What is Law?

[Zarathustra]

This is a question for the entire Chronicles, but it occurred to me while reading chapter 5 of LD. I suppose I've had a conception for years, but I'm starting to rethink it. [Minor ch5 spoiler]

The Lurker is said not to be a creature of Law. Or a "perversion of Law." Why is that? It's not artificial, like the Demondim spawn. It wasn't made by lore or artifice. It seems like a natural creature with some magical powers ... I suppose it gets that power from the poisons and banes of Mt Thunder. So its power is like corrupted earthpower? We know earthpower can be corrupted, as in the case of the Sunbane. But that also seemed to corrupt the natural Law of seasons, growth, weather, etc. And Sunbane was only possible in the absence of the Staff. So I suppose it was both corruption of earthpower and corruption of Law? I'm not sure what the difference between the two would be.

Let's back up. Law. I've always thought of it as a combination of three concepts: natural, good, and ordered. It's not only the natural structures of Time and Space that make any physical thing possible, but also smaller patterns like weather, growth, health etc. ... all the rhythms of nature. And though I throw in the concept of Order--as opposed to Chaos--that's complicated. It's not necessarily the case with Law, since a natural thunderstorm can still be chaotic, and yet a thing that doesn't violate Law. So we're back to natural. A storm can be "unnatural," as when the Giant raver was trying to create a tsunami with the Illearth stone fragment. But that's not "unnatural" in the sense of "artificial" (like, for instance, a Waynhim), but rather "unnatural" in the sense of evil. Malevolent. Hateful. Life-despising.

So, Law can mean many things: not merely order, but natural order in the sense of organic/biological, and not mechanical. And not merely "natural" in the sense of "mundane," as we typically use the word in our world when we mean the opposite of "supernatural." e.g. Nature, the natural world. No, "natural" in the Land includes the transcendent ... i.e. Earthpower. Magic. Miracles. But it's not just any magic or miracles, it's only good magic and miracles.

So to sum up: Law is a morally good supernatural sense of "natural" that manifests itself as structures or Order by which mundane things like plants and rocks and weather have their "preferred" form of existence (i.e. "good"), but also through which transcendent forms of energy allow the mundane to be, well, transcended.

In other words, it's nothing at all like our "natural laws" here in the real world--which are not only mundane (i.e. not transcendent, not magical, not supernatural), but also amoral. There is not good or evil in our natural laws. There are no "perversions" of natural laws in this universe. Nothing can happen, occur, or develop which wasn't already potential within the universe in virtue of our "natural laws." And the laws of nature have absolutely nothing to do with morality. The universe doesn't care if worlds end. The universe doesn't care if we get cancer. These are not evils. They don't require banes. They are perfectly natural, and not perversions.

So in creating this devilishly complex conglomerate of ill-fitting concepts, Donaldson has invented something that has no counterpart or relevance to our world, to reality. There is nothing in this world resembles Law, except for our childish or naive romanticizing of our relationship with our world ... which takes us away from reality, making us inauthentic. And that's what Covenant feared from the beginning, that this Land would drive him insane with unrealistic hopes.

But we're supposed to think that he made the wrong choice at the beginning (LFB), that insisting upon reality being realistic was cutting off his humanity, his capacity to love. He's supposed to "be true," but that doesn't mean "be realistic." It means: you should love transcendental, morally good interpretations of natural order that reverse the meaning of "natural" to mean "supernatural." Or even "holy."

So I'm confused. The real world doesn't work this way. We don't have earthpower or any kind of magic. So how was he supposed to apply those Land-learned lessons to his real world life? What was supposed to take the place of these supernatural instances of natural? Other people? Love each other? I suppose ... humans are "magical" enough for me.

But then in Last Dark [chapter 5 spoiler, page 106], Covenant rejects both the notion that the universe doesn't care, and the notion that the Land (i.e. where supernatural is natural) doesn't exist.

