Neive, Daughter of the Grove
So young, so quick to mature, so sorrowful to lose.
Have you felt? It is such a childish thing to say, yet I must say that I am an avid enthusiast of touch. There is no sense more powerful, although they all contain their own special magic. But I can describe the sent of autumn's leaves crushed in my hand. I can explain the sound of the lapping stream through the grove. I can expound on the sweet, juicy taste of a strawberry fresh off the vine. And we can all beam at the majesty of the canopy of trees while the wind passes the world round and round.
But have traced the grooves of a tree's bark? Have you lapped cold spring water into your mouth on a sweltering Midsummer's day? Have you felt the soft coolness and warmth of the grass in the sun, shirt off, with smells of flowers and earth on the breeze? There aren't words for these things, and no matter how I travail for you for words, this is a thing of touch. A thing of experience.
Responsibilities must be tended. It doesn't have to be an unpleasant task. Because we all matter, in our own little way. Every seed has the power to be a tree taller than any landmark upon this earth with the will enough to succeed and spread its branches to the sky. And everyone dies, no matter how much they wish to live on. Because birth comes again like the spring, and youth fades like the cool breeze, only to age likes the leaves that fall to the ground and return to the earth under the snow.
It is all a cycle, but it is a cycle we all know, and a cycle I seek to maintain for you. Please do well to the cycle. Please join me and my siblings in this grand experiment. Because the world can be a scary place, but it is also our shared home, and my fields, valleys, and woods will always be your refuge, even on the darkest of nights.
Divine Domains
Nature, forests, The Beasts, and The Fey.
Divine Symbols & Sigils
No coherent symbols. Many shared symbols exist, including: a green maple leaf, a deer (usually a spotted fawn), a wooden staff, or three trees with the first shrouding the outline of the second two.
Tenets of Faith
Life is precious, and life comes from nature.
The world is a work of shared space, and we are all its caretakers.
Causing harm to others is untoward.
Everything is fair, but whether you experience that fairness is your choice.
Nobody is precious, but everyone deserves life.
All work must be completed in unison.
Holidays
Midsummer: Taking place in the middle of summer, Midsummer festivals traditional worship Neive, seeking a good harvest once the season comes about, and enjoying nature in all its forms. Parades are held, especially featuring shepherds and herders, and feasts of vegetables and fruit are extremely common. Other common activities include camping, bonfires, swimming in the ocean, journeying to see family.
Festival of Colors: Typically hosted in the early portions of Spring, the Festival of Colors is seen as a time of rejuvenation. It is a freeing of the doldrums of winter. Neive is frequently worshiped for a hurried introduction of spring weather and the beginning of the sewing season. The Festival of Colors gets its name from the games played by children and adults alike; entire towns will become warzones of powdered colors, derived from flowers and spices. Everyone is encouraged to seek out anyone on the streets and shower them with colored powder, until everyone appears like a mosaic of color.
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Author's Notes
Her name is taken from the Irish folk-lore Niamh.