It seems like our world is fated to Oblivion. I'll be the first to admit
that is a pretty depressing state of affairs. I'm don't see not-being as
all that great, seeing as how I like having a personal identity and
being alive and all. This much I can be sympathetic with the followers
of Light and Order and all of that other nonsense. I, for one, am not
planning on jumping into Lord Babel's ship like many of my Chaotic
brethren are though.

Still though, I contest myself as being a loyal practitioner of the
darker and more mysterious arts of Chaos, and even though I can agree
with the Church that Oblivion is an undesirable thing, I cannot agree
with the idea that this being a bad thing necessitates that Chaos be
destroyed or gotten rid of or whatever fanciful ideas the Church and the
followers of Order have in their heads right now. In the rest of this
message, I will not only show why this would be a foolish mistake, I
will argue for an alternative solution that is not only Chaos friendly,
but also doesn't end in the world being consumed in Oblivion or anything
frightening like that.

First, to show the value of Chaos, a finer detail of existence that is
unfortunately lost on those who trumpet all those pretty ideals of Light
and Order. Oftentimes, Chaos is given a negative value by these people
simply for the fact that it is hostile to Creation. This "hostile to"
relationship Chaos holds with Creation though isn't the only relation
that Chaos has within this world though. The effects of Chaos throughout
the world cannot be accounted. In the scrolls of the mythology for
instance, Chaos is said to give humanity the spark of drive and
creativity that they possess. Born of Order and Chaos, what then would
happen to humanity should the Church have their way with Chaos? The
Church is always talking of the dangers of the experiments with Chaos,
well, are any of you humans out there willing to experiment with
yourselves to see what happens when an essential part of you disappears
forever? That seems pretty dangerous to me. Another thing Chaos does is
that it helps create the great diversity we see in the realms. Chaos is
a thing of great beauty and artistry as well, but it also has pragmatic
value, as much can be done using it. Mortals have been shown to
accomplish amazing feats with Chaos that wouldn't be possible otherwise
without it. Finally, there is no contradiction in simply accepting the
value of both Creation and Chaos. I disagree that there is any clear
reason why one should choose to value one over the other so much as to
decide that only one should exist. Perhaps Creation has an end to there
being only Creation, and perhaps Chaos has an end to there being only
Chaos, but the simple fact that these two substances each have a telos
does not mean that mortals have to adopt one and devalue the other. In
the end the value of Chaos not only exists, it vastly outweighs whatever
reasons there might be for trying to get rid of it.

Now, I shall offer an alternative solution, based on what I perceive to
be the difference between the Erisian philosophy on Chaos and the
Babelonian philosophy on Chaos. From what I've perceived (And
admittedly, perceiving anything clearly within the admittedly somewhat
incoherent philosophy of Lady Eris is difficult), the difference in
approach between Lady Eris and Lord Babel is that while Lord Babel
wishes for the ultimate end of Chaos forming together to finally defeat
Creation and send us into Oblivion, Lady Eris seemed to simply wish to
disperse Chaos across the land. The Erisian philosophy (And one again,
this is a perception that is probably flawed, as I doubt any of us could
possibly claim to truly know the mind or intentions of Lady Eris, I'm
just going by what things seem in comparison to Lord Babel's much
clearer system) seemed to be based upon using Chaos as a sort of
painters palette to colour the realms. Her ideas seemed to have a much
more positive outlook on the place of Chaos within the realms. This then
seems to give us a good approach to take towards Chaos. The dispersal of
Chaos throughout the realms, rather than the focusing of it, or the
destroying of it, seems to be the best solution to the problem of
Oblivion. This of course is a very abstract analysis of the problem, but
when specifics come up, I think it will serve as a useful guideline for
a general approach for those who see the value of both Chaos and Being.

-Arel, of the Lucoster Clan

Penned by my hand on the 22nd of Mayan, in the year 476 AF.