Chauntea

Chauntea
Sheaf of grain or a blooming rose over grain
Aliases	Bhalla, Chantea, Earthmother, Jannath, Pahluruk, the Grain Goddess, the Great Mother, She Who Shapes All
Alignment	Neutral Good
Divine Rank	Greater Goddess
Pantheon	Faerûn
Portfolio	Agriculture, Crops, Farmers, Gardeners, Summer
Domains	3E: Animal, Generosity, Good, Plant, Protection, Renewal 4E: Earth, Hope, Life 5E: Life
Home Plane	Great Wheel: Great Mother's Garden (Elysium) World Tree: House of Nature World Axis: Green Fields
Worshippers	Peasants, Druids, Farmers, Gardeners
Favoured Weapon	A Shock of Grain (Scythe)

Chauntea is the daughter of the opposing forces of light and dark, Selune and Shar and is one of the oldest deities in the entire Forgotten Realms pantheon of gods.

As the goddess of life, she is the embodiment of the entire world. Patron of everything that is cultivated, and sometimes attributed to be the mother of all the mortal races.

History

When Ao came into the empty cosmos, his only real contribution was to create light (Selune) and dark (Shar), then sit back and watch everything else coalesce. Between the two sister deities their first act was to create a canvas to paint on: so they created Chauntea, who was the manifestation of the world of Abeir-Toril.

When Chauntea complained about being cold and lonely, Selune created the sun (Amaunator) to warm her up. Shar objected very strongly and kicked off the battle of the gods that followed and continues to this day. Chauntea is technically sister to all of the elder gods that arose out of this struggle, but it is doubtful that she considered many of them as such, with the possible exception of Mystryl who was the last god to appear; indeed Chauntea and Mystra are occasionally worshipped side by side in some regions of the realms.

Despite everything largely being kicked off by the creation of the sun, Chauntea has very little connection with his first incarnation of Amaunator, but later she has had an off-again-on-again relationship with his successor Lathander, though Lathander has had his own dalliances with other deities (often initiating their own conflicts) the two are inseparably linked, quite possibly because they are both the primary deities of the common folk.

Chauntea used to be the goddess of all things natural, but lost part of that portfolio when interloper gods from other pantheons infiltrated the realms. Silvanus entered from the Celtic pantheon and gradually took oversight over wild nature, but this served to focus Chauntea towards agriculture and gardening and presumably made her more comprehensible and popular with the common folk. However, she is still revered as the patroness of wild nature in some parts of the realms under the aspect of Jannath, which was her old name in Netheril.

She is also known under a number of names and guises elsewhere throughout history. In 4e it transpired that even Yondalla (mother of Halflings) was an aspect of Chauntea, which only serves to demonstrate how widespread and subtle her influence spreads.

Despite her importance, Chauntea is more of a passive bystander rather than an active player in the battles of the gods. While she is friendly with the good gods, she has had little involvement with significant events. This might be due to her followers being mostly unobtrusive farmers and civilians, rather than epic adventurers. So she has a tremendous following, perhaps the largest in the entire realms, but also some of the least impacting.

Worshippers

While the church of Chauntea is decentralised and sectarian with Druids and Clerics tending to different duties with very little overlap; there is no grand leader who issues proclamations. The church outlines a broad set of practices and prohibitions, but encourages individualism, with the primary tenets being to prevent unnecessary destruction and to nurture growth.

Their minimal hierarchy and willingness to assist during harvest time makes them immensely popular with the peasantry. Priests of Chauntea tend to be the primary minister to most rural villages.

Despite being mostly considered quiet and unassuming, Chauntea does sponsor an order of Paladins called the Field Guardians, whose primary duty is the protection of the common folk, as a Paladin should.

Some of her clerics have also started banding together with clerics of Helm and Selune, and later adding faithful members of the churches of Lathander, Nobanion and Sune to create the Fellowship of the Purple Staff, which is an alliance of churches dedicated to the protection of civilization and the expansion of villages.

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  The Great Mother