Antu, Shepherd of the Forest
God of plant life, prophecy, treants, and wisdom.
After the Sister-Moons created the world and invited in the gods and geshtai, Antu was the second to arrive (after Brea).
Antu was immediately drawn to the treants when they began to evolve to consciousness millions of years ago. He became their guide and guardian. It was Antu who faced the vengeance of the other gods by teaching the treants the secret of druidic magic when it was forbidden. Soon after, the treant druids began to awaken the trees, and Antu became their protector as well. The treants and their awakened trees were alone on Anathra for millions of years before other intelligent life was created. In that time, they awakened every tree on Anathra's sole continent. When the gods eventually created the giants in their own image, those giants were born in and around a single, continent-wide intelligent forest. And Antu was worshipped by tens of millions of trees and their increasingly scarce treant creators.
Originally a god of divination, prophecy, and wisdom, since that long-ago age, Antu has also been a god of plants and forests, trees and treants.
Often a hermit, Antu is known to be close to two other divinities: the fey god Dhasa the Seer, incarnation of divination and prophecy, and Cthuan, Ausranic god of primeval forests, trees, and plants.
Because their natures are so perfectly aligned, some have speculated that Dhasa and Cthuan are simply aspects of Antu. They say that when the fey gods arrived, a part of Antu joined them, becoming a mirror of his old self as god of divination, prophecy, and wisdom. Eons later, when the ausranic gods arrived, he did the same thing; creating a new avatar, this time a god of plants, trees, and forests. Few clerics take this very seriously, but several bards have written epic songs about it (to the constant annoyance of the clerics).
While there are some clerics of Antu (mostly among the Cernoan fey), most of his priesthood is made up of decentralized druidic sects. Even sects working in opposition to each other, like the Circles of Hieronius and Silentus are united in their veneration of Antu. Rival druidic circles will even occasionally celebrate Antuan ceremonies and holidays together.
Divine Domains
Arcana, Death, Knowledge, Life, Nature
Divine Symbols & Sigils
Stylized Tree
Relationships
Divine Classification
God
Religions
Alignment
Neutral
Spouses
Siblings
Children
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