Spirits of Nature

[ Religions ]

The Spirits of Nature is the name given to the faith that most people in the Silver Rain Republic hold. Rather than believing in a single or small number of deities, the tenets of faith hold that there are hundreds of thousands of spirits which inhabit the world.

These spirits may take the form of Fey, certain undead creatures, natural monsters and even beings of pure energy and they concern themselves with matters entirely incomprehensible to the humanoid mind. The Spirits of Nature do have clerics but the faith more easily aligns with druids, witches and adepts.

Tenets of the Faith

The spirits of nature religion places no requirements on the faithful, who are free to live their lives entirely as they choose. The spirits, in fact, care little for mortals. Rather than worship, the spirits of nature have their own individual interests, just as any being might. For example, a spirit of the forest might look favourably at a woodcutter who carefully keeps his logging to keep the forest healthy, while that same spirit might be angered by indiscriminate clearing of area's of wood. Simultaneously, it might not give a rats ass about what is happening outside of its territory - thus, it would be angered by the indiscriminate logging even if the woodcutter was planting new trees elsewhere or had lived a particularly pious life, for example.

Because spirits are powerful, it is important, according to those who follow the Spirits of Nature, to carefully ensure one does not offend any of them, for spirits may take vengeance for such deeds.

Priests, but also druids, witches and adepts, can act as intermediaries between common people and the spirits, for these individuals have more knowledge of the spirits and better understand their incomprehensible minds. Thus, followers of the spirits of nature may visit these figures for advise, offering small payments in return. In turn, they may visit sites in nature and perform magical rituals to appease the spirits. Some of these rituals may involve the people who wish to stay on the good side of the spirits and some may be secret. Regardless, the rituals usually involve a small sacrifice such as incense, candles or wine.

Relations with other Faiths

The followers of the spirits of nature usually believe that the worship of deities is silly. They recognise that there may be powerful spirits posing as deities, but it makes no sense to worship these spirits because spirits don't care about such things. Many suspect that powerful clerics of these faiths are in fact aware that their deities are spirits and use rituals similar to those used by priests of the spirits of nature to get favour of the spirits posing as deities. The worship, they suspect, is merely a means for priests to make bigger profits.

Religious Presence in the city of Duirt

There is no church of the Spirits of Nature, nor are temples built to worship them. Instead, there are holy sites where spirits come, just as animals come to drinking ponds, where rituals may be especially effective. These sites are almost always out in nature, not within the confines of a city, for example, so there are no shrines or the likes devoted to the Spirits of Nature in the city.

Well-known Spirits