Shiallia

Shialla:

Symbol: A golden acorn
Home Plane: Krigala/ The High Glade
Alignment: NG
Portfolio: Woodland glades, woodland fertility, growth, the High Forest, Neverwinter Wood
Domains: Animal, Good, Plant
Worshipers: Druids, farmers, foresters, gardeners, nuptial couples
Aliases: N/A
Cleric Alignments: LG, NG, CG
Favored Weapon: Forest’s Friend (quarterstaff)

History/Relationships: Shiallia (Shee-AL-lee-ah) is the patron and caretaker of pregnant forest creatures. She is a planner of trees and a nurturer of seedlings. She rejoices in life and shields against death. Her worship is limited to the proximity of the High Forest, though she is also venerated in the vicinity of the Neverwinter Wood as the Lady of the Woods.

Shiallia is said to be the sister of the Tree Ghost (the collective spirit of the High Forest and one of the beast totems of Uthgar) and daughter of Tapann the Undying, Lord of Korreds and Father of the Dance. She serves Mielikki along with Lurue and Gwaeron Windstrom, and Mielikki in turn serves Silvanus. The relationship between them all is quite familial and supportive. She calls enemy most of those who the other deities of nature despise: Talos, Talona, Auril, and Malar. She holds a special antipathy for Talona, who always struggles to take away from her the new life Shiallia works so hard to nurture, and for Malar, whom she regards as an insane killer hopelessly outside of the balance of nature because he emphasizes only a small and aberrant nature of its whole.

During the Time of Troubles, Shiallia allied with Gwaeron Windstrom against Malar. While Windstrom concentrated on pursuing the Beast Lord, Shiallia spent much of her time repairing the damage caused by the Malar's destructive rampages.

Shiallia is winsome and earthy, delighting in dancing and frolicking in the woods and playing with woodland creatures when she is not tending to their needs. She has a low, throaty voice, and enjoys retorting with clever (and often crudely suggestive) rejoinders when engaged in conversation. At times she seems to behave like the satyrs whom korreds resemble, but she has a more mysterious quality and unexpressed depths that a satyr, which plays all its cards in plain sight, would find incomprehensible. She is fiercely protective of her charges, but lets matters outside her purview go unchallenged, since they do not directly involve her, unless she is ordered to act by Mielikki or Silvanus.

Dogma: The only true goal of any living thing is to procreate. Nature dictates the shape of the world, for good or ill, so the only concern of the creatures that inhabit it is survival. Death is not to be feared, for it is part of the natural cycle of life, but life, particularly the birth of new life, is to be encouraged and nurtured whenever and wherever possible.

Avatar/Manifestations: Shiallia takes the form of many animals, all of them distinguished by their absolute perfection for their species. One of her favorite shapes, however, is that of a large but graceful doe. In this form she is often surrounded by multiple bucks (treat as wild stags with 6 HD and maximum hit points) who make no advances upon her nor fight amongst each other for her affections; they are purely hers to command.

Shiallia sometimes manifests as whirling, dancing motes of light that shine with green faerie fire. Contact with the radiance is warm and relaxing, has the effect of a heal spell, and eliminates any pains or complications related to pregnancy.

When korreds of the High Forest dance, Shiallia sometimes manifests as a shower of acorns that appears in the middle of the circle. Eating the nut from an acorn triples the chance that a being will conceive (under the appropriate conditions for doing so) if the acorn is ingested within 24 hours of its appearance. Consumption of these acorns is never harmful, even if the period of their special effectiveness has lapsed.

Shiallia has been known to bestow acorns of desire upon favored worshipers. Such an acorn appears to fall from the sky and lands immediately in front of the feet of the lucky recipient. If held in a closed fist by the intended recipient and concentrated upon, the recipient's request is fulfilled as close as to his or her desires as possible within the limited wish (or occasionally, wish) effect of the acorn. The acorn of desire vanishes, leaving a permanent golden-hued tattoo in the shape of an acorn on its user's palm.

Agents/Petitioners:

The Church of Shialla: All clerics, druids, specialty priests, and mystics of Shiallia receive religion (Faerûnian) as a bonus nonweapon proficiency. Her clergy are usually female, and may be human, elf, half-elf, halfling, or korred. All human priests of Shiallia must be female.

The worship of Shiallia is limited to the proximity of the High Forest. Shiallia has few actual clergy, but many forest creatures venerate her name. Since the Time of Troubles, a few specialty priests have come to her calling, particularly in the southern reaches of the High Forest. In many ways her clergy as a whole are similar to druids, but Shiallia's church focuses very strongly on fertility.

Shiallia's priests are somewhat migratory in their movements, following long paths that can take them hundreds of miles afield, though not necessarily in annual cycles. They go wherever natural life needs a helping hand, then move on when there is nothing more than they can do. They almost always return later to check on the results of their labor and perhaps to cultivate whatever they have begun—hence their seemingly migratory behavior. Every priest has a favorite place to worship Shiallia in virtually every area along his or her trail, but there is no central temple of Shiallia nor any web of churches dedicated to her, aside from the Golden Oak in Silverymoon and the Glade of Life at the headwaters of the Unicorn Run.

