>1. When you HeroQuest do you remain in the physical plane? If so, what
> do non heroquesting by-standers see?
>
Sometimes. Sometimes not. And sometimes you are in the bits of the physical world were only heroes go.
There is a description in cults of Prax where Biturian meets a Yelmalion Sun Lord (was it Rurik?) who is described as heroquesting. I think he is described as having an inner light or something. I'd say a strange look in the eye.
Actually, probably not that disimilar to someone having a peak drug experience. Or, indeed, a profound religious experience of a somewhat hallucinatory nature. Or in some other bizarre state of mind.
>2. How do (did) cults originate? Especially the older ones. Did a
> primitive gloranthan look up at the sun and decide it must be a god?
> Doesn't sound right to me.
People heroquesting or journeying deep in the spirit plane contact the divine powers, and interpret that indescribable experience how they can. Why some people see the sun as a god and some a divine impersonal power is a different question, but it probably has the same answer as why some real world cultures think the sun is a god and some don't.
Alternatively, they make a bargain with a small spirit who knows a few powerful magics, and as the cult grows, the heroes discover new powers they can access, the shamans discover new spirit allies, and so on, eventually they end up with a big powerful cult.
Of course, most of them don't believe that this is how they started. And in many cases, they may actually be right - most major religions have probably evolved from beliefs held before there was recorded history or anything above stone age civilisation, and as far as their worshippers are concerned, they really have been around forever (or at least, as long as people have been or longer). Which is a kind of HVO version of what Mike Cule said (hey, Mike, the gods where manifestly around before the Dawning - its in the Entekosiad). The Entekosiad is your best source for looking at how this sort of thing happens. In that, you can quite clearly see how many of the foundations of the modern Lodril cult, for example, are descended from the cult of ViSaruDaran, in Wendarian times (what the Orlanthi would call the Golden Age, and what we would call the stone age). This is known to the Lunars.
in an attempt to clear up more confusion (which probably doesn't help)
>But if False Priest 39b sets fire to your house with a Sunspear (or whatever),
>how do you explain that as being due to a false god? An EVIL god, yes, but not
>a false one, surely?
He has real magic, but his worship is perverse, deluded, and wrong. In the case of Yelm vs Kargzant, for example, the Yelmics know that while the damn Pentans might think they worship the sun, they actually worship Yelms uppity son/servant who lies to his worshippers and attempts to usurp his fathers place in heaven. In most similar situations, where you didn't know much about the other priests beliefs, they would just think they worship demons.
Then is gets harder, with two friendly cultures.
>What happens
>if initiates or priests from Cult (A) worship at Cult (B)'s temple...do
>they get
>nothing, do they get Culture (A) spells, Culture (B) spells, both, or a
>lightning
>bolt up the jacksie?
If they have different spells, they have different rituals to regain those spells. You don't get 'em back unless you do the right rituals. But does the temple of god A) even count as a shrine of god B ? Only if the two gods are similar, and the similarity probably needs to closer than just both being gods of Storm or Earth - and if they are that similar, they probably actually have similar spells.
It probably depends on the culture. We know from the Entekosiad that worshippers of Entekos the Dendara (Entekos the Virtuous) from Pelanda are able to participate in either the rituals of Entekos (reduced to the status of Yelms law sprinkler in Dara Happa) or Dendara (Yelms wife, virtuous and not much else) in Dara Happa.
In game terms, its probably OK if you start from a position of allowing them to gain spells that the other culture also has, and work from there. But it would require a very tolerant priest to allow foreigners to come in and start practicing their pagan rituals in their temple. Allowing foreigners who worship a very similar seeming god to become proper initiates (including learning the right way of performing the rituals) is a better alternative.
Mike Cule asks
>Would you care to state (would anybody who knows care to state) why Chaosium
>gave up on quantifiable Free Will. I think I could make it work.
For me personally, I gave up on quantifiable Free Will because it became obvious to me that a gift and geas was a perfect example of the exchange of Free Will for magic power, and it seemed so obviously better than the various Chaosium and Chaosium derived systems I had heard about or read about, all of which worked on the Will is a number, you lose will points for power. Heroic level passions and traits also figured in my thinking somewhat (and trying to have a set of mechanics that unifed this with gifts and geases seemed too hard for too little gain).
I guess you could do something along the lines of the balancing advantages with restrictions/disadvantages a la superhero games or Ars Magica. That might work. I was thinking more along the lines of one for one exchange, though - get this ability, gain this disadvantage. I'm just not sure this would be a big win, or an accurate representation. I'm sure that some unlucky heroquesters just lose out, I'm sure some manage to come back with gifts that don't restrict them unless used (Ie a magic item that they could use, hang on a wall, or give away).
And lastly, while I'm prone to verbosity myself, may I congratulate Pasi
Vettenranta on his succinct and admirable message. I hope no one will mind
my gross violation of rules 1 & 3 as I quote his complete message
>Subject: Glorantha digest
>
>Glorantha
Indeed. Couldn't say it better.
David
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