On the Subject of Heroes

From: Joerg Baumgartner <joe_at_sartar.toppoint.de>
Date: Thu Mar 20 10:05:23 1997


Jeff Richard sent me these questions in private as reply to my musings.

> On the subject of heroes and superheroes... I thought TotRM
> managed to hammer into our heads that heroes (including the DP superheroes)
> are much more than the SuperRQ individuals that we dealt with in the Dragon
> Pass Game. Argrath (or the several Argraths) is a mythically and militarily
> significant figure in different ways and for different reasons than Harrek.

More than Tales 7 this is KoS with its lists of Companions (of Orlanth, Ironhoof, Argrath and Kallyr). What we already knew about Sartar the Hero (one I glitched over in my list, as well as Tarkalor) was that he had a number of boon companions, although I know only two of them by name (so far): Geo, Sartarite patron saint (sic) of hospitality, and Wilms, patron saint of Wilmskirk. Geo clearly was his foodman, Wilms might have been his trader and speaker. Apparenly an Orlanthi hero or heroquester needs these companions to become eligible.

> We have not answered the questions: What is Harrek?

I loved Nick's explanation of Harrek's innate mastery of the Hero-plane. He might even have dream companions instead of real ones, although the namegiver plus companion-scheme of Dragon Pass possibly doesn't fully apply to Fronela.

But other than that: Harrek is _the_ leading powerquester of the Third Age. And he does counter the most powerful forces of the world - the Lunar Empire, and the Waertagi navy.

> Why is Harrek significant?

Because of his hatred against the Lunars who forced him to develop his herodom in their dart competitions.

> What does Harrek represent?

The destructive force catalyzed by and catalyzing the Hero Wars. Harrek is the necessary tool to rip apart large parts of the world, he is similar to the role Shargash played in Godtime Dara Happa, or Storm Bull in Prax - a destroyer of the land in the fight to ensure its existance. He is necessary in the course of things, and this lends him additional power. IMO.

> Why is he capable of destroying the
> mythical constructs of other cultures without a supportive culture of his
> own?

IMO Harrek still has the tacit support of his culture - he has the Polar Bear God as his bound servant, and while this deity never sported an active cult even among the Rathori, it still had their mythical support.

> These same questions should be applied to all of the so-called heroes
> that you have raised in the Great List of Heroes. Without a mythical context
> the Gloranthan heroes are IMO nothing more than chits for a war-game.

True, but White Bear and Red Moon was exceptional in the war-game area in that each and any hero chit had its own mythos and mythical context, if only sketched in one or two sentences. If one could get Greg to sit down and dictate whatever ideas he has about the characters mentioned only in passing I think we'd get a whole load of mythical context. What is published seems to be only a very condensed summary of the stories behind the ideas, although at least in some cases (like the Guild of Chaos Monks so valiantly fought by the Prince of East Seshnela in Tiskos) there are just good-sounding names waiting for people to fill in the ideas.

> A very
> small handful of the Gloranthan heroes are well defined - Argrath, for
> example (although some major questions are still unanswered), or Arkat.

Argrath is well defined... Hmmph. How many of him are there? Any number between zero and twelve has been brought forth with some credibility. What did he actually do himself? Did he just happen to be there and survive? Sounds a lot like Batulco the Great...

Arkat is easier - in the Jonstown Compendium from Troll Gods it is written that there were seven of him in the troll rebirth ceremony. He was his own companions, or so I was told by Someone Who Knows. Five of him are going to reappear in Ralios; I suppose the other two will participate in some guise in the action between Dragon Pass and the Lunar Empire. Argrath has been traded as one of the Arkats, below I suggest Ethilrist as another one.

> So, for instance, who are the "Silver Age Heroes of Kethaela"? Are they
> Hendrik and company?

No, definitely not. Hendrik and his company were contemporaries of Arkat and Palangio.

The Silver Age Heroes were the leaders of the six greater and uncounted lesser nations of Kethaela in Godtime, likely through the Grey Age after I Fought We Won. They were instrumental in creating the Dawn Council and the Theyalan multiculture. To quote RQ Companion (p.17):

"At the Dawn, the primary Silver Age heroes still commanded their ancient properties, but eventually they died or otherwise retired from life. Their disappearance corresponds with the weakening of the unity of hte area, but at first even the Elder Races cooperated with each other, as they had in the Unity Battle."

