: But that goes against your original theory. Chaos, order
: and Balance are three completely different things (in
: fact they are viewed as opposites of one another in
: certain eastern cultures and even role-playing games,
: which I shant mention for the sake of briefness). So
: the Light being a force balance just _doesn't_ work if
: it's lead by an embodiment of chaos or order. A more
: plausible explanation might be that, in essence, the
: Dark tends towards Chaso and the Light towards order,
: but neither towards balance :)
Balance is the balance between chaos and order. It's not a third aspect, unless you're considering a second balance/extremes axis as well. And we used to believe that Dark was chaos and Light was order, until someone pointed out that a society of undead is actually very orderly, and that a pure totalitarian state is also very orderly but is more evil than good, usually. So a little chaos is good, but it needs order counterbalancing it; and a little order is good, but it can't go too far and has to allow some freedom and chaos within it. Thus, balance is good, and things getting too far extreme is bad.
: Actually, that's one of the most ordered forms of
: government that there is. If Alric really wanted to
: create Chaos, but still have a working society, he
: would reliquish power, thereby creating a feudal
: society (lots of petty nobles kept in check by
: eachother). Not only does this prevent one noble from
: rising to absolute authority (speaking of which, why
: do keep saying that Alric is afraid of this when he
: himself practices it?), but it also has enough Chaos
: for any "Chaos-spirit-incarnate" to enjoy.
: :P
You're basically defining order as "things which work, and are good for people", a definition under which you can't lose the argument. But, as said above, a totalitarian state is very orderly, moreso than the freedom-loving state that Alric runs (with the exception of his own supreme power, nobody is really more or less powerfull than anybody else), but is also very evil. Chaos and freedom are faily synonymous, both meaning loose systems where not everything is strictly and ridigly following preset guidelines, but happens at random and is allowed to take its own course.
