History Main / OrderVersusChaos

* Tends to crop up in the form of a MeaningfulName pair in the form of "cosmos" and "chaos" in various works, especially where a balance between good and evil is implied to exist.

* ''VideoGame/TheWitcher'' series has the main protagonist, Geralt of Rivia, choose sides in a civil-war, which pits humanity (representing law) and the elves, dwarves, and halflings (representing chaos). The first game allowed Geralt to go neutral, but the sequel doesn't give him such an option.

* ''TheWitcher'' series has the main protagonist, Geralt of Rivia, choose sides in a civil-war, which pits humanity (representing law) and the elves, dwarves, and halflings (representing chaos). The first game allowed Geralt to go neutral, but the sequel doesn't give him such an option.
* ''UltimaVIIPartII: The Serpent's Isle''. In the backstory, the forces of Order and their automatons and the forces of Chaos and their beasts fought a war in which Order ended up destroying the Chaos side. Both Order and Chaos in their extremes are portrayed as evil, and Order may come the worst off. Balance is the right path.

* ''OgreBattle'', OgreBattle64, and TacticsOgre's alignment system.

* The entire premise of ''{{Primal}}'' was this. Arella was the literal personification of order. Her polar opposite is Abbadon, who has begun to tip the balance of power towards chaos.

* ''FireEmblem: [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Radiant Dawn]]'' (and ''Path of Radiance'', the direct prequel) have Ashera, the Goddess of Order and [[spoiler:Yune]], Goddess of Chaos.
* If the words of a certain traitorous {{Bishounen}} priest are any indication, this may well turn out to be the most primal conflict in the ''{{Suikoden}}'' series. There are many ways one could wax [[FauxlosophicNarration fauxlosophic]] about this, but so far most of the writing on the wall seems to be margin notes. For instance, the conflict that created the [[TheVerse Suiko-verse]] was between two [[AnthropomorphicPersonification embodiments of protection and destruction]]. Refreshingly, the series chastises both extremes, showing the horrors of "true Order" (dharma, in the words of the aforementioned priest) at least as often as the horrors of "true Chaos."

** While ''SuikodenTierkreis'' isn't [[GaidenGame connected to]] [[AlternateContinuity the main series]], it pits the hero against [[ReligionOfEvil The Order Of The One True Way]], an empire with clear parallels to Harmonia, just [[DarkerAndEdgier nastier]] and with plenty of horror.

* The main villains of the game ''{{Anachronox}}'' are revealed to be a species devoted to Chaos, who were sent back to a former universe by a species devoted to Order -- though not much is made of this, since the sequel was never made.
* ''MortalKombat'' has the Order Realm/Seido, and the Chaos Realm, who are constantly at war with each other.

* ''DungeonMaster'' features a group of heroes sent on a quest by Lord Order to defeat Lord Chaos. Complete the quest as stated and Lord Order thanks you, [[spoiler: then murders you. To win, you have to defeat them both by merging them back into the one human they were originally created from.]]
* Very much like the example above, ''Faery Tale Adventure 2: Halls of the Dead'' evokes the [[GreyAndGreyMorality "too much of either is bad"]] version. The BigBad is ostensibly the personification of Chaos, but destroying him will only serve to [[spoiler:allow Order to achieve a perfectly ordered state by encasing the entire universe in lifeless crystal. Destroying Order likewise makes the world uninhabitable, for the opposite reason. The correct solution is to unify them, bringing harmony to the world again.]]
* ''WarhammerOnline: Age of Reckoning'' had two factions: Order and Destruction (since one of the races is Chaos). With Empire, Dwarves and High Elves on one side and Chaos, Greenskins and Dark Elves on the other. However, it has somewhat been criticised for making the Order side a bit too 'Good', although that could just be in comparison to the pure baby-murdering evil that is Destruction.
* In ''{{Disgaea}}'', it becomes clear that this is the true conflict, and the idea that it's GoodVersusEvil is some sort of in-universe ideal decay that has happened over millennia. Evidence of this is found in the fact that OTHER demons will chastize demons they see getting "too evil", e.g. Raspberyl's declaring Mao's intent to blow up the Earth, an act for scum. Also in the first game Etna insists on teaching Laharl kindness in her own warped demon way, and this trait was something she admired in his father.

