Arkat

From: Jesper Wahrner <jewahr_at_hts.calypso.net>
Date: 22 May 96 15:40:36 +0100


 Steven E. Barnes wrote
 ow> To put a different spin on my earlier remarks: Arkat is remembered
 ow> for the deeds he performed.  The actual power and knowledge he
 ow> obtained on his quests was not shared with "his people".

 ow> So to go back to the +100% sword example, in the case of Arkat, he
 ow> kept the 100% for himself.  Yet people still remember him.  The point
 ow> I was trying to make was that Stafford's comment about selfish heroes  ow> was not entirely correct.

 But it is the deed he is remembered for and not for the +100% in Sword  Attack. The goal for Arkat's great quest was to destroy Gbaji. In order  to do so he performed lots of lesser HQs in order to be powerful enough  to succeed. This power was a means to achieve an end. Not the end itself.  It is questers that views the nifty powers they can get from HQing as  goals in themselves that tend to be forgotten, because power without  purpose is generally meaningless.

 I'm not really that big fan of the Campbellian hero cycle, but I understand   that the powers that be are, and that the Heroquest structure is  derived from it. Doing smaller HQ:s to amass strength for succeeding  in the great one is part of the arming process of the great one as I  understand it. Destroying Gbaji was - at least from the view of himself  and his followers - not a selfish act, but a service to society and the  world in general.

 Yours,
 Jesper

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