Kelt
The Keltic religion is the older worship of the force of Life, in its incarnation as Nature, and arguably the first organized religion. Keltic is a harsh religion in many ways -- being not necessarily geared toward good or evil, but balancing the reverence for living things with the knowledge that the end of life is also important (to be reborn -- the Kelts believe in reincarnation) and that some creatures die that others may live.
Structure
The hearth-home of the Kelts is called Annûn. Annûn is a large woodland stronghold built around the Great Tree, which is supposedly the home of Derwydd, and is located where the edge of Nelfheim meets the base of the Runn mountains. It is the headquarters of the faith, as well as being a school and training facility for the organization. Beyond just being worshippers and preservers of Nature, the Kelts are keepers of knowledge, and the library at Annûn holds many of the world's oldest texts.
The Keltic hierarchy consists of three factions -- the Head (the druids), the Hand (rangers) and the Heart (bards). All training takes place in Annûn, and any true druid or bard must start here. Rangers can learn their skills from another ranger, but must make a pilgrimage to Annûn and swear fealty before receiving any special abilities (in game terms, before reaching 6th level), or learning the more complex spells.
The Hierarchy itself is headed by the Master Keeper (Archdruid), with the Loremaster (First Bard) and the Fist (Head Ranger) as his/her advisers. These positions are selected by the entire body, and are until death or betrayal. The other ranks are largely informal, with most knowing their place by experience and age.
Culture
The Keltic religion, as noted earlier, is the oldest religion in the sense of being an organized structure. However it is as much a culture as religion for the bulk of its adherents. Most faerie beings don't have a terribly organized social structure, and so don’t practice it formally, but simply live it in its simplicity and acknowledge the Mother (Nature) as the root of all things.
Those people and cultures that do practice it more formally rely on the village druid for leadership in seasonal festivals (there is no weekly worship as in the vitalist chrurch), and use simple charms and preserve folklore that have been around for generations. These also acknowledge some of the gods as Nature’s children, and of course Derwydd as her own son. Also, all alignments have a place in the Keltic religion, as long as these moral views are secondary to Nature’s pre-eminence. The Druini are Keltic, as are most smaller Torgish villages and even many village in the more "civilized" countries of the south.
Mythology & Lore
Like Vitalism, Kelt is a practical religion, and since there are plenty of other gods that are involved in nature, they get their share of worship from the Kelts as well. Myths of Pan, Auroryl, Derwydd and others abound.
There is no holy symbol, but the druids teach us that the oak and holly are particularly special to Nature and are used in many of the rituals. And rituals there are, aplenty. The four holy weeks (indeed the entire calendar) were established by the druids milennia ago, based on their observations of Nature and the movement of the world among the stars, and the cermonies performed during the holy weeks are vital to keeping the seasons functioning as they should. Or making sure we appreciate that they do function. Or something - you know how confusing religion is.
Divine Origins
The origins of the worship of Nature are lost in the mists of antiquity, but Annûn has been in existence since at least the time the four houses of the aes sidhe were established, and has been around the Great Tree long before Derwydd made it his home. It is certain that the faerie have worshipped Nature from the time she chose them, and other races very likely did as well. Of all the Vis, she is certainly the most accessible.
Cosmological Views
Since the beginning of the Dheosean Age, Nature herself has stressed to us how important it is to acknowledge all of the gods, not just the Vis. As mentioned, there are several gods whose spheres include aspects of the natural world, not to mention the Protosean guardians of air, earth, fire, and water. Every race has members of the Keltic faith, though again, some of this may be simpler, even animistic, in terms of structure. Kelt is arguably the most knowledgeable yet simplest religion in the world.
Worship
Worship, as mentioned, exists on a daily personal and cultural level. There might be a village druid who helps out the devout and passes on nature's blessings, but your simple villager may be a very devout Keltic believer without having the slightest knowledge of how the power structure back in Nelfheim actually works, and this is just fine.
There is not much in the way of organized religious ceremony apart from the four seasonal holiday weeks, and these vary quite a bit from region to region, and will be described more diligently in their own articles.
