Greater Power of Elysium NG
The hand of Jannath (JANN-nuth) was on every place where
things grew, whether they were animals, crops, forests, or people.
She was not a goddess given to spectacle or pageant, but rather
called her followers to small acts of devotion. She was immensely popular among gardeners, farmers, and common folk of many
nations. Through her blessing, Toril was fruitful and wildlife
healthy and plentiful. She was wise and quiet, though not passive,
and wasn’t given to hasty action.
Jannath was portrayed as a kindly, white-haired woman of middle years, wise by virtue of a long life well-lived. She had a lush
beauty, tanned, brown skin, and a powerful build. She was usually draped in white robes of the finest linen or heavy silk cinched
by a girdle embroidered with all manner of growing plants.
Leaves, vines, and flowers twined through her hair and about her
body, some even seeming to grow from her head. Jannath’s touch
had the power to banish disease and barrenness, bestowing
instant life and fertility, or to transform foes who attacked her into
shambling mounds or treants. Wounds inflicted on her gushed
forth life-giving sweet water and swift-racing floral vines rather
than blood. Normal animals, their giant analogs, plants, plant
beings, fungi, the earth, the air, and the water couldn’t harm her.
Jannath protected civilized folk who worked the land from the
dangers of the wild, and the wilds from the dangers of civilized
folk. Jannath was fierce in her defense of nature, especially the
plant and animal life of the wild places of Toril. While she turned
her blessing upon those plants and animals that had been domesticated, granting them fertility and abundance, she protected the
forests, plains, jungles, arctic wildernesses, and even the depths of
the sea with an equal generosity of spirit. Any who burned forests
or grasslands, cut wood to excess, overfished, hunted whales, or
attempted wholesale slaughter of the fur-bearing animals of
Faerûn found their efforts rewarded by aggressive visitations from
the most clever of thieves and vicious predators of the animal and
plant kingdom, who ruined their profits—or their lives.
Manifestations
Jannath often manifested as a flower where none had been that
sprouted, rose, and blossomed with lightning speed. Such a
flower could appear as a simple sign of the approval of the goddess or a “yes” answer to a question asked in prayer. The blooming of such a flower could also accompany the sudden appearance of seeds, a garden tool or scythe, or helpful plants or herbs.
Her floral signature also marked the parting of growing things to
reveal a path, door, or other feature that was being sought.
Jannath sometimes used sprites, brownies, firestars, and messenger spirits to do her bidding. These messenger spirits took the form
of larks, robins, red hens, talking trees, or motes of light dancing in
the air. She also could send any animal or plant to do her bidding,
most often favoring those of natural, and therefore normally unnoticed, coloration, rather than creatures of a distinctive and somewhat
otherworldly hue. However, animals that appeared holding a red rose
in their mouths were almost universally trusted to be in her service.
The Church
Jannath’s priests tended to have a deep love for the land and an
appreciation of natural ways and balances, seeing humans and
other intelligent life as part of an ongoing series of cycles. They
tended to be gardeners, farmers, foresters, herbalists, midwives,
trackers, and explorers by trade and training and had an increasing appreciation for the beauty of plants and animals that brought
them at last to the veneration of She Who Shapes All.
Jannath was spoken of as “Our Mother” or “the Mother of All” by
her clergy. They knew that she was very powerful in a quiet way—
and like her, they tended to be quiet and patient in their ways. Many
members of her clergy were female. In the communities in which
they dwelled, they were known for their wisdom and appreciated
for their willingness to freely (without fee or obligation) pitch in
when agricultural work needed to be done. Many priests of Jannath
also lived in secluded places deep in the wilds, tending to the needs
of creatures of the forest, the moors, and the plains. They protected
nature from excessive incursions by civilization and also returned
lost folk and those driven by simple curiosity who fell to natural
predators to their homes when possible.
Though Jannath’s faith had some large, impressive temples and
shrines whose granaries ensured that food was abundant in their
vicinities, the backbone of the Earthmother’s faith was composed
of small, local temples and druid groves. Often these local temples were seed-storage caverns near pure wells or doubled as the
dwellings of local folk wise in the ways of herbs, animal care and
husbandry, and birthing babes. Jannathan services were also held
in open fields and beautiful or awe-inspiring natural settings.
Priests of Jannath used such titles as (in ascending order of rank)
Close One, Watchful Brother/Sister of the Earth, Trueseed,
Harvestmaster/Harvestmistress; High Harvestmaster/Harvestmistress,
and Onum.
Dogma:
Jannath’s faith was one of nurture, growth, and the
protection of the natural order. Agricultural homilies and folk
wisdom dotted her teachings. Growing and reaping, the eternal
cycle, was a common thread in Jannath’s faith. Destruction for its
own sake, or leveling without rebuilding, was anathema to the
church. Jannathan priests were charged to nurture, tend, and
plant whenever and wherever possible; protect trees and plants,
and save their seeds so that what was destroyed could be
replaced; tend to animals, both wild and domestic; see to the fertility of the earth, but let the human womb see to its own; and to
eschew the use of fire when possible.
