The Great Mother, the Grain Goddess, the Golden Goddess, She Who Shapes All
Greater Power of Elysium, NG
PORTFOLIO: Agriculture, plants cultivated by humans, farmers, gardeners, summer ALIASES: Earthmother (Moonshae), Jannath, Pahluruk (among the peoples of the Great Glacier, Bhalla (Rashemen) DOMAIN NAME: Eronia/Great Mother's Garden SUPERIOR: None ALLIES: Lathaner, Silvanus, Eldath, Mielikki, Shiallia, Selûne, Lurue the Unicorn FOES: Talos and the gods of fury (Auril, Umberlee, and Malar), Talona, Moander (now dead), Bane (now dead), Bhaal (now dead), Myrkul (now dead) SYMBOL: A budding flower encircled by a sunburst or (older) a sheaf of golden wheat on a green field WOR. ALIGN.: LN, N, CN, LG, NG, CG
Chauntea (Chawn-TEE-ah) rarely appears to mortals, although the most devout sometimes see her smiling face in their dreams. Her hand is on every place where humans seek to grow things. She is not a goddess given to spectacle or pageant, but rather calls her followers to small acts of devotion. She is immensely popular among gardeners, farmers, and common folk of many nations. Through her blessing, most of Faerûn is fruitful. She is wise and quiet, though not passive, and is not given to hasty action. Aside from the divine interactions mentioned above, she has a cordial ongoing contest with Tempus and a friendly rivalry with Gond. Lathander and Chauntea have had an off-again, on-again romance for centuries (currently on), but the relationship between them is always warm.
Chauntea has a special relationship with the people of the Moonshae Isles, a place which she has dedicated a portion of her being, known as Earthmother, to oversee specifically. Earthmother is a more primitive facet of Chauntea who is representative of the goddess's nature in eons past and is much more wild and neutral in her outlook. She often uses three agents in the Moonshaes, said to be her Children: Leviathan, a great whale who guards the waters of the Moonshaes; Kamerynn, a great male unicorn, the king of the wilderness; and the Pack, a gathering of dire wolves melded into a single, unstoppable horde in the service of the goddess. Absent from the Moonshaes for years, these children have been spotted individually of late in the wilds and the sea.
The Church
CLERGY: Clerics, druids, mystics, monks, shamans CLERGY'S ALIGN.: LN, N, CN, LG, NG, CG TURN UNDEAD: C: Yes, D: No, Mys: No, Mon: No, Sha: Yes, if good CMND. UNDEAD: C: No, D: No, Mys: No, Mon: No, Sha: Yes, if neutral
All clerics, druids, mystics, monks, and shamans of Chauntea receive religion (Faerûnian) as a bonus nonweapon proficiency. Clerics, mystics, and shamans of Chauntea are immune to the poisons found in plants and mushrooms. Clerics cannot draw spells from the elemental fire sphere, though they may access all other elemental spheres normally. Clerics and shamans are encouraged to take the herbalism nonweapon proficiency and receive the agriculture nonweapon proficiency as a bonus proficiency.
Chauntea's priests tend to be folk of all races who have a deep love for the land and an appreciation of natural ways and balances, seeing humans and other intelligent life as part of an ongoing series of cycles. They tend to be gardeners or farmers by trade and training and have an increasing appreciation for the beauty of plants that brings them at last to the veneration of She Who Shapes All.
Chauntea is spoken of as "Our Mother" or "the Mother of All" by her clergy. They know that she is very powerful in a quiet way—and like her, they tend to be quiet and patient in their ways. Many members of her clergy are female. In the communities in which they dwell, they are known for their wisdom and appreciated for their willingness to freely (without fee or obligation) tie up their skirts and pitch in when agricultural work must be done, especially where farmers are ill or injured.
Though Chauntea's faith has some large, impressive temples and shrines whose granaries ensure that food for all is abundant in their vicinities, the backbone of the Earthmother's faith is composed of small, local temples. Often these are seed-storage caverns near pure wells. Chauntean services are also held in open fields and druid groves.
