The cosmic struggle between Law and Chaos comes to Traveller

Somewhen in spacetime. Outside of the linear flow that most sentients experience, parallel to the physical universe and the higher dimension known as jumpspace, there is a place where the original creators have long since transcended beyond their Technological Singularity. Still the pocket dimension remains, where spacetime, quantum mechanics, and the fundamental forces of the universe are but tools that can change the state of matter and energy here for those who know how to use them.

Its known by many names over the breadth of the Multiverse; Tanelorn, Shamballah, Xanadu, the Q Continuum, the Nexus, the Convergence, and untold others, but for purposes of this essay we’ll refer to this pocket dimension by the evocative term;

The End of Time

Law, Chaos, and the Balance

Tension between the Cosmic forces of Law and Chaos play out over uncountable universes. Law is the force in the multiverse that gives structure and order. Law is what enforces the fundamental interactions of gravity, magnetism, matter, Law dictates the motion of the universe. Chaos is the entropy that permits change and endless variation throughout the universe. Without Law, nothing would exist within a stable form, everything would be a protean miasma of continual, unending permutations. Without Chaos, nothing would ever change, life would end, death would end, the universe would calcify into an unending singularity. For the universe, even the multiverse to exist at all, Law and Chaos must co-exist and the tension between them being the source of all motion. This state of tension is referred to as the Cosmic Balance.

Cosmic Balance is never absolute, nor permanent. It is always shifting toward Law or Chaos as the influence of these poles wax and wane within any given expression of the multiverse. When Law or Chaos becomes too dominant, the Cosmic Balance is lost, and the Universe there spirals towards destruction.

This, for the most part is beyond the scope of most Traveller Campaigns, it’s the background radiation of the universe, it’s there, it can even be perceived after a fashion, but the characters and the events in their adventures never directly affect the Cosmic Balance.

Until they do, of course. Which is where Champions of Law, Chaos, and the Balance come into play.

I’m the Cosmic Champion, and I Hold a Mystic Sign

Let us return for a moment to the End of Time described earlier. Although the civilization that built the End of Time have transcended to a higher plane of existence, their greatest achievement continues to endure. Over ages and eons, the End of Time has been rediscovered by philosophers, psionic explorers and researchers that have probed the limits of their realities. They have learned that from the End of Time, a material being can observe the whole of the (Traveller) Universe from the big bang to it’s ultimate expiration. Those who retained their sense of self-identity in the face of eternity became a fellowship of adventurers and explorers who champion the cosmic Balance and strive to maintain it.

They call themselves the Dancers at the End of Time. From their City, they search for imbalances that threaten the equilibrium of Law and Chaos, and if such an imbalance is detected in the timeline, the Dancers respond. Their operatives are represented by an endless variety of sophont species from civilizations across the breadth of time and space equipped with Tech Level Z gear and vehicles to address crises across the breadth of spacetime.

There are champions of Law and Chaos as well. Mortal sophonts who are recruited by powerful representatives to serve the designs of Law or Chaos. Like the Dancers, these champions are often equipped with technology of Tech Level Z (or very near Z) that give them abilities that are indistinguishable from Magic, even in advanced civilizations like Charted Space in IY 1105.

Are there Gods in the Traveller Universe?

Not in the sense of how the term “Gods” is used in the classic Fantasy Role Playing sense. Still there are powerful species that can be found throughout the Galaxy that, to a sophont in Charted space may as well be “Gods” because of the vast difference in technology, evolution, and understanding. At these near Technological Singularity Tech Levels the advantages of supporting the designs of Law or Chaos can be realized. The danger of pursuing the dominance of Law or Chaos, is that the more a champion succeeds in pushing the forces they serve, the more they themselves are transformed by those same furies. These entities are the powers that actively strive to upset the balance between Law and Chaos, and they are the beings who lend their power and resources to Champions and Cults. See last weeks essay Have You Seen the Yellow Sign? for thoughts on Secret Societies and Cults in Traveller.

