Guide to Glorantha Group Read Week 8 - The Hero Planes

[David Scott]

Hero Planes discussion here!

https://basicroleplaying.org/topic/6642-guide-to-glorantha-group-read-week-8/

https://basicroleplaying.org/topic/6641-guide-to-glorantha-group-read-week-8-deep-discussion/

https://basicroleplaying.org/topic/6601-guide-to-glorantha-group-read-week-8-errors/

[David Scott]

Mike Perry did the epic picture of Kalikos, here are the original roughs, clearly we went for number 5:

For those who missed this from week 1:

This piece of art was commissioned by the Kaikos society, the Finnish Glorantha society. http://www.kalikos.org. It is of course Kalikos...

There is great article on how Mike Perry made this on his blog: 

http://mperryart.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/the-making-of-kalikos-hero-quest-for.html

[jrutila]

This chapter is an essential read if you want to read Gloranthan myths and stories about gods. Especially understanding that different ages are kind of different places and everything is happening all the time. The Guide has referenced these things before (like talking about Green Age) and it is finally nice to get these things defined.

Somehow this chapter seems to be more about Heroquesting than Hero Planes (or are they, in the end, same thing). After heroquesting there is stuff about God Learners (that was already in the History chapters) and more about heroquesting in Third Age. Maybe I was left missing a little bit more info about the Hero Planes. Something like major known heroquests per plane or something.

We have the Kalikos Heroquest again but now with explanation. It is nice to see a Lunar heroquest as I have read mainly about Orlanthi heroquests elsewhere.

 

[Steve]

The Kalikos artwork is stunning. I think that we're all very lucky that the Kalikos Society decided to commission it.

[metcalph]

p157  This was an interesting paragraph

Quote

A man whose name is lost made a
discovery thought impossible. Mixing magic
was always a dream of the God Learners,
but seemed to be impossible due to some
mysterious internal structure of the world.
Yet, around 700, that forgotten person did it:
he learned how to use sorcerous manipulation
to alter divine Rune magic.

It appears to be different from Serozos.  

[jajagappa]

Again, fantastic art.  Love the Kalikos expedition.  The God of the White Pillar is wonderful - provides a sense of him being 'broken', yet still struggling at his task.  Plus it gives you a great visual of a heroquest in progress.  What dangers await?

And, of course, the God Learner secret. 

Overall, the section is more heroquesting than Hero Planes.  Useful, but not quite aligning with chapter title.

[Oracle]

What I did not get from this chapter: Is there just one Hero Plane or are there several Hero Planes? If the latter, how are they distinguished?

[Oracle]

p. 157, middle column, third paragraph

Except for the last 2 sentences this is a copy of the paragraph connecting the first and the second column on p. 137. Is this intentional?

 

[Steve]

17 hours ago, Oracle said:

What I did not get from this chapter: Is there just one Hero Plane or are there several Hero Planes? If the latter, how are they distinguished?

There does seem to be some inconsistency in the use of Plane and Planes here, though that might be my lack of understanding. I thought there was basically one Hero Plane, and that's what the HQ:G rulebook refers to.

[Joerg]

The Hero Plane is a collective term for the parallel Glorantha in which one experiences God Time. You speak of hero planes when it comes to wander between different sections of this Godtime (usually the Ages) when you have to overcome a boundary similar to that you need to overcome to enter Godtime in the first place.

[Oracle]

1 hour ago, Joerg said:

The Hero Plane is a collective term for the parallel Glorantha in which one experiences God Time. You speak of hero planes when it comes to wander between different sections of this Godtime (usually the Ages) when you have to overcome a boundary similar to that you need to overcome to enter Godtime in the first place.

I see. But this becomes not clear from the text in the Guide, which makes the topic a bit confusing, if you relay just on this information.

[Steve]

4 hours ago, Joerg said:

The Hero Plane is a collective term for the parallel Glorantha in which one experiences God Time. You speak of hero planes when it comes to wander between different sections of this Godtime (usually the Ages) when you have to overcome a boundary similar to that you need to overcome to enter Godtime in the first place.

The Guide uses the singular term for this parallel God Time Glorantha in most places though, e.g. (p. 156 box-out):

Quote

it is possible to enter into the mythical realm, which we call the Hero Plane, and to participate in the legends and myths 
that are otherwise in the eternal God Time

It seems to only be p.154 that uses the plural. I'm adding this to the error thread.

[Joerg]

Checking up earlier usage of the plural form, I stumbled over a few more interesting otherworlds hinted at in Hero Wars - Introduction to Glorantha, such as the non-dead underworld deeper earth. I suppose that the clouds and entities living atop or within them might qualify as outer world/hero plane as well, as would the Firebergs.