So we're left with a religious interpretation of not only Law, but of reality itself. How does that make sense with his insistence that the point of his story isn't something "beyond human," such as the Creator, Heaven, etc. [i.e. my sig]? What else could Law be except a religious mandate imposed upon the natural order, and "enforced" supernaturally?

[Orlion]

Law means never having to say you're sorry....

[Orlion]

I think equating Law with something like health sense would be making a false comparison. The Staff of Law was used to do "wrong" things in the First Chronicles... like turn the Moon red and bringing forth an unnatural winter.

I view Law as being a sort of boundary or structure that diverts various energies or things. The Law of Time would divert time to follow a sequential order, the Law of Death would separate the Dead from the world of the Living, and the Law of Life would prevent those who have died from coming back to life.

The Staff of Law is a tool that adjudicates/manipulates/imposes these various boundaries. It is only effective so long as there are boundaries to be manipulated. As a result, I do not view it as being essential to the existence of Law. To say the Sunbane was possible because there was no Staff of Law does not mean the mere existence of the Staff would prevent it. It means that someone wielding it would be able to impose the Laws that would make the Sunbane impossible to exist under (like how Linden can use the Staff to close caesures... she's imposing the Law of Time on an instance where the Law is not being followed). Theoretically, the Sunbane could still be accomplished if the Staff were lost indefinitely or under control of the Clave.

So I would say that Law, if we are applying it to "real world lessons" is not a reference to a supernatural structure, but rather limitations (in Covenant's case, the Law of Leprosy). Sometimes, use of these limitations leads to power or ability.

[Zarathustra]

Orlion, thanks for joining in. I may have chosen the wrong forum for widespread responses. Eh, I suppose this place will get busy soon enough.

So, to your point. I agree that Law doesn't equal Healthsense, but HS enables you to see violations of Law, and therefore how things "should" be. But what's wrong with a red moon? Ours turns red all the time, during lunar ecplises. There is nothing evil about the color of red. Clearly, Donaldson is making moral judgments about violations of "Law," violations which wouldn't really be violations in our world. So I'm stuck wondering what's the counterpart to our reality? What's the literal meaning of this symbol?

This question can be carried on to your next point, namely, that the SoL adjudicates (nice word)/imposes/manipulates the natural boundaries. But we don't have anything at all like that in our world. Why would a world with Laws need those Laws to be enforced? There's no way to break the laws of nature. Only that which is natural can happen in the first place. So what we're really talking about are human values imposed upon nature, not natural laws being "enforced." There is nothing unnatural about disease or being unhealthy, for instance. Why should we assume that health is "better," and that it needs to be adjudicated/manipulated whenever we see instances of blight or disease? Sure, we *want* things to be healthy, but it doesn't violate any Law for them not to be healthy. So again, it's just human preferences, raised to the stature of Law, at least symbolically.

The Creator's world certainly has supernatural aspects of Law, in the sense that Law manipulates Earthpower (magic), and in as much as Law can be perverted (a perversion which requires magic to correct). The entire reason Law can be perverted in the Land is because of the presence of a supernatural, eternal being (Lord Foul). He's the source of all the perversions of Law, either directly or indirectly. But he's just a symbol for specific human emotions: Despite, hate, vindictiveness, malice, etc. So we could dismiss his supernatural aspects as merely figurative when applying his symbol to our world. But then that means that actions which are done in our world due to malice/despite/etc. are what SRD is literally talking about, and not "unnatural" violations of the Laws of Nature. So it's a purely moral point.

But he confuses that purely moral point in his symbol by connecting it to Nature in the Land, as if Nature itself has a preference which emotions we use to conduct our lives. Cutting a tree down to make paper for Donaldson's books is no more damaging to the forest than cutting down trees because you hate nature. The trees don't know the difference. In effect, Donaldson is trying to elevate his own sense of morality by giving it the symbolic status of a Natural Law. Otherwise, it would make no sense to say that Law has been violated, or that Law needs defending in the first place. In reality, for instance, there is no danger that we'll stop time. This moral hazard is a nonissue, a nonproblem.

