Nature

History of the Church

There is only one mainstream religion in Arthea that survived The Great Disaster and that is the religion of the Druids, now widely known as the Church of Nature. Druids, the clerics of Nature, had worshipped the deities of the natural world for years uncounted, but amongst humans that worship all but ended when the Disaster happened. It was thanks to the elves that the religion endured, and human worshippers did not return to the church until long after the ice and snow that followed the destruction had receded.

It is widely believed across all the faiths of Arthea that humans have a greater aptitude for the rigours of life in the clergy, far more so than elves. Humanity seems blessed with a capacity for greater concentration upon their dedications, and seem more capable of the focus needed to pursue a religious calling. A human influence was needed to help re-establish the church of Nature widely among the surface races. Once human worshippers were once again recruited to the church of Nature post-Disaster, the religion expanded quickly.

The church was never a political organisation in the way that other faiths strove for. Nature continued to shape the lives and the people struggling to live in a bleak land, and it reached out to touch all the settlements of humans and elves. This influence is still felt, especially across the former Imperial lands across the south of Arthea where most have a druid grove close by.

Teachings and Beliefs

The church aligns itself closely with the natural order, the flow of the seasons and the passing of the years. While many other religions worship groups of gods because of their lack of power following The Disaster, the druids still pay homage to many aspects of the natural environment. These are the gods and demigods that are glorified by the many festivals of the church; the sun, the moon, the land, morning and evening, the seasons and many of the stars. Each of the gods have their own celebration, some are days or more of revelry, while others are simple prayers.

Observations and Festivals

The observation of the church reflect the passage of time and the way that the lives of church members fit into this natural cycle. Daily prayers are said to greet the arrival of the sun in the morning, and the first sight of the moon or the first twinkle of a star at the closing of the day. There are also prayers that are used to greet each meal, a thanks to nature for the food to be consumed which can vary depending on the food that makes up the meal.

The holy days of the seasons are held on 1st Bara (winter), 1st Siphus (spring), 1st of Semot (summer) and 1st of Escuada (Autumn). Night time festivals are held for the full moon which is when mistletoe is traditionally cut and for the new moon which celebrates the darkness of the night. Sometimes the festivals of the seasons and the moon collide, and provide an opportunity for a full celebration.

The druids also celebrate what is known as the Plant-in or the Seeding which is the commencement of the spring time planting season, which in the southern kingdoms is now one week after the spring festival. In the northern kingdoms, it normally begins a week later (due to the weather pattern further north). The festival itself lasts four or five days, but the planting time can go on for a month or more depending on the crops being sown. After this, in mid Escuada comes the Harvestime festival, which is a celebration of the crop harvest. In reality the harvest can continue beyond this festival as some farmers can stagger their crops with the climate in Arthea, a but that is not allowed to interfere with this important celebration.

There are several other festivals that are celebrated too - and some of these are observed only in a few regions, or by some sections of the church. Most druids would find observing all these festivals to be a difficult task:

• The biggest 'star' festival is Habera Rising which is when the bright southern Habera star pokes up above the horizon to the south (normally mid Ulunacon), and its equal festival of Habera Blind when the star departs again for the winter (in mid Dusemot, four weeks and four days after the Rising).

• The Birthing, which is the beginning of the lambing or calving season among the farming community. The date and the type of celebration is dependent upon the livestock of the druids region, so could be applied to goats, pigs, cattle, even horses or bison, although it is usually for sheep.

• Eclipses are celebrated, The Umbra is a festival to celebrate the brief darkness of a solar eclipse, which may only happen once in a priest's lifetime, and the more common Grey Moon, which is a lunar eclipse festival which happen infrequently, but sometimes twice a year.

• The appearance of various star constellations are greeted with prayers or celebration too. The most widely celebrated is the constellation of Temarian (the Ship) which is connected to the modern church's roots with the elves. Other popular choices are Sorna (the Sage), Paergor (the Book), Simb (the Goat), Soota (the Holly) and Ennta (the Eagle).

• Canzana the Apple Festival, used to celebrate the first of the cider apple harvest, the actual date varies between mid-Lapuada (in the south) and the beginning of Escuada in the north. Weather patterns have occasionally seen this celebrated as late as the beginning of Vinuada, with the arrival of the grapes. The matching Cider festival, when the first of the autumn cider is opened can begin as early as the start of Eluta.

