Captain Anorak's Guide to Gaming
The Concepts of Law and Chaos
ANCIENT MYTHOLOGY

History tells us that the concepts of law versus chaos are ancient. This is a reconstruction of certain early religious ideas from Egypt, in part adapted from [1]:

In the beginning was chaos (Nun). From this chaos rose the the first and supreme god, variously called the Whole (Atum), the Great (Ur) and the Sun (Ra). He wanted to bring order to chaos. He unaided brought forth the god air (Shu) and the goddess cloud (Tefnut). Shu and Tefnut mated and brought forth the god earth (Geb) and the goddess sky (Nut). Shu separated the bodies of Geb and Nut, forming a universe with the sky at the top (the body of the goddess forming a solid ceiling to the universe), air in the middle, and the earth at the bottom (the body of the god forming a solid floor). This led to a world that brought forth plant and animal life. In the middle of this world was the Nile, source of wholesome vitality. On either side stretched away the desert, bereft of good things. Geb and Nut had children, including Asar and Aset (Greek Osiris and Isis) who were more human-like. The gods created men, and gave them the task of making the world orderly. The gods gave men the arts of order by which they could control the world: farming, craft, law, and kingship. Asar became the first Pharaoh, the ruler of all men by divine authority. In the valley of the Nile there was order, and men obeyed the commands of the gods as relayed through the Pharaoh. But in the desert on either side, barbarians lurked, men who had renounced order and lived in a depraved state of anarchy. It was the duty of the Egyptians, led by the Pharaoh, to impose order on these recalcitrant beings. In Egyptian carvings depicting battles, the ranks of the Egyptians are shown as straight and regular which their enemies surge in unformed masses. When barbarian captives are brought back to Egypt, they are chained in straight rows. This is a graphic depiction of the forces of order imposing order on the rude warriors of chaos.

MOORCOCK

Michael Moorcock wrote a lot about Law and Chaos. In his work, they are two opposite sides of the 'Cosmic Balance' and too much of either would be a bad thing; the greatest good comes about from an even balance of the two.

Stormbringer is a game based on Moorcock's work. I don't have a copy to hand, but if I remember rightly its summary of Law and Chaos runs along these lines:

Law is predictable and unrenewable; it behaves in a predictable way and once used up it is exhausted. Chaos is random and renewable; it behaves in a spontaneous random way and doesn't run out. Law alone would be sterile and lead to entropy; Chaos alone would be formless and unenduring. Evolution requires both. Chaos allows new things to come into existence; law allows them to keep their forms so that species can flourish and multiply.

No I reckon trhat's a good summary of how Moorcock should have written Law and Chaos. Unfortunately, it's not what he wrote.

In one story - I think it's one of the Corum stories - the heroes are wandering through the planes of existence and come to one that is nothing but an endless plain of fine white sand. A convenient plot-speaker who is guiding them explains that this was a plane of total Chaos, but ultimately the Chaos expended its energy and this was all that was left. He sums it up with a line something like, 'In the end, Chaos leads to a sterility greater than any amount of Law could cause'.

What?!? This is total shite! What Moorcock wrote there is the opposite of how Chaos should be. It should be Law that leads to sterility through entropy; Chaos should be infinitely renewable and never run out.

[1] Egypt: Syncretism and State Religion, B. van de Walle, in World Mythology, Ed. Pierre Grimal, Librarie Larousse and Hamlyn Publishing Group, 1984 imprint of 1973 edition, ISBN 0-600-33225-X.