Anarea > Systems > The Cults > Deer Cults

* Restricted: Deer & Antelope Cultists only

The Deer & Antelope Cults

The Way of the Deer teaches caution, alertness and speed.  In Anarea, Deer include Elk/Moose, Reindeer/Caribou and Antelopes.

Deer are not a common choice for a Beastmaster Totem Animal, but the following are the main Deer & Antelope Cultists of Anarea:

• The Mist Warrior Deer Tribes, who dwell mostly in the Green Hills, with their Sacred Circle at Green Hills Circle, and along the fringes of Taur Galen.  They are great runners, preferring to camp in hidden spots with a good escape route. Their headdresses are typically made from antlers, rather than the usual Grasslander feathers. They include Mist Warrior Druids, Shamen of CERVIDA (who seek The White Stag) and Scouts (fast-moving Thievish trackers and readers of secret signs left by others) amongst their numbers;

• The Elvish Deer Cultists of the Celegwaith (Sindarin) and Celvëlië (Quenya), who ride large red deer stags and are friendly with the Deer Tribes, teaching them skills in Elven Bow making;

• Those Beastmasters of the Jungle who have been chosen by the Antelope as their Totem Animal;

• Those Readers of the Pattern who have been chosen by the Elk/Moose or by the Reindeer/Caribou as their Totem Animal;

• Before the Proclamation of the First Valdrean Empire by Valder I in the Year 500 and the later slaughter on Druids' Isle in Valdran in the Year 1000, there were Deer Cultist Druids in the forests of the Valdrean Plain, fragments of whom remain in the woods around High Yarmen, Torel and Bavenne Circles.

Deer Cultists tend to be shy and retiring, hiding in the woods like their Totem Animals and preferring escape rather than conflict.  But they are not afraid to defend themselves and are often excellent archers (Elvish and Mist Warrior Deer Cultists getting an SM of +2 on Elven Bow).  They tend to be G/C and many worship CERVIDA, Goddess of Deer (an Aspect of the Demon of Deer Whose Clerical Spells are powered by TIPRE).  However there are also G/L Deer Cultists who worship WACON in His Aspect of THE WHITE STAG.

The Animal White Stag is a legendary pure white perfect Stag which appears from time to time in the forest bringing good fortune (or harmony to G/Ls), usually prophesied in the Grasslands by a White Stag Maiden who claims to have been the first to see it in the flesh or a Dream, resulting in Quests to find it.  Equivalent legends concern White Totem Animals of other Mist Warrior Tribes.

The Dreamworld of Deer is The Quiet Forest, a place safe from predators the Sacred Heart of which is the Silent Glade, where the Nature Spiritual The Alpha White Stag grazes with His herd of White Hinds under the watchful eyes of CERVIDA.  Deer also wander the Tree Kingdoms in their Dreams, but those can become Nightmares as predators too wander the Tree Kingdoms hunting Deer in their own Dreams.

There are rumours of a corrupted E/C Half-Elvish Dark Deer Cult in the woods of Taur-na-Nionnien (Forest of the Ashes) bordering the Western Plains of the Grasslands, who worship the sinister man-eating Wendigo and hunt The Black Stag in The Echoing Forest, but these are unconfirmed.

Go to Druidic Spell List of the Deer Cults

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