> Just recently subscribed to this list.
Welcome aboard!
> Ok, that isn't so much a question as a statement.
> The question is "How does
> it all work?". If that has been written up sometime
> in the last 20 years,
> just tell me where to go look.
The answer is 42.... sorry, wrong universe.
> In Glorantha, however, we "know" there are gods. We
> know who they are. Yelm
> exists. Orlanth exists. I have no problem with Yelm
> worshippers having one
> spin on how Yelm was killed and Orlanthi having
> another spin, but either
> Yelm was killed or he wasn't, and there is a "true"
> version of events that led up that killing.
Ah. It's the Subjective/Objective debate, I think. And it *has* been a while.
Start here:
http://www.btinternet.com/~nick_brooke/rants/sobjective.htm
and then go through Digest archives searching for "subjective". This will take a while :(
> So, problem one is - there is somewhere a single,
> true accounting of what
> happened. Mortals may not know it. The gods
> themselves may not know all of
> it, but it exists. What is it? Where can I find it?
Simple answer: no, there isn't. So you won't. There are multiple, mutually incompatible realities, all of which are simultaneously True. HQing is sometimes an attempt to make one of them more "true" than others, at least for the immediate physical/social area. Whether or not Yelm died, and who killed him, is a bit big for this sort of treatment: I believe we usually pick on whether ZZ stole Fire from Yelmalio as the standard example. If your Yelmalian HQer tried to "prove" that this did not happen, he might get Fire back for himself, or for his clan, but not for the rest of the world. Unless he's *really* good.
> Problem 2:
> What is HeroQuesting? How does it work?
Try reading the HW background books for this. Also, try playing King of Dragon Pass. (In fact, try playing it anyway. It's good, and a great insight into how clans work.)
HQing...
> creates some kind of
> shadow, or gravity well that pulls things somewhat
> in a different direction,
> so that we do now actually have two versions of the
> truth. We have the real
> true story, and the slightly modified story.
That's it! Both at once. And people have been doing this for a long time, so there are *lots* of versions of True.
> All of a sudden there is a tremor
> in the force, and
> Orlanth is a little less powerful, or all of a
> sudden has access to a new
> set of abilities to pass on to worshippers.
But only locally. The next clan down the valley doesn't have those new powers.
Sometimes (in fact, more often than not) a HQ is just a re-run of a "known" story, not an attempt to alter anything. You run through How My God Got Power X so that you, too, can have Power X. And, by doing so, you strengthen the Truth of that particular story.
Hope this helps a bit.
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