Introduction
Before the establishment of this story's primary setting, Pangu's Chaos World known by its inhabitants as the Primitive World, the Chaos Godfiend civilization thrived. It was once the dominant power ruling over this area of the Chaos Sea(greater multiverse) consisting of immensely powerful individuals who even in the current era hold tremendous influence.
For a member of this group, even the weakest among them were already Chaos Immortals. They roamed the Chaos Sea constantly in search of opportunities to advance themselves, improve their Dao or battle power, often times in groups of fellowships or as lone wanderers. They'd meet up only to compete over said opportunities or to discuss their Dao so as to cross reference for new ideas. As a civilization, the Chaos Godfiends could only be described as nomadic.
Compared to the modern era of the Primitive World, the Chaos Godfiends were simultaneously stronger as well as weaker. Stronger in the sense that their average power as a whole is much greater than the inhabitants of the Primitive World. Weaker in the sense that their power ceiling is ultimately lesser than the Primitive World. The strongest of the Chaos Godfiends is ultimately incomparable to the strongest of the Primitive World.
In addition, although collectively identifying themselves as godfiends, no single member can be considered to be of the same species outside of perhaps chaos lifeforms(inborn Golden Immortals). This is because the Chaos Godfiends were not single species of archaic godlike primordials, but a civilization of cultivators where each member is inducted into it in a system of random kidnapping and blood sports designed to weed out the unworthy. As such, one godfiend could've been an ascended mortal from a Chaos World(universe) or an innate lifeform born within the Chaos Sea.
What unified them was ultimately a single ideology to pursue the Dao and achieve transcendence. To reach the ultimate stage of cultivation no matter the cost. However, as the years went on, a true sense of community fostered between many of these godfiends. This slowly warped into a codex of agreed upon laws which became the foundation of the Chaos Godfiend civilization as a whole.
Background
Their people were not many compared to the Primitive World, not even reaching two hundred thousand in total. But the history of them stretch back numerous chaos cycles in a measurement of time dwarfing anything the current inhabitants of the Primitive World has ever experienced.
At the dawn of the Chaos Godfiends, a figure known as Tai Chu wondered into the area that would become the playground of the godfiends. He was an almighty being compared to anything else within this area of the vast Chaos Sea, possessing a cultivation of Primal Zenith Chaos Immortal. Though much more common in latter stages of the civilization's lifespan, at the time he was truly unchallenged and almighty.
For the few living beings wondering the Chaos Sea at the time, he would've been an unstoppable monster. Living beings in the Chaos Sea were born at the realm of Golden Immortal and spawned from pure chaotic energy. But even these connate lifeforms would've been little more than ants for Tai Chu's amusement. Yet despite their fear, Tai Chu did not harm them.
No reason was ever recorded why he progenerated the Chaos Godfiends, but he constructed a huge temple in a centralized area surrouded by numerous Chaos Worlds. With a single thought, he took in hundreds of living beings in the Chaos Sea no matter their power into his temple. What happened next was a lecture on the Dao and a discussion on the purpose of immortal cultivation.
Not many records exist of the first meeting, but the now deceased Two Faced Sage said to newer generation of godfiends, of which he'd induct in a similar manner as Tai Chu, that the purpose of any living being was to pursue the Grand Dao. The Grand Dao being what Tai Chu identified as the origin of all things and the path where one transforms into everything, thereby embodying all things.
In the wake of Tai Chu's actions, he propagated the core ideology of cultivation into the first generation of godfiends thereby creating the Chaos Godfiend civilization. He took in many followers specifically to impart into them the desire to follow in his footsteps to create their own Dao(path). Following this event, Tai Chu wold see the rise of many Chaos Immortals.
In Tai Chu's era, godfiends were incredibly violent in the pursuit of opportunities. Illuminated by their now ancestor Tai Chu, the hunger for the Dao birthed an extreme obsession. As Tai Chu's opinion on the matter lay in the lane where any decision, as long as it benefits the pursuit of Dao was ultimately correct, he neither dismayed nor encouraged any of his follower's actions. Not even when they attempted to attack his own person.
