Ah, but they can. Trouble is, they can't make up _each other's_ minds. ;-) Or reliably tell the two apart. Oh well.
> 1. HeroQuests: What exactly are they, and what are they supposed to do?
> [...] Is there a definite purpose to HQ's or is it more of a
> "why is the sky blue" question? :-)
It's more of a "why is the sky blue" _answer_. ;-) There are several different forms of heroquest, and hence unsurprisingly, several different motivations for wanting to perform them. But at bottom, they're all acts of mythic re-enactment (or occassionally simply "enactment"), and are designed to maintain, reinforce, and in the extreme case impose, a particular view of the world through myth, and hence keep the world in correspondance to the truth of that myth. A corrolary of this is that heroquest is, to a variable degree, to further the questors selfor collective interest(s).
For example, when Orlanthi perform the Lightbringers' Quest, they're asserting any number of things, including that: the world exists, and will continue to; that their gods, and they themselves, have justified and earned their places in it; the necessity of co-operation with both ones friends and ones apparent foes against the true Enemy, in particular Chaos; that they take responsibility for their actions, and rectify their mistakes. "Mundanely", this takes the form of a religious ceremony, and the benefits are a feel-good-factor, a sense of community, the religious lessons learned, some rune magic, and a POW gain roll. Exceptionally, it means a literal descent into Hell, the gambling of your own life, and your people's welfare, to achieve the salvation of your society. Harmast Barefoot's quest for Arkat would be the classic example of the latter.
> 2. The Hero Plane: It seems to me that _this_ is where the gods actually
> live.
The two terms aren't used entirely consistently. The most common distinctions are: a) that the Hero Plane is where the "Lesser" entities dwell, and the God Plane is (natch) where the Actual Gods dwell; and/or b) the Hero Plane is the part of "physical" Glorantha nearest to the mundane world: the outer lands of the surface, the sky, and the underworld, whereas the God Plane is the mythic analogue of the mundane world itself. Plus of course: c) distintion ignored, blurred, considered redundant or meaningless.
I find a useful way of looking at it to be: there's the Mundane World, and the Divine World. At the outer edges of the world, as well as in some places inside, the two are in increasingly close contact, so in a sense, say, the far-West land of Luathela, say, is at once in both. Also, it's possible to perceive the Divine World in several different manners, degrees, or "levels"; according to how inconceivably powerful the entities one encounters are, one might speak of being on the "Hero Plane", or the "Deepest level of the God Plane", or whatever.
> 3. Rune Lords: [examples] What other Rune Lords are there?
Most martially-oriented cults have such a subcult; Yelmalio has Light Sons, the Seven Mothers have (originally-titled) Rune Lords. Some, like Zorak Zoran and Humakt have just a single, combined "Rune Lord/Priest" rank. A few, such as Yelm, have more than one rank which is Rune-Lord-like. In RQ2, _all_ cults had rune lords, in RQ3, many fewer. The best sources on this is _Gods of Glorantha_ (good luck!), River of Cradles, and Cults of Prax -- if you don't mind paying $50+ for out of date information. :-/
> 4. The Mostali: I like their "scientific" viewpoint and the World
> Machine. Their technology has been described as "advanced", but how
> advanced is this? Steel-making? Clockwork devices? Steam Power?
It's not entirely clear if there exists such a thing a "steel" in Glorantha, or if it there does, if it's any different from "Enchanted Iron". But otherwise, yes, all three. (And what's worse, gunpowder.)
> 5. The "Invisible God" of the West: Real, or just a myth invented by the
> West to explain away their sorcery?
Yes. ;-) Note that the Westerners will freely admit that Infidels can cast sorcery too; they don't claim that it's "divine" magic, in that sense.
> 6. Are _Gods of Glorantha_ and _Elder Secrets_ still published by AH?
Not any more! If they're still in print, or even still in "copies available someplace", get 'em quick: they're about to become Out Of Print Forever. (If Glorantha: the Game is a HeroQuest, we're certainly Alone in Hell at the moment.)
Saying nothing about who Trickster might be, Alex.
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