> > Most people never HeroQuest to the God Plane
> > or Spirit Plane, except to visit their god
> > or spirit's home. So what happens outside
> > it is totally irrelevant for them.
>
> I must have misread something, I thought
> you implied you could tell just by the
> nature of that home.
The internet strips out a lot of subtlety. I'm going to capitalize some words, not because I'm shouting at you, but just to emphasize them. MOST people never HQ to the God Plane, except to visit their gods' homes. They could if they wanted to (though they might not return). And a very few people try it and bring back knowledge of what was there. But for MOST people, that knowledge is irrelevant to the reason they worship the entity -- to get the magic. The difference is between what is possible for a few and what is the practice of most. Make sense?
> I have to disagree there. Read HQ voices and
> such and it seems to definitely imply that
> the Aeolians think the poor Heortlings are
> ignorant pagans who don't realize that their
> "gods" are really just saints. Both sides
> think the other is practising misapplied worship.
Hm. I think you're right. It does imply that pretty strongly -- more strongly than the other pieces imply the opposite, I think. So, the problem becomes squaring this implication with the mechanics in a way that makes sense.
> But while the people don't know the numbers,
> the higher ups DO go on HeroQuests and such.
> I don't like the idea of it being so obvious
> what an entity "really" is.
I think I agree, at least that this is one possibility applicable to some cultures. (Still thinking thorugh the implications.) What an entity really is is provable, but it is difficult to prove. (After all, you have to survive that -20 alien world modifier. And maybe some False Homes are really hard to leave.) Some cultures' leaders might know they are engaged in Misapplied Worship and not tell the underlings. This might satisfactorily explain the ignorance displayed by Lady Mesinthe in HQ Voices. The liturgists' hymn that follows is much more poetic, and less implies that St. Worlath is not a god any more. On the flip side, some cultures would disseminate this knowledge widely.
Chris Lemens
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