Hayvan (Hey-van)

Hayvan is the god of wilderness and wild animals. He stood as a moral opposite to Yirtici, who represented predatorial savagery and the like. He had a friendly but distant relationship with the members of the Harmonious Covenant pantheon due to their shared view of maintaining peace with the natural world, although he viewed them as too tamed by the trappings of civilisation.

Description

Hayvan was portrayed in a range of ways, including both humanoid and bestial forms. In a humanoid form, he was shown as either a young long-limbed humanoid carrying a simple bow and was shown as defending natural places. He was also sometimes shown as an older man carrying a twisted staff and wearing a bark-like cloak. Just as often, Hayvan was showed as a wild animal often a stag or other prey animal. Regardless of his form, he was very frequently shown surrounded by plants and wild animals.
When it came to nature itself, he cared greatly for maintaining a balance between growth and decay, water and drought, fire and ice — the natural cycle of life. This was considered to be his dogma and he was emotionally distant in regards to its necessity. This led some to view him as heartless, though in reality he valued all life.

Religion

Hayvan was worshipped, alongside Yirtici, as part of the Nature's Cycle pantheon. In this capacity he is viewed as the symbol of wild nature including the beauty and suffering that takes place. He does encourage those who are capable to look after those that are struggling, however not to the exclusion of killing and eating meat or using violence to defend oneself and the nature that surrounds them.
Followers outside of the pantheon of Nature's Cycle view him as a more fickle god and was seen as the symbol of the natural world's attempts to reclaim the 'civilized' world.
Hayvan was a featured god within the Elvish Pantheon. He was revered as one of the core tenets of elvish life through his representation of the beauty of the natural world.

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Domain: Nature

All life - from the smallest bug to the largest whale, from a seedling to a mighty ash tree - is mighty and has its place.

~ One of the core beliefs of Hayvan's followers

Religions

• Nature's Cycle