This morning, I glimpsed a pattern in the coins I had spread on a kitchen counter last night. The pattern appeared peculiarly symmetrical then changed into chaos viewed from a different angle. The contrast made me instantly recall the concept of alignments in the Dungeons and Dragons (TM) role playing game. Particularly, I contemplated the ideas of universal law and chaos represented in the game. I’ve been unusually drawn to the symbol for Chaos* for much of my life, and the scattered pattern viewed cock-eyed bore a superficial connection.
Here is depicting the randomly arranged coins when I saw them before and after I changed my viewpoint. I’ve labeled them with the alignments I’ve ascribed the patterns to represent. Both are evil because the symbols a viewer might project upon the arrangements, such as arrows or swastikas. At least, those are the images I project and mine is the eye of the beholder. I’m an artist – I’ve even gone to school for Art, ya’ know – and those projections I infuse the images and preach to everyone else. Evil and chaos are themes in my Pazuzu Trilogy, and this is the Pazuzu Trilogy blog.
I took each emblem a step further and imagined how each faction might stylize the images for the adversarial morals and means. I submit conventional representations of either alignment. The images are below -
Lawful Evil
Chaotic Evil
The original symbol for Chaos – eight arrows pointing opposing compass points – had been inspired by Michael Moorcock’s Stormbringer and found in his stories about Elric, an albino elf. As an artist, I took liberties and updated the emblem for the 21st century. (Prints are for sale a Deviantart – T-shirts and other merchandise at Cafepress )
P.S. It is no coincidence the Chosen’s cross desecrated by heathens in the Pazuzu Trilogy bears a resemblance to the emblem …
* A state of disorder to the extremes of pandemonium and despair.
Purchase Pazuzu Trilogy Pocket books and Hardcovers at LULU.
