Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="WayneLigon" data-source="post: 1164156" data-attributes="member: 3649">When designating a region as lawful or chaotic, I usually look at how the government is structured and how power is distributed. Especially if I'm designing a region on the high end of each scale.  A strongly lawful area will have clear divisions along one or more lines (distribution of wealth, who really rules, how power passes from one place to another). Region A might be a kingdom that features a strong king that makes many of the decisions. The succession is well-established. There is probably a strict class division between nobility and everyone else. There will be laws that are enforced by a central authority. A chaotic society on the other hand will have few of these things. It can be an urbanized society, even, but it's more likely that it's a region that used to be lawful and now is not (through war, pestilance, or something else).  There will be no clear division of power. There may be a king, but he will be a king in name only. He's delegated too much power to others; his advisors and the military make most of the governing decisions. Also, his power may be cut by other things the people look to: a powerful religious leader for instance. It could also be a region where tribal/familial ties are more important than a central government. The people will listen to the tribal elders more than representatives of the king. Another chaotic society would be a quasi-tribal situation only with more sophisticated elements. City-states are a good example; internally lawful, perhaps, but the region itself is chaotic because the cities compete with each other, and maintain no common ground or goal. Each has it's own code of laws, it's own internal organization, etc. Another is the Drow model: a series of almost-equally powerful Houses or organizational units each working against all the others at cross purposes. Alliances are fluid, treachery is expected, and power ebbs and flows.</blockquote>

Verification