Gwaeron Windstrom

Gwaeron Windstrom was the Faerûnian demigod of tracking and patron deity of rangers. The Master of Tracking embodied the talents of rangers that allowed for tracking and understanding the signs of the wild, skills he taught his followers in order to combat those, whether wild monster or careless hunter, who threatened the balance between civilization and nature.

"Gwaeron, patron of rangers, is also known as the Mouth of Mielikki. He speaks to most mortals on her behalf, if direct speech is necessary."

- Volo

Description
Gwaeron always appeared as a or  tall human male, robust and incredibly muscular despite his age. His hair was long and white, with a mane and beard that flowed and whipped in the wind, billowing even in the absence of a breeze (though this was possible because he was constantly wind walking and so created a breeze). He always wore clothing suitable for wilderness travel, but never anything above his waist. He was normally silent, and when he did speak it was in terse sentences with little physical sign of emotion.

Manifestations
Gwaeron was known to manifest as or through a wide variety of woodland creatures, as well as pseudodragons and faerie dragons, either individually or as a group. Other manifestations included a nimbus of faerie fire or a bare human footprint with a faint impression of his symbol visible in the heel print.

Personality
Like his divine associates, Gwaeron was an advocate of the Balance of nature. He was quiet, reclusive and taciturn, preferring to teach through action rather than words, but while he was slow to anger, his rage was terrifying once invoked. Regular targets of this wrath were trolls, creatures that he so utterly despised that in his hatred for them he personified the very concept of a species enemy. He considered them kin of Malar and a blight that would inevitably upset the Balance in the long term.

Powers
After taking his legendary abilities as a ranger into consideration, Gwaeron's tracking abilities were still well beyond what one of even his level of skill and wisdom would normally be capable of. He had no rival in discovering the most obscure of woodland signs and finding paths several weeks old. Not even teleportation or shifting planes altogether was enough to shake his pursuit, let alone worldly if irregular means of movement like flight, and he could plane shift himself (and himself alone) to follow the trails of anything that did, picking up even on a month old examples of such irregular trails. Only divine power could force him to lose a trail, and there was nothing, magical or mundane, that could get him lost.

Gwaeron could cast wind walk and imbue natural attunement with his touch, both at will. He could cast shroud of flame as a powerful wizard every minute in addition to his normal capabilities, as well as various other spells normally.

Trolls were particularly vulnerable to Gwaeron's attacks.

Possessions
Gwaeron was proficient in all weaponry but specialized in the use of two-handed swords and composite longbows.

Gwaeron's personal melee weapon was Flameheart, a +1 flame tongue. Flameheart had a +2 enchantment against regenerating creatures, +3 against creatures that were avian, inflammable or harnessed the cold, and +4 against undead.

He also possessed a +3 composite long bow and a quiver that provided an inexhaustible supply of arrows. These included normal sheaf arrows and arrows of slaying that worked against any sentient mortal who ever desecrated a forest without repentance. The arrows retained their magic only in his hands, save for the occassional cases when he bestowed one to a ranger on a specific quest to defend the forest against a specific enemy.

Realm
It was debatable whether Gwaeron's home plane was the Prime Material Plane or the House of Nature; he could freely wander both, though he had realm of his own there, and his "realm" on Toril was Faerûn as a whole.

Gwaeron was said to sleep in a stand of trees just west of the town of Triboar, known as Gwaeron's Slumber.

Relationships
Along with Lurue and Shiallia, the Master of Tracking served Mielikki by teaching her rangers the way to read forest signs. Given his small following and similar tenets to those of Mielikki, it was possible that he would be subsumed as an aspect of the Forest Queen, even by accident. Gwaeron reported indirectly to Silvanus, and had forged alliances with the deities of the elven, gnome, and halfling pantheons whose portfolios most closely match those of Mielikki, Silvanus, and his own.

Gwaeron opposed Malar the Beastlord, and was at risk of falling prey to his depredations if not careful. He shared this hatred with the deity Nobanion and two sometimes coordinated their efforts against Malar.

Worshipers
"Gwaeron never appears to those who come seeking him."

- Volo

Gwaeron's followers were mainly rangers of North Faerûn. He represented them well in their trade, and was believed to speak with Mielikki on their behalf. Many rangers believed Mielikki was too wild and mysterious to pay attention to them, and so many who might have pledged their heart to her directly turned to Gwaeron as a proxy instead.

There were no temples dedicated to the Master Tracker, but many wilderness trails had markers designated with his holy symbol which doubled as small shrines.

Dogma
Gwaeron's teachings mirrored those of his superior Mielikki, which themselves mirrored those of her superior Silvanus, albeit with a greater emphasis on the positive and outreaching aspects of nature. The worlds of intelligent beings and wildlife did not require one to be destroyed so the other could exist, and it was possible and encouraged to live as one with nature, understanding and embracing its hidden ways. Bringing unnecessary harm, damage, and pain to the forest and its creatures was to be fought against or outright punished.

History
Gwaeron roamed the North as a mortal ranger many centuries ago. He was raised to demigod status by Mielikki after slaying an avatar of Malar and several of his manifestations in a short period of time, and had served the Lady of the Forests ever since.

In the Time of Troubles, Gwaeron pursued Malar out of the North.