The idea that Western heroquesters try not to name their opponents
originates with Nick Brooke, and he was quite explicit that this approach
developed as a response to God Learning. Before that point, the demonology
comparison (compendious tomes of names and properties of the bad guys, etc)
was more normal. Quote from Nicks web page
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Nick_Brooke/westqest.htm
>Most Western heroquesters deliberately refrain from discovering or
>assigning proper names to the otherworldly entities they encounter on
>their quests and journeys. This is a reaction to the God Learner
>experience: their magical techniques included discovering the True Names
>of "demons" (the gods of the theists), and recognising them under other
>names wherever possible, but over time this meant the impersonal
>entities of the Otherworld increased in power as they were lumped
>together in ever greater agglomerations, with disastrous results for the
>Middle Sea Empire.
The intent is that modern western HGing takes on a rather Arthurian model, full of mysterious women at forks in the road, strange beasts, mysterious castles ruled by knight referred to only by their appearance (the Red Knight), etc. This is of course how the good guys do it - wicked Western sorcerers continue, in defiance of the church, continue to amass their tomes full of curious demonological lore (just like medieval demonologists existed, in defiance of the church).
Cheers
David
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