[DF] What's Distinctive About the Default Worlds of DF?

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Well, there's the question of whether your oppositional poles are supposed to be self-contained ideologies, or whether they're just extremes of a particular component decomposition of ideologies.

Insofar as DF has such a thing it seems closer to the former. But the Other Game influence often leans to latter sometimes. ISTR that the fictional antecedents for Order vs Chaos had it as the sole great cosmic polarity and turning it into a two-axis structure originated in gaming, but I could be mistaken there.

Order vs Chaos originated with Poul Andersen and Moorcock. In Andersen "Order" consisted of keeping the world habitable for humanity while "Chaos" was monster-infested wilderness where his version of elves could survive thanks to their magical powers but things like agriculture were impossible. In Moorcock, when Order had the upper hand you could have advanced if not necessarily realistic technology, while Chaos allowed magic. But if the balance tipped too far, as in the end of Elric, every mortal dies.