Day-to-Day Practices:
Priests of Jannath were charged to
learn-and pass on to others, both fellow clergy and laity-all
they could of horticulture, herb lore, plant types, plant diseases,
animal husbandry, and wildlife lore. They encouraged all civilized
folk to enrich the land by replanting, composting, and irrigation,
not merely to graze or dig it bare for what it could yield and then
pass on. They replanted trees wherever they went, rooted out
weeds that strangled and choked crop plants, tilled plants back
into the soil, cared for sick and injured creatures, and worked to
prevent the spread of disease. They strove to let no day pass in
which they didn’t help a living thing flourish.
They sometimes hired nonbelievers to help them burn diseased
plants or the corpses of plague-ridden livestock to prevent the spread
of sickness. They kept careful watch over such blazes, since uncontrolled blazes could wreak such destruction on the earth. They were
not forbidden to use fire, but were especially careful in their use of it.
Jannath encouraged her faithful to make offerings of food to
strangers and those in need, freely sharing the bounty of the land.
It was also said that money given to one of her temples returned
to the giver tenfold. Worshipers were supposed to plant at least
one seed or small plant-cutting a tenday, tend it faithfully for as
long as possible, and see that their own wastes were always tilled
back into the soil to feed later life. Any extra seeds yielded by
plantings was taken to a temple of the goddess for distribution to
the less fortunate. Worshipers were also cautioned never to take
lightly the burden of caring for an animal to which they had made
a commitment, such as a pet, mount, or domesticated animal.
Holy Days/Important Ceremonies:
Every day was supposed
to begin with whispered thanks to Jannath for continued life and
close with a prayer to the mountains, from whence (Jannathans
believe) the Great Mother sent her power. Prayer to the Great
Mother was made whenever things were planted or born, but otherwise occurred when worshipers were moved to do so by the
beauty of nature around them, which they were always encouraged to notice. Prayer to the Golden Goddess was best made on
freshly tilled ground, farmland, or a garden, or failing that, at least
at a well or watering place. Jannath listened best to those who
enriched the ground, so before prayer many priests buried
wastes, disposed of the litter of civilization, or planted seeds.
Few ceremonies of worship fell at set times. Passing one’s wedding night in a freshly tilled field was held by Jannathans to ensure
fertility in marriage. Greengrass was a fertility festival, wherein
uninhibited behavior and consumption of food and drink was
encouraged. The much more solemn High Prayers of the Harvest
celebrated the bounty Jannath had given a community and were
held at different times in each community to coincide with the
actual harvest of crops, rather than precisely on Higharvestide.
Major Centers of Worship:
An abbey built on the mountain of Beldestan was built in 2298 NY and remained
one of the most important locations for Jannath’s faith. The abbey became an important link between the mountain and the followers who wanted to climb the slopes in order to
touch the ground blessed by her footsteps.
Affiliated Orders:
An affiliated order of militant rangers,
called the Timberland Resistance Brigade, was one of the most
feared groups within 100 miles of the monastery. (The Timberland
Resistance Brigade didn’t call itself that; its members called themselves Jannath’s Defenders.) They were feared in Grog and
Imbrue as “murderers who wantonly massacred entrepreneurs.”
In fact, the government of Fluvion once put a price of 600 gp on
the head of every member of the Timberland Resistance Brigade.
They were staunch defenders of the wild, but not evil, contrary to
what the Fluvion government loudly proclaimed.
Another order supposedly affiliated with the worship of
Jannath, though not with the monastery on the Glorifier, was a sect
of druids that were often termed gray druids, though they preferred the name they chose themselves: Nature’s Reprisal. These
druids, specialists in polymorph spells of all kinds, were also
believed to be wizards. Tales of Nature’s Reprisal claimed its members altered the form of their opponents into trees, brush, grass, or
harmless herbivorous herd animals. Groundcover’s monks didn’t
claim to be in league with Nature’s Reprisal and believed the group
was actually in allegiance with Moander. The Moanderites neither
claimed the group nor denied its affiliation with their god.
Priestly Vestments:
Priests of high rank of all types in the
service of Jannath tended to favor off-white or maize-colored ceremonial robes trimmed in deep forest green and used staves
smoothed by much handling but otherwise natural in appearance. Some such staves were enchanted to purify or promote the
growth of what they touched.
Adventuring Garb:
Jarmath’s priests dressed simply and
without pretense most of the time. They favored earth tones of
green and brown. The most commonly encountered garb was
simple brown robes, with high rank denoted only by a belt laced
with gold thread or some other similar, precious decoration.
