The person who did the original quest can make the spell available to others, so they don't have to heroquest for the magic. The spell becomes available to a family, a cult, a religion or even a culture, depending on the power of the heroquest.
> >Then why was HQing such a big discovery?
>
> Because there's two forms of HeroQuesting - cult heroquesting and
> what Arkat did. Cult heroquesting is basically following the myth.
> What Arkat did was wander off the reservation.
Donald Grove:
> On one level HQing has always existed - performing known myths whose
> origins go back to the beginning of time. Those HQs have changed and
> varied, generally in small details which is why you get local
> variations.
>
> The other level is 'experimental' HQing. Going off the path of the
> known myth to try and achieve something else. Invented by the GLers
> although few people in the 3rd Age realise that. That's the big
> deal.
In my opinion, it's a matter of degree.
Harmast did some experimental heroquesting to make the Lightbringers Quest. He found the scattered myths from his own cult and reassembled them into one big myth, then he proved it worked twice, once to bring back Arkat and once to bring back Talor. He based it on the myths of his own cult and culture, but he definitely went away from what his peers had done.
Arkat had the advantage that he had access to the myths of different cultures and recognised that they had things in common. He went off the beaten track by exploiting the similarities and differences. He was arguably more powerful a heroquestor than Harmast because he achieved more.
However, they weren't the only ones. The Second (Third?) Council created a new god by HeroQuesting. They didn't do this by repeating the heroquests of their cults, but by combining quests and inventing new ones. Nyslaor carried this on in the Curse of Kin and his other acts.
However, in my opinion, it goes back even further. Orlanth slew Aroka, but the quest that he performed has a lot of similarities to the quest that his brother Vadrus had done to gain the Blue Woman. Now, some might say that God Time events are different to HeroQuests, but they are not, really.
There is an Earth King in the Snakepipe Hollow scenario who seemed to have been on some kind of HeroQuest when his temple was attacked. That's not a great example, because it is a throwaway story snippet.
The Godlearners are different because they systematically heroquested. They also combined quests and made new ones. They repeated quests again and again, taking horrendous losses until they got what they wanted. They had access to many more quests than even the Arkati and used their power to gain new knowledge.
The Lunars worship a goddess who was reformed following a particularly dangerous and new heroquest. Their worshippers gain new knowledge and adapt the quests of others to their ways. It's a different approach to the Godlearners, but is equally as valid.
Of course, I'm probably wrong.
See Ya
Simon
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