* The famous GreenRocks of ''SonicTheHedgehog'', are called the CHAOS Emeralds. They wasted a perfectly bland plot in the scrapped game, 'Sonic X-Treme' which would have featured the Rings of ORDER.
* This is one of the pairs of faiths in ''LordsOfMagic''. Order is represented by the standard High Middle Ages style humans, Chaos is represented by barbarians.

*** During the [[BadFuture Dark World Series]], we find out that [[ChaoticEvil Discord]] and [[LawfulEvil Grogar]] went to war, [[EvilVsEvil forming an all evil version of this trope.]]

* ''FanFic/TheDarkLordsOfNerima'' has this in form of the [[SailorMoon Sailor Senshi]] (heroic [[MagicalGirl Magical Girls]] who fight for love and justice and work to preserve the peace of the world), and [[RanmaOneHalf Ranma and the Wreaking Crew]] (crazy Martial Artists with [[MartialArtsAndCrafts so many different]] [[SupernaturalMartialArts fighting styles]] that can [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower blow up mountains with ease]], plus they're [[ChewToy Chew Toys]]). They only reason why both sides are at war is because Ranma and Ryoga tricked the Senshi into thinking that they are both [[MultiversalConqueror Multiversal Conquerors]] to protect a Youma that Ryoga befriended. The said thing is that the Senshi are ''very'' instance into believing that they're evil, which given how twisted their villains were it's not sorta surprising.

* ''OnePiece'' has -- at least as a background story so far -- the war of the World Government and their policy of "absolute justice" against the free-spirited pirates. The World Government is portrayed as corrupt and pretty much completely evil, aside from a few story-prominent Navy officers who reject "absolute justice" in favor of their own brand of justice. The pirates, on the other hand, range from nice guys like [[IdiotHero Luffy]] to {{jerkass}}es like Buggy to [[KickTheDog dog-kicking scumbags]] like Arlong and Crocodile.
* ''{{s-Cry-ed}}'' (anime version) casts the independent mercenary Kazuma as a proponent of Chaos and the military-mindset HOLY member Ryuhou as a Orderly KnightTemplar who's confidently skirting the MoralEventHorizon. Most of Kazuma's potential Inner allies aren't all that good, and Ryuho's fellow CapeBusters run the gamut from easygoing to TheCaligula. Then ConflictKiller [[spoiler: Kyoji Mujo]] shows up, having suckered the mainland brass into thinking him a full-blown KnightTemplar when he's really a SocialDarwinist. At this point, if the two are left unattended for more than ''two seconds'' they start pounding on each other, but both agree that he's the biggest threat.
* Tsutomu Nihei's ''[[{{Blame}} Blameverse]]'' features this conflict prominently. In ''Noise'', the main character is a cop investigating a cult who worship the power of chaos who are kidnapping children to use for human sacrifices in their bizarre MagiTek rituals. When they kill her, she is ressurrected by a The Safeguard, protectors of order, but they turn out to be a pack of fascists who plan on disenfranchising & killing everybody who can't afford network implants & brainwashing the ones who do. Then in ''Blame!'', we see the aftermath of this; the cult succeeded in throwing the world into chaos, but since they're so poorly organized their descendants, the Silicon Lives, don't amount to much more than a bunch of roving cyber-barbarians. The Safeguard doesn't fare much better, as their directives become so corrupted that they essentially believe that ''everything'' that's not them must be exterminated.
** This is one of those few times in fiction where the reader is shown exactly WHY the [[BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil Balance Between Order And Chaos]] is so important and makes it clear that although Order is necessary, if it taken too far from the median line between Order and Chaos, extremes become implemented without a balancing force. In fact this is even evident in the {{Schizotech}} and {{Bizarchitecture}} seen in the manga, where widespread chaotic disruption results in the ever-growing expansion of the City, but the reason why that expansion continues is because the ordered directives of the builders demand logical progression and expansion. With no mediating force, one extreme inevitably bleeds into the other where neither are compatible for continued life.

