Eldath

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Eldath
Aliases	Goddess of Singing Waters The Green Goddess Mother Guardian of Groves
Home	The House of Nature
Gender	Female
Race	Primal spirit
Alignment	Neutral good

Eldath (pronounced EL-dath ^[1]), also known as The Green Goddess or Mother Guardian of Groves, is a primal spirit^[2] who acts as the guardian of groves and watersheds, her presence felt wherever there is calm. She is a pacifist who avoids hostile action, even if threatened. Although shy, quiet and enigmatic, Eldath is possessed of unknown depths of character and unexpressed resolve that cannot be broken. Eldath protects rivers, streams, and druids' groves; her dogma is pacifistic, requiring nonviolence of her followers. She is often mistakenly worshiped as a nature deity.

[edit] Worshipers

Eldath are organized into a simplistic hierarchy, where priests report to a local high priest responsible for a realm or larger region. Most followers dwell in quiet forest communities with open-air sacred places of worship or in woodside cottages, far from the baseness of city life; both often containing pools of placid water in unspoiled areas. They rarely ever engage in open confrontation and always act subtly and peacefully.

Druids of Eldath pray for their evocations once per day at a time selected after great personal reflection. The only calendar-related holy day of the church is the Greening, a gathering and festival celebrated at Greengrass. It is preceded by the Firstflow, a festival held at varying times when the ice break up and begin to flow at the conclusion of winter.

Worshipers of Eldath tend to be chaotic good, chaotic neutral, or neutral good.

[edit] Relationships

Eldath considers Mielikki a sister and together with her she serves Silvanus loyally, even if she does find him at times intimidating. She has close relationships with Chauntea, Selûne, and Lathander, as they share some common interests.

Although Eldath opposes all that Tempus stands for, she does not consider him a personal foe. He in turn considers her naïve, but generally ignores her. However Tempus has forbidden his followers from harming Eldath's faithful, upon pain of punishment in the afterlife in his divine realm, Warrior's Rest. The punishments of Tempus always involve stripping the guilty party of the immortality normally granted to his petitioners before turning him loose upon the eternal battlefield of the plane, to be killed by their fellows, so this commandment is strictly adhered to. Malar and his followers have recently made intrusions on the goddess' sacred pools, Eldath has responded to this with her usual calm manner, and simply withdrawn, certain that the Beastlord will over-extend himself soon enough.

[edit] History

[edit] References

Eric L. Boyd, Erik Mona (May 2002). Faiths and Pantheons, p. 93. Wizards of the Coast. ISBN 0-7869-2759-3.

[edit] Notes