The Elven Gods

The gods of the elves retreated to Alfheim and sealed the way, turning to darkness, their temples often quarried for stone to build more practical structures, their priests few and widely ignored. Though most are much lessened from their glory days, their power was once great, and their remaining adherents are often extremely powerful, with command of magic, sword, and diplomacy. In recent years, their shrines seem to have grown slightly in power, and at a few the faithful gather in small numbers on the holiest days. The pantheon remains a thin and watery version of what was once an enormous faith.

Deity	Alignment	Province	Domain	Symbol
Baccho	Chaotic	Alfheim	Death, Prophecy, Travel	A roaring lion
Holda	Neutral Good	Alfheim	Life, Light, Tempest	Tree half baron half verdant
Sarastra	Neutral	Shadow Roads	Darkness, Knowledge, Trickery	Star inside a triangle above three whorls of air
Valeresh	Neutral Good	Alfheim	Death, Justice, Speed, Tempest, War	Elven ow tipped with red and gold
Yarila and Porevit	Chaotic Good	Alfheim	Life, Nature, Tempest	A cup who's handle is twisting vines

Baccho

Baccho was once the Master of the Elves, their patron and paragon. When the elves left Midgard and returned to the Alfheim, he led the procession in person, flowers in his hair and a song on his lips. His human and elf followers fell into a long despair, filled with bouts of madness and drunkenness and bitter wrath. His temples fell into disuse or were reconsecrated to other gods. Baccho’s echo is still felt, his poetic hymns and joyous image carved in old elven halls and buildings, but his priests are vanishingly few and often not notably different from beggars and starving poets. A few of his order remember the heights of elven ritual magic, but this could be mere speculation or wishful dreaming—something Baccho’s followers have always been prone to.
Depiction. He is depicted as an elf with long blonde hair, a ring of flowers upon his head, and sporting two deer antlers on his head.
Worshippers. Baccho’s few yet vivid worshippers include debauched followings among certain noble houses, young poets, vintners, seers, and shapeshifters. Oddly enough, he has a small following among the dwarves, ravenfolk, satyrs, and bearfolk, especially among bear-shifters, wolf-reavers, and doom croakers, who consider him a patron martyr for shifters and seers.
Commandments

• Make art, and celebrate life to the fullest.
• Leave no stone unturned and unpainted.
• Rage, love, and make your mark on all things.
• Embrace the dragon and the lamb; both are your children.

Holda

The mother goddess of the elves rules the seasons, the hearth, and the harvest. All the world was hers. As a goddess of home and seasons, her followers created elven cloth and cloaks; her followers still expertly weave astonishingly colorful, silky garments, often shot through with threads of gold and mithral. Wind, wave, and thunder are hers to command, as are light and dark. Holda’s demeanor is always gentle, but her standards for craft, creation, and children are all very high. Her followers find great sin in sloth and idleness.
Depiction. She is depicted as an elf with long beautiful blonde hair and a ring of pink flowers upon her head. She often wields a broom made of vines with mistletoe hanging off the tip of the handle.
Worshippers. Holda’s worshippers are quiet but powerful. They tend to be older men and women in positions of quiet power: guild leaders, mayors, large landholders, ley line wielders, and scholars of steady temperament. While they rarely make a fuss, when they do, the words of followers of Holda are always accorded great weight.
Commandments

• Defend your home, and give comfort to the weak and the desperate.
• Shelter children, watch the seasons, and know when the time has come to join the ancestors.
• Respect your elders and keep your word always, especially to those smaller and younger than you.

Sarastra

Sarastra rules the Shadow Roads, the source of darkness and raw arcane energies. Her goals are oblique and mysterious, often cruel and heartless, and this is reflected in her favorite followers, the shadow fey who make her realm home. She plots out of boredom and malice, and her mastery of the arcane and her control of deceptions and misdirection both make her dangerous. She has a perfect memory for the slightest insult, and some of her revenges take centuries to complete. In the Shadow Roads her avatar presides directly over the Courts of the Shadow Fey. Her attention is dangerous but can bring great reward to those who please her—a difficult prospect given her mercurial moods. She creates complex rules and protocols for her court, and she changes them with every whim. She recruits many pawns to use against her enemies.
Depiction. Sarastra resembles an impossibly beautiful shadow fey woman wearing an indigo dress covered with diamonds and a diadem of mithral and glowing starstones. Her cloak seems part of the night.
Worshippers. Shadow fey, elves, and the half elves are Sarastra’s primary followers, although her devotees include human and tiefling arcanists. Her worship is banned in many areas, particularly among those who favor rival gods of magic such as Khors, Hecate, or Thoth.
Commandments

• Walk the world and understand its magic.
• Celebrate beauty, mystery and magic.
• Enchantment, illusion, and deceit are worthy weapons; learn them.
• Let no thing of beauty perish thoughtlessly.
• Follow your passions, without regard for how you might be judged.
• Ignore the laws of men.
• Sacrifice blood and magic to the goddess by night, and reap your rewards each day.

Valeresh

Swift and sure in battle, devoted to justice in peace, Valeresh is the elven king of the gods, his wife long dead and mourned. This wound to his heart explains his stern mien and his ruthless destruction of creatures of evil, darkness, madness, and foul magic. When the elves ruled a great realm, his following was vast. However, his priesthood led the Great Retreat, so almost nothing remains of the liturgy, temples, and sacred rites of Valeresh except a handful of extremely powerful enchanted weapons.
Depiction. He is depicted as an elven man with long blonde hair and adorned in ornate elven armor wielding a sword and bow, he is often seen wearing a wooden crown of thorns.
Worshippers. Long ago, elven soldiers, officers, nobles, and merchants worshipped Valeresh as the embodiment of their empire and the keeper of peace. Now, only a handful of elves in the Grand Duchy and a small contingent of humans in Novigrad remember him and keep the feast days. The god essentially departed Midgard with the Great Retreat.
Commandments

• Fight evil and defend the elves.
• Protect the innocent, and strike down a foe swiftly and without cruelty.

Yarila and Porevit

Among the most complicated of gods and goddesses is Porevit, the forest god of harvest, wine, and greenery, who is also the goddess Yarila during the spring planting. The mystery of how one god carries so many forms, names, and genders is best left to the druids and field priests, who prepare the sacrifices to Yarila and Porevit. As deities both wild and tame, both growing and harvested, all living things belong to the Green Gods, especially all plants, trees, and crops but also springs, metal tools, and the turning of the seasons. When to call on Yarila and when to call on Porevit is a mystery known only the Green Gods’ priests, as well as the peasants who rely on their blessings.
Depiction. Porevit is a tall man with green hair and a simple covering of leaves, depicted with a spear or grapes in hand, sometimes with a handful of knives. Yarila appears as a blond or white-haired elf maiden holding flowers and with one hand casting seeds or holding a planting stick; her feet are always bare.
Worshippers. Elves, the half elves, bearfolk, peasants, farmers, hunters, vintners, and even woodcutters are all followers of Yarila and Porevit, seeking their blessings for crops and for forests.
Commandments

• abstain from meat, plant as often as reap, and be fruitful, drunken, and generous on high holy days. 
• Worshippers must provide alms if asked. 
• Male followers of Porevit must participate in the harvest, while Yarila’s female followers must participate in the spring planting. 
• Never fail to celebrate the solstice, and never refuse food and drink to a guest.