Ompalam has never been chaotic, has has only been described as evil. As Pete says this is because of other peoples perceptions. The God Learners viewed him as evil because he they fought against him, just like most of the religions in the Third Age view the God Learners as evil. The Umathelans and Elves view him as evil because they fight against him, he is a god of organisation, they worship gods of the wilderness and air, who represent freedom. The Doraddi view Ompalam as evil because he is a god of civilisation and builds cities, which completely contradicts their culture. However Ompalam's worshippers do not believe he is evil or chaotic - they beleive that he is the correct way of life for them. In Fonrit 'Freedom' is evil, the natives of this large country believe that slavery is a good thing, a way of maintianing social order - everybody is a slave. The diggers are slaves to the foreman, the foreman in a slave to the head man, the head man is slave to the land owner, the land owner is a slave to the banker, the banker is a slave to the priest, the priest is a slave to his deity, his deity is a slave to Ompalam.
If Ompalam was chaotic then the entire of the Fonrit region would be filled with mutated Chaotic Broo. However it is not, it is filled with some very strange people, with some very funny ideas about social order, but in fact it is as unchaotic a region as Dara Happa. Chaos itself is an anaethema to the strict social order of Fonrit, if anything the Fonritans believe that personal freedom is what created chaos in the first place. When the gods broke away from the social harmony of the order of Ompalam they began to make rash and foolish decisions, such as "I know lets kill the Sun God', 'Lets release Chaos into the world', 'Hell! Why don't we just destroy the world and get it over and done with."
Simon Bray.
Powered by hypermail