We know the God-Learners were originally Malkioni reformers who tried to remove Arkati/pagan influences from the liturgy but ended up using the Outer Planes for dubious theurgical experiments. The God-Learners were fully conscious and had no remorse in abusing other peoples' gods.
> One need not take the bicameral mind as a literal truth.
I have told my players that his theory is literally true in my Glorantha even if it's difficult to depict. Incidentally it strengthens the link between PCs and those gods in their pantheon of whom they are not initiates, because any god can speak to you.
> the Godplane is more the place where the Invisible God would hang out. The
> barbarian gods live with or close by their worshippers. It's _not_ unusual to
> meet your gods, in the fields, in the woods or in the temple (in fact, they
> are in the temple for precisely that purpose).
The Great Compromise prohibits the presence of gods in the Inner World. They do live in the Outer Planes. However that doesn't mean that they are actually distant from their worshippers. Avatars are known amongst the Dara Happans and Kralori. The Theyalans are close to their gods, heroquesting is an important part of their culture and even the least heroic folk particapate in watered-down sacred quests several times each year. Also there are places where one can wander onto the Outer Planes without meaning to. Also a lot of hqs take place partly (or wholely) in the Inner World. The PCs may meet people on such a quest whom they think are gods but are mortal front men. For all intents and purposes they are what they appear to be. Ambiguity and mystery help a lot here.
Heroquesting is not always associated with finding new knowledge. Cult heroquests where you re-enact a known story seldom involve new knowledge. Extrapolative heroquests a la Arkat are less to do with new knowledge than using old knowledge with maximum efficacy. Blind quests a la Sir Ethilrist do involve new knowledge. IMHO if you go wandering about Hell without a "map" your experience will be a series of incoherent encounters with powerful archetypal figures with strong but unclear motivations (think of the Jerry Cornelius books for an analogy.) Only on returning does the quester, in relating the tale of his adventures begin to make sense of it. I would imagine such a quest might awaken unfamiliar spirit-voices as you suggest. However IMO such quests are anathema to theists.
aving the God Time as the bicameral era is a nice idea, however third age
Glorantha is (with exception of the humanists and mystics) at about the
technological stage Jayne associates with the bicameral mind. Also what we know
of the Fourth Age from KoS suggests that the connection with the gods was more
tenuous subsequently. Finally the bicameral mind is just too useful/cool an
idea to put in the distant past.
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Andrew Behan
ajbehan_at_alf2.tcd.ie
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