The Hero Wars are the Big Story for the RuneQuest setting. What initially drives the Hero Wars is simple – the Sartarite drive to free themselves from the Lunar Empire and the Lunar Empire’s drive to suppress their rebellion. That pretty much defines the conflict circa 1621-1627. Since the patron deities of both Sartar and the Lunar Empire have cults that view the other as their enemy, this conflict immediately takes a mythological aspect to it.
Sartar initially frees itself in 1625 following the Dragonrise, and then must defend its newly-won freedom. The Lunar Empire is initially distracted by other major problems – a religious heresy within the Lunar religion that challenges the Red Emperor’s authority, and a Pentan nomad invasion. Until those are dealt with, the Lunar Empire can only commit local forces towards the reconquest of Sartar, but if those are resolved it is only a matter of time before the Red Emperor can bring the main Lunar Army to bear, which should be able to overwhelm the Sartarites as it did in 1582, 1602, and 1613.
The Sartarites, recognizing the danger, recruit Heroes, Praxians, and obtain magical weapons to equal the odds. They then go on the offensive rather than wait for defeat. That moves the Hero Wars into its next stage – and forces the Lunar Empire to recognize and try to rectify its own weaknesses. And so the war escalates into what is then called the Hero Wars. Not only Argrath, Jaldon, Harrek, Gunda, Jar-eel, and Beat-Pot, but also the Feathered Horse Queen, Sir Ethilrist, Cragspider, The Dwarf, and even Androgeus get drawn into the conflict.
Now while all that is going on, your adventurers can participate directly in these events, but they can also do their own thing. However, no matter what they do, the Hero Wars IS going on, and creates opportunities and obstacles for the adventurers. It gives them reasons to go on adventurers. It also allows them to seek their own path towards Herodom – or just gives them a conflict to survive, like the role of the Civil War in the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. But the Hero Wars are as much a part of the setting as Boldhome, New Pavis, or Apple Lane.
And remember, although the cults of Orlanth and the Red Goddess are locked into conflict, along with some of their closest allies (e.g., Humakt, Storm Bull, Eurmal, Red Emperor, Seven Mothers, etc.), others have more options or refuse to be dragged into open conflict. And still others hate BOTH cults – for example, Kyger Litor and Zorak Zoran are hostile towards both (admittedly even more hostile towards the Red Goddess than to Orlanth) and their cults see the Hero Wars as an opportunity to weaken both foes!
Many people seek to gain magic to fight or at least survive the Hero Wars by heroquesting. People might heroquest to strengthen themselves, to gain new spells or powers, to gain magical allies, to discover weaknesses, and so on. They might even heroquest simply because there is so much heroquesting going on that they can’t avoid it! After Kallyr’s Lightbringers Quest fails, nobody thinks that there is a heroquesting “silver bullet” that will end the conflict. But maybe this next heroquest will give us the incremental advantage that will make all the difference?
Something else – when Jar-eel and her followers disrupt Kallyr’s Lightbringers Quest, people wake up to the realization that it is possible to do the same to other heroquests. Common paths are opposed or blocked. Repetition of the familiar becomes more dangerous than experimental paths. Which of course feeds into the escalation of the conflict and the stakes.
See also:
And of course, the personal drives and ambitions of the leading figures of the Hero Wars plays into all of this. Argrath, Harrek, and the Red Emperors obviously affect how things play out. But so do the passions of your adventurers.
The goal of these posts is to help clarify such major conflicts, and make it easier to incorporate into your games. And also remind people that this is what the editorial team constantly think about.
Could you give us a brief preview of example powers and gifts heroquesters might gain?
- New Rune spells.
- Enhanced effectiveness with a Rune spell (spend 1 RP and get 2 RP worth of effect!, etc).
- Cast a really powerful version of an existing Rune spell (perhaps powered by the heroquest)
- Get a Rune spell with unlimited duration and target restricted to self.
- Gain a physical enhancement.
Is this the same setting period of White Bear and Red Moon and then Nomad Gods? Yes. RuneQuest was created to be the roleplaying game in the setting of “White Bear and Red Moon”. And White Bear and Red Moon was an attempt to tell the Hero Wars through the medium of a war game.
So, the Hero Wars is predetermined? Greg wrote Glorantha as a set of stories. His basic story of the Hero Wars predated WBRM and the version presented in King of Sartar is almost 40 years old. And it is based on a story Greg wrote 15 years earlier. To reduce a core story – arguably THE core story in the setting – as being predetermined is just strange.
The basic structure of the Hero Wars long predates even King of Sartar. Heck just read the scenarios in WBRM. As for the outcome we know for certain that when the wars ended the world changed so much that it really matters not.
Note that I don’t for granted that readers know WBRM, KoDP or the history of Glorantha. Hence the reason I make these posts, recommend people read the Glorantha Sourcebook (which has the opening acts of this), and so on. It is the reason once the Cults Books are done, getting the RQ Campaign out is a priority. I also don’t assume that people who say they have read King of Sartar have actually read it.