Church of Mielikki

The church of Mielikki, officially known as the Walkers of the Forest Way, was the primary religious organization dedicated to the worship and service of the goddess Mielikki.

Dogma
Although it had a similar ethos to the church of Silvanus, whom the Forest Queen served, the church of Mielikki emphasized the positive and beneficial aspects of the wilderness. It upheld the idea of harmony between nature and civilization, believing that intelligent beings could indeed live in peace with the wilderness, without one needing to destroy the other to survive,     and that people could enjoy the fruits of nature without excesses or exploitation. Moreover, they desired to live in full harmony with nature, and not by becoming beasts themselves but by being conscientious stewards of the wilderness and friends to all beasts.

Hence, the Walkers of the Forest Way were taught that the ways of the wild were the ways of good, and they should not fear the wild but rather welcome and embrace it. They were to learn the hidden ways of all life  maintain the balance of natural cycles and of wilderness and civilization,    and protect forests and nature in general against the forces of ignorance and evil, of which ignorance was the more damaging,   and act not just for the good of the natural world, but the world as a whole. They also saw complete freedom as the natural state, reasoning that as animals would go where they willed, then so should people.

In particular, Mielikkians were asked to protect the life of the forest and defend every tree. They were invited to dwell within the forest and be a part of it and be at peace with it, rather than exist in lasting conflict with it. They should not let trees be cut down without purpose or let fires spread, and when a tree was felled by disease, logging, or fire, they should plant another to maintain their numbers and the balance. Moreover, they should disrupt and even punish people who hunted only for sport and were cruel to wild animals. But Mielikkians must also encourage others to respect and love forest life rather than fear it and teach them the ways of the forest and how to live in harmony with it too. However, they were not to push their ways on others, but to help and lead by example.

Attitudes
By and large, Forestarms were practical folk who were disinterested in fuss and had little time for overmuch ceremony, yet they were reverent in their prayers by the campfire. Both Needles and Forestarms alike were apt to be the most adventurous of those who lived in the wilds, and tended to be easygoing by nature. They were serene in their understanding of the natural balance.

Organization
Initially, the Walkers of the Forest Way were composed almost entirely of clerics. They had little-to-no formal hierarchy,  with senior clergy simply assembling networks of allies who could gather and disseminate information and would work together to realize the church's goals. Rangers who were members of the church or who were in direct service to it were a laity treated as an auxiliary force or adventuring division that could be set against enemies of the faith. Perhaps surprisingly, there were no druids at all by 1358 DR, but the church was on good terms with them.

Then, in 1369 DR, to halt the decline of her faith, Mielikki herself called for the church to be restructured. Druids were reintroduced and either joined the clerics as part of the new hierarchy (though they were still few in number in the years immediately after) or else established druid circles of their own dedicated to Mielikki in the North. In the new church, there were three great branches: the Heartwoods, the Arms of the Forest, and the Needles.
 * Heartwoods
 * Comprising dryads, hamadryads, and treants, these beings served as the voices of the spirits of the very trees and were considered the heart of the church.


 * Arms of the Forest
 * Also called the Forestarms, or simply Arms, and made up of the clerics and druids, this was the main body of the priesthood and its spiritual center. They were dedicated to protecting the forests.  It was open to all humans, demihumans, and woodland beings of good and neutral character, but the majority were human and half-elf women who displayed a passion for their work, combat prowess, and adventuring habits.


 * Needles
 * These were the rangers of the church. They usually acted as a militant order that defended the forests against the church's enemies, but they could also act as priests themselves.  Far from the lowliest, they were believed to be most beloved by Mielikki, the Supreme Ranger.

Titles
Members of the church were officially called the Walkers of the Forest Way, and were sometimes known as Mielikkians, which was also the adjective for the faith. Circa 1479 DR, the priesthood was commonly called "druids".

Among the Forestarms, titles were simple and few. The novices were called Questers, junior priests hadn't yet seen two winters in service were Spring Stags, and regular priests with experience but no significant achievements or temple duties were Stalkers in the Green. In the higher ranks, senior temple staff, emissaries, and recognized teachers of the faith were all Forest Flames. Among temple staff, titles were straightforward, such as Cook, Doorwarden, Housemaster, Worship Master, Master of Novices, Prior, and Abbot. At the highest levels, temple leaders and champions of the church were titled High Rangers. The goddess herself bestowed the title Hawk of the Lady on her most valued and highest-ranked faithful.

