Influence from Stormbringer

I have been doing some research on the Moorcock's Multiverse wiki and learned about the obscure elements of the Eternal Champion series' expanded universe. This gives me some more ideas for exploring my own take on the concept.

In Moorcock's multiverse there are three fundamental forces of Law and Chaos mediated by the Cosmic Balance. The Cosmic Balance insists that Law and Chaos exist in balance, for otherwise life could not exist. Because the Cosmic Balance is itself a law, Chaos resists and continually attempts to tip the balance in its own favor. Law defends the Balance against Chaos, but all too easily falls into extremism and decides that Chaos must be destroyed. At there worst extremes there is little to distinguish the two.

In worlds where Chaos is ascendant, Law is seen as good and Chaos as evil. In worlds where Law is ascendant, the opposite is true. These positive and negative aspects of Law and Chaos are represented by the Lords of the Higher Worlds. The positive aspects of Law and Chaos are the Lords of Law (aka Lords of Light, White Lords) and the Chaos Engineers. The negatives aspects of Law and Chaos are The Singularity and the Chaos Lords (aka Lords of Entropy, Dukes of Hell, Black Lords). The Cosmic Balance has its own lords, the Grey Lords (aka Lords of Neutrality, Lords of the Inquisition).

There are also the Elemental Lords and Beast Lords (who you may recognize because they were copied wholesale by D&D), but they do not play a role in the Cosmic Balance insomuch as that they benefit from it just as humans do.

There is also a fourth force, if indeed it can be called that. Outside of the Multiverse exists Limbo, a void of nothing. If the Cosmic Balance is not obeyed, the unbalanced worlds fall into Limbo and cease to exist. Limbo also has its own deities, the Fhoi Myore.

In much the same way that Law and Chaos have positive and negative aspects, the Grey Lords and Limbo may be seen as the positive and negative aspects of the Cosmic Balance. In a literal sense, the Grey Lords promote the Cosmic Balance whereas Limbo is its complete absence.

On a related note, Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions included Faerie (and by extension the Faerie Lords) among Chaos.

These concepts of Chaos, Cosmic Balance, Law and Limbo have reappeared not only in D&D, but also in other tabletop games. Sometimes they are translated fairly literally, other times they are mangled.

• Dungeons & Dragons re-interprets them as Chaos, Evil, Good, Law and Neutrality. Good and Neutrality seem to be split from the Balance, which produces a bizarre conflict since a balance between Good and Evil a la Charmed or Buffy the Vampire Slayer is incongruous with a balance between Chaos and Law (aside from being nonsensical on its own).
• Nine Worlds renames them to Chaos (Limbo), Cosmos (Balance), Metamorphosis (Chaos), and Stasis (Law) but otherwise hews fairly closely to the intent.
• Mage: The Ascension re-interprets them as Dynamism (Chaos), Entropy (Balance) and Stasis (Law) due to influence from the Hindu trimurti. Due to a conflict carried over from Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Entropy has been corrupted into Limbo and Questing takes over the role of Balance.
• Age of Sigmar re-interprets them as Chaos, Death, Destruction and Order. The first three are a mix of Chaos and Limbo, while the last is a mix of Law and Balance.
• Geoffrey McKinney’s Carcosa posits Chaos as synonymous with the Great Old Ones of Lovecraft's mythos. Order is opposed to them.
• Elric of R'lyeh likewise tries to marry cosmic horror with the cosmic balance. Moorcock's deities seem to have the closest resemblance to the "gods of Earth," if anything. The Old Ones seem to be closer to the lost gods or something.
• The Hellraiser comics interpret the cenobites' deity Leviathan as obsessed with order to the point of being hostile to life, similar to the Singularity.
• Gnosticism has the Archons, who vaguely resemble the Singularity.

I initially adopted the Nine Worlds scheme, but renamed Metamorphosis and Stasis to Discord and Order. The new titles originate from the locations "Planes of Discord" and "Planes of Order" named in Secrets of the Planes: Planar Races.

After further thought, I decided to drop the extraneous elements I added and refocus on the original elegant simplicity of Law, Chaos and Balance. Balance includes the constructive aspects of Law and Chaos, whereas alone Law and Chaos degenerate into their destructive aspects.