The Orlanthi of Heortland had King Heort as participant of IFWW, but I am not sure whether Heort was their original Silver Age hero. Sandy said Vogarth Strongman was an Orlanthi hero; he is counted among the heroes summoned by Arkat against Gbaji, and might have been again by Belintar in his struggle against the Only Old One (who might have been one of them). I suppose that Jarani Whitetop might be the Silver Age hero for the Skyreach Mountains Orlanthi, and there might be more. Tessele the True appears among the cult heroes of Caladra as well as among the heroes summoned by Arkat, so I guess she was a heroine of Caladraland. I'd love to learn the names of other Silver Age heroes of Kethaela and their sagas. Any more knowledgeable around here? Speak up!

> Are they well defined as individuals or are they a
> shimmering band of faceless warriors representative of the wind that blows
> down from the great Storm Mountains?

I know details about four of the individual Silver Age heroes: King Heort (described in the Orlanth Pantheon in WF 13 and in KoS), Tessele the True (described in the Caladra&Aurelion cult write-up), Vogarth Strongman (just the name and a line from Sandy), and the dwarf leader defeated by the Only Old One (who might have got a name in the Broken Council material). It is clear that there are more, but I don't know anything official about any. If any of you know more, speak up.

> Are they associated with the Heortland
> Orlanth Cult (both traditionalist and Aeolian) or are they worshipped
> independently?

Some of them are associated with the Heortland Orlanth cult, but far from all of them. Vogarth might, King Heort certainly is. Vogarth is likely to receive individual worship by want-to-be strongmen, too; King Heort doesn't really offer much for individual worship.

Anyway, I have problems to define Heortland before Palangio the Iron Vrok conquered it (and also during most of the 2nd Age). It seems to have been part of the Theyalan World Council of Friends, and from the description I quoted above I'd expect that King Heort personally was king there at the Dawn. The fact that most modern day Orlanthi of Dragon Pass are called Heortlings suggests that he and his laws were of major importance, although this may have been streamlined first by Harmast (who reinstituted Orlanth worship among the Theyalans after Lokamayadon had suppressed it for more than two generations, and remodeled it from the few fragments he still found) and later by the God Learners. However, the leader of the humans of Dragon Pass in the Dawn World Council of Friends is Aram ya Udram, aka Yu-Adariam in Cults of Prax's Issaries write-up, King of Dragon Pass.

> What, if anything, is their simularity to the Vingkotlings?

The Vingotlings were a nation, admittedly of a large number of semi-divine humans, but not a group of heroes leading their nations through the Darkness and after IFWW until the Dawn. (Troll Pak states the number of troll generations between IFWW and the Dawn - it's a stunning number.)

> Do all Orlanthi cultures have their version of the "Silver Age Heroes of
> Kethaela", making it a regionalized subcult of Orlanth varying in power and
> importance, but remaining simular in form?

I doubt that. For one thing, the Silver Age Heroes of Kethaela aren't restricted to the Orlanth cult. The "Orlanthi culture of the Holy Country" as presented in the Genertela Players Book isn't a single culture, but rather an European Union like entity with peoples sharing some traits, a geographical region and external politics, while still very different from each other. Neither Esrolia nor Caladraland are truly Orlanthi in religion, nor are they following Heort's Laws, or modifications of those of Vingkot.

Outside of Kethaela, most Orlanthi are converts to the Theyalan missionaries. Paul Reilly proposed that a fair number of these were Hsunchen, Cattle and Sheep Hsunchen in particular. For Ralios we even have official sources backing this. These Hsunchen survived the Darkness following the Beast way, not the human way as King Heort (and likely a lot of others) did.

> The same questions can be asked about Sir Ethilrest. To whom is he a
> hero?

Ethilrist is the hero of the mercenary knights of Ralios. While they aren't likely to give him the support a cultural hero has, Ethilrist never wanted it - he is one of the Lone Wolves among the heroes. If I recall correctly, Greg or Sandy once said that heroes work on behalf of their community, while superheroes acted only for their own good. Well, with his hound, his cloak, the other goodies he stole from Subere's vaults, and all of his boon companions (including Keener Than) assembled, he qualifies for superhero. Including mastery over the Infinity Rune (in fact mastery over the Hound, who has control over all magic flux in his vicinity when unleashed, or jointly controlled by Ethilrist and Keener Than, i.e. unrestrained).

> Is he worshipped as savior saint by the Malkioni of Muse Roost and
> demonized as a petty Arkat the Traitor by the surrounding Orlanthi and
> Grazelanders?

Not quite the saint, but certainly demonized. Since there is a major shrine to Arkat in Muse Roost, Ethilrist might even act as an avatar of Arkat...

> IMO these are the significant questions, not the ongoing
> attempt to divide the significant heroes into three power categories :
> near-heroes (whatever that means), heroes and really big heroes.

They certainly are. As I stated in my disclaimer, _my_ classifications pertained just to their role as boardgame chits, not to Gloranthan reality.

End of Glorantha Digest V1 #265


WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html

Powered by hypermail