Classes
The restructured church of Mielikki included clerics and druids (both called Forestarms) and rangers (termed Needles). It also included the unique half-elf druid/rangers, a type of specialty priest. In any case, after 1372 DR, nearly every cleric cross-trained as a ranger or, to a lesser degree, a druid. Because of this mixing, druids of Mielikki took oaths that were less stringent than those of most other druids and were permitted to wear all kinds of armor and weapons usable by rangers. Similarly, crusaders of the faith were trained in tracking but could not turn undead and the unique woodscouts merged priest and ranger skills. In the late 1400s, the church could also include wardens and the favored of Mielikki.

Orders
Within each of the branches were a number of distinct religious orders. Some of the most notable were:
 * Order of the Unicorn's Horn: A small society of wandering healers who aimed to bring peace to injured people, animals, and plants.
 * Shadoweirs: Part of the Needles, this was a religious knighthood of the woods made up of half-elf druid/rangers. They were activists who proselytized with zeal and would go on the offensive to save their sacred forests.
 * Circle of the Stag: A druid circle of the High Forest who held the ceremony for selection of the Green Regent, one of the Chosen of Mielikki.
 * Treespeakers, all graceful elf maidens who ride unicorns
 * The Druids of Tall Trees, a band of druids devoted to Mielikki, Eldath, and Silvanus who take care of the Tall Trees region of the High Forest.

Activities
The Walkers of the Forest Way worked to both renew the remaining woodlands and grow them further and to help forest life flourish. This work was primarily undertaken by the Forestarms, with support from the Needles and the churches of Eldath and Silvanus. In an ongoing effort, all members collected seeds of trees and forest vegetation, planted them, and nurtured them, with the goal that forty new trees grow for every one claimed by logging or fire. In various hidden valleys, the Forestarms kept nurseries of seedlings of all kinds of forest plants and deep in the forests they protected wildlife preserves where rare beasts bred and thrived undisrupted by the outside world. Pragmatically minded, however, Forestarms also negotiated or manipulated local leaders into logging only dying or deceased trees in one area so they would leave a recovering area elsewhere untouched. They also tried to eliminate blights, both natural and unnatural. Their goal was to keep the forest healthy overall.

To try to halt further advances of civilization into the forests and the loss of habitats, the Forestarms taught folk to respect and care for the woodlands. They encouraged both urban and rural folk to revere nature and see local woodlands not as dangerous wildernesses to be feared and battled, but as safe and pleasant places where they could appreciate natural beauty and find refuge and renewal. Forestarms were usually found visiting small settlements located along the forest fringes, teaching people there love for the woods and the skills of good forest husbandry. Both Forestarms and Needles met with foresters periodically to provide healing and advice to limit the number of trees they cut and to hunt weaker and older animals rather than healthy young ones and to cull unnatural predators. They also worked with and assisted all rangers, no matter their faith, however they could. Around the Realms, it was advised that hunters, loggers, and homesteaders looking to clear land or expand settlements first consult with the churches of Mielikki, Eldath, Silvanus, or others, or rangers or druids of them, and work with them and local druid circles, rather than against them.

But when they must, both Forestarms and Needles would fight to defend the forests as well. They would drive out or slay creatures of evil who trespassed in the forest and opposed practitioners of fire magic, such as Red Wizards and the faithful of Kossuth, for its threat to forests, though this was secondary to their primary goals. The savage leucrotta was one unnatural beast they believed should be hunted and slain on sight. But most of all, Mielikkians were outraged by the hunting of unicorns to claim their horns, and would go so far as to execute those convicted of committing such vile deeds.

By habit and by preference, both Forestarms and Needles tended to live within the forests. They usually maintained two or more dwellings and at least a dozen caches of food and supplies, which they could journey to when required. The Heartwoods, of course, lived in the forests by their very nature.

Rituals
To venerate the Forest Queen, one of the faithful needed only to spend some time in meditation and introspection in both the morning and evening, and do so under a forest's branches if possible. Afterward, they listened to the whispers of the woods and tried to interpret their meaning,   for they believed the goddess to most often manifest her voice as a whisper in the rustling of leaves, echoing forever through all the forests of the world, and that a good and faithful worshiper could comprehend them. Otherwise, the particulars of worship differed from person to person. Many of the rangers of the North prayed to Gwaeron Windstrom instead, rather than Mielikki herself, worrying that she was too divine, wild, primal, and mysterious to be beseeched directly, while Gwaeron at least was once a mortal ranger like them. Divine spellcasters following Mielikki could pray for spells in either the morning or evening, but were required to observe both events.

