Chaos worship

Introduction

Chaos worship is often viewed as a collection of barbaric rituals and practices, but this isn't the case. Chaos worshippers often live peacefully. They believe that organization and strict rules are overrated and prefer a more relaxed form of worship. This does allow them to do as they please and this led to some of them developing sadistic rituals that give their kin a bad reputation.

Structure

Chaos worshippers don't have a singular, organized religion to call their own. Many smaller, independent faiths emerged instead. This doesn't mean that there aren't big religions that worship Kaos. There are some lords that unified their people's faith, but given that Chaos by definition is disorganized, this is rare.

Biggest Religions

By far, the most common form of Chaos worship is anarchy. This form of belief is most often found in the lands of The Order, where Chaos worshippers rebel against the system. Anarchy can't be called a religion however, as it lacks any form of cohesion.

The Souljar

The biggest Chaos affiliated group is the 'Souljar'. The term 'soldier' is actually a badly transcribed version of the group's name, which later came to mean a member of the group. This religion is most common among the desert folk of Aitrun, and its members believe that all souls come from a magical jar in the realm of Chaos. Upon death, the soul must be poured back into the jar in order for the deceased to find peace. They believe that there is only a finite number of souls in the jar and the world ends when there are none left. In order to maximise the time left, they take extra care to preserve souls and return them to the jar. They perform a ritualistic burial for every dead person, which assures that their soul is poured back into the jar. They are also quite a violent religious group as following a catastrophe such as a plague, they often start a holy war on their closest non-soldier neighbour to 'refill the jar' with their souls, which consits of mercilessly slaughtering everyone and then burying them. This practice became quite common in the last few decades and the religion became infamous for their warriors.
Souljar Burial
The followers of the Souljar have a ritual that allows a soul to be properly returned to the Souljar. First, a grave is dug. The depth doesn't matter as long as the body can be completely covered with dirt. Then, the eyes of the deceased are cut out along with its heart. Their belief is that the heart houses the soul and the eyes are the mirrors of it. The corpse is buried afterwards. The eyes and heart are placed in a ceremonial jar on top of the grave.
A special herbal mixture is created and poured into the jar. The contents of the jar are then ignited and burned by this highly flammable mixture. (The mixture is created from common plants that can be found almost anywhere if you search a little.)

Kaolite Faith 

The biggest religion that is actually dedicated to Kaos is the Kaolite Faith. Its followers cherish individuality and reject the notion of predestination. It is commonly found in Eastern and Southeastern cultures as the small population density allowed for more individuality to develop in the population. Paradoxically, there are quite a few rules in the religion that guides its members through life, making it pretty similar to the Order. It is at the border of the Order and that explains some of its similarity to it. One of the most prominent piece of evidence for it is the fact that the Kaolite Faith took over the names and events of the Order creation myth with slight changes that make Kaos seem like a better character.
Other groups of chaos worshippers exist too, but they are often small groups sharing traditions and rituals such as druidic circles.

Architecture

As there is no central authority on how chaos temples and shrines should be built, they are often quite similar to regular buildings, with some form of marking that identifies them. Shrines that are outside of a building often contain religious icons (such as a jar for the Souljar).

Equipment

Given their disorganized nature, it is quite rare to see a uniform among the chaos worshippers, but distingushing features, such as hairstyles, tatoos and jewelry are commonly used to identify members of the religion, especially where these people have to hide their true faith. There are exceptions from this, however. A good example is the military outfit of the members of the Souljar. They are instructed to wear armour at all times.

Rituals and Ceremonies

The amount and variety of religious rituals and ceremonies differ from group to group, but there are common elements between them. One such example is that all chaos religions value the soul and such bury their dead with honour. The actual ceremony surrounding burials differs between religions however.

The Gods and Holy Entities of Chaos

• Kaos - The Caretaker of Souls He is the creator of souls and as such, individuality. He oversees the lives of the faithful. (Symbol - Broken Cog)
• Sinistos - The Ambitious Child He is the child of Kaos and the 'god' of ambition and wits. (Symbol - Teardrop)
• The Souljar The jar of Kaos, it contains all of the souls that will ever exist. Once it is empty, Kaos will smash it and life ends. (Symbol - Jar)
• Uteus - The World-Forger An ancient name for Kaos, the bringer of life and the creator of Trutina.