>My impression was that by heroquesting, we could alter Glorantha to some
>degree. I personally had taken this belief to the point that we (well maybe
>not us, but a crack team of heroquesters who weren't a bunch of bumblers)
>could actually change history etc. and that this was related to the way that
>the god-learners switched gods around etc. How far off base am I?
There are gloranthan records of peoples' beliefs changing over time in civilized countries which would not happen if history was being changed. What does happen is that people do acquire new insights and relevations which transforms the nature of their society. A good RW example of this would be the Protestant Reformation.
My impression of how the God Learners switched Gods is that they took the priests of two areas that they had conquered and swapped them around but left their congregations intact. The reason why they did this is found in Wyrms Footprints:
'During the Darkness, was shattered and broken
as terror and hate overtook her children. Afterwards within
our realm of history and Time, she has been worshipped often
and by many, but always as a local diety rather than being
worshipped as the cosmic entity she is. Even during the
revival and unification of the Elder Cults by the God Learners
there was the stubborn persistance of these cults to remain
apart, despite the most complex and perfectly magical acts
of the philosophers. In one case, upon summoning and Riddling
two similar goddesses the God Learners managed to make two
similar goddesses admit they were interchangable, and even
forced them to exchange worshippers without any substantial
change in diety or cult, but they could not make the two
admit to being the one and the same. Thus has the Goddess
been absorbed into the Matrix, and remains ever hidden from
us behind the Great Mystery.'
Wyrm's Footprints p37.
This isn't to say that the crack lunar HQ team is wrong - Jar-eel killing the pharaoh is an excellent example of a major change by heroquesting (Before there was a pharaoh, now there is no pharaoh) - - but people will remember changes in the heroplane.
> Part of my belief in how this worked was that reality in Glorantha was
>more a reflection of peoples faith than anything. Heroquesting was a
>_strong_ act/force of faith, which could be used to overcome someone else's
>faith. Perhaps I've played too much TORG...
It's better to say IMO that the mundane world is totally real. There is a sun, storm etc. The Other Side (aka the Godplane, the spirit world) OTOH is shaped (but _not_ made from scratch) by your cultural background. Thus if you are a Pentan and see the Sun God, then you would see the blazing horse Kargzant. A Ralian OTOH would see the Sun God as a knight in golden armour with a shield with a yellow sun displayed on a white field and recognize this as Ehilm.
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