At other times, when beseeching the goddess for aid or a blessing in a simple task such as treating an injured animal or following a trail, Mielikkians simply asked her under their breath for going ahead. When choosing to undertake a quest to right some wrong done to the woods, a Mielikkian would make a special prayer asking for guidance and strength. On special occasions, groups of them would assemble under the stars, to sing and praise the Lady of the Forest and call her to guide them.

When lighting a fire, Mielikkian priests were required to whisper the Dread Prayer over it. Then, by the goddess's grace, it produced intense heat in so only selected directions, but very little smoke and only dim light. Thus, it drew little attention and could not spread, eliminating the risk of forest fires, so the Mielikkian need not watch the fire.

Once a month, if not more often, all of the Walkers of the Forest Way were required to perform a ritual titled the Song of Trees, which called forth a dryad, hamadryad, or treant, and to perform various small deeds for it for a day. Mielikki shielded the faithful from the dryad's charms.

Mielikkians also held the equinoxes and solstices as holy days, called the Four Feasts, with the simple titles of First Feast, Second Feast, Third Feast, and of course Fourth Feast. Most familiar to those outside the faith but held deep in the woods, these were times of sacred rituals, songs of praise to the Forest Queen, and revels for celebration of the sensual side of life. It was known that on the first, the spring equinox, herbs were burnt. In addition, on each of the Four Feasts, they made offerings of nectar at dryad groves wherein an oaken defender was buried. They poured the nectar ceremoniously around the 'faerie ring' to nourish the defender beneath. They naturally took it as their sacred duty to nurture the oaken defenders that protected dryads and their groves. The common festival days of Greengrass and Midsummer Night were similar to the Four Feasts but greater in scale, with additional planting rites and the grand Wild Ride. On these occasions, Mielikki brought unicorns together in herds that raced through the woods at a gallop. Walkers of the Forest Way were even allowed to mount these unicorns and ride them bareback all through the night. Mielikki also empowered the unicorns to teleport as often as they wished and to thrice the usual range, so her followers could be taken incredible distances and see much of the world around them. In the years of Shieldmeet, which occurred after Midsummer, the Wild Ride could continue through that day and night too, if unicorn and rider wished.

The rare emergence of a new oaken defender—once every 1,100 years at a given grove—was a time for both mourning and cheer for the Mielikkians. When a formerly unguarded grove became home to a new young defender, they celebrated the occasion in the festival of Greenhome. They made offerings of food, they prayed to Mielikki, and they performed services for both the dryads and the oaken defender.

Magic
While within a forest environment, any cleric, druid, or ranger of Mielikki might use a form of the spell analyze balance whenever required. When cast on a type of creature, a specific individual, or an item, it functioned as normal, yielding an estimate of its deviation from true neutrality. But if cast on the forest itself, they could detect if the local ecology was significantly threatened.

A number of spells and prayers were unique to Mielikkian priests or were closely associated with them:
 * Banish blight
 * Stalk
 * Wood sword
 * Tree healing
 * Create treant

Clerics and druids initiated into the higher secrets of the church in the 1370s DR could cast the following unique spells: These they shared with the churches of Silvanus and Eldath. Moreover, they could rebuke or command animals or plant creatures.
 * Mold touch
 * Briartangle
 * Thorn spray
 * Fireward
 * Tree healing

Circa 1479 DR, a priest of Mielikki could channel divinity and use the divine spell fleetness of Mielikki, becoming blessed with the speed and surefootedness of her sacred white hart.

Symbol
The traditional holy symbol of the faith was a white unicorn's head, golden horned and blue eyed, facing sinister, that is, to the left. An alternative symbol showed a white unicorn over a green field. An older symbol was a white star on a green leaf, specifically a tiny and dazzlingly bright white star balanced on a green leaf of oak or ash that was open and verdant. Within the Finnish pantheon, her symbol was an evergreen tree.

Shrines & Temples
The Walkers of the Forest Way were spread far and wide and few between. They were not many and rarely came together in a sizeable group for very long. Hence, they rarely established official temples, with most worship held in serene forest glades   and glens and at small shrines.

