From: Alex Ferguson (abf@interzone.ucc.ie)
Date: Fri 11 Apr 1997 - 23:21:56 EEST
Trent Di Renna approves of:
> how none of the cultures of Glorantha can make up their minds on who
> the Bad Guy is in the Arkat/Nysalor equation.
Ah, but they can. Trouble is, they can't make up _each other's_ minds. ;-)
> 1. HeroQuests: What exactly are they, and what are they supposed to do?
Or reliably tell the two apart. Oh well.
> [...] Is there a definite purpose to HQ's or is it more of a
> "why is the sky blue" question? :-)
It's more of a "why is the sky blue" _answer_. ;-) There are several
different forms of heroquest, and hence unsurprisingly, several different
motivations for wanting to perform them. But at bottom, they're all
acts of mythic re-enactment (or occassionally simply "enactment"), and
are designed to maintain, reinforce, and in the extreme case impose,
a particular view of the world through myth, and hence keep the world
in correspondance to the truth of that myth. A corrolary of this is
that heroquest is, to a variable degree, to further the questors self-
or collective interest(s).
For example, when Orlanthi perform the Lightbringers' Quest, they're
asserting any number of things, including that: the world exists, and
will continue to; that their gods, and they themselves, have justified
and earned their places in it; the necessity of co-operation with both
ones friends and ones apparent foes against the true Enemy, in particular
Chaos; that they take responsibility for their actions, and rectify
their mistakes. "Mundanely", this takes the form of a religious ceremony,
and the benefits are a feel-good-factor, a sense of community, the
religious lessons learned, some rune magic, and a POW gain roll.
Exceptionally, it means a literal descent into Hell, the gambling of
your own life, and your people's welfare, to achieve the salvation of
your society. Harmast Barefoot's quest for Arkat would be the classic
example of the latter.
> 2. The Hero Plane: It seems to me that _this_ is where the gods actually
> live.
The two terms aren't used entirely consistently. The most common
distinctions are: a) that the Hero Plane is where the "Lesser" entities
dwell, and the God Plane is (natch) where the Actual Gods dwell; and/or b)
the Hero Plane is the part of "physical" Glorantha nearest to the mundane
world: the outer lands of the surface, the sky, and the underworld,
whereas the God Plane is the mythic analogue of the mundane world itself.
Plus of course: c) distintion ignored, blurred, considered redundant or
meaningless.
I find a useful way of looking at it to be: there's the Mundane World,
and the Divine World. At the outer edges of the world, as well as
in some places inside, the two are in increasingly close contact, so
in a sense, say, the far-West land of Luathela, say, is at once in
both. Also, it's possible to perceive the Divine World in several
different manners, degrees, or "levels"; according to how inconceivably
powerful the entities one encounters are, one might speak of being
on the "Hero Plane", or the "Deepest level of the God Plane", or
whatever.
> 3. Rune Lords: [examples] What other Rune Lords are there?
Most martially-oriented cults have such a subcult; Yelmalio has Light Sons,
> 4. The Mostali: I like their "scientific" viewpoint and the World
the Seven Mothers have (originally-titled) Rune Lords. Some, like Zorak
Zoran and Humakt have just a single, combined "Rune Lord/Priest" rank. A
few, such as Yelm, have more than one rank which is Rune-Lord-like.
In RQ2, _all_ cults had rune lords, in RQ3, many fewer. The best
sources on this is _Gods of Glorantha_ (good luck!), River of Cradles,
and Cults of Prax -- if you don't mind paying $50+ for out of date
information. :-/
> Machine. Their technology has been described as "advanced", but how
> advanced is this? Steel-making? Clockwork devices? Steam Power?
It's not entirely clear if there exists such a thing a "steel" in
> 5. The "Invisible God" of the West: Real, or just a myth invented by the
Glorantha, or if it there does, if it's any different from "Enchanted
Iron". But otherwise, yes, all three. (And what's worse, gunpowder.)
Yes. ;-) Note that the Westerners will freely admit that Infidels can
> 6. Are _Gods of Glorantha_ and _Elder Secrets_ still published by AH?
Not any more! If they're still in print, or even still in "copies
Saying nothing about who Trickster might be,
cast sorcery too; they don't claim that it's "divine" magic, in that
sense.
available someplace", get 'em quick: they're about to become Out Of
Print Forever. (If Glorantha: the Game is a HeroQuest, we're certainly
Alone in Hell at the moment.)
Alex.
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