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--- extrinsic:chaos [2021/02/11 08:53] – created shyriath
+++ extrinsic:chaos [2024/03/30 21:30] (current) – shyriath
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+====== Chaos ======
+The [[Extrinsic:]] known as **Chaos** is one of the oldest and most powerful beings in existence; it, along with its sibling [[extrinsic:Order]], came into being at the moment of the shattering of the [[universe:|Whole]].
+Chaos is the embodiment of unregulated action, the contact and mixing of different elements, turbulence, and leveling, and is also one of the progenitors of all other Extrinsics.
+===== Involvement =====
+The influence of Chaos upon the realms of the [[universe:Froth]] is so utterly pervasive that it can be hard to point to any specific example. Chaos occurs wherever things are thrown together without regard and previous relations are overturned; it is equally in the sudden spray of radiation from a nuclear reaction, the unfolding geopolitical consequences of a diplomatic gaffe, and the slow devastation of a galactic collision.
+Its favorite game is to compete for influence with its sibling Order, which is similarly pervasive, and it is difficult, if not impossible, to find any place where they are not both present; but the influence of Chaos is strongest where boundaries break down and contents mix violently together, where restrained forces are unleashed, and where movement and action are governed by nothing but the vagaries of a moment.
+===== Personality =====
+Chaos gets along easily with others, both of its own kind and of those of mortals, on a strictly casual basis; it asks few favors and almost never issues commands, and is tolerant of the quirks of others. It has a strong, if not particularly subtle, sense of humor, and an intense thirst for entertainment, both of which tend to endear it to mortals - so long as neither is turned upon them. While it finds them fascinating, Chaos has no particular empathy toward mortals, and feels no compulsion to spare them from the brunt of some of its more spectacular antics; a mortal's best hope of escaping the fallout is to be too interesting or amusing to be allowed to come to harm.
+Among its own kind, Chaos is a powerful but thoroughly unreliable partner in their works; its participation is conditional on not becoming bored with what needs to be done, and even then it has a tendency of causing unintended results or active backfiring - whether by design or by accident.
 ===== Realm of Chaos =====
-The [[universe:froth|Froth]] - the mortal realms - is the collection of all that we think of as the multiverse, home to uncounted worlds and unimaginably vast spaces. But those who think of the Froth at all think of it as its own entity, rather than what it really is - the meeting and mingling of greater and immeasurably older forces, like the foam on the crests of waves, which is a mixture of the air above and the sea below.
+{{ :planeofchaos.jpg?200|If your mind doesn't provide a comfortable interpretation for you, a less filtered version might look something like this.}}
+Those few who have been to the Realm of Chaos speak of having no frame of reference. Some describe it as being suspended among roiling clouds of endless colors, of light flickering like fire or lightning writ large, of sights half-seen and noises half-heard. Time, space, and content all move and flow as they will and merge and separate one another, and attempting to navigate in any conventional way will only get one more lost.
-The Realm of Chaos, the domain of its titular Extrinsic, is where a large part of the great mixture comes from. It is unnavigated and unnavigable; there is no map, and no compass. It is as hard to cross as an uncharted continent, yet every destination is merely a footstep away.
-All that is born from the Froth is composed of both [[extrinsic:order|Order]] and Chaos. For a mortal to physically manifest in the Realm of Chaos unprotected is to leave behind all in them that is Orderly, and it is safe to say that no one subject to this fate returns alive; they, and every atom of their being, are pulled apart, all that they are fading away into all that everything else is.
-There remain only two ways to survive the Realm of Chaos unscathed. The first involves rare and powerful magic, exercised by a third party, which places the visitor in a protective cocoon; but in such a situation the visitor becomes confused as different spaces and times run together, and runs an increasing risk of going mad until returned (again by a third party) to the Froth. The second involves the goodwill of Chaos, who can act to keep a mortal intact if it so chooses - and, indeed, if it notices in time - but will typically only do so if it finds them interesting enough to hang onto for a while.
-Those very few of the second sort who have been and returned have difficulty describing what they see, if they retain enough sanity to understand and answer the question. There is talk of being suspended among roiling clouds of endless colors, of light flickering like fire or lightning writ large, of sights half-seen and noises half-heard.
 While there can be said to be life in the Realm of Chaos, it is of a very different kind than that in the mortal realms. It is strange and mutable, to the point that even its reality is tenuous; a Chaotic life-form is as much an idea, a dream, or a ghost as an actual thing, and which it is at any given time - or even whether it is an imagining of the observer or of Chaos itself - may be indeterminate.
 Each behaves as it likes, without supervision. Some are as immortal as they want to be, others last a microsecond; some eat each other, others drink yellow or devour poignancy, and yet others consume nothing at all.
+===== Mythological equivalents =====
+Chaos is a relatively frequent visitor to the mortal realms, usually taking on a mortal guise itself, and much of the information mortals have of the [[universe:Outside]] and its inhabitants come from the things it relates. But since it has a certain grand indifference to honesty - tending to relate whatever mixture of truth and falsehoods strikes it as the most entertaining at any given time - the resulting understanding is generally deeply flawed.
+Nonetheless, it is for this reason that many cultures have interpreted Chaos as a storyteller in their mythologies, though it is more often a trickster figure, an agent of wanton destruction, or a god of liberation, abandon, disturbance, or toleration.
+  * [[mythology:imperial_religion:lamnar:Khezri]], the [[mythology:imperial_religion:lamnar:|Lamna]] of chaos in the [[mythology:Imperial religion:]]
+  * [[mythology:mangukal:paagdil-shennai|[ˌk͜ʘaːq.diɬ.ʃen.ˈnaj]]], or the Lords of Remaking, a deity of transformation and perspective in the [[mythology:mangukal:|[ˈmaŋ.kɯ.kʰaɬ]]] religion
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