I started with a few ideas -- the first was building something the druidic faith could build around -- rather than a formal deific pantheon, create a "Thomas the Rhymer" style court of powerful fey beings that might be misinterpreted as deities by non-druidic, non-fey folk.
There was a movie I watched as a kid, Sword of the Valiant, which was the story of Gawain and the Green Knight -- Sean Connery played the Green Knight, a capricious (and glittery) fey creature that attempted to bargain with Gawain. Using him as a concept for a capricious trickster fey appealed to me.
The other idea was writing out a full background article for a deity -- not just the usual "you worship Bob, God of Fire. Bob is LN and grants fire spells", but something that fully detailed the origin and ethos of a divine creature, outlining it's religious texts, allies and servants, its realm of the afterlife and how faithful spirits might get there. On top of that, I wanted a smattering of D&D 5e rules that would grant some flavour to clerics and druids, but also faithful non-casters.
Below is my campaign exerpt -- enjoy!
Churcainn
(The Green Rider, Lord of the Ashwood, Guardian of the Wisterwyll, Wolf-Friend) leads the wild hunt, wearing leaf armor and a helmet adorned with great horns of a stag. He wields the silver longsword Branbaddel. He often attempts to make bargains with mortals that never end to their benefit. Churcainn is also worshipped as a keeper of animals by farmers and others who use domestic creatures, and his followers are encouraged to wander, much as a river wends its way through the land.
(The Green Rider, Lord of the Ashwood, Guardian of the Wisterwyll, Wolf-Friend) leads the wild hunt, wearing leaf armor and a helmet adorned with great horns of a stag. He wields the silver longsword Branbaddel. He often attempts to make bargains with mortals that never end to their benefit. Churcainn is also worshipped as a keeper of animals by farmers and others who use domestic creatures, and his followers are encouraged to wander, much as a river wends its way through the land.
Origins & History
It is said
that Churcainn is the son of Ydel, an elf princess of the fey court who dwelt
in a hall made of ash-wood and mithral called Halcuvel, set on the edge of a
great forest known as the Wisterwyll.
Ydel was a
cruel and negligent mother, and often forced him out of Halcuvel to venture in
the emerald green wilderness of Avalor.
As a young boy, he was tricked by a great elven lord in a cloak of gold,
a tunic of scarlet, and a flaming bow to venture into the Wisterwyll.
Churcainn
wandered for many days and nights, and rather than the creatures of the forest
devour him, a great grey stag guarded him from a distance, and had other
creatures of the forest fetch him food and build him shelter for him to
find. Churcainn then learned to speak
the language of the animals, and befriended them, and called them close to
him. His first friends in the wood were
a pack of wolves with coats as red as blood, which he named Cur Annun (which
means “hunters. In the twilight”), who taught him to hunt and run with great
speed. He then befriended a small but
fierce creature named Tanglebrock, who had a beard twisted with thorns, and
rode a fierce flesh-eating badger, who introduced him to the brownies and red
caps and other capricious spirits of the forest, and taught him the black humor
of the elven court. And finally he
befriended the Pale Stag who had guarded him for his entire childhood, who gave
him his horns to wear upon his head, and allowed him to ride upon his back, and
took him from Wisterwyll to the Elf Queen’s court at Kelael.
Upon arriving
in the silver castle of the Elf Queen, she was greatly impressed with his
mastery of the woodlands, and his varied woodland friends who had accompanied
him, and named him a knight of her court.
In Kelael, he met the golden-cloaked prince who set him into the woods
named Amon, and the tales of rivalry between the Red Archer and Churcainn are
many and legendary.
After being
gone from his home for many years, his aging and now feeble mother Ydel heard
of his fame, and traveled to Kelael and asked her son to support her in her old
age. Churcainn swore to tend to his
family as his family had tended to him, at which point he had the wolves of Cur
Annun devour her.
When the Elf
Queen Saenschel died, the Elven Court was disbanded for a time, and the people
of Kelael returned to their homelands.
