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Message: <blockquote data-quote="s/LaSH" data-source="post: 813396" data-attributes="member: 6929">Perhaps in the modern world, these principles aren't as prevalent as they were in a feudal order. Consider: everyone had a place in feudalism, everyone had a boss and a bunch of underlings (except the peasants). If a peasant started bad-mouthing a duke, she was in for it.That's Order.But people didn't always conform to the rule of feudalism. Look at the Iceland colonies. One (set up at a place called Borg) was (according to the Saga of Egil Skallagrimsson) founded by the family of a man named Thorulf Kveldulfsson (not the nuclear family, because that was wiped out by King Harald). Thorulf was the ruler of a nice piece of land in Norway, he collected a decent chunk of tribute from the locals for his king every year, and had a large number of jarls or whatever you call them under his command.His rivals had the king's ear and convinced Harald that Thorulf wasn't giving the king his due tribute. So Harald sailed up to Thorulf's hall, set it on fire, and killed them all.Thorulf's father (Kveld-Ulf) took his other son (Skallagrim) and departed Norway, proclaiming that they'd never serve Harald. Previously, he'd refused Harald the use of some of his soldiers too, so he already knew he wasn't in the king's good books.The dynasty of Kveld-Ulf was fiercely independant. They were able to serve under a king, but they didn't put up with his demands, and when he got belligerent they left. I think that's the kind of chaos you'd see in a medieval mileau. (Incidentally, this all took place around 800AD.)Now an important note on anarchy: I've heard it said that anarchy is not nihilism. Political anarchy is about self-rule and the abandonment of heirachies and authority, not about doing whatever you want - there is still responsibility to whatever tattered remains of society survive such a form of government. (CG.) Nihilism is the punk-hair-do school that sometimes masquerades as anarchy, but is really just about smashing things because you want to (CE). That make sense?From a metaphysical viewpoint, this is all fairly low-key. Chaos is entropy, the tendancy for things to get more complex and break down. Rotting, boiling off into space, getting cut in half... these are all chaotic actions. Law is stasis, the tendancy for things to stay as they are and get simpler if at all possible. The Auditors from the Discworld books are a good example of agents of pure Law - their agenda is frighteningly simple and is just as nasty as that of pure chaos.Pure chaos and pure law are both evil, IMHO. That's my considered opinion. The right balance is goodness. Interestingly, that makes NG the 'goodest' alignment on a metaphysical scale... but humans don't live on a metaphysical scale. Fortunately.</blockquote>

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