So either the points learned in the Land have no relevance to our reality, or we're supposed to conclude that morality has an absolute sense, beyond the individual choices of individual people.

[ussusimiel]

Good topic, Z!

I won't try and get into the minutae of the logic (not my strong suit ) I'll just post my impressions of Law gathered over the years.

I've never been able to fully grasp SRD's concept of Law in the Chrons, and maybe that's deliberate on his part. I've always accepted it as an integral part of the world he created mainly because we know that there is a Creator. This is one clear difference with our world.

I've also always assumed that the lessons Covenant learned in the Land that were useful in our world were metaphysical, spiritual and psychological. (I'm following SRD in this, as he sees fantasy as the psyche of his characters writ large.) (We may differ significantly on this , Z) but personally, I would perceive much of how our world operates: machines, technology, society etc. as unnatural to our animal bodies and natures. The main thrust of fantasy (as Tolkien saw it) was to return myth to modern society. Myths are stories that emerge from and express our physical nature and act as an anitidote to the other powerful, 'unnatural' forces that our miraculous consciousness has released. I have always thought that the main thing that Covenant took from his experiences in the Land was his inherent worth as a human being. And that he could stand before any of the 'unnatural' forces and powers in our world that would judge him and face them down.

I have never though about it this way before, but you could conceive of Law as the manifestation of the natural underlying metaphysical structure that we bring from our physical and animal selves to shape and form the new powers and forces that our amazing capacity for consciousness has brought into being.

Hmmmmmmm! He a deep one that SRD, so he is!

u.

[Zarathustra]

Thanks, U.

I agree that Donaldson has always used his symbols in several different ways simultaneously, and that this is intentional. It's one of the reasons he says his work is not strictly allegorical, because there's no strict one-to-one mapping of concepts between literal and figurative (though I'm skeptical of this denial, at times).

I agree that lessons Covenant learned in the Land that were useful in our world were metaphysical, spiritual and psychological. But you can't miss the environmental and societal overtones. This is more than a self-help guide, it's also a prescription for environmental and social conscience. When Covenant says that we have mere "scenery" in our world, he's making a judgment on how poorly we view it, and fail to ascertain the "transcendent" in nature. And such recognition demands reverence, and such reverence demands specific actions (or restraint).

I would perceive much of how our world operates: machines, technology, society etc. as unnatural to our animal bodies and natures.

There is a sense in which this is true, specifically, "artificial." The ways we've crafted our environment to suit our needs are definitely artificial in the sense that we've modified it in ways it would have not spontaneously or organically evolved on its own. And Donaldson has a counter-part to that specific meaning: the unLawful artifice or lore of the Demondim and their spawn. That's not to say they're necessarily evil, as Esmer pointed out in FR, or in the example of the Waynhim and later Urviles. But they're definitely outside of--or violations of--Law in the senes that they're artificial. [So "artificial" or unLawful isn't necessarily evil ... hmm. Let's return to that later. That seems to contradict how "wrongness" (as sensed in Healthsense) is always a violation of Law.]

So one could say the same about our world. It's definitely crafted, by us, and this isn't always necessarily evil. But our manipulations are always unnatural ... or so some would say. I personally don't think our intelligence or its products are unnatural, no more than beaver dams or anthills. And anyway, they don't violate the laws of physics. They can't. So in that sense, our artificial world is perfectly natural.

But all these issues are again confused by the fact that people in the Land "manufacture" their world to suit their needs, too. There are plenty of artificial structures in the Land, made with Lore or not. Revelstone and giantships don't occur naturally. They're just as artifical as the Parthenon or submarines. But these Land constructs aren't considered to be violations of Law. So WTF?? Law *can* mean "artificial," like the Waynhim, at least when it's used to create things by well-spoken, courageous people with eyes.

I have always thought that the main thing that Covenant took from his experiences in the Land was his inherent worth as a human being. And that he could stand before any of the 'unnatural' forces and powers in our world that would judge him and face them down.

