history is bunk?

From: David Cake <davidc_at_cs.uwa.edu.au>
Date: Mon, 24 Jun 1996 11:13:52 +0800

[Carls PC prevent the destruction of a city by chaos]
>Now, in the "whatever is believed is true" universe, some future
>heroquester can retroactively rearrange history so that he and his
>sister saved the city, or the city was never in danger, or we failed
>and the city *was* eaten by chaos. Anything we did is ultimately
>meaningless and futile, because it may never actually have happened.

        Don't confuse changing myth and changing history. I am a firm believer in the 'heroquesters can change the myths' school, up to believing that heroquesters can create new gods, etc. I am a strong disbeliever in the 'heroquests can retrospectively change history' idea, at least outside of particular mind bending circumstances, and for precisely the reasons you describe. And don't forget how heroquests work, either - there is opposition.

        A good example is Nysalor. He heroquested back to change myths, by attacking Korasting the troll ancestress and destroying her fertility. While this was a godtime mythic act, it didn't change history retrospectively, it just changed it from that point on. Also note that while the trolls and the Nysalor worshippers both agree that this act really occurred, both probably have different views of it - if a troll heroquested back and watched what was going on, he would probably see a hideous chaos monster mauling Korasting, if a Nysalorian elf went back and watched it, he'd probably see a glorious figure of light mauling a hideous monster.

        So, if your city is a city in the mundane world (like Bikhy, in Vanch I presume), then no one can heroquest back to change history. You saved it. If you protected it by some heroquest means, they could heroquest to weaken that, and would probably end up fighting your PCs again, or some representation of the forces they represent, but you've already one once, so it will be difficult. Even if they succeeded, and chaos did take the city, it wouldn't wipe out the fact that you had succeeded in protecting it for a time. And if a chaos monster wants to ensure that there is a pattern of chaos taking your city - he had best start by trying to take it. If some future hero wants to take the credit for your deeds, he will have to do so by claiming your characters were an incarnation of him earlier - which may well get him into mythic trouble - but I fail to see how this differs from the 'history is written by the victors' situation. If he wants to repeat your actions - he will have to wait till there is a another chaos invasion.

        Cheers

                David



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