Re: Routine HQuests

From: Roderick and Ellen Robertson <rjremr_at_...>
Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2001 11:20:05 -0800

> << This is true of any part of an adventure hero's daily life.
> Adventure stories are about interesting trouble. >>
>
> It seems to me that you would only go on a Heroquest if you life was
> "interesting" and "troubled" enough to have to go and do something
dangerous
> like Hero Questing. So it is a solution to a problem rather than a
problem
> in itself. "We must succeed at 'Arim Feeds The Pigs' or else such and such
a
> dreadful disaster will ensue, even though Arim Feeds the Pigs is very
> difficult, practically suicidal and extremely smelly". The "not so
dangerous"
> Hero Quests could be called worship ceremonies and then they wouldn't need
to
> be described.

Everyone goes on HQs all the time - all worship ceremonies are actually (very minor) quests. To an outside it looks like the worshippers are singing, dancing, or whatever, but to the one initiated into the secrets of the worship they are flying to Orlanth's Hall, or reliving the LBQ, or whatever. These are well-known and well-mapped HQs, and little happens that is out of the ordinary. You don't normally "get" anything, except a closer relationship to your culture and god, or save the world, or make the sun come up...

For example,
The Heortlings have several High Holy Days during the Sacred time. The Lightbringers are the main focus, of course. The LBQ is relived by worshippers of specific cults, and everyone else does I Fought We Won. Now, what do *you* think would happen if an entire clan decided *not* to do these quests? For them the Darkness would not end! The sun would be weak and wounded Elmal, not the strong and vigorous Elmal who was healed at the Dawn. Chaos and Darkness would attack the tula constantly. Crops wouldn't grow, animals would die, the ground would give up its fertility because Ernalda and her sisters are asleep. The air wouldn't move correctly; either it would stop entirely, or chaos and spirit winds would blow. The clan isn't just re-enacting the quests, they are preserving the world.

Roderick