HQ, experimental and otherwise.

From: Alex Ferguson <abf_at_interzone.ucc.ie>
Date: Sun, 29 Jun 1997 23:23:22 +0100 (BST)


Richard Melvin writes, in something of a non-reply reply to me:
> I'm working from the common theory that sacrificing for a rune-spell
> involves a mini-heroquest.
> Therefore, turning it around, a heroquest must be at least a bit like
> getting a rune spell [2].

And by the same logic, at least a bit like an initiation, a worship ceremony, and accepting a gift and geas. So I don't think it's necessarily entirely safe to balance too large a mountain of hypothesis atop the molehill of rune magic game mechanics.

> Doing the 'normal' version of the quest
> first is probably a good idea as well, so you know what's what.

I think that depends on the nature of the "change" you want to make; in some circumstances, you'd want to carefully avoid doing the "old" thing, so as to obviate the risk of getting locked into it, when attempting to do the new one. If for example I want to fight Orlanth at the HoG, doing a preparatory quest where I am instead _armed_ by him may well be counter-productive.

The problems with this strategy may be overcome, perhaps by i) doing the second, extrapolative quest at a much "deeper" level; ii) having performed some other quest in the meantime, in this case to "clarify" the nature of my relationship to Orlanth; or iii) being Arkat.

> If all this works, the relevant myth changes _for the following groups
> of people_.
>
> - anyone who actually donated POW to the quest[5].
>
> - anyone you have some kind of magical soveriegnty over
> (e.g. Argrath's kingship of Dragon Pass).
>
> - anyone initiated by one of the above.

These sound to me like different "depths" of Quest (indeed, progressively deeper). Perhaps not a distinction that's likely to come up in play very much, in these instances, but I think that in general the more people you want to make the HQ "real" for, the harder the corresponding quest.

I'm also mildly trepidatious of the phrase "the relevant myth changes"; there's lots of potential fuzziness here about whether the change is consensual or not, and how complete it is in terms of their continued access to the old myth.

> Making direct real-world changes (e.g. moving a star) by heroquesting is
> not possible.

Not true, I don't think. Of course, in this example the change isn't actually in the Inner World anyway, so it may not be the best example. But descriptions of, for example, the sinking of Seshnela suggest that the RW can indeed be directly altered by a HQer, while they're still on the HP. If the change was of something that had no real "correspondance" with the HP, such as trying to kill a non-HQing mortal, say, then presumably you'd have to do it the mootly-distinct indirect way.

In meta-reply to the same message, Ian Whitchurch said:
> At a minimum, you should know the "script" of the minor quest
> you are trying to change.

Absolutely! Whether or not you're trying to effect a change, trying to perform _any_ HQ without knowing the myth and ritual in positively anal detail is a short route to turn a nice "safe" re-enactment (or partly so) HQ into a (even more) experimental one. See comments about on-coming Italians in a Fiat Panda, "Zorak Zoran" special edition.

In most cases, if the change is truly premediated, you'll also have researched some mythic precedent for the new elements, or better yet, performed an independant Quest embodying them. Then you can try to "graft them in", with some reasonable expectation of success.

I see it as being a bit like "see one, do one, teach one", in fact (to steal a line from _e.r._). You participate in a myth firstly by hearing it as a story, then by enacting it in a Worship ceremony (or potentially, in your initiation). You later use the same myth in a "mini-HQ" to obtain divine magic, or a gift and geas. Then maybe in a practice HQ, and then later still, in a "real" HQ. Thereafter it gets harder to distinguish distinct "levels", but probably (at least) "HeroQuester", "Hero", "SuperHero" and "God" are all more-or-less successive steps that could be identified.

Generally speaking, anyone attempting a given "depth" of HQ will have been through all the previous ones, so should have at least that much of an idea of what he's doing. Trouble is, at each step you start having to get a bit more "original", even to "re-enact" a Quest at all. If no-one has done the Full Lightbringer's Quest in your neck of the woods for a generation, or a century, or an Age, then you're increasing going to have to Make Stuff Up for the places where your oral and written records, and your own past expierence of the HQ get a bit too vague to be useful.

Of course, this Crisatunity works both ways; if you're "forced" to make things up, it gives you the chance to "improve" on the precedent, either in terms of the means, or the ends.

Originally,
Alex.


End of Glorantha Digest V4 #565


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