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* This was what came to define the Wrestling/AttitudeEra, as the foul-mouthed, bellicose, and totally unpredictable GarbageWrestler Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin feuded with CorruptCorporateExecutive Wrestling/VinceMcMahon's slick, soulless media empire.
* Another, similar conflict from the Attitude Era was down-on-his-luck PsychopathicManchild [[Wrestling/MickFoley Mankind]]'s running battle with the 'Corporate Champion', [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson The Rock]], which involved the clean-cut rising star (and corporate shill) of the WWE getting squashed under forklifts, thrown through tables, and repeatedly gagged with Mankind's CompanionCube, 'Mr. Socko'.

* The [=Stone Cold Steve Austin/Vince=] [=McMahon=] feud, as [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8eWav7SEj this video]] sums up perfectly.

** ''YggdraUnion'' and ''BlazeUnion'' both deal with mortal affairs more than the huge conflict going on in the background, but they go a long way towards establishing the powers that be on both sides as incredibly callous. The antagonist of these games was born to be one of Asgard's soldiers, and was punished horribly for refusing to go to war and asserting his free will despite being what was considered a subhuman class, then exiled to a mortal world--and then completely ignored, even as he started manipulating events on that world for the sake of revenge. (These games, by the way, are the one with the messianic demon.)

* ''NemesisTheWarlock'' pits the titular powerful alien wizard in service of [[XtremeKoolLetterz Kaos]] against the tyrannical bigot ruling humanity, Torquemada. At first it looks like Chaos/Nemesis is good and Order/Torquemada is bad, but as the series goes it becomes clear Nemesis is manipulating both people around him and readers as well to potray himself as a hero, but in reality is cruel, bored god prolonging the war for his own amusment, because Torquemada is the only man to give him any challenge. At the end it's clear they are both bastards.

Using it in a setting allows you to have two sides, in a similar way to Good and Evil, but without being trite or preachy about it. While the most traditional works have assigned [[LawfulGood Order to Good]], and [[ChaoticEvil Chaos to Evil]], [[InvertedTrope inversions]] of this are also common wherever you find people dissatisfied with ThePowersThatBe. Often you'll find a ChaoticGood [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits band of rebels]] fighting against a LawfulEvil [[TheEmpire empire]]. In another take on the subject, true goodness is seen as the [[BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil balance]] [[NeutralGood between the two forces]], and [[GreyAndGrayMorality both Order and Chaos are portrayed as evil when they are]] [[LawfulStupidChaoticStupid taken to their extremes]].

Order, sometimes called Law, is associated with civilization, authority, rules, protection, the status quo, tradition, and, when [[LawfulStupid stretched to its extreme]], mindless obedience to the law, fascism, and xenophobia. It's quite common to depict what happens when Order takes [[KnightTemplar their laws and oaths]] [[TautologicalTemplar just a little too far]]. When they have [[PersonalityPowers powers]] associated with them, it's often [[TheLeader leadership]], TheVirus, [[{{Brainwashed}} Brainwashing]], and the [[MagicallyBindingContract power to bind with rules and oaths]]. When used as a villain, he's likely to say "WeHaveReserves."

Chaos is associated with change, {{Tricksters}}, free will, creativity, individualism, and, [[ChaoticStupid to the extreme]], madness, savagery, solipsism, and selfish overindulgence. The powers associated with it are {{Shapeshifting}}, [[MasterOfIllusion illusions]], and matter transmutation. By nature, Chaos tends to be [[HollywoodTactics too disorganized to pose a serious unifed threat like Order]], and may engage in an EnemyCivilWar or find its members DividedWeFall. The forces of Chaos are the hardest to predict.

