Exploration HQs

        I've been doing some thinking about Heroquests, because it's going to be coming up in my campaign eventually, and I've run into a question. How does one justify performing a heroquest for something that hasn't been done before? Simon Phipp's excellent material on HQing describes the Exploration HQ as going into new territory for the deity, but how is it justified mythically? Most heroquests, as I understand them, involve re-enacting a myth about the deity and trying to reproduce the deity's actions. Of course, one can intentionally branch off at some point, but how does this actually work? More problematically, how does one initiate a HQ if one can't find a relevant myth?

        To give an example, one of the important NPC's in the game has been severely traumatized emotionally and is slowly 'dying inside'. One of the PCs is a Chalanan, who is concerned to save her, but none of the Chalanan magic addresses the mind, only the body. Theoretically, he ought to be able to HQ to create a spell like 'Heal Mind' that would do the trick, but where does he start? Since there is no myth of Chalana Arroy healing someone's mind, how does he go about doing the quest, when he's got no story to serve as a template? If he somehow succeeds, does this create a myth about CA that follows the course of his HQ?

Andrew E. Larsen