Silvanus

Nature

Green living oak leaf

Silvanus sees and balances all, meting out both wild water and drought, both fire and ice, both life and death. His priests tend to see the total situation, to view the macrocosm; their view is not confined to one person or one nation's idea of what is best. This is not to say that priests of Silvanus are neutral and take no sides. They are strongly on the side of wild nature, the natural state of matters, over any civilizing force.   All is in a cycle, deftly and beautifully balanced—and it is the duty of the devout to see this cycle and the sacred Balance as clearly as possible, to make others see it (whether they worship the Oak Father or no), and to work against all beings and things who seek to disturb the Balance. This is best done by watching, anticipating, and quiet manipulation. Silvanites should resort to violence and open confrontation only when pressure of time, situation, or hostile action makes it necessary. Ultimately, the faithful are to keep the Balance—when one must act in one way one day, take the opposing side on another day- Always keep the Balance.   Those aspiring to join the clergy of Silvanus are charged to fight against the felling of forests, banish disease wherever they find it, and defend the trees and plant new ones whenever possible. They are to seek out, serve, and befriend the dryads and learn their names. They are to kill only when needful, for all things in the forest are in balance, to destroy fire and those who employ it, and to beware ores and others who bring axes into the forest.

Priests of Silvanus pray to the Forest Father at all times, though the god seems to respond best to prayers at sunset and in moonlight. Greengrass, Midsummer Night, Higharvestide, and the Night the Forest Walks are holy days to the greenleaf priesthood.   The Night the Forest Walks can occur at any time during the year. It is a night when Silvanus is restless, and trees move, streams and ravines change their courses, and caves open and close in the forest. Forest-dwelling monsters are often stirred into action, and forest magic is especially strong and apt to go wild.   Many rituals of worship to the god take place in a crown stand of tall, ancient trees on a hilltop. The god must always be worshiped by sacrifice—but never by blood sacrifice. Instead, something made from material taken from a wood must be ceremonially broken and buried—not burned. For example, a cart, wagon, or chair fashioned from the wood of felled trees could become a sacrifice to Silvanus.   The simplest prayer to Silvanus is the Call of Oak, Ash, and Thorn, wherein a priest gathers leaves of the three named sorts of trees, floats them on water, and entreats Silvanus to hear a prayer. For deeper concerns (a conversation with a servant of the god, or the receipt of godly favors or magical powers) a Vigil is often employed: The worshiper anoints his or her own body with a powder of crushed acorns and mistletoe leaves mixed with rainwater or spring water and lies down on, or in contact with, a growing tree for most of a night. Some part of the bare flesh of the faithful must touch green, growing moss, so moss-covered giant trees are most favored for use in Vigils.   The two most powerful and holy rituals of Silvanites are the Song of the Trees and the Dryad Dance. The first ceremony is a droning, haunting chant that is repetitive, leaps from sharp to flat in pitch, and increases in power the more worshipers are participating. Its performance always draws woodland creatures to gather in silent witness, laying aside their usual fears and their instincts to prey upon each other. The Song of the Trees heals burned, diseased, and scarred trees—and even, in rare moments of the favor of Silvanus, reerects trees that have fallen or been felled.   The Dryad Dance is a wild ritual of piping, dancing, and carousing that calls out any dryads or hamadryads from the woods around and empowers them to travel far from their trees for a lunar cycle (month) after the dance is performed (though they cannot use their charm ability when more than 360 yards from the tree). Dryads and their trees are healed and revitalized by the dance, and it is rumored that humans and dryads who tryst at this time cause the rapid spread of new oak trees and the birth of new dryads linked to them.   Sadly, it seems the most often performed ceremony in the Silvanite canon is the Thorncall, a ritual magic that raises thick walls of deadly tearing thorns out of the forest soil. These barriers are permanent and as labyrinthine as the presiding priest desires, but they can only be called up when a servant of Silvanus (a worshiper or a servitor creature, such as a stag) has been slain or shed much blood in the vicinity. The Thorncall ritual is used to keep out those who would bum or despoil the forest in such a way as to upset the balance.

Day-to-Day Activities

Most disturbances of the sacred Balance are due to too-heavy hunting or farming, which bring with them land clearances— essentially population pressures. The greenleaf priesthood is kept busy working to redirect development and control populations through covert sponsorship of brigands, breeding and selective placing of predators, and other means, it is essential that such work be as secretive as possible, so that most folk view the servants of Silvanus as essentially benign lovers of trees.   Wildlife breeding, nursing sick animals, and replanting trees and wild shrubs are all work that should be done as publicly as possible to support this perception—and as necessary work to redress the slipping Balance, of course. To do this work properly, two skills are essential to all Silvanite clergy: learning through instruction and lifelong study the intricate workings of the life-cycles of all living creatures in Faerun and learning to take the long term view so that the manifold implications of every action and combination of actions can be seen clearly well into the future. By planning for the long term, Silvanite clergy hope never to take a serious misstep and worsen any shift of the Balance. Superior patience, natural knowledge, and anticipation are the hallmarks of a worthy servant of Silvanus. They are also the qualities that make any Silvanite priest a deadly foe. A Silvanite should never be surprised and always be three or four steps ahead of an opponent, prepared for victories well beyond the battles that an enemy can see.  

Priestly Vestments

The ceremonial dress for both clerics and druids of Silvanus is a suit of armor made of overlapping leaves. For clerics, the leaves are made of metal plates and the suit functions as a set of scale mail. For druids, the leaves are made of green-tinted leather and the suit functions as leather armor. Either set is worn with green breeches and shirt. The outfit is topped with a large helm with oak leaf-shaped wings.   In urban areas, where the clerics outnumber the druids, the standard dress has been simplified to a verdigrised-copper pin worn on the breast when a priest is not involved with the High Ceremonies.  

Adventuring Garb

When adventuring, druids and clerics of Silvanus may wear their ceremonial armor or switch to something less flamboyant, depending on their mission. They are usual very practical in their dress, choosing outfits to suit the situation at hand.   Many of the wilder druids take to wearing only a loose, dusty brown cloak made of old hides adorned with feathers and carefully watered, woven-in clumps of mosses from day to day. Sometimes this body cloak is augmented by fur leggings or high boots. This garb, worn by priestesses of the Forest Father, has given rise to tales of wild women of the woods in many places around the Realms.