Re: Dragon / Short Heroquesting

From: Alex Ferguson <abf_at_cs.ucc.ie>
Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2000 23:57:41 GMT


TERRA INCOGNITA:
> I have a handicap for participating in Digest and mainstream trend. My
> position is far from Greg for many reason. Heretical idea always boiled in
> my head.

Being distant in one's philosophical stance from Greg, is, as has been said not necessarily any sort of handicap. Indeed, abusing the fellow roundly for his beliefs and actions, actual or purported, is bordering on the Trendy, these days.

> Peter Metcal[fe]:
> >Kralorela can be viewed as one immense dragon but I do think that
> >various portions of it (ie important officials such as Exarchs and
> >Generals) are dragons in their own right.

> I guess this condition is called as Utuma (this means self-suicide and
> dismemberment, and creats many lifes in limited time cycle for mystical
> reason. But this case is for pragmatcal reason.)

It's the result of an utuma, but not one carried out by Godunya, or any (recent) emperor: (the appearance of) individual consciousness is just a (sad) Fact of Life, in the modern day. The EWF idea of just 'squishing together' everyone into one giant dragon would be seen in Kralorela as a madcap, foolish, and impractical idea, stemming from a crude misunderstanding of the nature of the ancestral dragons. Rather, each person must realize the dragon within, though the emperor and the other dragons will self-sacrificingly assist the sincere in their efforts to do this.

> I think great heros like Harrek in the condition of "all day are heroquest"
> like God Age.

I think this is very much so. In a sense, performing an in a HQ is doing that thing not simply one moment in 'historical time', but doing it Once, Eternally. (An old joke springs to mind about 'commitment' for men seeming like deciding to have the same breakfast cereal every day for the rest of eternity.) Do something on an HQ, and the echoes of that resonate around your 'mundane' life. If your HQ is on a big, deeply committed enough scale, you're more or less bound to do the same thing, in any similar situation. Do enough of such quests, and your entire freedom for action has been 'ritually determined' away. You've gained great power (perhaps), and have lost your (as it were) free will.

Cheers,
Alex.


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