>And there's only one set of rules to cover all of this, so it's pretty clear
>how these things work structurally. I'm really only concerned with content
>and aesthetics here. What's in the stations?
>
>
Much the same sort of thing as in theistic stations - insofar as there
is a 'typical' thing one might find in theistic quests :)
>>>I am at a loss about what a *typical* theistic heroquest might be!
>
>
>Well, for one, the acts are performed by gods or heroes, not spirits or
>shamans.
>
>
In an essence quest, the acts will be performed by prophets, saints, and
the like. I suppose you could say that a difference here is that you
don't heroquest taking on the role of the Invisible God Himself, even if
He is the thing that you are ultimately worshipping. But then, you don't
(AFAIK) really heroquest as Great Orlanth, either, but rather one of his
aspects.
>So, if I'm understanding correctly, myths are largely the same between the
>three major forms of magic? Or the differences aren't important enough to
>worry about?
>
>
They are different, of course, but those differences are cultural. To
put it another way: the myths of Dara Happans are likely to be as
different from the myths of Heortlings as the myths of Rokari are. What
matters is not the type of magic used, but the culture that you're
following. Now, the type of magic may have some implications for how the
culture sees things, and what sort of things it values, but that's no
more important than any other cultural values they may have.
Let's take an example. Your land is beset by drought. What do you do?
Heortling: You realise that Aroka has eaten Heler, and heroquest as
Orlanth to beat the crap out of him.
(NB: We know the above, of course, but all the others are ones I've just
made up of the top of my head as I was typing; they're not canonical)
Dara Happan: You realise that Doburdun's water supply has dried up,
preventing him from doing his Rightful Imperial Duty. You heroquest as
Urvairinus to beat up the hostile spirits that have caused the damage,
and then as Mohenjar to repair his irrigation system.
Praxian: You realise that you need more water, so you heroquest as Waha
to capture the Blue Rain Frog Thingie
Darjiin: You realise that Yestendos is so busy rogering Gissullee the
Six-Breasted that they've both allowed Agsargon to dry out all the crops
again. You heroquest as LarEnslib the Voluptuous to woo Yestendos away
for a while, and then let them get back to their jobs.
Loskalmi: You realise that gluttonous pagan spirits have drained away
the water from the sky, to make more beer with. You heroquest as St
Lenderyn, to go unto the Castle of the East Wind and get it back.
(Fortunately, the pagan spirits are all pissed, and quite easy to do
battle with... less fortunately, the Castle's not very easy to get to,
and is surrounded by hostile wossnames)
Rokari: You realise that God is punishing you for allowing men to
blatantly get away with looking at women's ankles. You heroquest as
Malkion going among the Naughty to convince them to mend their ways and
introducing the ideas of penance and thoughtful contemplation of God. If
this doesn't work you turn them all into pillars of salt. Bastards.
>So my thought was to look at western monotheistic myths to figure out what a
>wizardry myth might be like.
>
I did give a possible list in my last post...
>The myths that occur to me are things like
>Archangel Michael tosses Lucifer, St. George Slays the Dragon, The Holy
>Grail, the myth of the Golem, etc.
>
>
Yes, those will all work. But note that the differences are not so much
to do with using wizardry versus using theist magic, but rather due to
the different values that Judaeo-Christian society has, versus those
that, say, the Norse had. But the Norse also had pretty different values
to, say, the early Chinese.
>In these later Western myths, starting with Arthur and such, there's the
>"rugged individualism" ideal often that says that one has to make his own
>way. The point of Percival's tale being, for instance, that only by making
>up a new rule does one succeed (he speaks in Seige Perilous to obtain the
>grail).
>
>
If that's what the culture values (and I'd say it's not far off for, for
instance, the Loskalmi), then do myths about that.
>It would be much easier to make up my own
>myths as I need them using my already reasonable level of understanding of
>Earth myths. Reasonable here meaning "enough to create more entertaining
>myths for play from."
>
>
That would seem the best approach for actual gaming, yes.
>If it's just that all Gloranthan HQs are more or less just like any other
>Gloranthan HQ, and one shouldn't worry about aesthetic differences to the
>myths and such...well, OK.
>
No, there will be differences. But they're about the culture, not about
what sort of magic they use. Dara Happans are not like Heortlings, but
they are both theist. The Rokari are not like the Esvulari, but they
both use essence-magic.
>Is this just a case of my Glorantha varying from the norm here? Or, in fact,
>are there things we can say about Gloranthan wizardry mythology.
>
>
Gloranthan Malkioni mythology, maybe - although even there, there are a
lot of different cultures. You start to extend to other essence-using
cultures, such as the Vadeli, and even what consensus you do have is
going to break down. Perhaps you're asking the wrong question, and
making it seem broader than you intend?
-- Trotsky Gamer and Skeptic ------------------------------------------------------ Trotsky's RPG website: http://www.ttrotsky.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/
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