Chauntea

Chauntea is the Asotran goddess of life and bounty, who views 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.

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 is a wise and quiet goddess given to neither pomp nor paegentry. Over the millenia she has learned the virtue of patience, being both slow to anger and not prone to hasty action, although she sometimes takes this to the point of being ponderous.

This is not to be mistaken for passivity however, for the Earthmother is a vibrant and caring goddess who loves the inhabitants of Toril and enjoys nothing more than showing them how her world might enrich their lives. The most recent centuries have seen Chauntea become completely enamored with them, especially humans, to the point she focuses all her attention on helping them live off the land.

This relationship is not one-way however, for Chauntea also preaches reverence towards nature. She urges the people of civilized lands to repair that which they damage, calling her followers to perform small acts of devotion. Furthermore, while she prefers diplomacy to open conflict, to bring blight to the natural world would surely evoke the fury of the Earthmother.

Divine Realm

In the Great Wheel cosmology, Chauntea maintains her divine realm named Great Mother's Garden on Elysium's second layer of Eronia. She shares it with the otherworldly god of crops Liu from the Chinese pantheon and the Mystaran Immortal of growth, Djaea.

Chauntea's realm is a representation of her dominion over the Realms. During the annual planting season, the goddess works her realm's sprawling fields, planting handfuls of seeds in furrows and closing them with her bare feet. The goddess takes her duties with intense diligence, knowing that if she is late to plant or the fields are damaged, it causes the fertility of the Realms to suffer. A churned plot of earth in one spot of the field could cause croup failure in Halruaa, in another spot - scorched earth could create famine in Amn. Her realm's fields are teeming with life: insects bus about, earthworms fill the soil, robins flitter about.

Worshippers

Chauntea was seen by Faerûnians 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. 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. 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.

Chauntea was one of the main deities worshiped in Rashemen, where she was known as Bhalla. In the Uthgardt tribes, Chauntea was exclusively worshiped by women, and served by female shamans. They believed the "Grandmother" gave birth to numerous daughters from Uthgar after his ascension, which became the wives of their beast gods.

Chauntea was also worshiped in worlds other than Toril, although under a different name.

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 utmost vehemence. She was always in conflict with Talos. Chauntea battled deities who sought to desecrate and expunge nature; she opposed evil deities such as Malar and Bane, and viewed the latter's resurgence as portentous.

History

Chauntea was believed to be one of the eldest gods in Faerûn—she was born when Toril was created by the primeval battles between Shar and Selûne. Selûne favored her and nurtured her with her light, with the help of Mystryl.

Chauntea

Greater deity

Basic Information

Titles

The Great Mother
The Grain Goddess
The Golden Goddess
Goddess of Agriculture
Earthmother
The Forest Mother
She Who Shapes All
Guardian of the Wilds and Deeps
Keeper of the Wild
Goddess of Bountiful Nature
The Mother of All Flowers
The Lady of the Harvest
Grandmother (Uthgardt)

Pantheons

Astoran
Netherese
First Circle

Attributes

Alignment

Neutral Good

Symbol

Blooming rose on a wreath of golden grain

Realm

Blessed Fields of Elysium/Eronia/Great Mother's Garden

Portfolio

Agriculture, Crops, Farmers, Gardeners, Summer

Favored Weapon

A shock of grain (scythe)

Following

Worshippers

Peasants and indentured servants
Druids
Farmers
Gardeners

Alignments

LG, NG, CG, N

Domains

Animal (Fur)
Community (Cooperation, Home)
Good (-)
Healing (Restoration)
Plant (Leshy, Growth)

Favored Aspects

Animals/Plants

Larks
Robins
Red hens

Seeds

Monsters

Sprites
Talking trees

Colors

Forest green
White
Yellow

Manifest- ations

Unexpected flowers growing with great speed

Light motes