The clergy of Shiallia are commonly known as the Sisters of Life and Mercy, although a few Brothers of Life and Mercy are included in their numbers as well. Prior to the Fall of the Gods, Shiallia's clergy was evenly distributed between clerics, who were often found on the edges of the High Forest, and mystics and druids, who wandered the deepest reaches of the woods. Since the Time of Troubles, most initiates to the faith have become the specialty priests known as woodwives, and the balance is now almost even between the four types. Shiallia's priests shun formal titles.

Day-to-Day Activities: Shiallia's followers are husbands of nature, spending their days planting and nurturing, calling upon the weather, and tending to the ill and injured. They are not purely oriented to forest creatures, though that is their focus, and they extend their philosophy and favors to humans and demihumans who enter or live within the forest, as well.

Shiallia's clergy are sometimes known as the Silent Helpers, and tales tell how they watch over lost children and the foolish who wander through the reaches of the High Forest unaware of the dangers contained within. It is generally agreed that the only reason Olithard the Bard, of the Tale of Olithard's Tune, survived his meandering journey through the High Forest was by the secret shepherding of a trio of Silent Helpers.

Holy Days/Important Ceremonies: Days that mark the passing of seasons are the most important of the year to followers of Shillia. In particular, Greengrass and Higharvestide are celebrated as holidays of birth and fruition, respectively. On all holy days (including Midwinter, Midsummer, and the Feast of the Moon) the faithful invite all friendly creatures to revel with them in feasting, singing, and dancing. Weddings are welcomed and even solicited upon the change of seasons, and Shiallia's followers always enliven such occasions with as much faerie charm magic and romance as they can muster, creating a fantasy atmosphere under the stars. Therefore, many nonworshipers set their wedding dates on Shiallia's holy days in hopes of receiving her blessings and hospitality.

Major Centers of Worship: Shiallia's major temple outside of the High Forest is located in the city of Silverymoon. The Golden Oak doubles as a temple and an excellent and expensive inn. The temple is a simple, yet beautiful lodge constructed from timbers hewn from fallen oak trees and natural resins. It is dominated by a live oak tree growing up through the taproom with little lanterns hanging down from its boughs over each table. The rain comes in, so in stormy weather the taproom empties quickly to cellars downstairs and meeting rooms that open out a few steps up from the taproom on all sides. The proprietress and priestess of the Golden Oak is Izolda Three-corn, a middle-aged matron and leader of the small guild of woodwives in Silverymoon.

Within the High Forest, Shiallia's major place of worship is a holy site shared with the faiths of Chauntea, Eldath, Lurue, and Mielikki known as the Glade of Life. This glade is located near the village of Khle'cayre ("Last Aerie" of the aarakocra) at the foot of the Star Mounts. At the center of the Glade is the Fountain of Unicorns, a small spring that feeds the headwaters of the Unicorn Run. Surrounded by giant oak trees over a thousand years old, the Glade has a fey beauty found nowhere else in the Realms. Countless rings of korreds dance in the glade every night, sometimes joined on Midsummer Nights by the Dancing Goddess herself. Avatars of the other four goddesses have been seen in the Glade of Life on several occasions as well, and they sometimes join in the korred dancing circles.

A large fraction of Shiallia's clergy is based at the glade, but most priests wander throughout the High Forest the majority of the year, only rarely returning to the Glade. Shiallia's most senior high priest resides as the Glade of Life year round in a sylvan dell. She is a venerable female korred known only as Grandmother or the Dancer of Life who is reputed to have witnessed the fall of Ascalhorn (Hellgate Keep) as a young child. Priests and priestesses of the other four goddesses (known to the korreds as Tapann's Ladies) are welcome as well, but they seldom spend more than a few weeks in the Glade of Life before moving on.

Affiliated Orders: Shiallia sponsors no military or knightly orders, but an order of female swanmay rangers in the church of Mielikki have sworn themselves to protect the Sisters of Life and Mercy. This elite sisterhood, known as the Shields of Hope, wanders the High Forest in groups of three escorting the clergy of Shiallia through dangerous regions of that vast woodland so that they can minister to the goodly creatures who reside within.

In addition, the Harpers are on friendly terms with Shiallia's followers, and it is believed that Shiallia gives of her divine blessing to Master Harpers within the High Forest, even though she was not present at the Dancing Place in the Year of the Dawn Rose (720 DR). Master Harpers find that they can speak with any forest animal or plant in the High Forest and that they can dance with korreds without danger anywhere in the Realms.

Priestly Vestments: Priests of Shiallia have little in the way of formal raiment. They always wear their hair long and unbound and festoon it with garlands of oak leaves and acorns. Most garb themselves in flowing white robes and simple sandles woven from reeds during religious festivities and in simple robes of brown and green otherwise. They wear necklaces made of golden acorns or holding a golden acorn pendant around their necks as symbols of their faith.

Adventuring Garb: Priests of Shiallia do not wear the hides of animals or metal exposed to the forge. As a result, they are limited for the most part to padded armor made from heavy, woven clothes and sewn into a protective surcoat. If they feel it is necessary to arm themselves, most craft an oaken cudgel from fallen timber and cast a shillelagh spell on it. Some wield shears copied from the korreds.