The Force of Chaos

"In everywhere that is, and in everywhere that is not; that is the domain of Chaos, the oldest of all that ever was. For no matter how hard Order fought, they could not escape the truth of this world; Chaos will never surrender, never lose, never die." - *The Book of Creation*, Evolvi mythology

**The Force of Chaos**, also known as just **Chaos**, is the oldest being in the Universe, predating the existence of the Creators. Its existence defies classification as any sort of living being, as it has no needs, no conscious, and lacks the ability to choose. Chaos simply acts without predictability; its intentions can never be understood as they defy the idea of comprehension itself. As such, it is often categorized as a fundamental force of reality rather than a living being. It can be seen almost as the manifestation of indeterminism, or like a quantum field spanning all of existence.

The existence of the Force of Chaos has serious consequences across all parts of the Universe. Chaos is omnipresent in both the Ordered World, the planes governed by the Creators and the Gods, and the Disordered World, a place outside of reality which has been the host of Chaos since the Beginning. Chaos's influence on the Ordered World, however, varies from region to region and plays a fundamental role in Magic. Casters of all kinds can use the power that Chaos provides to defy the natural order of this world, pulling life force from their surroundings to create spells. However, mortals must be careful in their use of Chaos, as in heightened presence it is indiscriminate about what it will destroy.

### History

(The following section is borrowed from my original idea, which was meant for a different campaign. Details have been repurposed for this world.)

In the Beginning, there were two fundamentals: *Order* and *Chaos*. Order held the ultimate power to create, with the ability to create a universe on a lower level of existence. Chaos, the adversary of Order, held indeterminable power. Order understood that its foremost desire -- the desire to begin the universe -- would be in eternal conflict with Chaos, which would render reality uncontrollable as soon as Order acted. Knowing its mission could never be truly fulfilled while Chaos remained, Order determined that the only way forward would be to defeat Chaos.

In the Battle of the Beginning, Order and Chaos sparred to see who would control all of reality. As equal counterparts, they both struck with great strength and fought fiercely. However, both would be severally wounded in their fight. Chaos would lose a unified sense of being, becoming formless and unable to control its own impulses. Order began to weaken and weaken, slowing ceasing to exist. In its last action, Order would create a lower level existence -- the Ordered World -- with three beings that would make the universe: The Creator of Space, The Creator of Time, and The Creator of Life. While Order could never construct something that could ever rival Chaos, the Creators would have enough control over reality to keep Chaos forever one step away from victory. Following the cessation of Order, Chaos would expand to inhabit the place Order and Chaos once shared. This is the Disordered World -- the place where only Chaos persists.

Throughout all history, the Creators would have to use their powers to keep Chaos contained. Every once in a while, Chaos would penetrate through that which separates the Disordered World from the Ordered World to enter and alter reality. Intense manifestations of Chaos in reality would threaten to unravel it, and the Creators would have to use their Ultimate Nature -- Order over All Space, Order over All Time, and Order over All Life -- to seal it away in a different plane, halt its progress indefinitely, or wither it to nothing. After creating a hierarchy of Gods to deal with specific functions of the world, the Creators found themselves stuck in an endless game of whack-a-mole against a creature whose powers know no limits.

### Applications and Influences

The Force of Chaos is fundamental to all indeterminate aspects of the Universe. In a perfectly deterministic world, all things -- objects, animals, monsters, humanoids, and even the Gods and the Creators -- are limited their *Natural Order* - the set of all actions that the properties of their existence allow them to choose. This limitation comes from the nature of reality itself; from Order down in the hierarchy of all things, nothing could create something with equal power to itself. As such, all things have limitations. A rock cannot breathe, nor can an Orc stand on the Sun.

The Force of Chaos allows things to access states outside of their Natural Order, what is known to mortals as simply, Magic. Beings can embrace the power of Chaos in their local area to manipulate *matter*, the material stuff of the Universe, and *life force*, that which compels all who have it to live. Arcane magic uses the Force of Chaos to pull at life force and matter around the caster to behave in new ways, such as coalescing into swirling balls of fire or conjuring magical protection. These new abilities, however, come at a cost to all around the magic; to obtain, something of equal value must be lost. Higher level magic requires intense use of Chaos, and often harms the caster, the environment, or both. Abilities too far outside the Natural Order of a being require so much use of the Force of Chaos that it will destroy them before they could hope to attain that power.

The Force of Chaos has a more indirect effect on reality by influencing events. While the Creators designed a Universe governed by Order, when Chaos manifests in an area it can disturb causality. This usually happens at a small scale, but greater levels of Chaos can create disastrous events.