I'm glad you used quotations for those words, because it helps to emphasize that "natural" and "unatural" are not exactly terms of scientific precision. To the Orlanthi, chaos is outside of the rather broad range of things that they believe belongs to the world.
You correctly point out that on at least one plane of analysis, Umath's behavior is not terribly different from the Unholy Trio. However, no Orlanthi would agree with that. For them, "chaos" is the penultimate taboo. It encompasses a range of actions, rituals, beings and even thoughts, that traditionalist Orlanthi are firmly convinced threatens to destroy existence. For them, comparing the actions of Umath or Orlanth (who used violence to change the world) to the Unholy Trio (who summoned violence to destroy the world) is simply factually incorrect (not to mention dangerous).
Don't think of chaos as an intellectual straw man - it is hardly a handy guide to good versus evil even amongst the traditionalist Orlanthi. The Orlanthi recognize and even propitiate a number of often hostile, villainous gods - Vadrus, Zorak Zoran, Urox, Humakt, Maran Gor, Babeester Gor, etc. They are not chaos, but an important part of what the Orlanthi believe is the order of things.
On the other hand, there have been Orlanthi who have been willing to break even this greatest of taboos for the benefit of their people. Heroes like Phargentes Kingkiller, Lokamayadon, Ingvkot Axe-and-a-Half, etc., have all at least recognized the value of the power which may be gained by violating the chaos taboo.
>Anyway, I suspect that this discussion is nearing futility, as you guys
>repeatedly semi-flame that I am some argumentative idiot who isn't even
>trying to understand. Maybe I'm taking too much of a holistic, Taoist
>approach to the metaphysics, but, to me, your approach has plenty of holes.
In part, I think this is because there is too much a tendency to take an extra-Gloranthan approach to issues of Gloranthan metaphysics. For instance, what I just wrote about the Orlanthi approach applies to the Orlanthi perspective, not the Dara Happan. Admittedly, you can get into interesting philosophical dilemmas when you have cross-cultural discussions - - just look at the First Age.
Jeff
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