Chauntea (chawn-TEE-ah)

Chauntea was the Asyurian goddess of life and bounty, who viewed herself as the embodiment of all things agrarian. The Earthmother was seen as the tamer parallel of Silvanus, the Forest Father of druidry and wilderness, as she was the deity of agriculture and plant cultivation.

“The Earthmother is everything, and her health is our health. She feeds us, clothes us, waters us, and shelters us. No god is greater than her, though many are noisier. No god is more forgiving, more nurturing, or more essential. Truly, Chauntea is All.”

— The creed of the Church of Chauntea

Contents

Description

Chauntea, when in her home realms, manifested with the appearance of a giant beautiful human woman. The Earthmother had long shiny white hair, gathered in a long braid she wrapped around her head. The length of her braid suggested the woman's great age. She had pleasant features and brown skin. Chauntea's body was lean but toned, muscled similarly to a farmer's body, shaped by hard work. She carried herself with strength and femininity. If one was to forget that they observed a deity, they could assume the beautiful woman in front of them was in her middle-age. Some described her appearance as "a rose in full bloom."   Chauntea was dressed in an unbleached linen tunic and carried a green seed pouch, slung over one shoulder. Even though she was working her divine realm's fields barefoot, with face stained with dirt, her beauty was accentuated by wildflowers and ivy weaved into the goddess' long hair. She also wore a girdle embroidered with images of various fruits.

Personality

Chauntea was a wise and quiet goddess given to neither pomp nor paegentry. Over the millenia she had learned the virtue of patience, being both slow to anger and not prone to hasty action, although she sometimes took this to the point of being ponderous.   This was not to be mistaken for passivity however, for the Earthmother was a vibrant and caring goddess who loved the inhabitants of Asyur and enjoyed nothing more than showing them how her world might enrich their lives. The most recent centuries had seen Chauntea become completely enamored with them, especially humans, to the point she focused all her attention on helping them live off the land.   This relationship was not one-way however, for Chauntea also preached reverence towards nature. She urged the people of civilized lands to repair that which they damage, calling her followers to perform small acts of devotion. Furthermore, while she would prefer diplomacy to open conflict, to bring blight to the natural world would surely evoke the fury of the Earthmother.

Divine Realm

Chauntea maintained her divine realm named Great Mother's Garden on Elysium's second layer of Eronia. She shared it with the otherworldly crops gifted to her by other gods.   Chauntea's realm was a representation of her dominion over the Realms. During the annual planting season, the goddess worked her realm's sprawling fields, planting handfuls of seeds in furrows and closing them with her bare feet. The goddess took her duties with intense diligence, knowing that if she was late to plant or the fields were damaged, it caused the fertility of the Realms to suffer. A churned plot of earth in one spot of the field could cause croup failure in Verberbonc, in another spot - scorched earth could create famine in Darkshelf. Her realm's fields were teeming with life: insects bussed about, earthworms filled the soil, robins flittered about.

Relationships

She had strong ties with other deities concerned with nature, such as Shiallia and Mielikki, and she shared a close relationship with Silvanus, but that diminished over time. She was also known to have romantic affiliations with Lathander.   Her most despised enemy was Talona, the Lady of Pestilence, whose disposition to wreak suffering, disease and decay upon the natural world led her to oppose her with upmost vehemence. She was always in conflict with Talos. Chauntea battled deities who sought to desecrate and expunge nature; she opposed evil deities such as Ferenc and Blathmac, and viewed the latter's resurgence as portentous.

Worshipers

Chauntea was seen by Asyurians as a critical aspect of the assumed cycle of life. Private land owners and destitute farmers (perhaps as a consequence of an unproductive harvest) visited the clerics of Chauntea for any divine suggestions for aiding the harvest. If at any time plague or drought struck the crops, farmers looked to Chauntea, since they hoped she would save the harvest, due to her love of nature.   Some of her worshipers claimed that her divine glimmer gave life to the natural world, and some contended that she was the creator and source of all mortal races. In some sense, Chauntea was the manifestation of the earth itself—the avatar of the twin worlds Abeir-Toril.   The church was an approachable one, in that it welcomed all irrespective of gender or race. The liturgical doctrine of the church was such that it attracted more females than males, due to its preoccupation with femininity, and while female attendees outnumbered men, there was still a range of males that worshiped Chauntea.   Chaunteans maintained simplicity when it came to apparel. Druids preferred brown robes and priests preferred to wear a brown cloak with more standard livery such as a tunic underneath.   Her temples often had great libraries dedicated to agriculture.   Chauntea was one of the main deities worshiped in Surval, where she was known as Bhalla.

Typical Worshipers

Though she had a diverse collection of followers, Chauntea was fanatically worshiped by peasants, servants, druids, gardeners, and any others who earned pay from working on farmland.   In the Surval tribes, Chauntea was exclusively worshiped by women, and served by female shamans. They believed the "Grandmother" gave birth to numerous daughters from Survile after his ascension, which became the wives of their beast gods.

Clerical Practice

Clerics prayed for their spells at sundown, as did druids. They usually led dual lives as either gardeners or farmers, and were industrious people. They were expected to appreciate natural beauty and possess a feeling for meditation. The clergy instructed Chauntea's followers that they should make entreaties every sunrise. Compared to other faiths, ecclesiastics appointed few holidays. One holiday that was observed was a festival during Greengrass, which was a festival in which excessive consumption and uninhibited behavior were encouraged. Abundance was an important part of life worshiping the Great Mother. A rite of passage for many of the faith was concerned with Holy Communion. Newly married couples were instructed to spend their first night in fresh fields, supposedly to guarantee a fertile marriage.   The clergy observed and recognized the dogma set forth by Chauntea herself, and read the High Prayers of the Harvest at a perennial ceremony, which was usually at the start of harvest.   Her clergy were known for ministering in rural communities, and for their willingness to work in the community's fields next to the local farmers.

Denominations with the Holy Order

The divided clergy of Chauntea was sectarian by nature. Associates of the Chauntean canonry were divided into two camps. Those with ministerial positions who advised farmers and workers all over were named "Pastorals". The rustic, untamed conclave charged with preserving the wilderness referred to themselves, albeit insouciantly, as "True Shapers".   The deaconry had by no means any centralized governing body, and was not collective. It promoted individuality and was far less unitary than other faiths.

Doctrine

The church outlined a general set of precepts and taboos, though some of these were given to subjective interpretation since the faith was individualistic. Chaunteans saw wanton destruction as antithetical to the cycle of life. They were urged to nourish at least one living thing every day of their lives. They were advised to eschew fire also.   In terms of correct agricultural practice, the church advised that campaigns of replanting, prudent irrigation and crop rotation were necessary to ensure that the land was kept fertile. However, followers of Silvanus regarded these teachings with derision. They postulated that these practices were an abomination to the natural world and that agriculture was not conservation but manipulation, further arguing that their sect encouraged exploitation and overpopulation. This, Silvanites decreed, was in contradiction with Nature. As a result, some proselytized to the Silvanite faith, though many "Pastorals" disregarded these criticisms.