* ''{{Asterix}}'' fits this theme. The Romans are well-organised (the story occasionally lampshades their beautiful maneuvers as a form of history-porn), trained, dress in uniforms, live in elegant villas or tidy little fortified camps, and are cultured and structured - although the characters given to the individual Romans show the cracks in the facade. The Gauls, on the other hand, have long, wild hair and facial hair, live in ramshackle huts, actively resist authority [[ChaoticNeutral even if that authority might have a point]] and charge into battle any old how with no plans and their biggest men at the front. It's worth observing that when the Gauls beat up the (ordinary) Romans, they tend to look messed up, but quite happy about it, as if they're just relieved to be liberated from the oppression of order. The Gauls export their particular brand of Chaos to the camps, eventually - a new centurion arrives to discover that no-one is in uniform and the soldiers, all bruised and missing teeth, have completely given up attacking the village and are now just hanging around enjoying food, drink, games and basically having a relaxed, good time.

* Order and Chaos have been divided into separate worlds in ''TheLongestJourney''. Although generally both sides try to leave each other alone, sometimes someone gets it into their head that their side is the superior.
* The ''{{Thief}}'' games have the Hammerites, a particularly [[ChurchMilitant militant]] group of [[KnightTemplar Knight Templars]], as Order, and the Pagans, a demon-worshipping underground {{Cult}} of shamans and hippies, as Chaos. Neither are portrayed as particularly nice. The [[AntiHero protagonist]], interestingly, could be considered a representation of balance: he's a thief, but his livelihood hinges pretty heavily on the institutions of the society he lives in, and he frequently steps in to keep things from [[EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt going all to hell]].

*** However, unlike the virtues of Britannia, Ophedian virtues are not good by themselves and must be practiced with its opposite counterpart to achieve balance, otherwise, wrongs are committed, called Banes. The Banes of Order are Ruthlessness (Logic without Emotion), Apathy (Discipline without Enthusiasm), and Prejudice (Ethicallity without Tolerance). The Banes of Chaos are Insanity (Emotion without Logic), Wantonness (Enthusiasm without Discipline), and Anarchy (Tolerance without Ethicality). The Order and Chaos counterparts combined together form the Principles of Harmony (Tolerance and Ethicality), Dedication (Discipline and Enthusiasm), and Rationality (Logic and Emotion).

* ''UltimaVIIPartII'' The Serpent's Isle. In the backstory, the forces of Order and the automatrons and the forces of Chaos and their beasts fought a war in which Order ended up destroying the Chaos side. Both Order and Chaos in their extremes are portayed as evil, and Order may come the worst off. Balance is the right path.

*** However, unlike the virtues of Britannia, Ophedian virtues are not good by themselves and must be practiced with its opposite counterpart to achieve balance, otherwise, wrongs are committed, called Banes. The Banes of Order are Ruthlessness (Logic without Emotion), Apathy (Discipline without Enthusiasm) and Prejudice (Ethicallity without Tolerance). The Banes of Chaos are Insanity (Emotion without Logic), Wantonness (Enthusiasm without Discipline), and Anarchy (Tolerance without Ethicality). The Order and Chaos counterparts combined together form the Principles of Harmony (Tolerance and Ethicality), Dedication (Discipline and Enthusiasm), and Rationality (Logic and Emotion).

* ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}'', the movie with the afterlife bureaucrat Juno and Mr. "Come to think of it I don't have any rules", with the protagonists trying to find a happy medium

