HeroQuest Voices is our best source for the Rathori beliefs and it would suggest the following:
The tradition of the Rathori people is Korgatsu. Korgatsu Earthmaker would be their Great Spirit. Korgatsu is thus at 10W8 to 10W12
The core practices recognized by the Rathori within that tradition are probably: Agikoros the Fire, Enimipol the Mother of Beasts, Grandmother Earth, Rathor, and Silent Stalker. These spirits are at 10W5 to 10W7. Burrowing Toad Mother, Chief Star, Dog Grasper, and Thanz the Acorn Spirit, Spider Woman are probably helper practices. Dog Brother, First Four Companions, Harastoros the Salmon might be an independent practice. I'm not sure which one of these is a Shamanic practice (Agikoros the Fire or Spider Woman perhaps?). These are also majestic spirits at 10W5 to 10W7.
The write up suggests that Irgar the Grizzly, Orenra the Blue Bear and Irdag the Black Bear are Rathor's children. They are not practice spirits, and as such are not even majestic spirits in power. These appear to be ancestor spirits. Let's assume that the white bear, the polar bear ancestor is also one of these. That would rule out any White Bear practice that makes winter spirits available (I would have thought that Grasper might be the practice for 'winter' powers). What range do these have? Well they would fall into rare practice spirits 10W3 level. Such a spirit can be bound and placed in a fetish as per the HeroQuest rules. The polar bear ancestral spirit was probably hostile to Harrek's intentions - but maybe not - and resisted with its best ability. The white bear skin may have been a middle world polar bear that Harrek killed and skinned to use as a fetish for the ancestral white bear spirit. That might put us in a contest between a young Harrek at 10W3 and a white bear spirit at 10W3. if Harrek gets a hero point the smart money is on Harrek. Additionally Harrek does not get an alien world modifier because he is an animist.
So this is doable in HeroQuest, even if it is not the 'narrative' that Greg composed with his understanding of 'how things worked'.
Even if you want to have the Black Bear, White Bear etc. as the majestic spirits of ancestral practices they are probably only 10W4 because when we have a lot of practices, the majestic spirits power falls. Technically you don't bind majestic spirits but nothing says you can't if you become strong enough. But that still only puts Harrek at 10W3 vs 10w4 or thereabouts.
Tales that Harrek skinned the polar bear god are probably the wild tales of outsiders who don't understand what Harrek really did. Still the fact that he has now bound the polar bear ancestor spirit will have probably have had consequences for the white bear's descendants, perhaps infertility leading to their dying out as they cannot reproduce (no ancestor to guide their souls back into the world). Polar bears live 25-30 years. A 1595 date for Harrek's actions would have meant there are no living polar bears. A later date might imply there are a few dying survivors but if any can still reproduce it would be a race against time to kill Harrek and free the white bear ancestor before they do.
Powered by hypermail