From: mr happy (ajbehan@tcd.ie)
Date: Thu 13 Jul 1995 - 17:39:44 EEST
> Me:
> > some strange coincidence all of the (known) backdoors into Hell seem to
> > be in Dragon Pass or in the back of beyond.
>
> Andrew Joelson:
> Not necessarily true; Dragon Pass is a region with more magical/mythic
> activity than the rest of Glorantha.
I think that the reason people think think that Dragon Pass is so
magical is because 80% of what has been published is from a Heortlander
POV. I reckon that people who want to find a way into Hell/Heaven or
whatever don't generally have to go more than a few days journey from
home.
> Nil Weinander:
> Definitely. If there were ways to Hell in the west, the wizards have most
> likely made sure they were destroyed long ago.
I think that most societies in Glorantha have some way of interacting
with the God Time. However I don't think Theyalan type heroquesting is
universal. Animists have Shamans who visit the God Plane to befriend
spirits, Solars have avatars like Avivath and chaotics just ignore the
Great Compromise completely. IMHO Westerners don't do quests to prove how
similar they are to their saints, that would be idolatory.
Nope, they find a convenient gateway into someone elses mythical realm, and
without following any particular path, they go in and they beat the crap out
of everything they meet. That (admittedly) won't make for a particularly
interesting play session from the Westerners POV but imagine it from the
perspective of the suckers whose heroquest they mess up. There is nothing
to stop the survivors trying to track down their assailants after the
ritual, is there?
I base this vision of western heroquesting on the available examples;
Arkat, the God-Learners, Snodal and Sir Meritrain (none of whom showed
much respect for myth) and the supposedly rational Western mentality.
My claim that cult heroes must forge a new quest path to create a new
spell didn't get any responses. Is this idea non-controversial?
If would-be heroes and Malkioni do actually wander around the Hero/God
Plane following no particular path just as they might wander around
Balazar or Pavis the question arises, what distinguishes the two? One
distinction is that everything the happens on the God Plane happens
because someone wants it to, whereas on the Mundane Plane the Great
Compromise instituted Natural Process. (IMHO you can will things to
happen here too, however this is rarely done because it is highly chaotic
and generally suicidal.)
According to CoT Wakboth was scattered around the Inner World so that
everything in it was tainted by immorality, whereas Kajabor was bound to
the God Plane by Arachne Solara making it entropic. I'm not sure what the
heat death of the universe has to do with mythology. I suppose that this
means that a visit to the God Plane without a myth to guide you along the
right path must be like a Jerry Cornelius novel(or KoS.) A series of
vignettes, perhaps involving some of the same characters which are
individually coherentbut as a whole contradictory (or manifestly disordered.)
When Ethilrist got back from his visit to Hell he hadn't a fucking clue what
had just happened. It was only after he had told his Black Horse Troop his
story for the hundredth time he was able to make it meaningful.
The gods need mortals because thanks to Wakboth they are free-willed,
sure. But in cultures where myth matters the gods need people to
constantly re-tread the heroquest paths so that the God Plane retains
some shape and form. Otherwise it would degenerate into a bunch of
folk-tales and anecdotes rather than the Spider Web of myth.Without Kajabor
there wouldn't be any need for heroquests, and you say chaos is all bad!
- -------
Andrew Behan
e-mail:ajbehan.alf2.tcd.ie
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