> I don't think westerners quest in the same way as other cultures...
> I think the most common form of heroquesting in the west would be
> pilgrimages: a relatively low powered form of heroquesting, accessible
> to almost everybody.
An excellent suggestion, IMHO: I particularly like the link to obtaining patron saints (it's always nice to have some requirement beyond "Sacrifice POW").
I don't think any of the Gloranthan cultures *perceive* their heroquesting in the same way as the others do, even though they are all interacting with the same mythic realities. The Westerners, as monotheist/humanists, will be perhaps be even more different than Lunar vs. Orlanthi, or Yelmic vs. Praxian perception and experience of the otherworld.
I think a second, less common (and more "powerful") model for Western heroquesting would be knight-errantry. You know, like in those Arthurian Romances where a knight can ride just half a day from Camelot and finds himself facing symbolic and magical foes, strange castles and kingdoms and tests which properly belong on the Other Side. This might be *exactly* how a Western Knight would set out on some strange Adventure (anyone thinking of Snodal? or Hrestol?). The blur between "magical" Glorantha and the Hero Plane makes it possible to "slip across" at any point.
The characters encountered on the knight's quest could be the Western monotheist's perceptions of pagan deities: cf. the book "The Real Camelot" and sundry other publications (including various Pendragon adventures) for more on pagan survivals into Arthurian/Christian legends. Thus a Hrestoli Knight-Errant meets the grim and silent Black Knight at a ford, where an Orlanthi would have encountered (and recognised) Humakt. Whereas in the Middle Ages, such encounters were survivals from ancient mythologies, in Glorantha they could also be intrusions from "live" myths.
Perhaps the Westerners *deliberately* don't discover or assign proper names for the entities they encounter on their quest/journeys. This might be related to the God Learner experience, or magical theories of True Names and giving substance to impersonal entities. Perhaps it'd be easier to prevent the Sorrowful Damsel or the Wounded King from growing in importance, or attracting worship or attention, if you leave them anonymous and don't try to identify them with pagan deities? This would be a nice Gloranthan justification for the anonymity you find in many Arthurian legends.
> I see [Lord Death on a Horse] as fanatic Hrestoli! ... In my campaign
> the KoW is going to attack Loskalm until it has twisted Loskalm into
> a ruthless, fanatic and desperate war machine. At that point my KoW
> is going to disappear. Leaving Loskalm with a war machine without aim,
> but with a burning hatred for pagans.
I love this suggestion! Sick, twisted, depraved, confusing... and ever so logical! Certainly it'd be worth keeping this possibility in mind (along with the various Mostali, Humakti, War Machine, Chaos Invasion, Troll Front, etc. theories), just to keep players guessing.
Unfortunately, the Ban makes it difficult to cast the War Lord as Sir Meriatan's long-lost brother, but maybe you can find a work-around? After all, we don't *know* that LDoaH was leading the KoW before it emerged from the Ban, do we? :-)
End of Glorantha Digest V2 #412
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