Hi all
I have brought this over to the digest as I think we are getting into esotera and nature of Glorantha. Included in my postulations are fragments distilled from Greg's post, Manda Scott in her books, and probably a plethora of half baked psudo-mthyo-philosophising I must have picked up but don't remember where.
Anyway, Mikko posted this on Heroquest-RPG.
Please let me know what you think of this as an idea.
The boys have their initiation, and the girls theirs. Now, for me, each child will get seperated on the Heroquest part of their initiation. This is where sometimes some women will find a call to Vinga, Babeestor Gor or some other non typical female Goddess. Their Initiation will serve to contrast them with their initiation sisters, and they will follow Heorts path. I would say that only very rarely would men accept a young female into the male initiation, and then with great reverence. The main reason is boys are not boys, and men are not men around the ladies. Guys, I am sure (at least I hope) that you know what I mean. For example, when they are all getting told ribald stories and the sexual side of being a man, who is going to want to discuss that in the presence of a 12-14 year old girl. Now I know we as modern males may find this kind of coyness laughable, or not, however I have a hunch that the typical Heortling male will not discuss certain things with women or girls present.
Thus I think that some young women will come back and the Earth Mothers will note the mark of the warrior about them.
But back to the Heroquest portion of the initiation rites, they will be done solo. When we played a (large) group Orlanthi initiation at Continuum 2004 it was a rousing success. However, the children we had created had developed this 'Lord of the Flies' social order. It worked fantastically as a group scenario, so thats great. However I suspect that the true initiation rite will be solo and personal at the critical moments; choices made in isolation, not because of the presence of peers, or whatever other influences one might derive from the presence of friends and contempories.
I hope to run a solo initiation soon and I will certainly post my notes as ideas. I think Jeff hit the nail on the head; initiation is supposed to be life changing - the challenge is to help the player to feel that is what his character has been through.
Regards
Rob
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