Yes, I agree. And it's this human meaning that he applied to his life that I respected. But Donaldson seems to be giving us his final interpretation of these points, as Covenant mulls over these issues. I suppose Covenant's thoughts on page 106 aren't finished yet, but if you've read that far, would you care to give your thoughts on them? They are far too revisionist for my taste. I admit I'm troubled about where this is going.

I have never though about it this way before, but you could conceive of Law as the manifestation of the natural underlying metaphysical structure that we bring from our physical and animal selves to shape and form the new powers and forces that our amazing capacity for consciousness has brought into being.

Hmmmmmmm! He a deep one that SRD, so he is!

That's a great way to put it. I think you've got to give yourself credit for that one, not Donaldson. Maybe he's heading in that direction, but he hasn't said it explicitly as you have.

Whether or not that applies to his fictional world [one could argue that it doesn't, because Law in the Land is absolute, or at least objective, and not dependent upon the characters' preferences or capacities] we defintely have introduced a new dimension to our own reality, even if that new dimension has arisen through natural processes. We have made possible directions for reality to take, that may never have arisen on their own.

But there is nothing to preclude a course correction from natural selection. Once our modifications are out there for the world to "judge," it can either kill us or not. And in the end, no matter how good our intentions or actions turn out, the earth will end in fire nonetheless. We're all selected for death by nature.

[ussusimiel]

Good post, Z.

I always enjoy it when our discussions reach the boundary between the philosophical and the metaphysical. One of SRD'd great gifts is his ability to create works of art that create the space for that type of discussion. His concept of Law has an impressionistic aspect that allows us to project a huge amount onto it. Conrad (one of SRD'd favourite writers) had this capability as well, which is what makes a book like Heart of Darkness so highly rated.

I had a look at Covenant's thoughts on p. 106. When I read them first I thought that they were a bit unnecessarily overt, but they are not inconsistent. In TIW we hear a lot about how the very ground in Trothgard still grinds and moans with pain. And it is also present in a different form in Berek's calling of the Fire Lions. The step that SRD seems to be taking is that the whole Earth is lamenting the waking of the Worm. At one level this is easy to accept. For a long time I expected that the waking of the Worm would mean the instant destruction of the Earth, because the Worm was that vast.

However, what SRD is implying in Covenant's thoughts is that the Earth is reacting like a person. The implications of that are obvious, maybe, in some ways. We'll find out soon enough!

u.

[Zarathustra]

Now that a few more people have finished, I thought I'd bump this 2nd-page thread for some more input. Can anyone else tell me what "Law" is?

[Joe the Lion]

Now that a few more people have finished, I thought I'd bump this 2nd-page thread for some more input. Can anyone else tell me what "Law" is?

I think you already have it. The natural order of things. Perhaps The Lurkers intelligence makes it a perversion of Law seeing as it's mother appears to be an animal. It's actions and desires aren't purely the result of animal instincts - it can be held accountable. The analog in our world would be us I suppose.

[lurch]

Don't forget The Law in TCoTC is of the Land..My goodness , look what the author did with " The Law" in the non Land reality..basically, the Law killed Linden and Jeremiah and Roger...So,,The Law in the Land becomes...whatever the yeilder of Power wants it to be...On a personal level..a thought...the idea changes from LFB to TLD...from..being True to oneself,,to possibly accepting Higher Truths than ones self..to..the Truth of the Unknown, the Future. The Law,,rather than anything structured, defined, may be,,Love. A mystical ethereal concept or intuit,,that is more easily defined by what it isn't,,than by what it is...?

[iQuestor]

On the TC universe, the Creator created the world, and we all know the story there regarding Foul being trapped.

Its important here to note that once the Creator created the world he wasn't able to interfere with it in any way.

To me, Law as it applied to the world are those strictures that arose naturally from that starting point , that initial nudge that the creator gave everything, and its natural implications. Life And Death. Seasons. Free Will.

Earth Power, Health sense and Lore were manifestations of Law that allowed people to see order and health, and to use it within certain guidelines, also imposed by Law.