Chauntea's church has two wings: standard clerics who minister to the faithful in towns, cities, and civilized areas, and druids who work in more outlying regions. With the success of the town priests, the druids have been moving farther and farther afield. The relationship between the druids, who call themselves "True Clerics of Chauntea," and the more civilized clerics is cordial, but at times strained. The druids have always venerated Chauntea, and consider the more recent city disciples to be upstarts. The more civilized priests, in turn, feel that the druids' day is done, and while druids are still useful in wild lands, the rising nations need and organized, professional faith controlled by a more reasonable and rational clergy. The percentage breakdown of clerics and druids in the clergy is about 40% clerics and 50% druids. Mystics and shamans, who work alone outside of either wing of the church and report only to She Who Shapes All herself, comprise only 5% of the priesthood together, and monks, who are always allied to a particular temple or druidic circle's leader, round out the remaining 5%.
Priests of Chauntea use such titles as (in ascending order of rank) Close One, Watchful Brother/Sister of the Earth, Trueseed, Harvestmaster/Harvestmistress, High Harvestmaster/Harvestmistress, and Onum.
The Unicorn Run
Bards and sages pass down the tale the headwaters of the Unicorn Run are, in truth, the Font of Life, and a cradle of fecundity. Each natural race is said to have emerged from the womb of Chauntea onto Toril at the river's source and then traveled down the Unicorn Run to the outside world. Some say a daughter of Chauntea resides at the river's srouce to usher the newborns into the world, while others claim that Shiallia midwifes the process.
Regardless of the truth, the lore of the elves, korreds, and halflings all agree that the Unicorn Run is sacred to life and a site of incredible purity. As a result, all three races have strong taboos about extended trips up the run, for if the river is ever fouled, then no new races will ever be born on Toril again.
Dogma: 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 to 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.
Day-to-Day Activities: 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 no helped a living thing to flourish.
Clergy of Chauntea are encouraged to work against plant disease wherever they go. They often hire nonbelievers to helf 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 to 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 plantlings should be taken to a temple of the goddess for distribution to the less fortunate.
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 planed, 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 a 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.
Major Centers of Worship: Goldenfields, a vast, walled abbey and farm compound east and north of Waterdeep, is the current pride of Chauntea. The goddess is said to be delighted at the community of more than 5,000 worshipers who till over 20 square miles of contiguous land and outlying buildings on the banks of the Dessarin. The largest and most energetic project undertaken by the faithful of Chauntea, it has become the Granary of the North.
Goldenfields supplanted the older Harvest House in central Amn as the most important center of Chauntean worship, but the ornate formal gardens of the all-female Sisters of the House remain unmatched in the known Realms. However, this smaller temple of Chauntea is being challenged even for its second-place ranking by the smaller but almost perfectly appointed Abbey of the Golden Sheaf in Mistledale, which serves the dale around it with admirable skill and diligence.
Affiliated Orders: While by no means defenseless, the church of Chauntea has no affiliated military or knightly orders. Those who guard its temples and shrines are usually members of the clergy.
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 and 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.
Specialty Priests (Druids)
REQUIREMENTS: Wisdom 12, Charisma 15 PRIME REQ.: Wisdom, Charisma ALIGNMENT: N WEAPONS: Club, sickle, dart, spear, dagger, scimitar, sling, staff ARMOR: Padded, leather, or hide and wooden, bone, shell or any other nonmetallic shield MAJOR SPHERES: All, animal, elemental, healing, plant, protection, time, wards, weather MINOR SPHERES: Divination, travelers MAGICAL ITEMS: As druid REQ. PROFS: Agriculture, herbalism BONUS PROFS: Survival (pick type); modern languages (pick two from: brownie, dryad, elvish, korred, nymph, pegasus, pixie, satyr, sprite, sylph, treant, unicorn)
All specialty priests of Chauntea are druids. Their abilities and restrictions, aside from changes noted above, are summarized in Appendix I: Priest classes and detailed in full in the Player's Handbook.
