This is absolutely one of the more difficult things to understand about mythology. The problem will arise when people complain about having to lose an encounter on a Heroquest just because their hero did. Can't they do better than Orlanth on it? And the answer is, "No." Our monotheistic conditioning has inured us against understanding this, as well as several other critical points of mythology. Here's an effort to explain something about it, but as to handling it in play I am afraid that I can not really help much. You can't penalize players when their heroes act "modern," or else they'd be penalized all the time. I suggest just playing. After all, Hero Wars is not intended to be a mythological primer, just a game.
Imminence , not Gods and Goddesses
[Polytheistic mythology is the actual subject here, but many of these
characteristics are also applicable to monotheism. ]
Deities are imminent, which means that they are present here and now in the
physical world. Monotheism has taught that God is "out there" someplace.
Polytheism recognizes that (many) deities are right here, right now.
Living mythology doesn't deal with gods and goddesses. In Homer, for
instance, Zeus is never called the Thunder god. He is Thunder. Aphrodite is
not the love goddess. She is Love. Ares is War. And of course the deities
are actually much more complex than being a single thing. Athena is not
just wisdom, but is the creative urge of domestic powers, the power to
defend and fight, and the feeling that Athenians have to be a part of their
city.
By inserting the word "god" or "goddess" into the equation we have
automatically created a distance between the person and the mythic power
that does not exist for the participant. This distance makes the divine
power to be something other than what it is. Thus when Odysseus is inspired
by Athena there is not a goddess there disguised as a passing merchant. It
is the passing merchant who serves as a vehicle for Odysseus' inspiration.
Yea sure, Homer says that the merchant disappears in a whirlwind and
Odysseus realizes it had been Athena. This is poetic metaphor.
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