** The Were-Spider source book details their more minute distinctions of each force in the way they determine their Auspice. Each were-spider has what amounts to a primarilly allignment with one of the three forces, and a secondary allignment which determined how they expressed it. An entropic-dynamic character then, would thus be concerned with spreading/serving entropy and destruction in as choatic a manner as possible, where-as a stasic-dynamic character might be more intered in creating and preserving new works.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' typically defines itself as Order vs. Chaos (or rather, Order vs. Disorder, seeing as how one of the factions in the universe is called Chaos). There is no real Good vs Evil. Although there are some individuals who could be considered good, as a whole the sides are basically [[BlackAndGreyMorality Bad vs]] ''[[BlackAndGreyMorality Worse]]''.
** However, Order does come off as a slightly lighter shade of black most of the time. Normal racial divisions are the Imperium, Eldar, and Tau for Order, and Chaos, Dark Eldar, and Orks for Disorder. Necrons and Tyranids are both off to the side a bit, but as Necron lore becomes more developed, they seem to be leaning towards Order.
** In the first Necrons codex, the C'tan are essentially the Gods of Order, as they're the complete antithesis of the Chaos Gods. The Chaos Gods exist in the Warp while the C'tan are wholly physical beings (well, energy beings, but they have no connection to Warp whatsoever) The Chaos Gods can substitute reality with their own, while the C'tan have mastery over the laws of physics, allowing both to do seemingly magical things. The followers of the Chaos Gods tend to end up controlled by their emotions and become more and more mutated until they turn into mindless Spawn, while the followers of the C'tan had their minds transferred into unchanging metal bodies and became the soulless and emotionless Necrons. The ultimate goal of the Chaos Gods is to consume the galaxy in chaos by turning it into a giant warp rift, while the ultimate goal of the C'tan is to seal off the warp, turning every sentient being into soulless cattle for them to feed on.

** TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}} had both the Chaos gods and the Gods of Law, the later being obviously so obscure that they not only are barely mentioned, but pretty much absent from the main plot, although their followers are known to be extremistic. There's also several other gods who are either rather neutral, or that side against Chaos, but are not considered Gods of Order.
*** The Chaos Gods themselves do not simply represent Chaos; they represent [[ChaoticEvil corrupted Chaos]]. All Warp gods are [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly affected by the emotions of their worshippers]] and all four Chaos gods personify, in part, something much more positive than their normal nature- Slaanesh is the God of Love, for instance, and Tzeentch the God of Hope. The reason they are ChaoticEvil rather than ChaoticNeutral or ChaoticGood is largely because the Warhammer universe [[CrapsackWorld is just that screwed up.]] The fact that all the other factions are about as AxCrazy as each other is what makes Chaos the worst faction of the lot in the first place. Its not that there is no Good and Evil in this setting- it's that Evil exists, and it has ''won''.

*** The episode "Feeling Pinkie Keen" has Twilight Sparkle as Order and Pinkie Pie as Chaos. Twilight is the Element of Magic, and firmly believes that everything has an explanation, even magic ([[MagicAIsMagicA it works in ways you direct it in, and get the expected effect]]). Pinkie is the Element of Laughter, and despite being an earth pony, is seemingly able to bend space and glimpse the future due to the RuleOfFunny.

** In last issue of his run Crazy Jane is kept in another world (implied to be our world) and her therapist insists her adventures with Doom Patrol are delusions, some enemies (Scissormen and Orqwith, Men from N.O.W.H.E.R.E., Sex Men, Ant Farm and Telephone Avatar) as representations of cold, alien, tyrannical authority ([[LawfulEvil Evil Order]]) and others (Red Jack, Desecrator, Shadowy Mister Evans, Candlemaker) as predatory forces of destruction ([[ChaoticEvil Evil Chaos]]) representing her father.

* Marvel also has Lord Chaos and Master Order, two [[AnthropomorphicPersonification]]s of the concepts. Usually Lord Chaos serves the role as the antagonist, or they both team up to protect the universe against a greater threat. An exception was when the cosmic being Edifice Rex planned to revert the universe back to a point singularity - all of the other cosmic beings opposed him, except for Master Order who thought it was a wonderful idea.

* ''NemesisTheWarlock'' pits titular powerful alien wizard in service of [[XtremeKoolLetterz Kaos]] against tyranical bigot ruling humanity, Torquemada. At first it looks like Chaos/Nemesis is good and Order/Torquemada is bad, but as the series goes it becomes clear Nemesis is manipulating both people around him and readers as well to potray himself as a hero, but in reality is cruel, bored god prolonging the war for his own amusment, because Torquemada is the only man to give him any challenge. At the end it's clear they are both bastards.