Chauntean Spells
2nd Level
Favor of the Goddess (Alteration, Invocation/Evocation)
Sphere: Plant Range: Touch Components: V, S Duration: Permanent Casting Time: 5 Area of Effect: Two plants, vegetables, or pieces of fruit/level Saving Throw: None
This spell confers instant fertility to plants or doubles the yield of already-mature, growing plants. For example, picked fruits in a basket swell to twice their former size when this spell is cast on them. Tainted, diseased, spoiled, or poisoned plants are rendered wholesome by this spell, but plants naturally harmful to humans are not made safe. Affected plants seem to glow with life and goodness, and their dramatic increase in volume can break open containers if the chosen produce has strength enough. For instance, cucumbers would burst open a crate or barrel, but tomatoes would explode before such containers gave way. This spell can only affect a plant, vegetable, or piece of fruit once. Further castings are ineffective.
3rd Level
Phantom Plow (Invocation/Evocation)
Sphere: Elemental Earth Range: 10 yards/level Components: V, S Duration: Permanent Casting Time: 6 Area of Effect: Special Saving Throw: Special
This spell turns aside the earth in a deep furrow in a straight line as indicated by the caster that extends from next to the caster's feet (or beneath the caster, if the caster is not touching the ground) to a distance of 20 feet per level. The furrow stops if it encounters consecrated ground, and it does not form at all if the intended path lies entirely within consecrated ground. It causes all earth bearing an active or latent dweomer that it touches to glow with a brilliant crimson faerie fire for 1d4+1 rounds.
If used as a weapon, it spills all creatures standing on the ground in which the furrow opens into an unavoidable fall and inflicts 1d4 points of damage. A successful saving throw vs. spell results in their taking only half damage. Affected creatures must make successful saving throws vs. fall for all glass or crystal items they wear or carry, or the items break. Creatures buried, burrowing, or in phase in the earth suffer 4d4 points of damage from the contact of a phantom plow and receive no saving throw to mitigate this effect. If a furrow is directed against a wall, it stops, but it strikes the wall as a ram does. (Refer to Table 52: Structural Saving Throws in the DUNGEON MASTER Guide.)
4th Level
Plant Lance (Alteration)
Sphere: Plant Range: 5 yards/level Components: V, S, M Duration: 4 rounds Casting Time: 7 Area of Effect: Special Saving Throw: None
This spell transforms one entire plant per level of the caster into an animated, flying spear that flies to attack as the caster directs. The plants transformed can be of any sort, from clumps of moss or lichen to towering trees, but they must be alive for the spell to work. They are consumed by the spell. The spears can operate only within spell range and fly at MV 27 (A).
When the flying spears reach their target, they strike at THAC0 8 for 3d4 points of damage each. They wither and vanish whenever either their target dies or the spell expires, depending on which option is elected by the spellcaster at the time of casting. Otherwise, they move with and strike at their target once per round for the duration of the spell without any attention from the caster, who is free to work other magic or engage in other activities without affecting the plant lances. The spears remain categorized as living plants until they wither at the end of the spell's duration and so could be affected by magic that works on plants. They count as magical weapons +1 for purposes of striking creatures that can only be damaged by magical weapons.
The material components of the spell are the plants. Note that if insufficient plants are growing within range, the caster cannot generate the maximum number of spears that the spell affords.
7th Level
Conjure Nature Elemental (Conjuration/Summoning) Reversible
Sphere: Elemental Earth, Air, Fire, Water; Plant; Summoning Range: 100 yards Components: V, S, M Duration: Special or 24 hours Casting Time: 1 turn Area of Effect: 1 mile Saving Throw: None
Upon the casting of this spell, the caster opens a direct link with Chauntea and a portion of her essence forms a nature elemental (detailed in the MONSTROUS COMPENDIUM booklet in the Ruins of Zhentil Keep boxed set) from the uncivilized and uncultivated portions of the priest's current surroundings. This spell is only granted by Chauntea diliberately to her clergy members after great consideration upon the damage it will inflict when used. (The only other church known to be able to cast a parallel form of this spell is that of Rillifane Rallithil, and he has refused its usage for over a century.)
