> > A 'heroquest' with that objective is just, in
> > essence at least, a worship ceremony, not a HQ in
> > any 'strong' sense.
> Disagree. Partially. Worship ceremonies are, yes,
> minor heroquests as posited, but most heroquesting
> that one could semantically & quibblingly call such
> (according to the RQ2 RuneQuest/HeroQuest opposition)
> is founded on the enactment of myths that already
> exist.
Yes, and that's almost exactly what I just said. You're enacting a pre-existing myth, not to change the _myth_, but to change (or change back) the _world_ to being in accordance with myth. (e.g., As you're the Evil Emperor, myth dictates that you be dead. Take that, you fiend.)
> > If you're changing your self, you're changing the
> > world.
>
> This is true, but I'm not persuaded that changing your
> self is *necessarily* going to change cultural
> attitudes and beliefs (not to mention the world
> itself) in any broad and meaningful way.
How broad and meaningful it is depends on how 'big', 'deep', or 'broad' the Quest is. If it's purely individual, then it will only affect that individual: but how many people are purely individual, in that sense? One's community, one's enemies, anyone one is 'connected to' are in some sense involved, more so if they're explicitly the object of, or consenting to, the Quest in question.
> In a more advanced society, based on monolithic rules,
> and a more static mythology (therefore a more static
> magic place), the influence of an individual questor
> will be proportionately smaller; the potential rewards
> more powerful; the dangers far greater. Yadda.
I wouldn't call, for example, the Orlanthi exactly 'primitive', but they're far from mythicly monolithic. You can have ample mythic variation in myth from our end of the valley to yours, so our quests can certainly materially affect our divine landscape, without necessarily having to drag yours along with us. Obviously changing a 'big myth' for a whole society is tremendously difficult, yes. Perhaps this is partly why Dara Happans traditionally aren't into HQing: like the joke about the three-legged pig, you don't change a myth that good all at once...
['RW Faith']
> > It's central _to the question posited_. It may be
> > pretty left field as far as the Digest is concerned,
>
> > which is another matter.
>
> It would have been nice if the question could have
> been posited in Gloranthan terms ...
It was, but as topics will, it meandered around a fair old bit. It's hard to ask a question like 'does RW faith exist in Glorantha' without asking the supplemental, 'What do you mean by RW faith'. Unless you're going to say, by design axiom "Yes", as I'm moderately tempted to do so.
Cheers,
Alex.
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