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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6119440" data-attributes="member: 4937">One danger that has to be avoided when developing the idea of a being of pure chaos is making them too monstrous so that they are functionally no different from a demon.   Beings of pure chaos are equally creative and destructive beings.   They aren't merely agents of horror, which would make them demons, nor agents of nihilism (which would make them NE).   There is a real and meaningful distinction between CN and CE, and a real meaningful distinction generally between chaos and evil.I don't mind the frog/toad body play, because frogs change shape and evolve as they grow.  That's chaotic.   The problem with Slaad isn't that they aren't monstrous enough.   The main problem is that they aren't individualized enough.   I try to address that with the concept of 'Slaad Cults' in my reimagining of the Slaad (see link in signature).   I even have a way to address the existence of the 'orthodox' toad cult in a way that explains it as a problem of retaining individuality and self identity.  I don't reject the existence of some sort of order, because simple metagame requirements inevitably require some sort of order to explain them.  What I reject is the existence of organization on the basis of a social order.  Slaad can have rudimentary organization, but it has to be on the basis of pure self-interest and whim.   Any apparant organization has to turn out to be the result of some chaotic process - for example the Slaad Cults in my document manifest out of the need to rebel.  Rebellions tend to bring people together out of self-interest.  The 'orthodox' cults manifest out of the self-interested need to survive, and it persists because there are very central problems of identity that any being that embodies chaos has - if you are always changing are you still you, and if you are always evolving, what are you evolving into?  Individuality and indentity are part of 'chaos'.  The slaad are a little slightly less than pure chaos.  They are nearly perfectly chaotic beings trying to retain their identity in chaos.   They have, at least as I've envisioned them, adapted a method for retaining that identity in the face of a crisis of need - an ever present threat of complete destruction of self.  Chaos itself; and in the yet unrevealed portions of the deep dark of Slaad lore, that's is revealed to be quite literally the problem.I should also say that I believe that chaos is best represented by having at least TWO distinct chaos races.   The Slaad embody chaos more destructive tendencies.   I think that they should be balanced by a second incarnate race that embodies its more creative tendencies - a sybarite artisan race that farts rainbows and pukes flowers.  Quite possibly they are the same race, just dealing with the same problem in their own ways.</blockquote>

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