> [the God Learners] based some (although IMO, I think most of what they
> have achieved was done through the insight given by the revelations of
> Arkat) of their techniques on what they stole from his cult.
On that variant opinion, fair enuf, it's your world too. But don't forget that whatever powers the God Learners possessed *in their own right* (and in "orthodox" Glorantha this would include the RuneQuest Sight) were sufficient to overthrow Arkat's Dark Empire and then steal some of its greatest secrets. It seems likely the God Learners had largely completed the destruction of Stygia before gaining access to the Arkati secrets of heroquesting. If you think "Arkati HeroQuesting" was the Secret Weapon of the God Learners, it's kinda hard to explain this. And you have to heavily downplay the RuneQuest Sight, too.
> If I am getting this right, it is not the fact that someone changes
> mythology that makes him a God-Learner, but the purpose behind it.
Obviously. The God Learners constituted a readily identifiable historical and philosophical school. People messed around with mythology before and after their heyday. Saying "all heroquesters are God Learners" or "all cultists are God Learners" may be amusing for tub-thumping rhetorical purposes, but doesn't really help us much. That is, if you distort the meaning of the phrase "God Learner" to the point that these statements are true, you've wandered quite a long way from our common consensus.
> It does not matter if the end result is the same, but it matters the
> reason behind it. Well, I tend not to agree with this.
Do you have your own interpretation for the Arkati heroquesters' "respect and humility" quote, or do you not agree with that piece of Gloranthan lore either?
In essence, when you say that the reasons, feelings, motivations, techniques, etc. make no difference -- the end result is all that matters -- you're making exactly the same error the God Learners made. And look what happened to them... :-)
Nick
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