What fun things can Heroquesters do in the Green Age?

[hipsterinspace]

I’d argue that Vasana is more likely to be placed into the role of Larnste than anything else, especially given that her god Orlanth, in his guise as Larnsti, has mastered the magic of change. That’s likely to be something that requires illumination or some other kind of mystical consciousness to really take advantage of, but it opens a door for that primordial mythic link without having to experimentally create something new from whole cloth. On some level every venture into the Green Age is going to be an experimental heroquest, there aren’t a lot of myths that people know of that time, but you probably want to minimize potential problems when the risks are so high.

If you’re looking at the pregens, the one with the much bigger problem is probably going to be Vishi, where the conditions of his god’s mythology have not happened and should absolutely be avoided, killing Genert in the Green Age would be very bad.

Edited April 14, 2023 by hipsterinspace

[David Scott]

On 4/13/2023 at 9:09 AM, EricW said:

A visit to the green age, where now dead gods like Genert walk untroubled, spreading their bounty and giving their gifts freely, where the people never age, where the authority of Yelm is absolute, where the Spike is the center of the world. 

So which did you mean? Green or Golden or a specific part of one?

[soltakss]

On 4/13/2023 at 9:41 AM, hipsterinspace said:

On 4/13/2023 at 9:09 AM, EricW said:

A visit to the green age, where now dead gods like Genert walk untroubled, spreading their bounty and giving their gifts freely, where the people never age, where the authority of Yelm is absolute, where the Spike is the center of the world.

The Green Age is prior to the Sun’s domination, that was Yelm’s Golden Age.

I was going to point this out.

In fact, the Golden Age begins with the creation of Aether Primolt, the First Emperor. The Green Age is the stuff that happened "before" that.

On 4/13/2023 at 9:09 AM, EricW said:

What gifts can be retrieved?

Fertility, growth, creation, new beginnings.

On 4/13/2023 at 9:09 AM, EricW said:

What dangers lurk in a place where death is still a secret under the watchful guard of Vivamort, where Malia is a healing goddess?

You can get lost in the Green Age by becoming part of it. You can grow too much, or can grow and become part of the Green Age. You might never return from the Green Age.

From a HeroQuesting point of view, the deities are more primal. You have the Celestial Court but no Aether or Umath. You have lots of Sea Deities but no Rivers. You have Ga and Gata, maybe even Genert and the Land Goddesses, but you probably don't have Ernalda/Maran Gor, you might have Ty Kora Tek and Asrelia. No Aether or any of his descendants, no Umath or any of his descendants, no Chaos Deities, no Death. So, the mythical landscape is more primal and less well known, so it is harder to interact with the deities. You don't know the myths of these primal deities, as they are rarely discussed.

 

 

[radmonger]

4 hours ago, hipsterinspace said:

I’d argue that Vasana is more likely to be placed into the role of Larnste than anything else, especially given that her god Orlanth, in his guise as Larnsti, has mastered the magic of change

i'd suggest it would be inherently a multi-stage process. Use orlanth rune or ritual magic to travel to Orlanth's stead, making sure you get there before the spike explodes. Travel to somewhere where you can meet Larnste. Convince him to personally initiate you, probably by passing some suitably epic test.

Use Larnsting hero magic to emulate being Larnste's companion at some earlier date. Repeat until failure.. 

 

[mfbrandi]

8 hours ago, soltakss said:

the Golden Age begins with the creation of Aether Primolt, the First Emperor. The Green Age is the stuff that happened "before" that.

I confess that the creation section of GRoY confuses me — as intended, I suppose — but page 6 has me thinking that Yelm was the first emperor and that there were “Aetherial Gods” before Yelm got promoted. Shall we say the job of emperor was created then though the first holder had been around for a bit — as some kind of offshoot or devolution of Aether???

A green age is going to need a source of light even if there is not “intense light … above the Spike”.

Good to know that there is a Theyalan word for prokaryote. Take that deniers of Gloranthan microbes!

