The Inner Order of Ederism

The Inner Order of Ederism is a cult of chaos-worshipers, too small to
be deemed a major religion, even in its religious birthplace Tiratir.
Due to their barbaric sacrifices and rituals, theft worshiping of chaos,
 and their mad leader, the cult is often deemed savage and inhumane.
Most members were born into belief, as the cult encourages family
development, and those who were not were typically lower-class peasants
seeking final salvation, or outlandish and outspoken philosophers who
embrace the religion's idea of universal indifference to humanity.

## History

The religion was initially a subdivision of Children of a New that
simply believed Edera to be the creator God, under the philosophy that
the world was initially stagnant and orderly, but chaos brought forth
matter and life, and that death is but the inevitable return to order.
But worship of the dark goddess as a creator slowly caused the
dissolution of all the old gods but Edera, and without a sacred text,
the religion was nothing but a confusing mess with violent rituals
conducted for a mad goddess. But Bilvork Grott, known as Atash Kemnar at
 the time, brought forth reform by reshaping the lore and holding a
convention with others of his rank—and the Muad'Göll himself—that
created a sacred text and destroyed all older records that suggested
anhthing against it to retain a hold on the cultists. Through this
success, Bilvork became Mort Kemnar upon the Muad'Göll's death, and
Ederism became what it is now.

## Belief

The reforms were subtle, mostly just means of eliminating principles
of Children of a New and making it its own religion with its own
explanations regarding creation of the universe and of life. Ederists
acknowledge various spirits of darkness and chaos as deities, though
they worship Golmora: Goddes of Chaos and Life. They despise The God of
Order and death, seeing death as order and stagnancy, whereas Entropy is
 the juice of life. As a result, these chaos-worshiper praise life and
fertility, as many of their rituals include fortification as well as
sacrifices. The primary focus of the religion is to perform rituals to
appeal to the chaos spirits and achieve spiritual growth in letting go
of order and embracing the chaos inherent in life. They see the
Muad'Göll as the sole prophet of Golmora, though they believe many other
 prophets of lesser spirits to exist. To them, divine intervention only
occurs to those who have appealed to the gods and spirits well enough.
They believe that the universe was once but stagnant water, until
Golmora was born and disrupted the surface, creating ripples and waves
that formed the universe. The Waters of Time are embodied within Ederism
 as Aerosos. Golmora's disruption of the natural order created chaos and
 brought Aerosos life. The children that sprung from Golmora's womb were
 the Spirits of Chaos. As children of Aerosos, they were more material
than their mother, but still aethereal. The Spirits of Chaos created the
 minor gods land and sky, as well as Leumas, God of the Sun. The
Children of Golmora and Leumas were the Elementals and sirens: proud and
 respectable races. Among them were minor spirits, who created most of
the life on earth. But the children of Golmora and Land were the most
versatile, simple, and perfect of them all: men, who were Golmora's
favorite. Sky became jealous, so she conspired against her family and
raped Land. A great feud ensued, forming the mountains and canyons of
the earth. Sky ended up losing and was banished to remain above land for
 all eternity, close enough to see, yet too far to interact with any
being but Leumas. Yet despite the little bubble of chaos that formed
life and matter, the overbearing power of Drazuul: God of Order began to
 press down upon the world. Golmora noted that chaos could not survive
against order, as many of her beloved children would suddenly return to
inanimate states. She made an agreement with Drazuul: that all of her
creations would remain for a given time, then their bodies would
deteriorate and they would return to stagnancy, while their essence
would survive and once again become one with Golmora. She needed a means
 of communicating this deal with the humans, so Golmora and Drazuul had a
 child who would become the first Muad'Göll, and upon his death, its
spirit would posses a new body.

## Practices

Ederista perform a plethora of rituals and celebrate bountiful
holidays to please Golmora. The holidays tend to be week-long
celebrations, commemorating the gods, past heroes, and miracles with
feasts, entertainment, music, and more. During these festivals,
officials (not including Pyr-then) are no longer bound by their previous
 regulations, with the exception of the rules regarding marriage.
Rituals are also not required during these festivals. Rituals tend to be
 complicated and violent ones, though. Pyratyen fire rituals last days
at a time and are so secret, not even the Muad'Göll knows of their
nature. Common cultist rituals typically involve meditation, chants in
ancient languages, and ceremonial dances. Sacrificial rituals typically
involve the removal of the digestive system of the animal sacrifice,
which is then doused with various oils, perfumes, and liquids before it
is burned and the organs fed to the acolytes (many practices are
included in the "organization section.") Further notable rituals would
be the labor ceremony, which involves any sort of manual labor
beneficial to the temple, competed in complete silence with chicken's
blood on the face. Upon completion, the subject must pray to Golmora and
 make a sacrifice. The Mage's ritual involves the subject standing in a
ring of lamb blood with eight insensitive burners on said ring. Then
four ceremonialists paint the subject's face, arms, and chest with more
blood before leading the subject to the sacred fire, where the
ceremonialists shall dance and chant, then throw lavender into the fire.
 A thrall or prisoner to be executed shall be forced to fornicate with
the subject as the Pyratyen pray to the spirits to give the subject
power. One of the ceremonialists shall injest ceremonial narcotics with
the subject, cast the slave into the flames, gaze into the fire, and
grant the new Mage a new surname. The ceremony is similar for Pyratyen
initiation, though it lasts longer and occurs while the subject actively
 makes sacrifices and prays to Golmora. The rest of that ceremony is
secret. Large families are incouraged by the cult, and at the age of
thirteen, each child is brought to a temple, where he or she shall smoke
 ceremonial pipeweed, then come before the sacred text. A sacrifice
shall be made, and an eye in the mouth of a snake (the holy symbol)
shall be tattooed onto the wrist. A dancing and chanting ritual occurs
and robes are given. Marriage is highly formal. The two subjects stand
together with hands bound together by a linen soaked in perfumes. They
are doused with holy waters and lavender is rubbed against their open
hands! which are then cut with a ceremonial knife and placed together to
 mix blood. They are taken to ceremonialists, who shave both of their
heads, then tattoo the symbol of matrimony onto their scalps, where hair
 will eventually return to cover the tattoo. The newly weds may not mate
 until the tattoo cannot be seen from beneath the hair, and as soon as a
 named official approves the symblo's vanishing, the two are required to
 spend the night together before the sacred fire. The bond is removed
aFree they are we'd, but stored until the night before the fire, when it
 is burned. If either or both subjects cannot grow hair to cover the
tattoo, an official shall notify them when they must sleep before the
fire. Festivities begin and last for two days, and the couple is given
three days of leave prior to the festivities. Death is a lot less
formal. The body is bathed in vinegar and women stitch fanciful linens
with which the body is wrapped. It is burned in the sacred fire, the
bones are buried, and a one-day festival begins.