Unless the caster is 17th level or higher, she or he must make a saving throw vs. breath weapon. If the saving throw fails, the caster provides the spirit portion of the elemental's essence (it is composed of earth, air, fire, water, and spirit) and departs the Prime Material Plane when the elemental disperses at the end of the spell's duration. The caster is then dead, but his or her body remains intact (it is, oddly, not restructured like the environment) and may be raised or resurrected.
Priests must be above 17th level to inscribe this spell onto a scroll, and then only someone who is in touch with nature (druids, clerics or specialty priests of nature powers, or rangers above 5th level) can read the scroll. When reading from a scroll, a caster does not need to make a saving throw.
Nature elementals are summoned to return the spell's area of effect to an uncultivated state. All signs of civilization and all humans or humanoids within the area of effect are obliterated. The only people immune to the elemental's fury are the caster and up to 10 people per the caster's level within a 100-yard-radius who are designated upon casting the spell. The elemental disperses into its environmental components when a 1-mile radius is renovated or after 24 hours, whichever occurs first.
Unlike other elementals, nature elementals cannot be controlled. Their duties and the area in which they are to perform them are set at their summoning. If the area a nature elemental is summoned into is free of signs of civilization, the creature disperses. Nature elementals are not affected by protection from evil spells and like magics intended to hold at bay extraplanar creatures.
The reverse of this spell, dismiss nature elemental, disperses a summoned nature elemental.
The material components for this spell are burning incense, soft clay, sulfur, phosphorus, water, sand, and a duly consecrated holy symbol.
Sanctify Sacred Site (Abjuration, Alteration)
Sphere: All, Sun, Plant Range: Special Components: V, S, M Duration: Permanent Casting Time: From sunrise to sunset Area of Effect: One defiled holy site Saving Throw: None
This spell was developed in ancient times by druids of the Earthmother on the Moonshae Isles as a variant of the sunray spell. Long forgotten, it was rediscovered through the research efforts of the wizard Flamsterd and the druids of the Moonshaes following the destruction of the Risen Cult of Bane by a small company of Harpers several years after the Time of Troubles. The druids employed this spell to mitigate the destruction inflicted by the cultists' moonveil spell, but it has additional powers as well.
A sanctify sacred site spell takes nearly a full day to cast; it begins at dawn and ends at sunset. It is cast upon a site sacred to Chauntea such as a sacred grove, moonwell, or graveyard of her followers that has been defiled by the forces of evil. The ritual of casting the spell involves chanting, dancing solemnly about the entire site, and the sacrifice of tokens of the goddess's bounty (the material components.)
Sanctify sacred site is a form of faith magic that purifies corruption and evil from the land. It must be preceeded by the casting of focus (a 4th-level priest spell). The base percentage of success is equal to the level of the priest who casts the spell. For every five true worshipers of Chauntea of any race who participate in the ritual as long as they are able (all day, or until death or total exhaustion), whether they be human, elf, korred, or faerie dragon, the chances of this spell succeeding in purifying a defiled sacred site are increased by 1%. Success is checked for at the moment of sunset. The chance of this spell succeeding is increased by 25% if it is performed on Midwinter or the vernal or autumnal equinoxes. If performed on Midsummer, the chance is increased by 40%.
If the spell succeeds, a dazzling beam of light errupts from the ground or water at the center of the sacred site to be sanctfied. This beam has all the effects of a sunray (the 7th-level priest spell) on any creatures of evil present within a 1-mile radius of the light, whether they be on the ground, in the air, or beneath the earth. Any defiling magic in effect on the sacred site, such as a moonveil spell, is permanently dispelled, and any magical powers of the site lost to the defiling magic will slowly return if the faithful maintain their worship of Chauntea at the site.
The material components for this spell are varied and difficult to procure simultaneously. The goddess requires a spring sapling covered with dew to be planted, a summer swan halfway between the gosling and adult stage to be released, a bushel of fresh fall harvest to be consumed, and ice crystals from the first winter frost to be placed at the center of the site.