Fear and hatred of Chaos is both instinctive and rational for all natural creatures in Glorantha. Let that sink in. Chaos is wrong and its effects are evil. Let that sink in as well.
Let’s look at the things tainted by Chaos in the world. The broo are twisted, warped things whose gods are dedicated to inflicting suffering on others (Thed and Mallia). Scorpionmen are even more monstrous and alien. Ogres can pass as people, but are secret serial killers. Go a little further and it gets even rose – walktapi, dragonsnails, gorp, etc.
Humans have often made counsel with trolls, elves, dwarves, even dragonewts. These Elder Races may feud with each other, but they all are in agreement about Chaos being evil.
The gods also fear and hate Chaos. Chaos nearly destroyed the cosmos in the Gods War. It wasn’t Orlanth’s feud with Yelm that shattered the Spike and created a Void in the center of the world. It wasn’t Zorak Zoran or Storm Bull or Shargash that slew Genert, and turned the gardens into wastes. That was Chaos, and all the gods could agree that whatever their feuds and rivalries with each other, they could all compromise with each other to overcome Chaos.
This drives the conflict with the Lunar Empire more than anything else. The Red Moon is associated with Chaos. It uses Chaotic magic in war. Even though the Seven Mothers are NOT Chaotic, they openly tolerate Chaos. The Lunar Empire has proven powerful enough to force even gods to acknowledge their might and submit, but if anything this has increased the fear and resentment of the empire. And heroes who have fought against the Lunar Empire have gained progressively more allies – and often increasingly unlikely ones.
This also drives the Lunar Empire in its activities. It must defeat its rivals and force them to acknowledge their place in the world. If defeated, the Lunars must regroup and reach deep into the Void for something that will bring victory, again and again if necessary. This is how Sheng Seleris was defeated, how the new Pentan alliance will be defeated, and how Argrath will be confronted. The only way the Red Goddess can coexist with the rest of the world is by victory over it.
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What is the White Moon Movement’s response to Chaos? They tolerate it.
Remember that the Red Goddess is not part of the Great Compromise. Now the best we can say is that after Castle Blue “the Old Gods abased themselves before the Red Goddess and swore acceptance of her. Some swore allegiance to her as well.” But that seems to contain at least some Lunar hyperbole – we know that the Lightbringers, Humakt, Storm Bull, Kyger Litor, Zorak Zoran, and others never accepted her. So it was certainly not a “Great Compromise”.
I am sure that there are some Lunar apologists who might claim that it was something like the Great Compromise, but those wicked Air and Darkness deities then went back on their oaths. But that only makes sense if it were just the cult leaders that swore acceptance and not the deities themselves.
Her cult claims that Castle Blue proved she is a part of the world of Glorantha, and many others agree. But other powerful entities don’t accept those claims.
In contrast, all the God Time deities accept the Great Compromise by one name or another. All of the God Time deities are woven into the fabric of the cosmos and they and their cults accept that. Zorak Zoran, the most vicious and hateful of the gods, and his cult happily slaughter elves, but do not seek to end Aldrya as the goddess of the forests.
Again in contrast, Orlanth and Zorak Zoran, who both cordially detest each other accept their respective places in the cosmos. Zorak Zoran’s cult happily would slaughter Orlanth’s worshipers but they do not challenge Orlanth’s place in the Middle Air. Nor does Orlanth challenge Zorak Zoran’s place as the Lord of the Demons of Death. That’s the Great Compromise. But Orlanth (and Storm Bull and Zorak Zoran and Kyger Litor and many other) all refuse to give the Red Goddess a place in the cosmos. So there is no Great Compromise between them.
The rise of the Moon is claimed by the Dwarf as a sign that the world machine is being repaired. Now I have heard claims by the Dwarf that even this needs repair – the Moon is the wrong color, too big, and doesn’t properly move in the sky. But at least it is present, which is a step forward.
The Red Goddess has been associated with Chaos by everyone ever since she rode the Crimson Bat out of hell.
Most people are willing to compromise with what they consider the lesser of two threats. At Moonbroth, most Praxians viewed the Lunar Empire as a far greater threat than the broo of Prax. So they were perfectly willing to encourage the broo to do what broo do to their Lunar foe. That’s the sort of ruthless pragmatism you find in the Waha cult. With the Lunars gone, the Praxians would have been perfectly willing to kill their erstwhile allies at the first chance.
Cave trolls are different thing. They were once trolls, but they were warped as a result of fighting Chaos. The trolls take pity on them and treat them as animals. But troll morality is different from our own.
Werewolves, now that is a different question, and one too complex to hide in this thread.
Greg was far more absolute about the evils of Chaos that you seem to think. His knowledge of Gbaji was rooted in deep and dark personal experiences. And I am far less absolutist than you seem to think.
This is why there is a need to remind RQ-philes that Chaos is evil. Yes Illuminates know that Chaos in and of itself is neither evil nor inimical, but repeating that misses the point. Illumination is shocking and dislocating to the point of madness precisely because someone who has been Illuminated has that mystical knowledge thrust upon them. It goes so far from our natural instincts, from our experiences so far, that the revelation can easily drive one mad. Apologise for Chaos, downplay its horror, and the power of Illumination becomes little more than a set of power gaming mechanics.
The new Illuminate needs to create their own limits and boundaries to handle that experience. If Chaos is not inherently evil, then what is the reason to not make use of it? Why not devour our enemies’ bodies and souls? Should we overcome our fear of death by sacrificing our soul to our ego? If everything is permitted to us, do we have the self-discipline to keep Wakboth at bay?
The Lunar Way provides a framework to experience Illumination and not descend into madness. It is reasonably successful at that (certainly more so than in the late First Age), and for many Lunars that spiritual liberation is more than worth the risk. But the Lunar Way is transgressive in more ways than one, and the risk of Wakbothism is always present.
Again, as I emphasise over and over again in the Lunar Way, this does not mean that ordinary Seven Mothers cultists have anything to do with Chaos or its cults. But it does mean that they must tolerate it, at least officially, and that they have the questionable surety of the words of government and religion that such horrors can be controlled. This hardly makes the Lunar Empire objectively evil, but it does mean that it will often be in conflict with its neighbors who understandably hate and fear Chaos.
A last observation – far too many seem to assume that there is some Storm Bull sense chaos detection system practiced throughout Glorantha. That’s simply not the case. For most people, we can identify things associated with Chaos the same way that we can identify things associated with Air, Fire, Water, Spirit, or Stasis – through observation and categorisation. A few sorcerers are able to use sorcery to identify such things, and a few heroquesters have been able to see the lineage of things. But for most people, the answer is tradition or when in doubt refer to Divination (aka ask the gods).
The Storm Bull cult is unique in that its cultists claim to be able to smell the taint of Chaos. But the cult is small outside of Prax. It is found among the Orlanthi and a few others, but most other settled lands have little use for transgressive chaos killers.