Harmast

From: MSmylie_at_aol.com
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 1996 14:17:59 -0400

Hello all.

David Cake asked:

> ...There was a list of all Harmasts heroquests somewhere, anyone
>remember where?

There was a list in the old RQ Companion; as that's out of print, here's the list in case folks don't have it, described as the HeroQuests of "Harmast Barefoot, a peasant who rose to duty":

1. To gain awakening;
2. To gain the blessing of King Heort and Orlanth Adventurous;
3. To scout the path to the Hidden Gate;
4. To arm himself, wherein he gained his sword, shield, and boots;
5. To ambush Jajamokki;
6. Upon the Lightbringer's path to the land of the Dead he discovered Arkat and freed him;
7. To regain his plow and sow from Jajamokki;
8. Upon the Lightbringer's path again he was wounded but returned with the keys to Kartolin to aid Talor, whom the Westerners call the Laughing Warrior;
9. The Sky Giant's Castle;
10. The return from the Court of Silence.

Hmm. Oddly enough, I get the distinct impression I've posted that list before. Anyway, as the Harmast list above comes from one of the Jonstown Compendium portions, I suppose it needs to be taken with a certain grain of salt, in that there's a lot of ...well, perculiar stuff in the Compendium (such as the following: "The Sun folk have strict and peculiar beliefs, which carry over to their souls' status. Upon the death of a worshipper of one of the lesser sun gods, such as Yelmalio, Dara Happa, Yelorna, or Dendara, the spirit is adjudged. If worthy, the character is reborn as a Yelm worshipper. That is why no man may join the cult of Yelm save he be born into it. Great Yelm worshippers after death are as priests of Dayzatar.  The priests of Dayzatar upon their death go the heavens to dwell eternally."  Don't know where that kind of statement would fit into the current Sun conceptions, but the Compendium is full of little asides like that, including some funky stuff about Yelm and the Black Sun IIRC...).

As a minor side note, I can't help but notice a seeming rise in the number of references to the LBQ and possible variants -- frex, the suggestion of a troll "LBQ", which also brings to mind the recent theory that the birth of the Red Goddess was the result of a Pelorian variant of the LBQ, etc. -- and I can't help but think that this is once again over-privileging a distinctly Orlanthi mythological pattern, risking the creation of a kind of monomyth of major HeroQuests. That there may be HeroQuests for supernatural aid _similar_ to the LBQ is probably a given; to say that therefore they are _all_ LBQs strikes me as something of a slippery slope.

Simon Phipp noted:

>The Dara Happans are so arrogant and self-centered
>that their mythologies cannot always be taken as
>completely accurate.

While arguably true, I think the point would be that the same could be said for _all_ Gloranthan cultures.

Just some thoughts.
Mark

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