Re: The Glorantha Digest V7 #514

From: aelarsen_at_facstaff.wisc.edu
Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2000 12:15:40 -0500

>From: "Guy Jobbins" <gjobbins_at_hotmail.com>
>Subject: Re: Thedquest
>
>I too have been thinking about Andrew Larson's Thedquest. If I, your
>average Orlanthi Geezer, was approached by a Broo claiming to have been
>raped, demanding vengence/justice, and I twigged it was on a heroquest of
>Thed, I'd off the broo - no hesitation.
>
>I'm not going to run the risk of helping it out, and why should some Uraini
>suffer for something he didn't do - that's hardly Orlanthi justice, is it?
>I didn't start the quest, but was incorporated into it, so it is hardly as
>though I planned to get any benefits - and Orlanth screwed up in the
>original myth, anyway, so what benefits could I hope for? Any benefits I
>might get from subverting the myth subtly are probably not worth the risk of
>the broo winning out. So just kill the broo.
>
>Am I thinking right about this, or instead of being an Average Orlanthi
>Geezer am I playing an Uroxi, or even a 21st century earthling? Is the
>difference in reaction possibly a distinction between an Average Orlanthi
>Geezer, and an Orlanthi Hero In The Making?

        I agree that under normal circumstances, no Orlanthi would willingly co-operate with a broo. So I set up the sitution so that simply refusing to help wasn't an option--the PCs were severely outnumbers by the broo warband and it was obvious to the PCs that they might well lose the fight. Additionally, there was the fact that mythically, Orlanth had agreed to grant Thed justice. As far as the Orlanthi was concerned, the Uraini had done something to merit punishment--he was worshipping chaos. The fact that Urain was a member of the Storm tribe made him ideal to play the part of Ragnaglar, since both have Storm and Chaos as runes.

        I guess that the PC in question ought to get some small reward for learning a lesson that his god learned the hard way. But the real reward would have to come from playing the role the 'correct way'. After all, Orlanth eventually learns the hard way that killing Yelm was a mistake, but Orlanthi still mythically recreate that event. To refuse to 'kill' Yelm in a ceremony would undoubtably be disastrous. So perhaps the PC also ought to get a small punishment or disadvantage. The gods aren't very flexible when it comes to their own myths.

Andrew E. Larsen

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