** As presented in the earlier books, order mages tend to slowly become more dedicated to (and fixed in) their causes (good ''or'' evil), while chaos mages tend to become less so (and thus self-centered and increasingly amoral, but less capable of intentionally being pure good ''or'' pure evil). Later, the series seems to drift more towards making [[YinYangBomb balance]] the only "real" good solution.

* ''ParadiseLost'' uses the standard notation where God is Order and Satan is Chaos. As a quirk of the way Milton wrote it, however, God is the stern version, while Satan decides in the first part to make the best of the bad situation he's been put in. Like many classics, the resulting work is still quite open to interpretation.
** However, it also points out Satan's hypocrisy. While he claims to stand for freedom, he very quickly becomes a despotic tyrant who rules Hell with an iron fist.

* In TadWilliams ''The Dirty Streets of Heaven'' Heaven is Order and hell Chaos but while demons are definitely evil Heaven is implied to be a CrapsaccharineWorld with the higher orders playing Machiavellian games and the "saved" playing forever in the Elysian Fields at the cost of their memories and personalities which has led some on both sides to seek a Third Way.

* ''Literature/AClockworkOrange'' uses this to prevent DarknessInducedAudienceApathy, though it's subtle; the main conflict is between VillainProtagonist [[TheSociopath Alex]], a young man who generally dedicates himself to rape, ultraviolence, narcotics, and [[ArsonMurderJaywalking Beethoven]], and the government that wants to torture the criminal impulse out of him. Alex, of course, is Chaos; the government is Order. They're both pretty damn bad.

*** It's heavily implied, if not outright stated in several Moorcock stories that the true 'good' is in fact mankind finally growing up, taking charge of and responsibility for its own destiny, and ceasing to depend on 'higher powers' that it may actually have propped up itself in the first place. {{Corum}}'s Swords Trilogy ends with [[spoiler:both Law and Chaos banished from his world]], [[Literature/TheElricSaga Elric's]] story ends with [[spoiler:his world destroyed and replaced with one in which the gods have little influence]], and the final story of the Erekosë saga implies that [[spoiler:Law, Chaos, and the Balance were destroyed]].
* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' we have the Wildlings, who love their freedom, would never support the whole monarchistic system that is causing als the crap in Westeros, but have no real infrastructure or laws. On the other hand we have the Night Watch which is honour bound to protect the country from them.

Order, sometimes called Law, is associated with civilization, authority, rules, protection, the status quo, tradition, and, when [[LawfulStupid stretched to its extreme]], mindless obedience to the law, fascism, and xenophobia. It's quite common to depict what happens when Order takes [[KnightTemplar their laws and oaths]] [[TautologicalTemplar just a little too far]]. When they have [[PersonalityPowers powers]] associated with them, it's often [[TheLeader leadership]], TheVirus, [[{{Brainwashed}} Brainwashing]], and the [[MagicalBindingContract power to bind with rules and oaths]]. When used as a villain, he's likely to say "WeHaveReserves."

* ''Manga/DeathNote'''s GreyAndGreyMorality makes this a more adequate description of the conflict between [[SerialKiller Light]] and [[SympatheticInspectorAntagonist L]] than "good vs. evil". Of course, it can be hard to determine which is which... Obviously L, being a mastermind detective, represents the Law, but Light is a homicidal KnightTemplar whose BlackAndWhiteInsanity causes him to ''also'' defend the Law to ridiculous extremes. Both of them at least ''think'' that they're Order.
** L fits the Order category better, as an exalted leader in an organized world whose motifs are computers and [[RedOniBlueOni the color blue]], but accepts that the world is chaotic; Light is a representation of Chaos, as a childish genius who uses murder to bend the world to his whims and personal judgments, but he wants the world to be ordered.