Cerunnos

Cerunnos, also known as the Master of the Hunt, was a firbolg and archfey who was worshiped on some worlds as a deity, a member of the Celtic pantheon.

Description
Some described Cerunnos as having jet black skin, others as having skin that was dyed in blue patterns with woad. But he was always described as having blazing green eyes with a head crowned with stag antlers. His face was always partially hidden, whether by a hunting helmet or by shadows when holding court, and he gave off a palpable predatory aura. Sometimes he was described as having the legs of a stag, with a short full beard and a body covered in fur.

Some claimed he wore a suit of black leather, while others said he wore little but a hide kilt and a wolfskin cloak.

Personality
An a personification of nature, as well as an embodiment the vigor and violence associated with hunting, Cerunnos was of dual natures. A giver and taker of life, gentle one moment while violent and unrelenting the next. With his greatest responsibility being to maintain the balance of nature itself.

Whenever he engaged in the Wild Hunt Cerunnos became reduced to a single-minded, enraged state not unlike that of berserkers. Refusing to speak until the hunt was done.

Abilities
Cerunnos was capable of call any animal within a radius to his aid, even magical beasts.

Possessions
He typically carried a heavy oaken quarterstaff, preferring to fight close quarters.

History
The details of Cerunnos's birth were a mystery. The story of his life truly began when the Witch of Fates brought him, a baby firbolg, to the Green Court and presented him to its lord Oran. She foretold the child of being destined to become Oran's greatest hunter, but that his true fate would be known to him upon gazing in the Lake of Dreams, after which only darkness would follow for him.

Oran bestowed upon the child the name Cerunnos and he grew to be the great hunter the witch foretold of. Though his childhood would be marked by shame being heaped upon him by his the true daughters of Oran, who derided his status as an adopted child.

During this period of his life Cerunnos never took more than what was needed, showing great reverence for wildlife, and enjoyed wandering deep into the wilds. Only avoiding the Lake of Dreams, as Oran had forbidden him to go near it. This all changed one year when Oran held his annual hunt for the Silver Hind &mdash; a mystical deer said to be impossible to slay &mdash; during which Cerunnos became the first ever to ever strike it with an arrow.

Cerunnos tracked the wounded hind, determined to bring it back as a trophy for Oran, and drove it to a cliff overlooking the Lake of Dreams. He grappled the Silver Hind, prepared to plunge a knife into it, but hesitated as he looked into its eyes. In that moment it leapt up, throwing Cerunnos off the cliff and plunging into the Lake of Dreams.

What Cerunnos saw within its depths was unknown to others &mdash; possibilities included his true parentage, the dark fate that awaited him, and a cosmic truth of the hunt itself &mdash; but whatever he saw had evidently changed him. When he returned to his father, Oran was filled with an explicable rage and exiled him, cursing Cerunnos to be a homeless wanderer.

Following his exile, Cerunnos became obsessed with tracking down the Silver Hind, convinced it could redeem him. Believing it may be a creature born of winter, Cerunnos traveled to the domain of the Prince of Frost. He offered to reveal the secret of the Silver Hind and give him a place in the Winter Court, but only if he could capture the daughters of Oran and deliver them to the Fortress of Frozen Tears in the Vale of the Long Night.

He agreed to the condition and with an entourage of the Winter Court's fey he tracked down his adopted kin. Seeing in their faces the same look that he’d seen in the eyes of the Silver Hind, he hesitated once more and turned upon the Winter Fey, realizing their fate with the Pale Prince would be worse than death. He slew many of the Winter Fey, driving off those that remained. Enraged at his betrayal, the Prince of Frost barred his from the Winter Court and cursed him to always be just beyond the reach of what he hunts.

Cerunnos then traveled to Senaliesse, the domain of the Summer Queen Tiandra. She agreed to reveal the Silver Hind to him, but only if he could decide whether she or the hind was fairer and until then he had to stay his hand against the beast. As days past in their wait for the hind's arrival, Tiandra grew enamored with Cerunnos. She decided to make him a knight of her court and a consort when the Silver Hind finally arrived. Cerunnos himself grew content within her silver grove.

When the Silver Hind finally arrived it revealed itself to be the archfey known as the Maiden of the Moon, discarding her bestial guise for that of a fierce noble eladrin maiden with a silver sword at the hip and a bow of white wood on the back.