Churcainn returned to Wisterwyll, and found Halcuvel had been overtaken
by the forest, and trees had grown through the floors of the hall, and birds
had made nests in the boughs touching the rafters. Red caps had tended to the hearth, and cooked
meat upon a spit, which they then shared with the wolves of the wood. Churcainn was glad of this, and took his
place at the high seat of the feast in Halcuvel, and has called it home ever
since.
Servants of Churcainn
The Wolves of
Cur Annun are led by a particularly large pack leader called Jengreydd. They are a pack of wolves that have coats of
blood-red fur, and are able to speak like men, and hunt those who have wronged
their families.
Tanglebrock
is the father of red caps, and due to his history with Churcainn, worshippers
who know the right words can hold malicious fey at bay.
The Pale Stag
is a ghostly grey stag with leaves entwined in its antlers, and stands as tall
as two men. The stag is the warden of
Wisterwyll and the herald of the Green Rider.
The Knight in Bronze is Churcainn’s
representative to the Queen in Kelael, a secretive figure never seen without
his al-encompassing arm or of bronze.
His name is Brachaedd, and his skill with a sword is legendary. Amon often comes to court and attempts to
taunt Brachaedd into a duel, but so far has been unsuccessful.
The Rede of Halcuvel & the Church of Churcainn
The Rede of
Halcuvel is a series of tales in Sylvan that detail the life of Churcainn, and
sets the tenets of belief that his worship is based around. This is not a religious text, as Churcainn
was never meant to be worshipped by man, but it has been taken by the disciples
of Harraweth.
Harraweth was
believed to be the first worshipper of Churcainn, having met the Lord of the
Ashwood and survived a wager with him.
He took up worship of nature, and learned the ways of the druids, and
spent his life learning the Rede of Halcuvel from the sprites and fey of the
forest. He then took the Rede and used
it as the basis for worship of the Green Rider.
It is
believed that druids hold mistletoe to be sacred due to its abundance in
Wisterwyll. Mistletoe appears in many
tales of Churcainn and his servants.
The tenets of
the Green Rider as taught form the Rede are stern lectures on respecting your
family and clan, never being wasteful, being wary of the fey, but celebrating
their history, and remembering hard lessons learned. Druids teach these philosophies through a
series of parables.
Many
worshippers of the Lord of the Ashwood are those who have never set foot in a
city, instead living in rustic villages, lonely shacks, or quiet towns in the
wild, content to lead lives of tranquility – these common folk do not always
depict Churcainn as benevolent, and warn against his temper and
displeasure.
Worshippers
of Churcainn have many strange customs as taken from the Rede of Halcuvel. They believe a pair of stag antlers hung over
a lintel are considered to bless a home in Churciann’s name, shunning cold iron
as it is harmful to fey spirits, and that pastries left on the hearth will
placate any friendly spirits living within the home.
The Rede of
Halcuvel describes Churciann’s home as “a circle of friends surrounded by a
circle of ash-wood surrounded by a circle of teeth and antlers”. Religious sites to Churcainn are circles of
bone and antler set in the ground, that can be uprooted and moved as the clergy
move about.
The Afterlife
Worshippers
of Churcainn believe that those who successfully befriend the fey or animals
and can be considered kin and family to them may grant their spirit passage to
Wisterwyll, to dwell near Churcainn’s hall, and be watched over by the Lord of
the Ashwood while dwelling in Avalor in harmony with the animals and fey of
Churcainn’s forest.
A burial of
the faithful of Churcainn involves one of his family or a close friend hunting
a wolf, and upon slaying it, the deceased and the wolf are buried in the woods
together, so the wolf can carry the deceased to Halcuvel. These woodland graves are marked with a circle of antlers to keep them save from
woodland predators.
Geography
Druids of
Churcainn can be found in Gnelland, on Glanting Isle, throughout the
Cairnlands, the wilderness of Nordell, and even as far east as the Graven Hills.. More organized churches of Churcainn can be
found in Candletower, Brael Mar, Tanner Mar, and Hearthall.
