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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Doug McCrae" data-source="post: 8293081" data-attributes="member: 21169">I believe in Moorcock's Eternal Champion series most human beings are aligned neither with Law nor Chaos, in fact they are probably ignorant of their existence. In Anderson's 3H&3L Law and Chaos is largely, though not exclusively, a racial and geographic divide, much like in D&D.Three Hearts and Three Lions (1953) Poul AndersonHolger got the impression that there was a perpetual struggle between primeval forces of Law and Chaos. Humans, except for occasional witches and such-like, were, consciously or unconsciously, on the side of Law; the Middle World, which seemed to include such realms as Faerie, Trollheim, and the Giants, was with Chaos… under Law, all men would live in peace and order, but this was so alien to the Middle Worlders that they were forever working and scheming to prevent it and to extend their own shadowy dominion.This business of Chaos versus Law, now, it seemed to be more than just a religious belief. It reminded him [Holger] vaguely of the second law of thermodynamics, the tendency toward disorder and level entropy. Perhaps here the struggle between the two forces was basic to the universe. The wild folk of the Middle World would be doing what they could to break down order and restore some primeval state where anything could happen. Ordinary humanity would want to strengthen and extend Law, safety, predictability; that was doubtless why Christianity and Mohammedanism alike frowned on sorcery, which derived from Chaos forces rather than the unvarying principles of physical nature.This is the chaos sorceress Morgan Le Fay speaking:What is there about dull and stodgy Law that drives you to defend it? Why, Holger, my darling bear, you’re but bulwarking loutish peasants and fat-gutted burghers, when the laughter and thunder and swirling stars of Chaos could be yours for the asking. When were you ever one for a safe and narrow life, locked in its own smugness, roofed with a sour gray sky and stinking of smoke, you who drove armies from the field? You could hurl suns and shape worlds if you chose!While the Gods Laugh (1961) Michael Moorcock"It is believed by many sorcerers and philosophers that two forces govern the universe—fighting an eternal battle," Elric replied. "These two forces are termed Law and Chaos. These are values supposedly set above the qualities men call Good and Evil. The upholders of Chaos state that in such a world as they rule, all things are possible. Opponents of Chaos—those who ally themselves with the forces of Law—say that without Law nothing material is possible.""I, like most sorcerers, stand apart, believing that a balance between the two is the proper state of things..."The Knight of the Swords (1971) Michael MoorcockThe wall of fire was now so close that Corum could feel its direct heat burning his face. He heard it rumble and crackle and it seemed to feed on nothing but the air itself."Such a thing defies nature!" he gasped."Is that not a fair definition of all sorcery?" Hanafax said. "This is [the] Chaos [Lords'] work. The disruption of the natural harmony is, after all, their pleasure.""Ah, this sorcery. It wearies my mind. I cannot grasp its logic.""That is because it has none. It is arbitrary. The Lords of Chaos are the enemies of Logic, the jugglers of Truth, the moulders of Beauty. I should be surprised if they had not created these Flamelands out of some aesthetic impulse. Beauty—an ever-changing beauty—is all they live for.""An evil beauty.""I believe that such notions as 'good' and 'evil' do not exist for the Chaos Lords."The Queen of the Swords (1971) Michael MoorcockThe Cosmic Balance requires equilibrium – something of Chaos, something of Law – so that each stabilizes the other. The difference is that Law acknowledges the authority of the Balance, while Chaos would deny it.<a href="https://www.multiverse.org/forum/q-a/q-a-%E2%97%A6-questions-for-mike-news/the-q-a-archives/sporting-club-square-archive/7043-how-does-the-multiverse-relate-to-our-reality" target="_blank">Moorcock’s Miscellany interview (2000)</a>I've developed the ideas of Law and Chaos from an early age because they seemed better to describe the two chief warring temperaments both in ourselves as well as in society -- and to describe such elements in terms of Good and Evil seems (as I hope I demonstrate) a rather useless way of looking at our problems. Poul Anderson influenced me in this, with his The Broken Sword, the first edition of which I heartily recommend, and also, to a degree, with his Three Hearts and Three Lions. In a sense he used them, as I tended to more in the very early stories, as substitutes for Good and Evil, but even there I was beginning to realise how much better terms Law and Chaos were. That way, for instance, we don't get to demonize those we disagree with!Playing at the World (2014) Jon Peterson[Moorcock’s conception of Law and Chaos] represents something of a departure from the cosmology of Poul Anderson, wherein Chaos is a necessarily negative and destructive force that is put to rest by the agents of Law. Moorcock instead shows us world where an excess of either force is undesirable, almost like vital humors of medieval medicine; a surfeit of Law leads to a sterile world, an overabundance of Chaos to an unstable oneMichael Moorcock: Fiction, Fantasy and the World’s Pain (2016) Mark ScrogginsLaw and Chaos... cannot be simply equated with good and evil. Chaos is disorder, but it is also life-giving change, evolution; Law is boundary and regularity, but it is also enforced conformity, the suppression of vitality and creativity. The ideal state, both for the individual and for society as a whole, lies in a mean between the two extremes. The Law versus Chaos opposition can be expressed as Realism versus Romanticism, Reason versus Emotion–perhaps its ultimate Freudian resolution is Thanatos versus Eros.</blockquote>

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