> From: Simon Hibbs <simonh_at_msi-uk.com>
>
> >Humakt the God is something different though.
>
> This is hard to swallow. You mean that Humakt, the divine being, can
> disaprove of a heroquest of his own cult? How can that be possible? A
> cult heroquest is by definition a a way in which cult heroes can become
> closer to their god.
Depends on how you conceive the nature of the Gods. IMG Heroquesting is how Heroes become closer to the Divine, yes, but not necessarily to a particular God. It's possible my Glorantha's rather cock-eyed, but IMG, how a Hero walks a Path can alter, in a minute way, the Path itself, and therefore the history and nature of the God whose Path it is, the more so the more powerful the Hero is, but always rather infinitessimally.
The corollary is that if sufficient high-enough-level Heroes and Priests of a cult were determined to walk a certain Path, but in a slightly and identically different way from the traditional, it can change the original Path, and -- this is key -- _become_ the original Path. The nature of the God has been changed: from within Time, the nature of the God in Time has altered and, from that time henceforth, the new Path is the true Path, and all on the Mundane plane perceive it as such. ("I thought you were trying to change the God, not do the Heroquest straight!" "But we did ... didn't we?")
I would imagine that a God which didn't wish its Path changed would disapprove mightily of those attempting the change and set every possible obstacle in their way. And they've got to act quickly: once changed in Time, it's changed: the constraints of Time prevent the God intervening directly to reset the change afterwards, so they have to oppose the Heroquesters during the attempt -- if they spot it in time -- or encourage their faithful to reverse the change later.
There are massive MGF opportunities here. IMG the God Learners changed some Gods' natures by perverting their Paths; also it's possible, albeit _extremely_ difficult, to perform an hostile change in the nature of a God -- in other words, sufficient Heroes and rune-levels working together can walk the Path of an enemy God and change that God to their own benefit. Of course, the opposition would be tremendous, and the gain relatively small.
The God can't be changed very much, of course. You're pitching the collective POW and wills of the participants against those of the God, probably bolstered by a lot of additional POW from the participants' congregations. Now, Gods are spread fairly thin, what with Divine magicks to maintain and power, and other worldly responsibilities, as much as Arachne Solaris will permit, which is why it can be possible to enact that change. (If the God's full attention, will and POW were to be turned upon those trying to change the Path, they wouldn't stand a chance of changing things. But if they're all trying to make a _small_ change, all in the same way, they've got a goodish chance of working through the chinks in that God's spiritual armour.)
Silly example: the YT powers-that-be decide that Humakt's got way too big for his boots, and want to weaken his perceived status. They get together a vast number of high-level YTs, with help from associated cults, and walk one of Humakt's more minor Paths, something like a minor Initiate mundane Heroquest. Wearing tutus.
> From: Nick Hollingsworth <NickH_at_compans.com>
>
> I have just had a mail from a Mr Bjorn Nilberg! He had come across
> the Glorantha archives and wondered what his namesakes were. Out
> of interest, does anyone know who came up with the idea for them
> and how they picked the name.
Wasn't that originally "Nilmerg", "Gremlin" backwards?
Jon
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