In issue #512 Keith N wrote, probably following Lords of Terror, that Malia is not inherently chaotic. This is very interesting and, IMO, very true. It also highlights what I think is a gross simplification of the Chaos topic.
Malia is not chaotic because she has no direct connection with the Chaos Rune, which is the fount of all Chaos, but Chaos creatures worship her. Does that make her chaotic? No. Humakt and Chalana Arroy are both worshipped by Broos, and surely they are not chaotic. Malia is of course evil, but are all evil Gods chaotic? No. Daga, Gorgorma and even Humakt are evil, but not chaotic. Also, are all Chaos Gods evil? Again, the answer is no. Nysalor, the Red Goddess, and in a certain sense Primal Chaos are not evil Gods. Their worshippers may commit evil (or rather, bad) deeds, but so do worshippers of Orlanth, Yelmalio and Storm Bull. And these three are cultural heroes, not villains.
In a certain sense, I feel that Chaos is actually Good, because it represents Nature as it tends to re-establish itself, while the Great Compromise is Evil because it constrains Nature's free flowing. It would seem that Chaos, in the end, is stable, while Order is unstable (more precisely, metastable).
Maybe this is too dark a view, but I think that the kind of Black & White morality that equates all Chaos with all Evil is out of place in Glorantha. I don't like most Gloranthan supplements published after RoC because they picture Chaos Gods as big bad demons too similar to Lovercraft's monsters. Most of all I hate the "important note" on page 3 of Lords of Terror: "...these cults be used solely for [NPCs] antagonists...".
Alex
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