Torgish Variant
One disturbing sect to Keltic arose around 4500 years ago, when Torg I witnessed firsthand the power of sacrifice at the Rift War's great cataclysm. For those who napped through that year of school: After many years of war between the Valasian Empire, led by the Protosean gods (elementals), and the north, led by the true gods and their tool, Torg, Merlyn and Orcus slew their brother god Larnir, a willing sacrifice, and destroyed the elemental gods, and the bulk of the Valasian army (not to mention tens of thousands of mile of pretty good farmland that went to the bottom of the ocean). Torg took the lesson of sacrifice home with him after the war and incorporated it into the state religion, which he established. Unwilling and non-divine sacrifices didn't hold the same amount of power that he had seen, but they still had a fair amount, and Torg was able to conquer pretty much the entire continent in the next 75 years or so. Obviously this bastardization of the life religion, by incorporating death into the ritual, offended both the Kelts and the Witches, and Torg's short term solution was a driver for a new religion in Vitalism, which managed to unite just about everyone, though not on his side. This cult is illegal and long gone now, but there are still a few weirdoes around with the knowledge and the will to use it.Priesthood
Druids are the priests of the Kelt, but are of two types. Those who remain in Annûn are properly known as Sons of Derwydd (Der’ith). These tend to be scholars, pretectors and mystics, cloistered and removed form the world at large.
The second type of druid is more of a missionary sort, and leaves Nelfheim to serve the people as a lay priest, sometimes wandering an area as an itinerant priest, sometimes adopted by a city or village as their own and supported and relied upon by the people of the community they serve. These druids are more "civilized" than their wilder brethren, and act more as liaisons between People and Nature. Most village druids will be of this type. If one is wanting to be pedantic, this is the true druid, as "druid" means "teacher" in the Keltic language. This druid doesn't have some of the more legendary abilities rumoured to be possesed by those of Annûn, such as the ability to take the form of an animal; instead, they get bonus domain spells as a cleric, and can choose three domains from the following: air, earth, fire, water, beastmaster, sun, animal, plant, community, creation, divination, domination, destruction, pestilence, chaos, law, good, evil, healing, knowledge, mind, summoning, protection, strength (see game notes below).
Granted Divine Powers
| God | Patronage | Clerical Domains |
|---|---|---|
| Bahamut | Wind, sky, music, knowledge | Air, mind, knowledge, summon (air) |
| Yeenoghu | Battle, war, bloodlust | Strength, war*, domination |
| Zyghorra | Famine, plague, drought | Death*, destruction, pestilence |
| Danna | Home, hearth, children | Good, healing, protection |
| Gladden | Village, festival, health, wine | Good, protection, community, creation |
| Yronstil | Mountains, gems, caves | Earth, strength*, summon (earth) |
| Thantros | Sun, fire, agriculture | Fire, sun, glory*, summon (fire) |
| Osianna | Oceans, storms, weather | Water, summon (water) |
| Larnir | Peace, commonsense, health | Good, healing, exorcism* |
| Andros | War, honour, valiance | Strength, war, glory |
| Adriella | Love, charm, wit, all arts | Creation, community, knowledge |
| Syrsha | Ruthlessness, treachery, deceit | Trickery, domination, evil |
| Derwydd | Forests, creatures, the Kelts | Animal, plant, beastmaster* |
| Mirronai | Dreams, visions, divination | Divination, madness*, knowledge |
| Uller | Winter, archery, hunting | Travel, destruction, beastmaster |
| Drago | Luck, gamblers, helpless | Luck*, travel, trickery, chaos |
| Moran | Rivers, streams, lakes | Water, divination |
| Vespertine | Moon, travel, night | Travel, celerity* |
Sects
There's no real organized divisions within Kelt apart from what has already been discussed - the Head, Hand, and Heart, that all exist within the structure and complement each other. However again it should be noted that Kelt is as much a culture as religion, and the bulk of Faerie is Keltic in this way, not so much as an organized religion as just being part of the greater whole.
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