## Organization

The Acolyte is the lowest-ranking official within the cult. Given the
 title "Navar" (or "Navai" if female), these officials must give up
material possessions, with the exception of holy robes (black with blue
trim), a holy symbol, and a sacrifice knife. They sleep and eat in
solitude, eating only the distasteful organs salvaged from sacrifices
during sunset.  Acolytes may only wed other members of the cult and can
only fornicate with their spouses during nightly rituals. No official of
 any sort  may speak to his or her superior unless spoken to, the only
exception being rituals.  Herbad are the next highest ranking. They
practice the same restrictions, yet they must perform arduous labor,
rituals, or labor-based rituals from sundown to sunrise daily. They may
not fornicate unless it is part of a ceremony and may never wed. They
receive the title "Seeker" before their name. They wear black robes with
 white trim (regular cultists have solid black robes). Higher-ranking
still is the Mage (not to be confused with Users of Magic, which call
themselves by the same name, but are completely unrelated. Mages are
Herbads who have gained special favor in the eyes of their superiors,
and through twisted, violent rituals are granted further authority,
power, and clerical magic (though very weak). They are subject to all
previous restrictions, yet must wear a silver mask with arcane
engravings and must wear black robes with silver trim at all times, or
they lose their title of Magus. When one becomes a Mage, he or she
discards his or her old name, performing a ritual before the sacred
fire. He or she gains a new surname, while the given name is determined
by rank. A Mage's given name is "Magus." They are very well-respected
and feared amongst the cultists. Pynrathen, though, are even more
greatly respected. They may never speak anything but ancient black
chants under any condition. Pyratyen are tasked with tending to the
Sacred Fire of a temple, casting pyromania spells fueled by sacrifices
and firewood. Each sacrificed chicken is enough to enhance firewood to
last for about a week, yet the ritual is high-maintnence and requires
almost all of their time. With the exception of the sexual components in
 the ritual required to grant them the title of Magus, the ritual that
grants them the Pyratyen role, and the naming ritual, they are sworn to
chastity and abstinence. They wear gold versions of Mage masks, though
their robes are otherwise identical. One does not have to gain this rank
 in order to advance in the hierarchy, as a matter of fact, one who
gains this position may never gain another. Though they are not the
highest in rank, they are irrefutably the most respected, excluding the
Muad'Göll, of course. Athravan are above mages, though one does not have
 to have been a Mage to reach this position' so long as he or she was an
 Herbad, though most Athravan were Mages, though they do not have to
wear the masks. In order to gain this rank, one must do more than the
regular training: he or she must perform a pilgrimage on foot to the
docks in southern Tiratir, where a boat shall take them to Mjaelör.
During this pilgrimage, all candidates must not wear cultist attire as
to keep it secret and must cover the wrist tattoo. Upon reaching the
destination, the candidate must use his blade to cut his palm and drip
his blood into the sacred fire. He shall then receive the appropriate
red-frilled black robes and have his head shaved completely (he or she
may never allow his or her hair to grow visibly again). Then, he will
receive the given name Atash and the secret hand sign of this rank. Upon
 returning home, the new Athravan shall collect a large number of
cultists as disciples. They shall all be trained and at least gain the
position of Acolyte, but only one will become an Athravan. They may
speak to anyone as they please, feast however they desire, so long as
they perform rituals and sacrifices daily. They may not marry, but are
permitted to fornicate with any member of the cult as they please
(except for the Pynrathens) so long as any children created as a result
are sacrificed. But the most important position of all is that of the
Muad'göll. The Muad'Göll is worshiped almost as a God himself. This
being must be an Athravan. When the Muad'Göll perishes, his corpse is
burned in the sacred fire of the Mjaelör temple. All cultists shall fast
 for seven fortnights, performing sacrifices at sundown. Then the
Athravan from all over the eight kingdoms (the cult has yet to spread
elsewhere) gather around the sacred fire and chant and pray for one more
 fortnight. They injest ceremonial narcotics, but the process of
choosing a leader beyond that point is top secret. The Muad'Göll has all
 the rights and privileges of all the inferior ranks without the
restrictions (except for marriage; he may never marry.) He receives
ornate black robes with gold frill and trim, and the given name "Mort."
The identity of the Muad'Göll must be kept a secret to outsiders at all
times, as the man often assumes alter egos outside of establishments.