Spoiler

Although it was written in Theyalan, I suspect it is of Jrusteli origin, given its materialist nature.

1. All was Darkness and Water. Then came Earth and Aether. [Creation]
2. Earth formed a perfect lozenge floated atop the water, rooted or pillared to the ancient base of Darkness. At first there were only gods, but later came life – algae, prokaryotes, arthropods, and fish. [Water]
3. Earth became irregular as it grew faster in some areas than in others. Flamal was born and plants grew atop the earth, followed by arthropods, and then by the first amphibians. [Early Green Age]

[metcalph]

8 hours ago, soltakss said:

In fact, the Golden Age begins with the creation of Aether Primolt, the First Emperor. The Green Age is the stuff that happened "before" that.

 

I think the Golden Age begins with Yelm.  Even in the Yelmic Cosmology (Glorious ReAscent), the First Era is the Timeless Period of the One while Yelm rules the Second Era.  There's no intermediate reign of Aether Primolt who is instead one of the Glorantay.  

[Akhôrahil]

The mythic Green Age and what the Praxians call the pre-Chaos Green Age aren't necessarily the same thing? Genert's Garden (the Praxian idea of a green age) is at least substantially a Golden Age phenomenon - it's even there into the Storm Age/Lesser Darkness and only destroyed when fighting Chaos.

So any Pavisite "Green Age" projects aren't actually "the" Green Age, but likely Golden Age and/or Storm Age?

Edited April 14, 2023 by Akhôrahil

[Eff]

17 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

The mythic Green Age and what the Praxians call the pre-Chaos Green Age aren't necessarily the same thing? Genert's Garden (the Praxian idea of a green age) is at least substantially a Golden Age phenomenon - it's even there into the Storm Age/Lesser Darkness and only destroyed when fighting Chaos.

So any Pavisite "Green Age" projects aren't actually "the" Green Age, but likely Golden Age and/or Storm Age?

Genert's Garden in that mythology is a symbol like Cockaigne or the Big Rock Candy Mountain. Everything is good, nothing hurts, and there's plenty of food. But in the Golden Age, there are emperors and exiles, there are servants and masters. There's violence/conflict/Kargan Tor. But the Green Age doesn't have to end at the same time for everyone. 

[Akhôrahil]

4 minutes ago, Eff said:

Genert's Garden in that mythology is a symbol like Cockaigne or the Big Rock Candy Mountain.

Or Wonderhome!

[Joerg]

On 4/14/2023 at 3:54 PM, soltakss said:

In fact, the Golden Age begins with the creation of Aether Primolt, the First Emperor. The Green Age is the stuff that happened "before" that.

Or at least that is what the Kralori say, if you trust the God Learners who equated Kralori TarnGaTha with Aether Primolt when the Eastern civilization regarded that as a local name of Yelm.

 

On 4/15/2023 at 12:33 AM, mfbrandi said:

A green age is going to need a source of light even if there is not “intense light … above the Spike”.

The Spike always pointed towards the Source of Energies, raw energies interacting with Creation unfiltered until Aether established himself to provide some shelter from its harsh emanations only True Dragons and Elder Giants and their offspring were able to withstand. If you are into Eastern mysticism, naked Atrilith would have been what powered the earliest Life in the upper Seas, sifting downwards somewhat filtered into the deeper Sea and into Darkness.

[Harry the Dirty Dog]

On 4/14/2023 at 6:04 PM, Gray Mouser said:

 

As Jeff pointed out in his Heroquesting posts, a crucial step is "Identification". So according to the character runes, which character/deity will he identify with? It will not be a thunder brother, sword, Axe Bearer, etc. For example the character of Vasana has the following runes: Air 90% (air does not exist yet); Death 75% (death does not exist yet); Earth 20% (OK); Movement 75% (OK), Truth 70% (OK). So the identification may be done on these three runes. So Earth: phylum --> reptile; organs: genitals, bones. This is the basis for determining identification. Movement: changeable, energetic, rebellious, ambitious. Truth: objective, the torch of truth. The result must be something strange to destabilize the player. The GM declares that the character identifies with the Three-Tailed (Movement) Snake (Earth) Guardian of Sexual Truth (whatever it is). Yanioth: Earth 90%, Beast 85%, Fertility 85%  so OK Identification with young earth goddess, not a big change). Etc.

