Chauntea

Chauntea was the Faerunian goddess of life and bounty, who viewed herself as the embodiment of all things agrarian. The Earthmother was seen as the tamer parallel of Silvanus, the Forest Father of druidry and wilderness, as she was the deity of agriculture and plant cultivation.

"The Earthmother is everything, and her health is our health. She feeds us, clothes us, waters us, and shelters us. No god is greater than her, though many are noisier. No god is more forgiving, more nurturing, or more essential. Truly, Chauntea is All."

- The creed of the Church of Chauntea

Description
Chauntea, when in her home realms, manifested with the appearance of a giant beautiful human woman. The Earthmother had long shiny white hair, gathered in a long braid she wrapped around her head. The length of her braid suggested the woman's great age. She had pleasant features and brown skin. Chauntea's body was lean but toned, muscled similarly to a farmer's body, shaped by hard work. She carried herself with strength and femininity. If one was to forget that they observed a deity, they could assume the beautiful woman in front of them was in her middle-age. Some described her appearance as "a rose in full bloom."

Chauntea was dressed in an unbleached linen tunic and carried a green seed pouch, slung over one shoulder. Even though she was working her divine realm's fields barefoot, with face stained with dirt, her beauty was accentuated by wildflowers and ivy weaved into the goddess' long hair. She also wore a girdle embroidered with images of various fruits.

Personality
Chauntea was a wise and quiet goddess given to neither pomp nor paegentry. Over the millenia she had learned the virtue of patience, being both slow to anger and not prone to hasty action, although she sometimes took this to the point of being ponderous.

This was not to be mistaken for passivity however, for the Earthmother was a vibrant and caring goddess who loved the inhabitants of Toril and enjoyed nothing more than showing them how her world might enrich their lives. The most recent centuries had seen Chauntea become completely enamored with them, especially humans, to the point she focused all her attention on helping them live off the land.

This relationship was not one-way however, for Chauntea also preached reverence towards nature. She urged the people of civilized lands to repair that which they damage, calling her followers to perform small acts of devotion. Furthermore, while she would prefer diplomacy to open conflict, to bring blight to the natural world would surely evoke the fury of the Earthmother.

Divine Realm
In the Great Wheel cosmology, Chauntea maintained her divine realm named Great Mother's Garden on Elysium's second layer of Eronia. She shared it with the otherworldly god of crops Liu from the Chinese pantheon and the Mystaran Immortal of growth, Djaea.

Chauntea's realm was a representation of her dominion over the Realms. During the annual planting season, the goddess worked her realm's sprawling fields, planting handfuls of seeds in furrows and closing them with her bare feet. The goddess took her duties with intense diligence, knowing that if she was late to plant or the fields were damaged, it caused the fertility of the Realms to suffer. A churned plot of earth in one spot of the field could cause croup failure in Halruaa, in another spot - scorched earth could create famine in Amn. Her realm's fields were teeming with life: insects bussed about, earthworms filled the soil, robins flittered about.

Relationships
She had strong ties with other deities concerned with nature, such as Shiallia and Mielikki, and she shared a close relationship with Silvanus, but that diminished over time. She was also known to have romantic affiliations with Lathander.

Her most despised enemy was Talona, the Lady of Pestilence, whose disposition to wreak suffering, disease and decay upon the natural world led her to oppose her with utmost vehemence. She was always in conflict with Talos. Chauntea battled deities who sought to desecrate and expunge nature; she opposed evil deities such as Malar and Bane, and viewed the latter's resurgence as portentous.

Worshipers
Chauntea was seen by Faerûnians as a critical aspect of the assumed cycle of life. Private land owners and destitute farmers (perhaps as a consequence of an unproductive harvest) visited the clerics of Chauntea for any divine suggestions for aiding the harvest. If at any time plague or drought struck the crops, farmers looked to Chauntea, since they hoped she would save the harvest, due to her love of nature. Though she had a diverse collection of followers, Chauntea was fanatically worshiped by peasants, servants, druids, gardeners, and any others who earned pay from working on farmland. Her clergy were known for ministering in rural communities, and for their willingness to work in the community's fields next to the local farmers.

Chauntea was one of the main deities worshiped in Rashemen, where she was known as Bhalla. In the Uthgardt tribes, Chauntea was exclusively worshiped by women, and served by female shamans. They believed the "Grandmother" gave birth to numerous daughters from Uthgar after his ascension, which became the wives of their beast gods.

Chauntea was also worshiped in worlds other than Toril, although under a different name.

Aspects
Before her days as the Great Mother, she was known as Jannath, the Earthmother and in her early days, she frequented places of overgrown nature, wilderness, and packs of animals. In the Moonshae Isles, Chauntea was still worshiped as Jannath.

In Rashemen, she was worshiped as a member of the triumvirate of goddesses praised there known as The Three with Mielikki (Khelliara) and Mystra (The Hidden One). Here, she was known as "Bhalla".

She was worshiped as Pahluruk in and around the Great Glacier.

In Wa, she was worshiped as "Chantea" but only by an underground sect who were viewed with distrust or outright hostility. Followers of Chantea were immediately put to death upon discovery. The Juzimura rebellion was noted as the official eradication of her religion in Wa, but there were suspected cells of underground worshipers in isolated areas.

History
Chauntea was believed to be one of the eldest gods in Faerûn&mdash;she was born when Toril was created by the primeval battles between Shar and Selûne. Selûne favored her and nurtured her with her light, with the help of Mystra.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * Tymora's Luck
 * Honor Among Thieves: The Road to Neverwinter
 * Video Games
 * Neverwinter Nights (AOL game)
 * Neverwinter Nights (AOL game)
 * Neverwinter Nights (AOL game)

Connections
Chauntea