The Church of Churcainn
Druids of
Churainn refer to themselves as Cur Annun Harraweth, liking themselves to
members of Harraweth’s wolf pack, and faithful friends of the Green Rider. They attempt to live their lives as that of a
wolf, traveling with other druids, hunting for their food, wasting nothing that
they hunt or gather, protecting their kin with their lives, and traveling with
all their possessions upon them, never living in one place for very long.
More
recently, the worship of Churcainn has happened to grow in acceptance in the
walled cities of the Marchlands. The
worship of the Green Rider is now by city-travelers, owners of inns, pilgrims,
and by those who want to ward off evil spirits from their homes. Clerics have organized churches of the Lord
of the Ashwood, calling themselves Green Men, and often these churches are
hostels for travelers, and a place to trade stories from far-off lands. There is no further organization to the
church, and one hall dedicated to Churcainn might we wildly different in
another city.
The holy
symbol of Churcainn is a stag horn. This
can vary wildly in appearance from stag horns mounted on a helmet, to a piece
of antler carved into some sort of pendant, or a horn handle of a hunting
knife.
Calendar and Holy Days
The Night of
the Cur Annun is believed to be a night when the spirits of Churcainn’s wolves
possess their lesser brethren throughout the Western Marches, granting them
vigor and the power of speech for one night only. However, it is considered a dire omen to hear
a wolf speak, and it is believed that an unlucky soul who hears the speech of a
Cur Annun on this night will have their soul travel to Halcuvel within a
fortnight. Those who worship Churcainn
spend this night by the fire, which will ward off wolves.
The
Night of Cur Annun
During
the 15th of Manthel, some wolves may gain advantage on
Strength-based checks, saving throws, and attacks, and gain the power of
speech.
Harreweth’s
Feast is held on the first day of spring which is considered to be Ramel the 15th. It is a day where druids and those who hold
to the beliefs of the Elven Court to honour their forefathers and those who
first communed with nature. It is a day
for druids to gather in their circles, celebrate the beginning of a new cycle
of seasons, and exchange gifts.
The Ashwood Festival is a week-long celebration in winter that lasts
from the 8th day of Madrel until the 15th. Each
feast day is dedicated to a great lord or lady of the Elven Court, typically
Maelbine, Amon, Mauglara, Churcainn, Laerith, Caiden Kallaine, and the Pale
Stag. Some feast days to Mauglara
involve the sacrifice of a bird to ward off the Raven Queen. Each of these feasts is to be held around the
largest Ashwood, but often times boughs of the largest tree are cut and hung
over the mantle of homes. Often this
time is used for unbottling mead or wine laid down, singing and merriment, and
peace between clans.
Rituals of Churcainn
A worshipper
of Churcainn who bears a holy symbol of antler upon his person and recites the
correct passage from the Rede of Halcuvel can bolster his faith and perform
many inspired acts.
Only one
ritual can be performed per day per worshipper, and they only affect the
worshipper himself. Each ritual is an
action to perform, and requires a successful Knowledge (religion) check of DC
20.
The faithful
who make the check can cite the Praise of
Jengreydd to ask for good hunting conditions and clear trails, granting advantage
on Wisdom (Survival) checks for the day.
Reciting the Tale of Tanglebrock with a successful
check reminds the worshipper how to stay wary of fey creatures that should not
be trusted, and grants cover (+2 AC) versus fey, and advantage to saves vs.
enchantment against any fey.
Finally, if a
creature who worships the Green Rider can cite the Ride of the Pale Stag in the presence of an animal and can make a
successful Knowledge (religion) check allows the worshipper to make an
immediate Charisma (Diplomacy) check to influence the animal, even if the
creature does not share a language or has a method of communicating with the
animal. If successful, it can change the
attitude of the animal. A helpful animal
would allow it to be ridden.
Alignment: CN
Domains: Nature,
TrickerySymbol: An antler
Magic
of Churcainn
Clerics,
rangers and druids of the Green Rider can prepare expeditious retreat as a 1st-level spell.
Clerics
of Churcainn are also able to cast Conjure Woodland Beings as a 4th
level spell, and Conjure Fey as a 6th level spell. All creatures summoned have the power of
speech, and speak and understand Sylvan.
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