped or even carried out completely by heroquest, e.g. a Praxian re-enacting the quest where Waha dug the Good Canal (I think?) to wash away the devil, to re-rote a stream to flood a Broo camp. However this isn't a change to the nature of the world.

> For me, it even fits neatly with the concept that Illumination is the
> process of realising that your own will is the supreme power in the
> universe and that taking that far enough allows you to transcend even
> Chaos or Order. That realisation about your own willpower combined
> with being able to bend reality by changing the mythology leads to
> incredible power.

That's a perversion of illumination, albeit a moderately common and troublesome one. It's like succumbing to the Dark Side. True illumination reveals that our personal wills, indeed all personal characteristics, are an illusory distraction.

> So you can change the mythology/heroplane, it's just incredibly
> dangerous to do so? Or is it actually impossible to change?

Another caveat to all this that during the Hero Wars (i.e. Soon, or even Now in the standard Gloranthan timeline) you will be able to start making permanent changes, but this is a novel thing. It's not how things have normaly been for many generations, it's not how normal heroquests work and it's usualy a very, very bad thing or a last-chance desperation move. The fact that such things are becoming possible is a sign that reality is breaking down and the end of the world is nigh.

Heroquesters make minor changes to the Heroplane all the time by interacting with their cultural myths. If a heroquester goes to the heroplane and steals Mr Racoon's tail (an incarnation of the trickster, perhaps) , then if that heroquester goes back to the heroplane then Mr Racoon will still be tail-less. But if another heroquester goes there, he will find Mr Racoon and can take his tail himself. So the same quests can be performed by different people, but the results are persistent for individuals.

In the real world we can change our choices. A thief can give up his evil ways, become honest and perhaps even become a wise judge because in the real world we have free will and can change ourselves. When Gloranthans go on a Heroquest they are interacting directly with their own fundamental nature and basic relationship with the world. They are performing major psychic surgery on themselves, a bit like very deep hypnosis, and this can lead to major, permanent changes to their psyche and because Glorantha is a magical world to their personal magic as well.

Changing the heroplane for everyone is also possible, but very hard and also very dangerous because it can cause enormous damage and have all kinds of nasty unexpected side effects and unintended consequences. Suppose you quest and take Mr Racoon's tail permanently (I'm making this all up), thus getting a super-duper version of the benefits of that quest. Nobody else will ever again be able to do the 'Take Mr Racoon's Tail' quest so the magic they get from it will be gone permananently for succeeding generations. Every time they go on the quest, Mr. Racoon will have no tail to take. Suppose in another quest Mr Racoon's trick where he uses his tail to tickle the healer backfires on him and helps a healer get her magic. Now Mr Racoon has no tail for everybody, so he never tries to tickle the healers when they try that quest, it never backfires and that magic is never available to the healers either - forever. Oops!

Also all the Racoons born in that area from then on might be tail-less, which could have knock-on economic and environmental consequences. Suppose a neigbouring culture uses a racoon-tail hunt as a coming of age rite. Suddenly their boys can't become adults. Double-Oops!

Simon Hibbs Received on Thu 03 Aug 2006 - 13:11:59 EEST