Sounds like you're not missing anything. What this 'three levels of mastery resistance' stuff means is that you need a certain amount of skill and power to contact the hero plane. Now, if you're a crappy little 2W clan shaman (which is pretty bad for a leader), then you're only going to be able to contact the hero plane with the help of your whole clan and on holy days and such, or at least with a lot of ritual preparation and many sacrifices to give you bonuses. If you're a quite capable clan magician of 9WW, then you can often get there without help, but a little bit ensures that you can on holy days and such. If you're better and have WWW or more you will almost always have easy access to the hero plane. The same logic then repeats itself for higher planes.
If you have no mastery at all, you are unlikely to be able to 'contact' the hero plane even with help, and therefore unlikely to be chosen by your clan to lead their ceremonies. Just because the positions are socially determined doesn't mean skill doesn't have a major impact in candidacy.
There are other ways to get to the hero plane too. Another character can bring you along, or you might just be sucked up into someone else's heroquest.
Eric Rowe
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