Prayers and festivals are usually celebrated using the produce of the land. In the south it has been common to use the deepest red wine, but in the northern kingdoms dark beer and mead are normal. For druids travelling without these items, it is common to use the coldest fresh spring waters in their place.

There are also devotions and prayers for encountering various natural features for the first time while out travelling. usually this is a simple prayer of thanks, but the first time a druid encounters a feature of this kind a bigger celebration is common:

• freshwater springs
• a natural clearing in a dense wood
• a ring of fungi around a tree
• an untainted river
• the highest point of a high hill or mountain
• the first snow of winter

Canon and Dogma

Unlike most of the other modern churches of Arthea, the canon of the church of Nature is not written down. They have no holy books or holy scripture, druids worship the living world and form a part of those creatures that dwell upon the worlds surface. While the church has prayers and rites, none of these are written, they are committed to memory, practised and chanted or recited when needed. This can make the training to become a druid more challenging to initiates as there is much that has to be memorised, but it also means that the priests of the church can come from a wider background as there is no requirement on the clergy to be able to read (although use of scrolls with druid spells upon them does require this).

Alignment

Clerics of Nature believe that neither good nor evil should have hold over the other, but that there should be balance between them.

Good seeks to preserve life, to defend those that suffer, yet so often this is the natural order, the cycle of life. The life of one species is the food of another. This is the natural order. Evil seeks to mar or destroy, yet in nature the wild beasts do not kill to excess or more than is needed for their food. If good should finally overcome evil, or evil finally overcome good, then even the victor should cease to exist, for black without white has no shade to be measured against.

In the same way Nature also strives for a balance between order and chaos. The world is a wild place, but within it many growing things do so according to their own rules. All life is born, grows and dies in its turn, its cycle fulfilled until reborn in its new form. The order of nature is that rains shall fall and bring water to the lives of all things. Yet among this order arrives chaos; that rain may bring thunder and lightning, floods and hurricanes. One cannot exist without the other.

The balance sought between good and evil is different to the balance sought between order and chaos. Nature seeks to exist between good and evil, while it exists in both order and chaos.

Druidic Energy

Druids use the natural beauty of the world as a source and a focus of natural energy. Their deities are world itself, and the sun and the moon, which are linked. Each give power to the Druid, the sun is the source, the world is the focus and the moon is a store of this power.

To help maintain the natural order, the Druid is allowed to wear only armour made of substances occurring naturally in his surroundings. Metal is not allowed as this interferes with the Druids power. This also restricts the weapons the Druid may select. Nature allows the Druid to act in defence, but not to kill without reason as this works against nature, who deems that all things will die when their time is up.

Unnatural Beings

Druids have a particular hatred of Undead. These magically animated creatures exist outside of the natural cycle of birth-growth-death-rebirth, and are abhorrent to the druid. They have no place in nature, and so the druid has no control over them - they cannot turn undead the way priests of other religions may. Whenever undead are encountered by a druid, they are duty-bound to return the body of the dead to its natural rest.

Worship Sites

Druids do not worship at temples, as other gods require of their clerics. The druids establish shrines in natural locations, usually in woodland, but also by freshwater springs or places of natural beauty such as by rivers flowing through meadows or cliffs speckled with differing rocks. They avoid places where water stagnates, marshes and bogs are unpleasant places. The places of worship are known as groves, and are sacred to Druids; no undead may enter a grove. It is said that natural growth will never cease where a Druid has established a grove.

Worship sites are usually marked using fallen wood. Solid fallen branches of trees are driven into the ground to mark out the area or to highlight access paths. These markers are never cut from a live tree - they are only taken from wood that has fallen naturally. Usually they are carven with runes or other images that can help identify the druidic grove. Also such wood is never repaired when it falls apart through rot - this is part of the natural cycle, and is celebrated. Such branches are only ever replaced with newly fallen wood.

Holy Symbols

The holy symbol of the druid is mistletoe, a natural plant, unlike all other religions which rely up on meaningless carved or cast forms that merely copy some aspect of nature. To be effective, fresh mistletoe must be cut when the moon is full, with a ceremonial sickle made from silver (representing the moon) or gold (representing the sun).

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