> And then I get confused by Peter Larsen's quoting:
>
> > Jane Williams has an initiation on her web page that uses the Second
> > Son/IFWW myths. > if you were an Orlanthi, > you would literally need
> to
> > be *insane* to consider such ideas as a > valid mythic > basis for
> > heroquesting.....
>
> Well, fair enough. Using my ideas = insane: no, can't argue with that.
> Or
> wasn't that what you meant?
Um, no. It is what I get, though, when I respond to a Digest and don't clearly demarcate where one idea stops and the next begins. You'd have to be insane to try to heroquest with the Predark (splitting hairs over whether the Predark is Chaos or Chaos is what we call the Predark trapped in the Creation of the Celestial Court). In fact, I liked your initiation quest a great deal, which is why I was trying to draw attention to it. Not insane. Nope. Sorry about that.
David Ford asks (on a completely different topic):
> Would it be possible to heroquest to the beginning of the universe and
> witness the big bang, or rather big splash when Glorantha was born?
> If that is rather extreme, how about visit the Celestial Court and see
> the elder gods in action?
Possible? Possibly. Wise? Absolutely not. We're told that herooquesting in the Green Age is extremely dangerous because you are messing around in a "period" where "things" aren't fully formed yet. There is a very real danger that you will do something new and bear the consequences of that action (in rather horrible ways). I don't think heroquesting is like 1950s-style time travel ("Oh no, I stepped on a bug in 125,000,000 BC and now Adlai Stevenson is President!"), but you can cause terrible consequences to yourself and your supporters if you don't Do Everything Just Right. Mostly, the payoffs (though probably large) are not worth the risks.
Now, heroquesting before the Green Age would take you to a place where nothing is formed. Not only is all action simulaneous but, I suspect, nothing is fully differentiated. The gods and powers you've studied to allow you to heroquest don't exist yet. You have no protections. The things you encounter will be conceptually enormous -- HARMONY, DISORDER, WATER -- and there is no myth, no frame of reference to anchor you. The "Right Choice" is hard enough in the Green Age, where the myths and referents are vague; before then, there are no guides at all. It's like trying to construct a database using Access with no training, no manual, and the screen turned off. And if it doesn't run perfectly the first time, you (and your supporters and probably all your kin and maybe everyone that knows anthing about you or speaks your language) not only die but are changed in impossible to guess ways....
All in my opinion, of course.
Peter Larsen
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