Shrines to Mielikki could be found in wilderness lands all across the North, the Savage Frontier, the Dalelands, and the Western Heartlands,  Shrines were often dead tree trunks carved with her holy symbol, or else living trees with a piece of wood bearing the symbol tacked onto it. These often served a dual purpose, as they also marked a limit to logging and hunting in the area—no locals would work beyond the shrine. Such shrines were usually erected by the loggers themselves at the end of an expedition as a sign of gratitude to the Forest Queen for the wood and for their safety.

Temples to Mielikki were less common than shrines and quite few in number in comparison to other religions. Temples were built within forest groves or, if not, had a small grove of trees within their grounds. Many also had one or more oaks, which were not just altars to Mielikki but also the dwelling places of dryads. Small forest creatures were also welcome within the temples and some lived in them permanently. Temples and shrines might be protected by topiary guardians.

Notable Locations
Some notable shrines and sacred sites were:
 * At the Falls of Tumbling Stars in the Thunder Peaks, a hidden mountain valley was believed sacred to Mielikki and was the most significant place of worship.
 * Gwaeron's Slumber, a sacred forest located west of Triboar in the Dessarin Valley. Believed to be where Mielikki's servant Gwaeron Windstrom took his rest, rangers of both gods came here for inspiration.
 * Mielikki's Glade, an open-air glade and college in the center of Silverymoon.
 * The Deep Glade in the Tall Trees, an area of the High Forest considered a stronghold of Mielikkian druids.
 * The Lady's Hands, later the Shrines of Nature, in Waterdeep.
 * The Green Door inn in Essembra, Battledale; the shrine was in fact a sacred pool behind it. Pilgrims came here to receive visions.
 * The Dancing Place, a valley in High Dale where Mielikki and other deities once manifested to inspire the formation of the Harpers. Mielikkian priests help tend it as a great garden.
 * A shrine in the village of Mornbryn's Shield was one of the most holy to the faith. It marked the tomb of the famed ranger Mornbryn.
 * The headwaters of the Unicorn's Run, deep in the High Forest, considered the holiest place to Mielikki.
 * The Moonsilver Inn and the city of Silverymoon, once visited and blessed by both Mielikki and Lurue.
 * See also Category:Shrines to Mielikki and Category:Temples to Mielikki.

Possessions
The raiment of the Walkers of the Forest Way was governed by the seasons, with each article of clothing having a specific base color and an accent depending on the season. In autumn, it was red with white accents, representing fallen leaves becoming covered with snow. In winter, it was white with green accents, for the evergreen trees under the snow and how the forest remained in full life. In spring, it was green with yellow accents, symbolizing the forest slowly returning to lushness. And finally, in summer, it was yellow with red accents, for the beauty and bounty of flowers, fruits, and grains. Otherwise, the trappings of the faith were often in forest green.

Their vestments comprised a plain tunic or tabard, which was typically sleeveless in summer and long-sleeved in winter, together with boots, trousers, and a short cape. All articles of clothing were in the seasonal colors, except the boots, which were always brown. They had no headwear. While working in the woods, most priests wore whatever befitted the weather and the task at hand, but they made an effort to display the seasonal colors, even if in hot weather this might be only a sash and baldric. Needed items were carried in pouches or packs or even strapped to their boots. During times of conflict and adventuring, priests and rangers wore regular armor (often chainmail) with only their capes.

They wore their holy symbols of Mielikki always over their hearts,  either stitched into the fronts of their tabards with silvery thread or as a pendant carved from bone or ivory.

Relationships
Just as Mielikki and Eldath both served Silvanus, members of their respective religions—at least those who put their deity's favor over any personal concerns or conflicts—worked together to achieve their shared goals. The senior clergies of all three cooperated in their studies of ecological trends, using data collected by the Church of Eldath. The restructured Mielikkian church was especially close to the Eldathyn, with them aiding Mielikkians and Silvanites whenever they could and being known to quietly give sanctuary and supplies to Shadoweirs in need. Meanwhile, Mielikki's Needles lent aid to Eldathyn and Silvanites alike, and a number of Mielikkian ranger orders maintained close ties to the Church of Silvanus.

Naturally, Mielikkians had peaceful relations with all the other nature-based deities (with the exception of Malar) and the priests worked closely with rangers in general and had good relations with most druids, even when they weren't among the church. In fact, the druids of Faerûn maintained relatively amiable relations between their faiths and deferred to one another in their respective fields of expertise—on matters of forestry and rangers, they consulted Mielikkians.

