Moppalism

**Moppalism** is a philosophical doctrine that stress the subjugation of all events, actions, and life in the Chaos Platform to fate, and is associated with the consequent attitude of indignent resignation in the face of future events which are thought to be inevitable.

Moppalism is named after **Orhim Moppal**, a gnome philosopher from Edinthorpe who first popularized the idea in his book *The Indifferent Chaos*.

## Definition

Moppalism broadly refers to any view according to which mortals are powerless to do anything substantial to the universe. Orhim Moppal specifically stressed that mortals have no power to influence even their own futures, and any supposed logical outcome of their own actions is mere random coincidence. Moppalism can also hold view that resistance in the face of powerlessness is the ultimate folly, and that the wisest way for mortals to spend their lives is indignant resignation.

## The Indifferent Chaos

### Orhim Moppal

Orhim Moppal was born in Edinthorpe in 276BV, and spent most of his working life as the head librarian of the Virnoth Library of Natural Philosophy. During his tenure as head librarian from 174BV to 34AE, Moppal studied the works of ancient gnomish and elven philosophers and started to develop his own ideas in what would become *The Indifferent Chaos*. In the earliest surviving notes for *The Indifferent Chaos* from Moppal's personal diary during this time, Moppal's worldview had a more hopeful outlook than what was eventually published. In 114BV, Moppal's son, Urikan Moppal, and his fiance Torcyne Sagestar were found dead in their home, an unsolved murder allegedly by The Edinthorpe Executioner. Moppal's wife, Nerimys Rialdi, passed away from grief in 113BV. Moppal took a sabbath from his head librarian duties in 112BV to focus on healing his grief, but was caught in the path of a Zaratan during his stay in the Dressner Plains. Moppal survived the encounter, but it left him seriously injured and paralyzed for the rest of his life. In 35AE, the Edinthorpe Independent Publishing Press published *The Indifferent Chaos*, written by a now aged and dyng Orhim Moppal, whose worldview had significantly shifted to a most negative outlook. Its pessimistic worldview gathered controversy in Edinthorpe shortly after it was published, and The Select added the book to its list of Banned Books for "inciting defeatism and laziness into the hearts of mortals". Brokenhearted by the city's rejection of his book, Moppal died alone in his Edinthorpe home in 37AE.

### Posthumous Popularity in Vecktimest

In 56AE, during one of his famed literary expeditions, the writer Wilhelm Frenick discovered *The Indifferent Chaos* in an Edinthorpe bargain store and brought several copies back with him to Vecktimest. The book was republished by the Vecktimest Publishing House in 62AE, and was met with critical and public acclaim in the Sandison Bay area. Moppal was hailed as a misunderstood genius too ahead of his time, and the Moppal Library was established in 66AE in New Cresdale.

Most historians agree that Moppalism was received positively in Vecktimest during this time period because most of the residents were already world-weary and cynical as a result of the Vecktimest Civil War and the Transfiguration of Preyor. Regardless, *The Indifferent Chaos* was an influential book to many future New Cresdale thinkers, who expanded on Moppal's ideas to eventually create a distinct branch of Moppalism called **New Moppalism**. New Moppalism differs from the original in its positive outlook on mortal life, positing that mortal progress is the only element in the multiverse that is independent from fate.