Chaotic. Not Silly.

[Kalanyr]

It's still here in 3e, afaict.

Really ? The examplars of lawful good (Gold Dragons, Couatl, the Celestial Paragons of the Seventh Heavens,Bahamut,etc) are all smarter and more powerful and portrayed as oh so much more pure, than their chaotic good equivalents (Copper Dragons, Unicorns, the three Eladrin Paragons,etc).

 

[Sejs]

My Take on the Xaositects, by Sejs E. Wordyguy.

I swear I bring up Tyler Durden every time a discussion of a chaotic neutral ideal comes around. This time I'm gonna do it with something else included, too!

Xaositect: Tyler Durden combined with a Taoist Master.

Tyler gives the idea of ultimate self-reliance. You need nothing other than yourself. Reliance on a thing, object, money, place, whatever - is a chain around your neck. Limiting. Restricting. ("You are not your bank account, you are not the clothes you wear") People should work together because they choose to, not because they have to. Tyler also gives the idea of assessment of something by experiencing it from all sides; inside and outside, for and against, push and pull. ("How can you know yourself if you've never been in a fight? How can you know the value of a life if you've never had to save it? How can you know your society if you've never rebeled against it?"). Tyler gives the Xaositect the ideal of Personal Chaotic Enlightenment.

The Taoist Master on the other hand, is the other face of the coin. Effortless effort. If something is harmonious, is intended to happen, then it will happen is such a manner that will require no effort to be expended in order to bring it into being. To seek perfection by alienation is wrong-headed; you don't attain true enlightenmen by seperating yourself from reality, you attain enlightenment by becoming seamlessly merged with it. Rain doesn't fall because someone makes it happen - it just falls. Rain was supposed to fall there, so it fell there. ("Those whom heaven helps, we call the Sons of Heaven. They do not do this by doing, they do not know this by knowing, they do not work this by working. To let understanding stop at what cannot be understood is a high accomplishment. All others shall be destroyed upon the lathe of heaven.") The Taoist Master gives the Xaositect the ideal of Universal Chaotic Enlightenment.


The interesting thing is that not only do they have the philosophy of the Seamless Self, but they want everyone else to get it, too. But you can't force someone to see - you can't push someone into enlightenment against their will. All you can do is make them get there on their own. Whether they like it or not.

Because it's ultimatly in their best interests, after all. At least in the big picture.

 

[Stormrunner]

Go out and find some back issues (or bound collections) of the comic book The Invisibles - these guys are Xaositects in all but name.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

Really ? The examplars of lawful good (Gold Dragons, Couatl, the Celestial Paragons of the Seventh Heavens,Bahamut,etc) are all smarter and more powerful and portrayed as oh so much more pure, than their chaotic good equivalents (Copper Dragons, Unicorns, the three Eladrin Paragons,etc).

Physical superiority does not equal moral superiority. IMO, CG characters in modules, sourcebooks, etc. are almost always presented in a more sympathetic light, and LG characters are just as often zealots, inquisitioners, or oppressors as they are heroes or simply pure-hearted people.

There are a lot more LG characters along the border of tyranny than CG characters along the border of anarchy.