The vast majority of people living in Charted Space will never know of the influence of Law, Chaos and their balance in the Universe. They will never be aware of how the struggles between Law and Chaos affect them. At least until it’s almost too late and the universe starts to succumb to the effects of unchecked Law or rampant Chaos.

Introducing the Cosmic Struggle to Traveller

Most campaigns don’t lend themselves to these extreme stories. A campaign like Cluster Truck doesn’t concern itself, either during it’s adventure or in the epilogue. However Secrets of the Ancients, can open the possibility of involving the Travellers with the struggle. Using Champions and Cosmic Law, Chaos, and the Balance in Traveller involves very high (like Grandfather Tech Levels, or the various elder civilizations that surround Charted Space or exist at the Core.

Interacting with Champions or the Cosmic Servants is a reality-bending scenario. Even forging pocket dimensions is childs’ play at this scale. Finding and exploring the City at the End of Time can be a whole Campaign in and of itself.

Using the Dancers

The Dancers at the End of Time are a mysterious group. Their motivations may be obscure at best, working with, or against the Travellers from one encounter to the next. Sometimes the Dancers are on a mission to restore or protect the Cosmic Balance, other times they’re using their ultra-advanced technology to explore and adventure in the Cosmos for their own pleasures. They are both operatives that protect the ability for reality to continue without collapsing, and they are decadent adventurers who use their advanced resources for their own pleasures, “slumming” in the backwater regions of the Galaxy among primitives.

Playing as one of the Dancers, or as a Champion of Law or Chaos is possible with some work in Traveller. If the group has access to Traveller^5.10 there are design systems that support using Technology all the way to TL Z. In short, a campaign featuring Dancers as the Travellers would draw a lot of inspiration from E. E. Doc Smith’s Lensman series, the Green Lantern Corps, everything that has been presented as the Q Continuum, Zelazny’s Amber series, Dr Who, and of course, Moorcock’s Dancers at the End of Time trilogy. So close to the Technological Singularity, the Travellers’ abilities would resemble super-powers. Although the mechanics of Traveller can, with some work, support campaigns at this scale the setting does not. Not directly at least.

The Third Imperium setting in 1105 is far too small, far too primitive to contain a Dancers campaign. At the extreme tech levels that the End of Time implies, almost anything is possible, what’s more, almost anything is commonplace. Dancers are a campaign type in and of themselves. They investigate anomalies and resist the efforts of Law or Chaos to become dominant. While Dancers can interact in the political arena, outmaneuvering Archdukes and First Councilors, the objective is not to rule a system, or even a sector. Those goals are too small when the City at the End of Time is the character’s home and all of time and space is open to adventure in. Dancers adventure within the Event Horizon of a black hole. They confront Elder Beings that are corrupting the very stars themselves. They don’t start or end wars, they contain the spread of an irresistable Legion of Law. The Galaxy, indeed all of time and space is their campaign setting. Campaigns and Adventures at this scale resemble episodes, (or entire multi-episode plots) of Dr Who. Which means, the Referee and the Players in the game are responsible for generating content.

Arriving at the End of Time

In many ways, using the Cosmic Struggle in the background doesn’t change much once Traveller is adjusted for the scale. That is because, despite their fantastic abilities, equipment, vehicles and resources, a campaign that involve the Dancers at the End of Time is a campaign about people. Keep that in mind when designing adventures and everything will be both familiar and fantastic. Even if some of those people are alien immortal sorcerers who are Champions of Chaos, they still have wants, needs, and motivations and discovering them through layers of inscrutable, mysterious presentation is more of a key to succeeding in an adventure than using your personal plasma ring to carve their neutron-star lair in half.

In addition to several pieces of literature and art which I’ve referenced, I wish to extend a special acknowledgement and thank you to Michael Moorcock. It’s his body of literary work that gave us the Eternal Champion, the Cosmic Struggle of Law and Chaos, even the Dancers at the End of Time which was the inspiration for this essay and Jherek Carnelian through whose eyes we experience An Alien Heat, The Hollow Lands, and The End of All Songs.