Glup. Sorry for the OT (playing HW games in Glorantha ;-))
My problem was with the uroxi sense (in my game i had to resolve this question) but is easier for me if the uroxi senses actual chaos and not 'acts that are chaotic'
>I will categorically state that rape is wrong under any
>circumstances.
I agree absolutely, and I, personally think the same with torture, slavery, etc. I'm sure that a husband that rapes his wife is as evil that other rapist or probably more, but in some societies it was not considered 'rape' at all, unfortunately.
But Chaos is not the same thing that evil. In my HW campaing there were some villains totally corrupted and totally evil but not chaotic (yes, perhaps in danger of chaos but not sure). And chaos could be also good, althought for the lunars and in some conditions.
IMHO an act is chaotic when attract Chaos. It attract chaos when it breaks all the rules and put in danger the micro-world of a society (well, i'll try to put below a playable example ;-). Something that produces guilt and ostracism. Beyond the limits of normal morality. A Capital sin that isn't in the list. Or a crime only for the crime.
So, imagine an scenario with a non-chaotic villain spreading disease in a small village poisoning the well, because their chief is his enemy. Perhaps disease is not chaotic per se. But imagine that the disease affect only the children, that are weaker and the healers of the village can't heal this kind of disease. All the children of the village die. There are a very big conmotion, people know that disease is bad, and death is bad, but this was too much. Where were the gods? Our magic doesn't work. Sometimes, the entire universe seems to be bad, our solutions doesn't work, nothing works, you hate everything. This is a doorway for chaos, when one or more think the cosmos is wrong.
The adults begin to fall in disease. Paranoia. All people could be infected, the normal life disappears. Perhaps a gorp or two get out to the well. Perhaps some people became chaos-tainted, a kind of demimonsters with horrible tentacles...
If the villain merely had killed the chief, this would be evil for the people of the village, but they are the bad things of the world. Nothing unnatural, beyond our concept of the world. Our myths explain what we have to do with murder, theft, and things like that.
So i think hunger, torture, disease, slavery, murder, etc are not chaotic per se (morally evil means something for me, morally chaotic means nothing). But all these things could be doorways for chaos in some circunstances, and in that sense, there are chaotic. Too Godlearnish perhaps ;-)
So, sorry one more time for Jeff and the others. I tried to reconduce the topic to the topic of the list and probably i failed :-((
Regards,
Antonio
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