I think that the reason people think think that Dragon Pass is so magical is because 80% of what has been published is from a Heortlander POV. I reckon that people who want to find a way into Hell/Heaven or whatever don't generally have to go more than a few days journey from home.
> Nil Weinander:
> Definitely. If there were ways to Hell in the west, the wizards have most
> likely made sure they were destroyed long ago.
I think that most societies in Glorantha have some way of interacting with the God Time. However I don't think Theyalan type heroquesting is universal. Animists have Shamans who visit the God Plane to befriend spirits, Solars have avatars like Avivath and chaotics just ignore the Great Compromise completely. IMHO Westerners don't do quests to prove how similar they are to their saints, that would be idolatory.
Nope, they find a convenient gateway into someone elses mythical realm, and without following any particular path, they go in and they beat the crap out of everything they meet. That (admittedly) won't make for a particularly interesting play session from the Westerners POV but imagine it from the perspective of the suckers whose heroquest they mess up. There is nothing to stop the survivors trying to track down their assailants after the ritual, is there?
I base this vision of western heroquesting on the available examples; Arkat, the God-Learners, Snodal and Sir Meritrain (none of whom showed much respect for myth) and the supposedly rational Western mentality.
My claim that cult heroes must forge a new quest path to create a new spell didn't get any responses. Is this idea non-controversial?
If would-be heroes and Malkioni do actually wander around the Hero/God Plane following no particular path just as they might wander around Balazar or Pavis the question arises, what distinguishes the two? One distinction is that everything the happens on the God Plane happens because someone wants it to, whereas on the Mundane Plane the Great Compromise instituted Natural Process. (IMHO you can will things to happen here too, however this is rarely done because it is highly chaotic and generally suicidal.)
According to CoT Wakboth was scattered around the Inner World so that everything in it was tainted by immorality, whereas Kajabor was bound to the God Plane by Arachne Solara making it entropic. I'm not sure what the heat death of the universe has to do with mythology. I suppose that this means that a visit to the God Plane without a myth to guide you along the right path must be like a Jerry Cornelius novel(or KoS.) A series of vignettes, perhaps involving some of the same characters which are individually coherentbut as a whole contradictory (or manifestly disordered.) When Ethilrist got back from his visit to Hell he hadn't a fucking clue what had just happened. It was only after he had told his Black Horse Troop his story for the hundredth time he was able to make it meaningful.
The gods need mortals because thanks to Wakboth they are free-willed,
sure. But in cultures where myth matters the gods need people to
constantly re-tread the heroquest paths so that the God Plane retains
some shape and form. Otherwise it would degenerate into a bunch of
folk-tales and anecdotes rather than the Spider Web of myth.Without Kajabor
there wouldn't be any need for heroquests, and you say chaos is all bad!
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Andrew Behan
e-mail:ajbehan.alf2.tcd.ie
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