The Mother
Little is known about the worship of the Mother and the ranks of the Druids who worship her. The Druidic Circle were the main centre of education, healing and worship for the Fair Folk, as the early races were known prior to the arrival of humans. Since then, some humans have adopted the worship of the Mother and have since merged into the ranks of the Bards and Druids of Eldarr. Still, the Fair Folk can be somewhat jealous and possessive of their worship of the Mother, many feeling that humans are young encroachers with no history of Mother worship.
The Church of the AllFather and the Druids of the Mother hold an uneasy alliance in the fight against The Hordes of Hell. However, their past is not so amiable. Early humans regarded the Mother-worshiping Fair Folk as barbaric and to be feared. Many a grove of the darkwood the Druids revered were burned in name of The AllFather. In fact, some of these violent clashes were led by priests of The AllFather. This history has not been forgotten by the Fair Folk, and it is a large part of why the Fair Folk continue to withdraw from contact with the humans. However, much of what is publicly known about the Druidic worship of the Mother has been documented by the Church of the AllFather. An example treatise written by the High Priest of The AllFather in 267 below. As for accuracy, only the Druids know.
"As one of their leading dogmas," he said, ""they include this: that souls are not annihilated, but pass after death from one body to another, and they hold that by this teaching, men are much encouraged to valor, through disregarding the fear of death. They also discuss and impart to their young many things concerning the heavenly bodies and their movements, the size of the world and our earth, natural sciences, and the influence and power of the Mother." "Druids are concerned with divine matters, looking after public and private sacrifices, explaining questions of religion: a great number of young men flock to them to learn, and to these Druids great honour is among them. They decided on almost all public and private disputes, and if any crime is committed, if any murder has been carried out, if there is an issue concerning inheritance, or there is a dispute over land, then the Druids settle the matter, deciding the rewards and the penalties. If anyone, a public or private citizen, does not adhere to their ruling, then they are banned from sacrifices; this punishment is the most serious among them. And so those who have been banned are considered among the number of the impious and wicked; all of them were avoided, and people fled from their approach and engaging conversation with them, in case they receive any harm through contact; there is neither justice given to them when asking for it nor is any honour given to them." "There is one in charge of all the Druids, who holds the greatest authority among them. When he dies, either he who stands out from the rest in homour succeeds him, or, if many are equal, they compete for leadership by the votes of the Druids, sometimes even with arms. "Druids are accustomed to be exempt from war, and nor do they pay tribute together with the rest ; they are exempt from military service and freedom from all other things. They are aroused by so great a prize many gather for training both of their own accord and sent by parents and relations. There they are said to learn by heart a great number of verses; and so many remain in training for twenty years. Nor do they think it right to entrust these verses to writing, although they use Common writing in almost every remaining thing. They seem to me to have established that for two reasons, firstly as they do not wish their way of life made known to the general public, and neither do they who learn, want to pay less attention to memory by relying on writing. Especially they want to persuade people of this, souls do not die, but after death they cross from one to the other, and they think that by this means especially men are aroused to virtue, ignoring the fear of death. Besides this, they discuss many things concerning the stars and their nature, the size of the universe and of the earth, of the nature of things, they discuss the power and might of the Mother and they hand over this to young people." "All of the nation of Eldarr are greatly devoted to religious observance, and for that very same reason, they who are affected by the more serious illnesses and who are engaged in battles and dangers, either men sacrifice men for victims or vow to be sacrificed themselves and use the Druids as assistants to the sacrifices, because, unless a man was given back for a man's life, they thought they could not appease the will of the immortal gods: and they have established sacrifices of the same kind in the name of the state. Others had huge statues of immense size; whose bodies of woven branches are filled with living men; men perish in the burning image with flames surrounding them. They think that the execution of those who have been caught committing theft or robbery or some other offence, is pleasing to the immortal gods ; but, when their supply of that kind fails, they stoop to the execution of innocent victims."
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Religious, Pantheon
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