Silvanus

Silvanus is an Intermediate Deity of Nature. He serves in allegiance to the Father, Dagda, in the Pagan pantheon. Known within Faerûn as an interloper god from another plane and world, ancient texts suggest he may have arrived from the world that Elysia exists within.

Depiction
His old form was known as the Old Father. It took the form of an old, bearded human male face, either floating midair among trees or sprouting from the trunk of an especially large and old tree. The flesh of this form was always brown, gray, and fissured like old wood.

Worshippers
Silvanus had both clerics and druids in his faith, though their presence varied by location, with druids being the more prominent due to his narrow focus on wild nature without concern for balance. One could even find halfling druids revering him over their own pantheon's nature deity, though this was a rare occurrence. Some barbarians, hermits, wilderness dwellers, and rangers also worshiped him.

Non-worshipers often do not view the Church favorably due to its tendency to disrupt expansion into woodland, sometimes with violence. Examples of rituals for worship are entreaties for spells at sundown or in moonlight. The Dryad Dance is a replenishing ritual of wild, wayward dance that calls out dryads to join the ritualists for mating. Most Silvanite clerics, sometimes referred to as Forest Masters, also function as druids or rangers.

Description
As protector of the forest, he especially presided over plantations and delighted in trees growing wild. He is also described as a god watching over the fields and husbandmen, protecting in particular the boundaries of fields. Some believe that Kol is the more wild avatar of the Oak Father, though others believe that he is in fact the father of the Wild God of Monsters.

Typical of nature deities, some described Silvanus as being wild and unpredictable, much like nature itself. He was chiefly concerned with nature itself, specifically wild nature, in both its natural beauty and fierce savagery. Caring very little for maintaining a proper balance with civilization, being wrathful towards those who threaten wild places. He paid no attention to the machinations of mortals or other deities.

When it came to nature itself, he cared greatly for maintaining a balance between growth and decay, water and drought, fire and ice — the natural cycle of life. This was considered to be his dogma and he was emotionally distant in regards to its necessity. This led some to view him as heartless, though in reality he valued all life.

He had a special hatred for those who used fire carelessly or with deliberate intention to cause destruction.

Dogma
Silvanus sees and balances all, meting out wild water and drought, fire, and ice, life and death. Hold your distance and take in the total situation, rather than latching on to the popular idea of what is best. All is in cycle, deftly and beautifully balanced. It is the duty of the devout to see this cycle and the sacred Balance as clearly as possible. Make others see the Balance and work against those that would disturb it. Watch, anticipate, and quietly manipulate. Resort to violence and open confrontation only when pressured by time or hostile action. Fight against the felling of forests, banish disease wherever you find it, defend the trees, and plant new flora wherever possible. Seek out, serve, and befriend the dryads and learn their names. Kill only when needful, destroy fire and its employers, and beware orcs and others who bring axes into the forest.

Earning and Losing Piety
You increase your piety score to Silvanus when you expand the god’s influence in the world in a concrete way through acts such as these:


 * To defend nature from those who threaten wild places.
 * Kill only when needful, destroy fire and its employers.
 * Watch, anticipate, and quietly manipulate.

Your piety score to Silvanus decreases if you diminish Silvanus’ influence in the world, contradict his ideals, or let him down through acts such as these:


 * To inflict disease upon living things.
 * To upset the balance of nature and life.
 * Resorting to violence and open confrontation, unless pressured by time or hostile action