From: Brandon Brylawski (brandon@caldonia.nlm.nih.gov)
Date: Thu 09 Dec 1993 - 21:00:45 EET
Pam Carlson asks :
>Sandy writes re Yelmalian Heroquesting:
>>Most Hill of Gold questers don't even attempt the whole quest, but
>>instead just get a set of golden arms 'n armor and go to the hill to
>>seek Yelmalio's blood. Eventually a Wind Lord ambushes 'em, defeats
>>'em, and takes their armor, whereupon the Light Son (or Light Priest)
>>aborts the quest and goes home, having effectively exchanged a suit
>>of gold armor for one or more magic crystals.
>As an old time RQ'er new to Glorantha, please excuse my ignorance, but this
>repeating your god's failures stuff confuses me. Does the Yelmalian in the
>above example HAVE to lose? Is he possibly capable of defeating the Wind
>Lord? Does he simply choose to loose? Is it considered bad form to win,
>thereby succeeding where one's god failed? If he does win, may he keep his
>weapons and armor and use them against the Death Lord?
No, a Light Son can go on the heroquest with the intention of defeating the Wind Lord and then the Death Lord and otherwise changing the myth of Yelmalio for himself, but he takes a grievous risk in doing so : as soon as he steps outside of the path his God took, he no longer has any guidelines for what to do or what to expect. The quest becomes a "free heroquest", wherein the quester may meet unexpected enemies, find unexpected rewards, and get completely lost. We ranked Heroquests into three categories :
Temple Walks - the quester attempts to emulate a feat of his God.
Stated Walks - the quester attempts to gain a specific single goal, acting as his God would have acted. This goal is announced at the beginning of the Walk.
Free Walks - the quester enters the Hero Plane to explore and discover.
Any Quest is risky, but the risk is lowest for Temple walks and highest for Free Walks, because the quester's knowledge, direction, and preparedness for danger are all greatest in the Temple Walk and least in the Free Walk. On the other hand, a successful Free Walk may grant the Walker strange and wonderful benefits, while the Temple walk's benefits are more confined to the rewards that the God received in his original act.
Stray from the path of your God at your own risk!
Brandon
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