The manipulation of chaos comes at a price: over time, it can permeate a wizard, accelerating the deterioration of everything around him or her (example: wine turning to vinegar almost before the wizard can drink it). Those wizards who channel chaos through their bodies (nearly all of them) have short lifespans, inversely proportional to the amount of chaos they raise. Some have found ways to reduce this effect. Additionally, any living being that is exposed to much chaos (such as the inhabitants of Fairhaven) experiences a burning sensation upon touching an ordered object, akin to touching an extremely cold object. The effect's severity is proportional to the accumulated chaos. For White Wizards, the result is often death. The manipulation of order has costs too. Wielding it carelessly can drain a mage of the order needed to sustain life (example: absent-mindedly stroking one's wooden staff). Exceptional mages in the series discover ways to use order to funnel chaos, working around their inability to manipulate chaos directly. This is effective in combat but these actions backlash on the wielder because death itself releases chaos. The unleashed chaos harms the mage. It can cause disorientation, even sensory deprivation, for timespans proportional to the amount of destruction. The original wielders of magic were marooned on the world of Recluce from another universe, where they were space-farers engaged in a protracted war, and most of the novels take place long after these arrivals, however, Fall of Angels does provide a brief glimpse into that other universe. The reader first discovers this through quotes and legends peppered throughout the series. The preexisting native population had developed something approximating medieval technology. The new arrivals could not keep their technology operational, but found the same skill with which they interfaced with their ship, allowed them to manipulate latent forces within the new world. The ancestors of the people who would rule empires powered and dominated by white chaos were stranded first, they were the Rationalists (aka "Rats", or "Demons"). They would found an empire, Cyador, that would destroy the majority of the Great Forest, what they call The Accursed Forest, enclosing the remainder inside a great wall, and dominated the East of the continent of Candar. This empire would be patriarchal and could be oppressive to women in varying degrees through its history, but a genteel and paternal sort of oppression, in contrast to the "native" misogynists, who