Among common folk in frontier and wilderness lands, the church of Mielikki was viewed favorably for reasons. For one, rangers were usually the only safeguard against the dangers. For another, many believed the priests to be much more open to finding a fair balance between protecting nature and establishing settlements, at least compared to the Silvanites or elves. Finally, they were considered vital to fending off the vicious depredations of the Malarites.

The church of Malar was perhaps the greatest foe of the church of Mielikki. They referred to Malar as the Great Beast, the Beast of Beasts, and the Bloodgod. The churches of Mielikki, Silvanus, and Gwaeron Windstrom regularly made expeditions into woodlands to root out and destroy lairs of the People of the Black Blood, a cult of Malarite lycanthropes.

Lastly, while the Harpers were not a part of the church of Mielikki, Those Who Harp had very close ties with the Walkers of the Forest Way. The Harpers opposed all great powers who would try to reshape the Realms, which would perforce threaten the environment. Hence, Mielikkians were obliged to aid the Harpers, at least when it did not interfere or conflict with their main work, and did so especially when their goals aligned.

History
When the Army of Darkness assaulted Myth Drannor during the Weeping War (711 DR to 714 DR), the church of Mielikki allied with the churches of Selûne, Moradin, Garl Glittergold, and Labelas Enoreth to protect the Temple Ward during the First Sieges. They established a combined army, the Templestars, which was initially victorious in their goals and attracted other faiths under their banner. But in the fall of Myth Drannor, many worshipers of Shaundakul were slain and his faith declined sharply. The church of Mielikki absorbed those Shaundakun rangers who survived, while the church of Waukeen claimed the traders.

In the 11 century DR, a priestess of Mielikki that lived in Amphail, Asaudrae Daerantree, was killed by hunters while in the form of a stag, giving rise to the Rite of the Stag Lass. Many of the faith and some in Amphail would come to believe Asaudrae to be Mielikki herself.

In the Dalelands around the 1340s DR, Arms of Mielikki lived, worked, and fought alongside the elves there. As the elven population was so small and slow to replenish, they relied on the human Mielikkians to protect them, calling them as "our shields". This established a deep and long-lasting trusting between the church of Mielikki and the Dales elves.

When the gods were cast down to the mortal world during the Time of Troubles in the, Mielikki suffered little, but having so many stray other gods wandering the world gave her faithful no end of grief. In one incident, on Kythorn 19, in the Misty Forest, three Mielikkian rangers were held captive and threatened with sacrifice by the crazed Eldathyn priest Ramtharage Druin. Elminster interceded and apparently summoned both Mielikki and Eldath to his side. They declared they were sisters and friends and Ramthar was utterly shocked by meeting the two goddesses and released the rangers.

In the latter half of the 1360s DR, a few Forestarms started buying up land around Secomber in the Western Heartlands and in upcountry Sembia, using riches retrieved from hidden caches and ruins in some forests. On these lands, they established orderly tree plantations that would serve as "forest shields" to supply local peoples with lumber before they looked to natural woodlands. The Arms would even cut the wood themselves and sell it cheap. They later extended this scheme to parts of Amn and Tethyr. To aid this practice, the Forestarms hired foreign adventuring companies, nicknamed "armies of the trees", to combat any woodcutters who still targeted the natural woodlands. Other Forestarms and Needles worked with ranchers in eastern Amn, in the Dessarin Valley, and north of Melvaunt in the Moonsea, having them breed large herds of domestic deer to provide food and pelts, thereby leaving wild forest-dwelling deer free to replenish their numbers. This also allowed other forest creatures to recover, both those preyed on deer and those slain or scared off by humans coming into the forest after them.

By the 1360s DR, the church of Mielikki and the goddess herself were in decline. Mielikki came to recognize that, with her service to Silvanus, as his power was growing, her own was dwindling, as were her faithful, which was threatening to reduce her to a demigoddess or less. Finally, in the, Mielikki ordered a complete restructuring of her clergy, creating the branches of the Heartwoods, Forestarms, and Needles and reintroducing the druids. The action not only arrested the decline of her power, but bolstered it and gave her enough to establish her first divine realm in the Outer Planes. Moreover, it both preserved ancient forest traditions and guaranteed the faith would continue to flourish.

Notable Worshipers

 * Hawk of the Lady Neretheen Jalassan at the Falls of Tumbling Stars
 * Vishara, the Arm of Mielikki, a paladin
 * Montolio Debrouchee, the druid who taught Drizzt Do'Urden the faith of Mielikki and ranger ways
 * Lander
 * Pikel Bouldershoulder
 * Florin Falconhand