There's no going back once you enter the Temple of Balance, so before you set foot inside, be absolutely sure you have the following items!
- Serpent Crown (hidden in Captain Hawk's stash in the forest north of Monitor, 85 South by 23 West)
- Serpent Armor (locked up in Fawn's armory. Give Yelinda the Comb of Beauty and she will give you the key to access it. She is found in Gorlab Swamp after you track her diamond necklace with the Hound of Doskar)
- Serpent Ring (reward for finishing the tests of Order in Furnace)
- Serpent Earrings (a gift from Frigidazzi, given to you by Shamino after escaping from Freedom)
- Serpent Staff (found in a troll den in Furnace. Search them for a key to the door)
- Serpent Necklace (given to you after liberating the Dream Realm in Gorlab swamp)
- Chaos Serpent Eye (found on the Isle of Crypts)
- Chaos Blackrock Serpent (Batlin attempted to use it at Spinebreaker to open the Wall of Lights, with disastrous results)
- Order Blackrock Serpent (ended up in Stefano's possession due to a teleport storm. Save him from the Death Knight and he'll give it back)
- Balance Blackrock Serpent (in Silverpate's treasure cache in the frozen north, cave entrance at 50 North by 40 East)
- Ophidian Sword (given to you by Xenka after completing the Shrine of Chaos. It looks very similar to a Serpentine Sword, so be careful not to confuse it with one!)
So what's our lesson this time? That balance is paramount, of course. We see that without the fundamental force of Chaos to balance out Order, things took a very dire turn in Serpent Isle's past and continue to deteriorate even hundreds of years after the fact. Monitor's Discipline without Enthusiasm to balance it leads to Apathy, with distrust and tension between the three clans causing them to become ineffective in the face of the goblin threat. Fawn becomes a prejudiced society obsessed with shallow beauty and a crooked mockery of a justice system (showing Ethicality without Tolerance), and Moonshade's elitist society displays Ruthlessness - Logic without Emotion. Inversely, the three Banes of Chaos embody extreme versions of the Chaotic traits - Emotion without Logic is Madness, Tolerance without Ethicality is Anarchy and Enthusiasm without Discipline is Wantonness.
While largely cut from the final game owing to time constraints, the Banes would have served as a twisted, extreme counter-force to the three cities' already twisted principles. Shamino the Anarch would have allowed any law in Moonshade to be broken so long as one obtained a permit first (which he would give out freely), and the rangers would have rebelled against the upper class mages as a result. Iolo the Mad would have unleashed vermin and plague upon the populace of Fawn, causing them to become 'ugly' as a cruel mockery of their vanity (and cutting out Leon's tongue, forcing him to "lead by example"). Dupre would invade Monitor, turning the warriors of the three houses into the animals they idolized, fulfilling their wanton desire for their strength.
On a larger scale, we also see that the Great Earth Serpent being pulled into the physical world by Exodus begins a chain of events that leads to the destruction of the Chaos Serpent, the collapse of the Ophidian culture, and ultimately the teleport storms which threaten to destroy the entire multiverse. Over the course of the story the Avatar restores the Chaos Serpent to counterbalance Order, but must also restore the Great Earth Serpent to serve as the universal mediator, creating a necessary equilibrium between both extremes.
