Chaos

"The Chaos birthed us from the random. The Bone-Shapes were in the Chaos, and so we were. The Chaos wanted to think, but it did not know how. So we taught it. We imprinted our Order on the Chaos."

--Zendis Erdetan, 9th Magus of the Gnostic Order of Brothers

Chaos is the primordial realm from which the Fundament was formed. Chaos is considered to desire order, but not be capable of generating it by its own will, and must wait for it to be formed randomly from the Chaos. The Fundament is therefore thought to have an effect on Chaos, and imprints on the Chaos in the form of Shapes, the fundamental essence of a concept.

Cosmology
Chaos is considered to surround the Fundament, and the Fundament is considered to be a random occurrence within the patterns of Chaos. While the Fundament contains several planets and a sun, beyond this is Chaos. Chaos can be seen in the night sky, producing patterns at random or mimicking Shapes, and skilled astromathematicians can determine the future from the Shapes seen in the night sky.

The Loop
The Loop is the process of back-and-forth in which the Fundament and Chaos interact. The Chaos creates order randomly, which has resulted in the Fundament. The Chaos then learns to mimic order from the Fundament, resulting in Shapes.

Shapes are not limited to just the creation of the Fundament, but can arise from simple order made in the Chaotic random. A cause and an effect together can make a Shape, and this is how magic is performed.

Magic
Chaos is the reason for magic in the Fundament. Magic is considered to mimic the non-Fundamental Shapes to produce a magical effect. Zendis Erdetan puts the theory thusly:

"When a cause and a result collide, the Chaos has created Order. It learns; it associates the result with the cause. When the mage mimics the cause, the Chaos mimics the result."

Certain motions, color patterns, and sounds can originate in the Chaos, and by random chance, result in an effect. The cause-and-effect system is now ordered, and a Shape is created. By mimicking the cause, by producing colors on an object, or making a certain motion with the hands, Chaos recognizes the Shape, and completes it with an effect.

The study of new spells is mostly focused on altering established ones, due to the inherent randomness about what base Shape is formed. Chaos is considered to have an understanding of conceptual proximity; using this process, the mage can alter the cause aspect of the Shape, to a minor degree, in order to alter the ''result aspect. ''For example a water spell simply producing water in the hand, as opposed to being thrown as a projectile.

The magic study of facsimile uses a Shape to create an animate thing out of an inanimate material. By painting a statue of a dog in a certain way, for example, Chaos will recognize the inanimate material as a dog, and so it will begin to behave like a dog, walking, running, wagging its tail, and biting.