>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?
Justifying it is the easy part, _doing_ it is the hard part.
>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?
I think what Simon is pointing towards is wandering off into the HeroPlane rather than following a predetermined path. This is easy to do, but dangerous and difficult to survive. The HeroQuester simply heads off on a HeroQuest, say the Humakti Six Stones Rites, and then diverts, so rather than following one of the six paths they head off on a different Quest, say they bring a shovel and dig down into Krarsht’s Tunnels and kick ass in the Tunnels of Krarsht, or perhaps they head off to the Styx and collect Styx water (useful for destroying vampires).
For the GM this requires some work, you should hopefully have some advance warning of the PCs plans and just write out the alternative HeroQuest as you would any other HeroQuest.
> 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?
This is slightly different, but still feasible, I feel.
If you don’t have a myth for what you want to do, then you have three options.
First, the myth may be out there. For example, you might be from East Ralios where Chalana worshippers don’t know the myth to heal Orlanth’s mind, but if you head east, or go to Lankst, you might be able to learn it from Orlanthi there.
Secondly, you might know the myth exists, but not know the actual myth. For instance, you might be a Chalanan who knows that there is a myth where Chalana heals minds, but not know what the myth actually is. You might have a reference in a myth for Orlanth with a cast away remark like “…and Orlanth smote the Demon of Fire and Ash with the Three Strike Blow” which indicates the existence of a myth where Orlanth learns the 3 strike blow even if the character does not know it. In this case research and divination, as well as exploration into the spirit plane via shamans, and discussing things with spirits and ancestors (and Hantrafali if you’re Orlanthi) will be very useful.
Lastly, it may just be the case that there is no myth. Let’s just assume that there is no myth IYG for Chalana healing someone’s mind. No1, anywhere, knows of one, or of Chalana ever doing anything remotely similar. In this case the character can prepare a special HeroQuest whereby they learn the power for the god, making a new HeroPath. In this case the potential HeroQuester must be devoted utterly to their god, they must almost embody their deity already, for only a character with such special connections to their god is close enough so that their emulation affects the deity. It is a reverse of normal HeroQuesting, rather than emulating the deity the character does something new and the deity is changed by it. This is basically creating a Hero Cult, so Gerak Kag and Stone Biter from Kyger Litor would have done things like this. But the pious character then heads off to find the secret to what they need, so the Chalanan HeroQuester would head off onto the HeroPlane and find some healing spirits, and learn from that. It’s not feasible for anyone but God Learners to just “make up HeroQuests”.
I think there are many Quests you could never enact. So you can’t have a Humakti who resurrects the dead, it’s integral to the existence of Humakt that this is not how he works.
All IMO,
Nikk
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End of The Glorantha Digest V7 #223
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