Light as the opposite of entropy?

[KDR_11k]

I know arguing about things like that in a game is kinda pointless but how exactly does light qualify for being the opposite of entropy? Producing light increases entropy in the light producer. The opposite of entropy would be stasis. Well, not exactly the opposite but probably the only thing that would not increase entropy. Preventing a target from producing entropy would have quite deadly results for living beings.

[x4000]

Think good vs evil, not literally luminance and decay. The only way to "fix" the issue for the science diehards would be to make entropy something like "shadow" or "dark," but that seems a lot more cliche and uninteresting to me. Earth and air aren't opposites in a scientific sense, either.

[Dizzard]

How about "Void"?

It sort of sounds like it could be the opposite of both "light" light AND "good" light.

Void of light (darkness) and Void of light/heart (evil), In both cases the opposite of light is really the lack of it, which is like a dark blank void.

[x4000]

To be honest, I really like entropy. Keith and I had a lot of discussion on various synonyms (loose or otherwise), half a year ago. The element names aren't new, you're just seeing them for the first time in the game interface. And the opposing relationships are new.

But if you look at what we've been doing thematically with the spells in dispersia, you'll definitely see an entropy theme as much as an evil theme. I'm not keen to change entropy into something that's more generic fantasy.

[zebramatt]

I like entropy too, it's an underused term in the context.

The only other option would be the light fantastic.

[Dizzard]

Entropy just seems a little abstract. It's not a word that gives me a feeling of despair or evil. (although to be fair it isn't a word I'm hugely familiar with) It makes me think of a bunch of scientists (perfectly sane ones) in a lab conducting experiments.

In the end it is just a title though, it's not going to have any major effect on how the game plays.

[x4000]

Well, that's part of the point -- is that purple isn't all about evil. Any more than the air element is all about lightning, although that is one major sub-component. Earth isn't all about forest stuff, though that's a major sub-component of that one, too. Entropy encompasses things like shrink and miniature, and even teleport and warp make sense in that context, too. None of those things are evil in the slightest, but they are related to entropy.

[KDR_11k]

Maybe something like distortion would work better, after all it also does things like warping, seizing and shrinking (none of which fit entropy). Not sure that would work as an opposite but at least it sounds more fitting for the spells. Light could be radiation?

[x4000]

Distortion and raditation just really don't have a good alliterative ring to them, either.  Not only does it have to be thematically fitting in some fashion, it has to sound cool (to me at the very least).

[KDR_11k]

I'm trying to think of a word that encompasses clean, barren, rigid, ordered, directed, etc as a word for light. I'd say Order but that's overused and Law just doesn't sound right as a kind of magic. Light to me brings associations of space: The empty vastness with no life and nothing beyond radiation and rocks moving.

EDIT: Maybe Primal? Or origin magic?

[Dizzard]

I don't think Light needs to change, it's fine as it is.

[x4000]

Order and Entropy aren't too bad as opposites, honestly, but I wouldn't think to look for all the luminance-themed stuff under an Order category.  But I'm not real inclined to make changes here unless just the perfect thing came along.  Keith and I are both pretty... funny... about how things are named.

[KDR_11k]

Well, entropy IS pretty much chaos but the whole order/chaos duality has been overused in fiction.

[zebramatt]

Did I mention I really like "entropy"? :-)

I'd be sad to see it changed.

[Underfot]

I rather like entropy and light as opposites and as spell categories.