The breaking of Law was to break the natural order set in motion by the creator. Bringing the Dead back to Life. Altering the Seasons. Changing the Moon. Breaking a Law took great power; Once a Law was broken, then it no longer held sway and it could be subverted much easier.

The first Law broken was the Law of Death, that basically said once you died, you could not return to the living. This Law was broken using the Seventh Ward, Earthblood, which I see as a quintessential essence that imparted earthpower to the Land. It was basically Law, physically manifested.

[Zarathustra]

Joe, I certainly don't think I have it! All I have are questions. Such as: if Law is the "natural order of things," then why are waynhim antithetical to Law, but Giantships aren't? Both are artificial, created by magic. A Giantship doesn't occur in nature, and the "natural order of things" doesn't include them.

If artifical beings (Demondim spawn) using artificial, unLawful lore to create Vain, then how can Vain participate in the Staff of Law? Is there some process that transforms unLawful things into Lawful? Wild magic is also antithetical to Law. So how did Linden use wild magic to turn an unLawful lore-being (Vain) into the Staff of Law? Where was the "injection" of Law?

[TheFallen]

Well, both waynhim and ur-viles are artificial life forms, and as such antithetical to "Law" as the "natural order of things". Mere unliving constructs, such as Giantships - or Revelstone even - don't count.

Linden created the Staff of Law by melding two extremes - the artificial rigid structure of Vain with the natural ever-changing fluidity of Findail. By fusing these two absolute polarities with wild magic, she seems to have created an instrument of power formed at the balance point of these two extremes - and let's face it, the SoL and Law itself is all about preserving a natural balance... maybe?

[ozrics]

Z, law can be both inherant in a physics sense such as the 2nd law of thermodynamics or created, 'artificial' if you like, ie it's against the law to park on double yellow lines. Lore such as bone sculpting (what was it called again, marrowmeld or yar something or other) seems to be a contravention of the Lands law, be it good or bad. Is jerry's fane law, lore or something else entirely?

[TheFallen]

Re my post up above about the melding of opposites to create an instrument of power...

This is a recurrent fascination of SRD's, this fusion of paradoxes, this necessity to find the eye of the cyclone, the balancing point. Compare and contrast:-

Vain and Findail
Love and Despite
Belief and Unbelief
TC and LF
Power and Innocence

SRD seems to firmly believe in the redemptive and efficacious importance of the balancing of polarities, of fusing of opposites into alloys, which, although by their nature imperfect (they are alloys, after all), can achieve perfect works. It's a leitmotif throughout all ten books. White gold itself, anyone?

Add to the above list "Id and Super-ego", "Conscious and Unconscious" and a lot of Jungian blather about individuation at this point, if you like...

Or don't. It's only a theory

[Zarathustra]

I understand the SoL is a union of opposites. I'm just trying to get to the distinction between Order that is Lawful and order that is not. Clearly, Vain was "perfect" order/structure. But he was made by people who can't even be near the Staff without it hurting or thwarting them, because they aren't Lawful. If there's no Law in Findail (since he brings pure Earthpower to the mix, not Law), then where did the Law come from in the Staff? Not from wild magic, which is also anti-Law. It must have come from Vain, but that means he's a "perfect copy" of Law, through artifice and lore.

So Law can be mimicked? It can be achieved through "unnatural" or artificial means? I suppose if it's pure form (logic/math/etc.), and not merely the "natural laws of nature," then this is possible. But that seems to violate the sense of Law being closely tied to health (physical nature) and morality (spiritually Good).

I also understand that waynhim are alive and giantships aren't. But they're both artificial, and they both have structure. It's like considering AI in our world: a living computer would still run on the same Laws as a computer that isn't intelligent or conscious (at least that's the proposition of functionalism or "hard AI."). So why would a sentient being created through lore be a violation of Law?

I suppose that means sentience transcends Law, that it doesn't have to participate in Law. Consciousness can arise either through nature or through lore. That's a pretty mind-blowing conclusion. I'm not sure if that eliminates dualism or if it perpetuates it ... but that's a whole different tangent.

