Humakt, Free Will, Heroquests, etc

From: Richard Develyn <richard_at_skaro.demon.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1998 17:33:45 +0100


[this is Richard Develyn writing from home now]

Simon Hibbs writes in answer to me:

>>So I think Gods sacrifice their free will in order simplify, and
>>therefore broaden, their appeal. If Humakt answered a DI call to
>>resurrect someone (and word got out) then it would severely shake
>>Humakti faith. So he ain't gonna do it - even if he could.

> This view is cynical beyond belief. What do you think it means for a
> god to personify a rune-truth about the nature of the world? If Humakt
> _is_ death, what does that tell you about Humakt's freedom of action?

First of all I've written a long post about God Learners which has a lot of relevance to this. However, I want to additionally quote you 2 things from the GS Heroquest seminar printed in Questlines 2 - basically where I'm coming from.

(For those who haven't seen this before, "AM" means Audience Memeber)

p.78

AM: But the degree of support you're receiving shapes your freedom of action. If you just go off on a Heroquest, you can experiment as much as you need to make it come out all right. You've got your own resources, and nothing else, but nobody is telling you where to go. But if you go on a Heroquest and have the whole village praying for you, you've got more power out of it. And, at the same time, it will be a lot harder for you to leave the beaten track and strike off on your own. The community knows what they think you're doing, and that is limitting your options as well as empowering you more.

GS: That's right.

AM: And that's what the gods have done. They have lots of power, but they have no free will.

GS: That's very good, very decisive. Thank you.

This says to me that Humakt has no freedom of action because he has to do what is basically expected off him by his worshippers

p.80 ( re "personifying rune-truths" ).

GS: The God Learners made up the rune alphabet. They are the ones that pulled all these symbols and sort of "boiled them all down" and made them into what we recognise as the runes. And it is their method of determining similarities. It's a pattern recognition. It's a method of recognising that this temple is like the hill, and so on.

So, I would say, a God doesn't know what a rune is. [I now realise this might not be what you were getting at - but I thought it was quite interesting so I've left it in].

Does a god personify a truth? Does Humakt personify death, or is Humakt simply the force which is death? I expect, after the compromise in any case, just the latter. Certainly I would imagine that if Humakt disappeared there would be no more death in the world. When Yelm disappeared there was no more sun. If Orlanth goes there'd be no more wind, if Malia went there'd be no more disease, if Eiritha went there'd be no more herds (maybe ?), and so on (though see my other post on this).

I think personification is a myth concept - and I'm wrestling with this one in the other post (God Learner Secret).

Richard
Richard Develyn (http://www.skaro.demon.co.uk)


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