"Chase the Dao. No matter if you become the most righteous of gods, paragons of justice. Or the most heinous of demons, harbingers of evil."
Eventually, the first generation of godfiends reached the summit of their capabilities. The Primal Zenith Chaos Immortals at the time questioned Tai Chu on what to do. They had pursued their Dao, polished it to its ultimate heights, completing their respective paths until it had nowhere to go. In those waning days of the first generation, Tai Chu only smiled. Then he revealed his own cultivation again.
Tai Chu had already ascended from the Primal Zenith phase of Chaos Immortality, he'd long since reached Limitless Supreme. After imparting a final advise, to search for the Wuji principle, to chase the Dao no matter what.
He then disappeared from godfiend history.
Golden of the godfiends
Numerous chaos cycles passed and the first generation of godfiends perished for one reason or another. Generations upon generations of godfiends came and went, some individuals staying for many while others were unable to endure one. As godfiends were almost always innate lifeforms born from the Chaos Sea directly, due to the rareness of natives of Chaos Worlds to ascend to Golden Immortality, they never experienced the desire to breed for offspring. Their method of propagation remained taking in any wondering individuals they could and inducting them.
As time went on, the induction became bloodier and bloodier. They culminated in brutal battles where many perished and only the most powerful and resourceful survived to become full fledged godfiends. The godfiends who emerged were always true talents who managed to reach the Chaos Immortal realm at incredible rates. But over time, these induction trials actually became the only major source of godfiend death.
For whatever reason, the godfiends who emerged became less and less inclined to act upon one another with each successive generation. To each other, they were competition yes, but they were also great sources of knowledge. In a certain generation, the value of the Dao overcame the regard for one's own life so in time. The act of combat ended in the defeat of the opponent but never to the death. Instead, their experimentations turned towards Chaos Worlds or intruding lifeforms who wondered into their territory. To each other, a sense of real camaraderie evolved to a genuine belief in a community.
Eventually, the fostering of a shared cultural identity of godfiend took root in their mind. The Chaos Godfiend branched off from a group of people Tai Chu imparted an ideology to and morphed into a culture. Commonly agreed upon rules became ingrained laws that godfiends rarely if ever broke.
By the time of the last generation, communication between factions were extremely common. Dao discussions took place all the time, numerous experiments went on around their area of the Chaos Sea, the act of killing one another dropped to virtually zero despite conflict remaining high. Their mentalities towards death or suffering experimentation from each other became an unthinkable one, drastically different from their attitude towards outsiders. So even for violent godfiends like Tian Hai, he'd fear no threat of death from his fellows, at worst a suppression under a mountain.
By the time of the final generation of godfiends, they reached their apex. Three thousand of them stood at the Primal Zenith Chaos Immortal realm, each with a Dao that became an Unquestioned Truth. The remaining hundred and eight thousand were all Chaos Immortals of varying strength. Such a force, even among the Chaos Sea very little could match. Even the modern Primitive World cannot compare to the amount of elites.(The Chaos Godfiends as a civilization only consisted of elite cultivators. There is no such thing as mortal civilians or civilians in general.)
This was a golden age for the Chaos Godfiends for they had reached their apex.
Downfall
What the godfiends didn't realize, what Tai Chu probably didn't realize as well, was that their kingdom existed within the domain of another individual. Cultivating peacefully for an even longer period of time than the godfiends' entire existence, a super ancient cultivator rested inside his egg shaped cave abode. His name was Pangu.
One day, a normal day where the godfiends discussed the Dao with one another in hopes of reaching the Limitless Supreme stage, Pangu awoke.
At the time, Primal Zenith represented the final destination. Limitless Supreme was more fiction than reality and many had indeed given up hope for its doors. Rather, the golden age of Chaos Godfiends, which by this point existed far longer than any other, spent their time refining their existing abilities rather than pursing the Dao to its all encompassing heights. Though some continued to hope, the vast majority competed with one another for little reason other then they could.