[rdhopeca]

So Law can be mimicked? It can be achieved through "unnatural" or artificial means? I suppose if it's pure form (logic/math/etc.), and not merely the "natural laws of nature," then this is possible. But that seems to violate the sense of Law being closely tied to health (physical nature) and morality (spiritually Good).

This is an awesome discussion....I have a question here...what law of nature can't be expressed by pure form and adherence to some rule? What Law would you say can't be expressed as some formula or physical representation?

[Zarathustra]

I forgot that these issues also occurred to me in 2007. In fact, there's a GI question about it:

Mr. Donaldson,


I’m confused about lore vs. Law as it applies to Demondim-spawn (Waynhim and ur-viles). On page 413 of Runes, you wrote, “For that reason," [Esmer] explained, "the Staff of Law is inimical to them. Though Waynhim serve the Land, and have always done so, their service stands outside the bounds of Law. Their lore is in itself a violation of Law. The fact of their service does not alter their nature.”

If the lore of Waynhim is a violation of Law, then the ur-viles shouldn't be an exception, even when they are working to serve Law, as the Waynhim do. So the lore which they used to create Vain should be a violation of Law, too. I'm still a little confused how the addition of Findail and wild magic can transform a *violation* of Law into the *Staff* of Law.

If “the fact of their service does not alter their nature,” then what altered the nature of the ur-vile’s lore?

Answer:

Gee, I've always assumed that Vain was indeed a violation of Law. But asking me how he could be transformed into something completely different is rather like asking me how magic "works". In books like mine, that kind of question leads in circles.

But consider that chemistry is rife with similar transformations. The human body can hardly survive without chemicals which are inherently toxic (homocysteine leaps to mind)--until interactions with other chemicals transform them into beneficial substances.

Or consider the profound artificiality of written storytelling: an artificiality so extreme that it can be (and in fact has been) considered a violation of Law. Yet somehow arbitrary black squiggles on paper are transformed by the reader's intelligence and imagination into something as organic as thought itself.

And if that isn't enough, remember that the One Tree (and/or the Worm of the World's End) played a part in Vain's transformation.

The ur-viles and Waynhim certainly exist as violations of Law; but that doesn't render them incapable of understanding and serving Law--as the Waynhim have demonstrated since the beginning of "The Chronicles".
(05/22/2007)

And somewhere around here (perhaps FR forum) there's a thread where we discussed these issues. I like that bit about the Tree transforming Vain. That's where he got his Law from, since he's a walking violation of Law. That's why the company had to go to the Isle ... the sole and entire reason.

So the One Tree can transform violations of Law into Law itself. And that Tree keeps the Worm (entropy, death) asleep. So Law is deeply tied to entropy, resisting the degredations of time, even as it supports Time. That would make Law a paradox, too, like wild magic. A paradox in its own right. It supports time, while also suppressing the natural tendency for things to "run down" in Time (the "arrow of time" pointing in the direction of increasing entropy).

So Vain would be like pure mathematics--which doesn't care which direction the "arrow of time" points, since all the laws of physics work the same forwards or backwards (i.e. they are equations, with either side being equal). And then Law would be that which transforms pure mathematics or pure structure into the "living" laws of nature which actually do "care" which direction things are going, which causes all things to end, but also provides for the loophole that allows for local/temporary increases in order, which can be "tweaked" to produce wonders.

[TheFallen]

Okay so I've been thinking about this and I think the potentially misleading term in all this is the word "Law". It's too easy for us to think that Law is at one extreme of a scale, with the other polarity being Chaos. I don't think it's like that in SRD's world. I think his scale consists of Entropy at one end, Flux at the other and Law at the fulcrum point in the middle.

I've mentioned fulcrums and balancing points up above - and others have mentioned the "natural order of things". So to me, what "Law" is about is preserving balance, maintaining that natural "Goldilocks" zone between never-changing frozen entropy at one end and ever-changing chaotic flux at the other. That's kind of what the fusion of Vain and Findail means to me - which required the unbridled power of white gold to merge such paradoxical absolutes.

