We hear many explanations for the way of the universe; of the battle between Good and Evil, Light and Dark, Ahura Mazda and Ahriman, Osiris and Seth....
On one side The Creator and on the other The Destroyer. Growth and Entropy. Order and Chaos.
It is, on the deepest level, humanity's most essential concern.
We prefer growth and continued life to the inevitable entropy of death. Obviously, if humanity were to have an enemy, it's face would be of that greatest of symbols of death.
We fear chaos because order is easier to control, to predict, to understand. Yet chaos is what many will tell us led to our unlikely existence. Order is actually the herald of stagnation and, ultimately, extinction. That which cannot adapt to change is doomed to die from it.
So?
What does that mean?
Order vs Chaos
Since what we can determine to be the beginning of recorded Time, we've had stories about the Eternal Battle between Order and Chaos. Chaos was unpredictable and impossible to control, Order is the complete opposite but while Chaos is said to be easy, the Path of Order is a more difficult one to follow.
If you want to really understand how seductive and deceitful the power of Chaos is, I suggest a good read of my friend Graham McNeill's work.
So; Order = Good ; Chaos = Bad... right?
Not. Necessarily.
The Tales of Sable, Asmodeus, and The Stranger
Sable is someone who believes themselves damned and the spawn of evil. Rejected by their family and a danger to friends and enemies alike, he has led a solitary life on Earth for the past 9 millennia. Somehow, he arrived at his own determination of what is right and wrong and developed a code he will break under no circumstance.
Asmodeus is much more morally flexible. He will manipulate and use people; even gamble their lives if it serves, in his opinion, the greater good. He has actually been quite open about this to Julian and feels no shame whatsoever in sending people, unsuspecting, to their deaths.
The Stranger. Well, he or it is something else. Very little is known about 'him' because, to the best of our knowledge, only three beings have met him and of those, Lilith is the only one we haven't mentioned in this article. There is much debate around just who or what The Stranger is and, apart from confirming he is extremely important, will not spoil it for you further.
Balance
The Chronicles of Enoch is said to be odd in the fact that there is no immediately identifiable MC or main character. Let's examine that shall we;
Sable. Enoch's guide and protector, he has led the unlikely trio of The Prophet, Gilgamesh and Conan across the ages (think about his choice of companions carefully). He is the archetypal Hero; unequalled in combat but unshakeable in his loyalty.
Enoch. The titular character is oddly nonverbal for 90% of Darkness Within. His speech is reported but never direct. He is the one Chosen by The Creator but why choose a scribe to do a warrior's work?
Asmodeus. Nasty, manipulative, unprincipled, and vicious. This is what he appears to be on the outside but in Chronicles of Enoch : Preludes , we see quite a different side to him. An entertaining anti-hero then? Watch this space.
Charles Vanderbilt. A calm and careful police detective who appears to become involved by sheer chance and unhappy coincidence but is that truly the case? There are possible hints to the contrary and there is just something about Charles that begs the questions; why him, why now?
Sander Vanderbilt. Charles' nephew, Sander is a mid-function ASD child with something about him a lot of people seem to be interested in. At least three of the important "factions" in the Chronicles seem to know about him and his family. Then there's that strange connection between his father and Gerry/Gershom Schulmann.
Now here is the strange part; each of these six kind of have their own allies and antagonists as well as some (Like Lucifer, the "Big Bad") in common. They also are, occasionally, one another's antagonists and (at times indirect) allies.
An Epic Explanation
Simply put, just like an epic is bigger than its writer, The Chronicles of Enoch is bigger than just one person. As in life, no man or woman is truly an island, no character is truly the main one in something so huge in scale.
Chaos is present in everything we see and do, in the silent spaces behind the order and events are always created by the combined efforts of many, not one. Most of the Time, you never meet those who help to create certain opportunities and circumstances in your life but they exist.
They say that Ignorance is Chaos' greatest weapon and Knowledge Order's mightiest champion.
It's possible that knowing why things take place as they do and who made it happen could be that one vital piece of information that makes the difference between victory and defeat.
Perhaps a simple view of Chaos as the enemy and Order as our ally is not a sensible one. Perhaps a better view to ascribe to is that one cannot possibly exist without the other and, instead of enemies, they are simply two parts of something else;
Balance.