Chauntea

Life, Nature

A budding rose encircled by a sunburst wreath of golden grain or (older) a sheaf of golden wheat on a green field

Chauntea's faith is one of nurture and growth. Agricultural sayings and farming parables dot her teachings. Growing and reaping, the eternal cycle, is a common thread in Chauntea's faith. Destruction for its own sake, or leveling without rebuilding, is anathema to the church.   Chauntean priests are charged to nurture, tend, and plant whenever and wherever possible; protect trees and plants, and save their seeds so that what is destroyed can be replaced; see to the fertility of the earth, but let the human womb see to its own; and to eschew fire.

Holy Days/Important Ceremonies

Every day should begin with whispered thanks to Chauntea for continued life and close with a prayer to the setting sun, from whence (Chaunteans believe) the Great Mother sends her power. Prayer to the Great Mother must be made whenever things are planted, but should otherwise occur when worshipers are moved to do so by the beauty of nature around them, which they are always encouraged to notice.   Prayer to the Golden Goddess is best made on freshly tilled ground, farmland, or a garden, or failing that, at least at a well or watering place. Chauntea listens best to those who enrich the ground, so before prayer many priests bury wastes, dispose of the litter of civilization, or plant seeds.   Few ceremonies of worship fall at set times. Passing one's wedding night in a freshly tilled field is held by Chaunteans to ensure fertility in marriage.   Greengrass is a fertility festival, wherein uninhibited behavior and consumption of food and drink is encouraged.   The much more solemn High Prayers of the Harvest celebrate the bounty Chauntea has given a community and are held at different times in each community to coincide with the actual harvest of crops, rather than precisely on Higharvestide.

Day-to-Day Practices

Priests of Chauntea are charged to learn—and pass on to others, both fellow clergy and laity—all they can of horticulture, herblore, plant types, and plant diseases, and to encourage all civilized folk to enrich the land by replanting, composting, and irrigation, not merely to graze or dig it bare for what it can yield and then pass on. They replant trees wherever they go, root out weeds that strangle and choke crop plants, and till plants back into the soil. They strive to let no day pass in which they have not helped a living thing to flourish.   Clergy of Chauntea are encouraged to work against plant disease wherever they go. They often hire nonbelievers to help them burn diseased plants or the corpses of plague-ridden livestock to prevent the spread of sickness. They keep careful watch over such blazes. Chauntean clerics do not like handling fire but are not forbidden to use nonmagical fire.   Chauntea encourages her faithful to make offerings of food to strangers and those in need, freely sharing the bounty of the land. It is also said that money given to one of her temples returns to the giver tenfold. Worshipers should plant at least one seed or small plant-cutting a tenday, tend it faithfully for as long as possible, and see that their own wastes are always tilled back into the soil to feed later life. Any extra seeds yielded by plantings should be taken to a temple of the goddess for distribution to the less fortunate.    

Priestly Vestments

Priests of high rank of all types in the service of Chauntea tend to favor white or sun-colored ceremonial robes trimmed in deep forest green and to use staves smoothed by much handling but otherwise natural in appearance. Some such staves are enchanted to purify or promote the growth of what they touch.  

Adventuring Garb

Chauntea's clerics, monks, and shamans dress simply and without pretense most of the time. They favor earth tones of green and brown. The druids prefer simple brown robes with high rank denoted only by a belt laced with gold thread or some other similar, precious decoration. The citified clerics, on the other hand, wear an open-fronted brown cloak with more standard garments, like tunic and trousers, underneath. Mystics dress in everyday clothes or robes of more colorful garb in brighter green, yellow, rust, and brown earth tones.