Individuals such as Demon Ape, Destiny Demon God, Tian Hai, or Chaos Sky Dragon tested themselves with their fellows. Some like Tian Hai celebrated their time with their brotherhoods or slept with little care in the world. Modern people would've call them truly carefree immortals who remain lofty above common concerns. In fact, such a lifestyle would become one many desired in the Three Realms era.
In a time like this, certain individuals thought lesser of their kin. To them, the so called golden age of Chaos Godfiends had lost their way. They were no longer true godfiends and no longer kept to Tai Chu's ideology. These were the more dedicated godfiends who continued to attempt the path of Wuji and reach Limitless Supreme.
Whatever the case, both types of people met the same result when Pangu awoke.
Bursting from his egg shaped cave abode, Pangu was bloodlusted. No godfiend knew the reason why or even who. But all the godfiends became alarmed when Pangu began his massacre. In less than a single second, every single godfiend understood the war they'd found themselves in. Like any animal cornered by a vastly superior foe, they fought back.
All the godfiends, all Chaos Immortals met Pangu in combat in a bid for survival. A cosmic war erupted and lasted for scarcely a day. Pangu annihilated all of them with his war axe, his Chaotic Sword qi cut through them all until not a single one was left. Using their remains, their Daos most importantly of all, Pangu cleaved through the Chaos Sea. He split heaven from earth and used the three thousand Unquestioned Truths and a hundred a eight thousand lesser Daos to create his Primitive World.
Aftermath
Despite the massacre, some godfiends clung on to life. Pangu was not very thorough in his killing spree, not that it mattered to him. He didn't care for the godfiends any longer now that he'd taken their Daos. The collective resentment of the Chaos Godfiends were so powerful, it emerged into the new universe as mindless Primordial Beasts.
As for the surviving godfiends? Now bodyless and on the verge of total collapse, they merged with areas of the Primitive World. Their immense presences caused them to incarnate as the very first generation of innate gods(connate lifeforms with Golden Immortal realm at birth) born from the energies of heaven and earth.
But for almost all of them, this would only be a prolonged suffering to their eventual deaths. In the succeeding Primitive World era, all of these godfiends would grow to abandon essentially everything that they once considered sacred as a Chaos Godfiend, all but the desire to chase the Dao. In a way, these surviving godfiends came full circle back to what Tai Chu probably intended.
Core ideology
To pursue the Dao, one must tread all paths no matter the cost. One could become the most righteous of gods or the most heinous of demons, but must always remember that the Dao is above all else. To swerve too much in on aspect is to blind oneself to others, it is only in the in between(a harmony) where one can find the most success in seeking the Dao. Hence the combined name godfiend.
As such, do not be indulgent in either extreme ideals nor be distracted by unnecessary thoughts, because all of that can easily become distractions to the ultimate goal.
Notable members
The strongest godfiend of the golden era was recognized as Destiny Demon God. A lofty figure who rarely interacted with others.
The top four strongest godfiends after him were the most famed overall. They consisted of Si Chen the time demon god, Chaos Demon Ape who was incredibly social and gathered a strong following, Yang Mei who specialized in all sorts of plant based techniques, and Huoyun also known as the god of the five elements. Huoyun specifically had a Dao so profound it became the foundational building blocks of life within the Primitive World.
Chaos Demon Ape would host the largest faction of godfiends in history. He led numerous followers who saw him as their great leader such as the future beast emperor Shenni and the Four Evils Hundun, Taotie, Taowu, and Qiong Qi who served as his generals.
Yang Mei and Huoyun were also part of a triumvirate along with Tian Hai. Despite being a tier below the others, Tian Hai was the most aggressive in challenging others to battle. Yang Mei and Huoyun likened Tian Hai to a raging sea always moving, always violent. The three shared a strong brotherhood persisting since they were inducted into the Chaos Godfiends civilization together.
Qiankun, a more secretive but very wealthy cultivator. Qiankun is someone who mastered spacetime and was likened to a living universe. He was friends with Kunwu who practised a Dao in devouring.
Luya ruled as the Sun Demon God and had his own palace. Though his faction was far lesser than Chaos Demon Ape, he still competed with other powerful godfiends. His counterpart the Moon Demon God and he did not get along but still respected each other enough discuss the Dao.