>I'm afraid you realy don't seem to be clarifying anything, just adding to
>the profusion of confused terminology.
Sorry Simon, If you are going to deal with Chaos there are certain terms that have to be in your lexicon. They are all interwoven(as most relationships are) and to ignore one is to lose track of the pattern. Sandy spoke of Disorder back in V.1 when he stated that the God learners knew the difference between Disorder and Chaos.
>Equlay, magic cannot exist in contact with pure chaos. It is disrupted,
>.absorbed and disintegrated.
If we accept that Chaos is the raw material of creation then it follows that all of creation comes out of Chaos. Additionally most creation myths have the elder Gods coming out of Chaos as well. If the Gods created Glorantha then they used Chaos and manipulated it in some fashion. Obviously then magic can interact with Chaos without being destroyed.
>The physical matter of Glorantha was orriginaly created from chaos, but it
>was changed fundamentaly by that process - it isn't chaos anymore and
>confusing chaos with magic is unhelpfull.
I am not saying that magic is chaos. Rather that Magic is the tool that is used to allow Chaos to interact with the world. The effect of chaos is change, creativity, destruction... sounds like general headings for most spells doesn't it.
In addition we find that some of the Gods themselves carry the Chaos rune; Ragnaglar and Seseine as examples.
>. Magic cannot exist in the presence of that
>which cannot be connected to, bound with or influenced.
If this were the case then these Gods would not exist and the chaos rune could not be tied to anything. Bagog, Krjalk and most of the "Terror" cults would wonder why all their Divine Magic has dried up and all of there heroes who have attained Rune affinity would be unable to work magic..
So to the original question is law the antithesis of Chaos.
No. in fact the Law rune may supecede chaos. If Chaos can be acted upon
and manipulated then there must be some causal force which says how this
may be done. Peter metcalf says that the Law rune is simply the laws of the
universe.
I think that we might look at stasis as being the antithesis of chaos.
Where Chaos represents change and diversity, Stasis represents stability
and order.
So try this on for size. The stasis Rune is Mostali in origin. Mostali as
the first born have the strongest memories of Chaos and ally themselves
with its antithesis, Stasis.
Mostali take truestone which was created by Mostal to hold creation
together(the spike). It does this because trustone is rich with Stasis and
resists the effect of Chaos.
Now, the Mostali take this truestone which already has pretty heavy cultural significance and they place there strongest magics upon it, reforging it and making it purer. The end result is Admantium which is focused Stasis.
Magic will not work on the Admantium because magic invokes (indirectly) the power of chaos and in this case the Admantium is a much stronger because it has a direct link to (may in fact be a part of..) the Stasis Rune.
Similarily magic worked in the vincinity of Admantium will be affected as though the very world around them is resisting the results of the spell
Some may argue that motion and stasis are opposites but remember that the paired runes are a God learner construct and should be suspect... I think that Motion and stasis merely dislike each other in a rather vague unfocused way. Stasis and Chaos on the other hand are like matter and anti-matter if you bring them together in their pure form they both cease to exist. During the Great Darkness "Life met anti-life and everything imploded into nothingness"
Finally.
>Magic is what makes Glorantha what it is. Everything in Glorantha that
>isn't either pure Chaos, or pure Law, is magical.
Say Rather:
Everything which isn't pure Chaos or Pure Stasis is magical. Because Magic
is the vessel used by Law to express how Chaos and Magic may be combined.
Everything in Glorantha is an orderly expression of Chaos. People start as
babies and get old. This is Change, but a very
smooth and orderly form thereof. Trees change with the seasons, so do the
woodfolk. Everwhere in Glorantha there is the smooth orderly expression of
controlled Chaos.
During the Great Darkness, raw uncontrolled Chaos came into Glorantha. Through the vessel Wakboth it entered the world unchecked by Law.The Life of Glorantha allied themselves with Law to regain control of Chaos and eject it from Glorantha. Some among those who fought were better able to express Law and were more effective in the Battle. Eater of Chaos the Troll was able to defeat chaos by consuming it and making it subject to the most powerful Law of Uz, Digestion. Once Chaos has been made subject to Law again then Chaos becomes controllable.
The end result of the war. law wins and Chaos is controlled. But Chaos has strengthened its position. How do we know this? Because people age faster, seasons turn faster....
Faster change = stronger Chaos.
Bill Thompson.
"Ask me a riddle and I reply:
"Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie.""
End of The Glorantha Digest V5 #233
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