So, on the one hand, you've got Vain... the ultimate construct, the quintessence of artificiality. Don't forget that he's been "made" by the ur-viles, themselves "made" by the Demondim, who were in turn "made" by the Viles. So Vain's a third generation of artificiality and as such has been perfected. He's the definition of inert, of immutability, of pure structure, of stasis - or if you like, of entropy.

And on the other, you've got Findail... the ultimate in naturalness, the quintessence of Earthpower. He's the exact opposite of Vain, the definition of pure fluidity, of ever-changing impermanence, of flux - or if you like, of chaos.

Both beings - or symbolic representations - are sterile in their own unique ways. Vain cannot create, or change... he just "is". He's like the least reactive element in the periodic table - neon or helium, maybe. His is the frozen sterility of permanence and stasis. Findail in contrast, as one of the elohim, is like a massively reactive element - fluorine or hydrogen, maybe. His is the hot sterility of impermanence and mutability. At the most basic level, he's a shape-changer after all, and I don't think that his race ever gives rise to any baby elohim... it's just another sort of sterility, but at the opposite end of the spectrum.

Or maybe Vain's like Tellurium-128 (with a half-life of 2.2 septillion years... thanks, Wikipedia!), whereas Findail's like Astatine-213 (with a half-life of 125 nanoseconds.... thanks, Wikipedia again!) So Vain's utter permanence, but utterly devoid of the possibility of creativity and Findail's utter creativity, but utterly devoid of the possibility of permanence.

Does that make sense? I hope so. A better scientist than I might be able to draw an analog between Vain representing an open universe cosmology, Findail representing a closed universe cosmology and the Staff of Law being a tool created to preserve a flat universe cosmology. I'd keep it simpler... I'd say that Vain is the very distillation of control and structure, and Findail the very distillation of power and fluidity. Or Vain is all design and Findail all intuition. Or Vain is pure science and Findail pure art. Neither being lives as such - they just both exist. It's only in their fusion that something empowered to support life and those conditions within which life can flourish can be created - the "living laws of nature", as Z puts it.

So in melding these two extremes to make an instrument of power, Linden creates a Staff of Law at the centre of gravity, one that's perfectly balanced and as such is tailor-made to support the balanced state of things.

I've probably not made this very clear, but it works for me... especially in the light of SRD's near-obsessive fascination with the fusion of extremes and the resolution of antithetical paradoxes lying at the centre of things being both crucial and redemptive.

*** START ADDED LATER EDIT ***
Z, just noticed your description of Vain as "pure mathematics". I couldn't agree more. But I only think you're half right. I don't think it's Vain's combination with Law that gives rise to the "living" laws of nature. Rather it's his combination with Findail as "pure art" (for want of a better term... Findail's the antithesis of science/design) that engenders Law, or rather an instrument of Law (aka Balance), since Law sits at the fulcrum of these two polarities. It's a little bit Zen as well, what with the yin/yang overtones.
*** END ADDED LATER EDIT ***

[Zarathustra]

I like your take on it. I recognize the importance of balance. The Staff balances form and essence. The krill balances Law and wild magic. TC balances Creator and Despiser. Linden balances natural decay with preservation. (I'm not sure what Jeremiah balances ... knowledge and ignorance?)

However, I feel that Law must be more than a balance between "pure order" and "pure chaos" (recognizing that TheFallen didn't said exactly that ... I don't want to put words in his mouth). While Findail can sometimes be in "maximum flux," wild magic is closer to this concept of chaos. If both wild magic and earth power symbolize this, it's a bit redundant. I like the distinction I made above: form vs essence. Elohim seem like pure essence of the land ... shapeless, but still full of content. And thus meaning. Not chaotic, but perhaps amorphous. And then Vain would be pure form. Together, they meld into structured essence, or the living manifestation of particular order ... the kind that enables and is manifest through living beings, or even planets where living things can exist.