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

Hi All,

This discussion is starting to get into semantic difficulties, I suspect. I'll try to clarify things a bit here...

Changing Reality

Everyone seems to agree :

1. Minor changes going forward are possible. You are now an initiate of X. You now have a magic sword. Racoons have no tails. (I like the last one...)
2. Major changes are, if not actually impossible, resisted so fiercely by the world that they are effectively impossible. e.g. Changing Orlanth into a sun god.

Some dissent over :

1. Creating a new god, as a variant of something existing. e.g. The Red Goddess. Did she exist in exactly her modern form, and was discovered by the Seven Mothers (what I think Simon Hibbs believes) or did the Seven Mothers sort through some existing myths, decide what they wanted, and created that through powerful and dangerous heroquesting (what I believe). In most games, I suspect the difference between the two positions is vanishingly small...
2. Change reality "in the past". I suspect that everyone agrees that you can change your (and your community's) perception of the past - "No, no, racoons round here have never had tails", "We've worshipped this way for 100,000 years..." The tougher one of *actually* changing the past is harder. Can you kill someone so hard he was never born? It's a nice image, but I suspect not possible in most Gloranthas.

Fundamental Truths

At what level do you place the "fundamental, unalterable truth" line.

Personally, I think anything beyond the primal runes, and you're on dodgy ground. Everything above that, I suspect is a mask, albeit possibly one which is so ingrained in the heroplane that changing that mask is nigh on impossible. (Why say no when you can say 10W100?)

Simon seems to place the line a bit higher - that the gods have some de facto existence, but that their cults, magic, and to an extent associations are more fluid.

It's a question of where the mask begins. And again, for most people I'm not sure there's much difference.

Having said that, I'll point out that the Godlearners got to the point of trying to merge the three otherworlds - with some success! - before being wiped out. (Arcane Lore, new unfinished work.) Suggests to me that Glorantha is a little more fluid than Simon seems to believe.

I'll also suggest that the Hero Wars is less about reality being ready to change, and more about there being enough people trying to change reality that they begin to succeed.

Cheers,
Graham

-- 
Graham Robinson
graham_at_albionsoft.com

Albion Software Engineering Ltd.