Chaos and Evil

From: Nils Weinander <nilsw_at_ibm.net>
Date: Mon, 12 Apr 1999 21:33:41 +0200


Chris Bell:
>
> > 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).
>
> You have it backwards. As stated in prior writings by FGS himself, nature
> is actually what's lawful, the world as it was before the coming of Chaos.
> Arachne Solara is amongst other things the Goddess of nature and a vast
> unknowable. Arachne Solara had to bind Chaos with Law and meld Chaos to
> the Law of the Compromise in order to save the world. Thus, Time was born.
> The world is now a far cry from the perfect world of the Gods Age (where
> everything was perfect and happy) but at least the universe still exists,
> unlike what would have happened were Chaos were allowed to run it's course.
> If Chaos were unrestrained, there would be *nothing*. The cosmos would
> have been devoured by the maw of Kajabor, with no nature and no
> individuality or unity.

This is correct from the point of view of some cultures, which deal with chaos frequently. But remember that outside the Western, Orlanthi and Praxian cultures chaos is much less of an issue. Dara Happa and the east don't know of the Compromise and the start of time. They most likely think chaos is bad when they meet it, but it's not the defining enemy of their cultures. Dara Happa have demons, the easterners have antigods, but they aren't necessarily chaotic. Uz and their gods are demons to the Dara Happans and Orlanth is an antigod to the East Islanders.

So, what I'm trying to say is that chaos is bad, but chaos/order isn't the whole deal, but one way of looking at things.



Nils Weinander | Everything is dust in the wind nilsw_at_ibm.net | http://www.geocities.com/Paris/8689/

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