Yanioth will probably come back with the knowledge of a new myth about the goddesses of the earth, new rune spell/power related to Fertility. For Vasana, this could imply a more significant change (related to the Sexual Truth?).

I suspect that the danger is greater for characters like Vasana than those like Yanioth

This is a really good point and I love your thinking. 

Now think of the consequences if Vasana used Air or Death.  Or anything that doesn't exist in the Green Age.  Anyone read Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder"?

Vasana uses something Death related in the Green Age. 

When she gets back, it turns out it wasn't Eurmal who got Death off Vivamort, it was whoever Vasana was identifying with.  The owner of the Death rune is  no longer Humakt, it is the Three-Tailed Snake Guardian of Sexual Truth.  Oh yeah, be really careful when you have sex with someone.  The consequences could be fatal.

Humakt is now a minor Storm God who didn't do anything of note.  Doesn't get a lot of worship, largely irrelevant.

Vasana does a Green Age heroquest using her Earth Rune?  When she gets back her runes are Earth 90%, Movement 75%, Truth 70%.  No Air, no Death.  Or perhaps a spectularly powerful Death rune that lines up with her newly found Three-Tailed Snake Guardian of Sexual Truth magic.

Edited April 17, 2023 by Harry the Dirty Dog

[metcalph]

2 hours ago, Harry the Dirty Dog said:

Now think of the consequences if Vasana used Air or Death.  Or anything that doesn't exist in the Green Age.  Anyone read Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder"?

I really don't think that changes in the Green Age result in universal changes.  At the most they should be confined to the Heroquester.  There's a visit to the Green Age in the Eleven Lights which doesn't mention the extreme reactions you suggest.

 

[mfbrandi]

4 hours ago, Joerg said:

If you are into Eastern mysticism, naked Atrilith would have been what powered the earliest Life in the upper Seas

If you are into wordplay, a trilith — indicating luck as the mystical absolute within the cosmos, the highest high god. Possibly not the Yelmite answer to the question why is there something rather than nothing?

[Harry the Dirty Dog]

16 hours ago, metcalph said:

I really don't think that changes in the Green Age result in universal changes.  At the most they should be confined to the Heroquester.  There's a visit to the Green Age in the Eleven Lights which doesn't mention the extreme reactions you suggest.

 

I'm not even disagreeing with you.  I was having fun and got carried away.  😄

Heroquesting to make universal changes is beyond difficult.  Cragspider couldn't break the trollkin curse and that is way less univeral than replacing Humakt as the owner of the death rune.

[Gray Mouser]

10 hours ago, Harry the Dirty Dog said:

I'm not even disagreeing with you.  I was having fun and got carried away.  😄

Heroquesting to make universal changes is beyond difficult.  Cragspider couldn't break the trollkin curse and that is way less univeral than replacing Humakt as the owner of the death rune.

Even if they are not "universal" changes, perhaps there are some changes that are effective at the clan level. For example, perhaps the Vasana clan receives less powerful magic from Humakt, or the worship to Humakt (at the Clan level) is diverted to Vasana because she used the power of Death during the Green Age. The magic associated with the Rune of Death is now associated with a form of Sexuality, or reserved for Women, or whatever. And maybe that clan is going to be looked upon with suspicion by its neighbors. Or only those who sacrifice MPs to Vasana can use Sword Trance spell in this clan. Or the Wyter is now the Three Tailed Snake. That’s the kind of thing superheroes do (i think).

Edited April 18, 2023 by Gray Mouser