"John Galloway" <gallowayja_at_hotmail.com> writes:
>Is there such a thing as a reverse heroquest? I.e. the worse you seem
>to do on the actual heroquest the better the final result.
It depends on what you think constitutes a 'better' result.
Hill of Gold has already been cited, and it's the classic example of a HeroQuest where the objective isn't to succeed at the obvious goals of defeating this foe or achieving that goal, but the transformational experience of enduring suffering. But this is still about 'succeeding' so perhaps not realy what you're asking about.
There are real world, and Gloranthan examples of religions that reverse the meaning or teachings of a tradition. Supposedly the Vadeli gain their powers through reversing the virtues of the Brithini religion. They realised that one possible interpretation of the Logical Laws could actualy have the opposite meaning to the traditional Brithini interpretation.
The Morocanth invert the relationship between man and beast in the Waha religion and yet are still part of that same religion. Note that in this particular case both sides still do get a benefit. The pact of Waha guarantees the survival of man and beast, so even though the herd men 'lost the heroquest' they still got to survive, which they wouldn't otherwise.
I suspect some chaotic heroquests are inversions of 'beneficial' ones, much in the way satanists reverse christian ritual, but in most cases inversions of rituals and heroquests stem from an inherent cyclicality in myth. What comes around, goes around. For every winner, there is a loser but that doesn't necesserily mean that the 'loser' gains nothing. That's the mistake the chaotics make, their narrow and short term focus on immediate, personal power (or even survival) leads them to cut themselves off from the world sustaining ebb and flow of magical energies and ultimately leads to oblivion.
Sorry to be so rambling, but your seemingly simple question touches on a complex set of issues.
Simon Hibbs
End of Glorantha Digest, Vol 11, Issue 26
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