I suspect that this item was inspired by Michael Moorcock's writings, in which all of reality is a war between Order and Chaos, the nature of gods and everything else varying between dimensions, except for the Black Blade of Chaos and Staff of Order.
Over time I'm sure the writers/creators of The Elder Scrolls setting wanted to distinguish and distance it from Elric and Tolkien. So the plot element which would make their metaphysics the reverse of Elric's (the staff's chaotic instead of orderly) is dropped in favor of a more unique cosmology. Their current explanation of things, as of Oblivion, that SPOILERS the realm the game takes place in is actually another plane of Oblivion in which a group of daedra overthrew their ruler to separate it from the rest of Oblivion END SPOILERS remind me of Yu Yu Hakasho in which SPOILER the spirit world, initially introduced as a separate dimension from the demon world, turns out to be part of the demon world, which encompasses all reality, only separated b/c the local ruler formed a barrier between it and everything else END SPOILER. But I think this similarity is a coincidence whereas the writers had probably read Moorcock's work and been consciously influenced by it.
Staff of Chaos
I suspect that this item was inspired by Michael Moorcock's writings, in which all of reality is a war between Order and Chaos, the nature of gods and everything else varying between dimensions, except for the Black Blade of Chaos and Staff of Order. Over time I'm sure the writers/creators of The Elder Scrolls setting wanted to distinguish and distance it from Elric and Tolkien. So the plot element which would make their metaphysics the reverse of Elric's (the staff's chaotic instead of orderly) is dropped in favor of a more unique cosmology. Their current explanation of things, as of Oblivion, that SPOILERS the realm the game takes place in is actually another plane of Oblivion in which a group of daedra overthrew their ruler to separate it from the rest of Oblivion END SPOILERS remind me of Yu Yu Hakasho in which SPOILER the spirit world, initially introduced as a separate dimension from the demon world, turns out to be part of the demon world, which encompasses all reality, only separated b/c the local ruler formed a barrier between it and everything else END SPOILER. But I think this similarity is a coincidence whereas the writers had probably read Moorcock's work and been consciously influenced by it.
stay golden