I want to say that I don't consider the idea of two sorts of interaction with the HeroPlane inconsistent, in fact I'm coming more and more to the viewpoint that the distinction is necessary.
Everybody who is part of a cult will have some interface with the HeroPlane. Even those who go beyond the normal secrets of their cult and seek out the dangerous and rare benefits that recreating special parts of the cult's mythos can bring are still doing it in a way that isn't true HeroQuesting.
But if you decide, just once, to say not "Thy Will be done, Orlanth, let me stand in your stead today." but "My Will be done, Orlanth get out of there and let me show you how it's done" you have changed something utterly in your relationship with the cosmos. Arkat did it by accident the first time and deliberately later.
And if you make the change and make it back you will be going down a path that can't be turned away from.
I know that there are quests which mingle the two types. I know that it is hard to make the distincition perfectly plain. But I still think it is there.
Powered by hypermail