Heroquesting tactics for gods' identities

From: parental_unit_2 <parental_unit_2_at_...>
Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2005 23:30:02 -0000

What are some tactics that a Gloranthan would know for proving or disproving a god's identity through heroquesting? What kind of heroquest paths would you follow?

In some cases, it might be obvious from the myth of the god. For example, to prove that Yinkin is a spirit (in order to gain alynxes as a clan totem, for example), a Gloranthan could take the role of the Serpentbeast Brotherhood, kidnap Yinkin, make him swear loyalty to his spirit father, Fralar, and then repel Orlanth when he comes to rescue Yinkin. All of that is a plausible variant of Yinkin's own myths (as given for his cult in _Storm Tribe_.

However, in other cases, it's not so obvious. How would one prove that two goddesses are the same entity, for example? And how could an opponent then subsequently disprove that claim?

This isn't entirely theoretical or digest fodder. I'm in a game where the player characters are considering trying to prove that two gods are distinct. I don't want to provide more details because I don't want spoilers. I'm just looking for a few very general strategies that a Gloranthan heroquester might know.

Rob