Spoiler
Show
Silvanus is one of the second generation of greater gods, created by the firsts and lacking their makers’ power of universal creation. He was one of the three siblings Pelor crafted out of elements to tame them for his grand project called mortals. Made of earth and brought to life by Pelor’s will, Silvanus was told to bring astronomical masses of it from Elemental Plane of Earth into the then empty Material Plane. He did so, often leaving them in shapes that caught his fancy and created many worlds. Flat worlds, sphere worlds, cone worlds, cube worlds, pyramidal worlds, torus worlds, hollow worlds, corkscrew worlds... He left countless masses of earth clusters floating in emptiness of Material Plane, ready to be used for whatever purpose Pelor had for them.
However Pelor was a boring stick in the mud and didn’t like Silvanus’ fanciful shapes. He broke them and made them all spheres instead, which really upset Silvanus. He swore to never answer Pelor again. Disgruntled Silvanus left Material and went to Ethereal Plane where he could indulge his fancies without boring rubes messing it up. For a time he was content, taking matter from all elemental planes and shaping it into massive structures floating in Ethereal, making his own little arts and crafts gallery. But one day he checked what was going on in Material, remembering about Pelor’s grand project. What he saw was hauntingly beautiful. Pelor had fashioned the spherical earth clumps into planets full of life, covered in green and blue and red and yellow, riddled with countless tiny (tiny to Silvanus that is) creatures. These tiny creatures were fascinating, they had a strange balance where some ate others then got eaten themselves, countless of them dying to give life to countless others. It was all so much better than Silvanus’ shaped matter clumps.
Silvanus had fallen in love. He decided he needed to have some of that stuff. So he went and caught many mindless spirits of elemental planes and reshaped them (again into many different and strange shapes that took his fancy), making them sentient. Thus the fey was born of primal elementals. However the fey were still elemental sprits and therefore immortal, they had no need of the intricate balance and fascinating life cycle Silvanus saw on Material Plane’s worlds. He tried to show it to them anyway, make them take a stab at it. Some fey liked the hunting and killing part. Other fey liked the part about building nests and warrens. None of the fey liked all of nature like Silvanus did. It was clear he wasn’t going to get what he wanted out of the fey, so left them to mimic the life on Material Plane as they saw fit and travelled back to Material.
Silvanus’ other siblings, who’d gotten in on the ground floor and stuck with Pelor, were now reigning over the worlds and their inhabitants. Poor Umberlee had dominion over seas and oceans but all the time she spent near Mother of All Abominations in Plane of Elemental Water had twisted her mind and transformed her into a fickle and destructive goddess of chaos. Airheaded Olidammara however, seemed to have gone mad on his own with no outside help and was advocating active destruction of natural wonders and exploitation of all that was beautiful for the crude machinations and petty pleasures of civilization. Pelor himself was at the top, entrenched in Elemental Plane of Fire while keeping his fiery eyes on every world filled with life, worshipped and served by throngs of various beings, growing ever stronger and more secure. Silvanus tried in vain to reason with Umberlee and Olidammara, to make them see the beauty of the natural and dissuade them from the insane paths of destruction they’d chosen. They laughed at him. He tried to get a foothold on their worlds and gain some worshippers. Very few mortals were attracted to Silvanus’ tenets of natural beauty and denouncement of civilization and those were opposed and commonly stopped by other mortals, usually at behest of Olidammara and rarely Umberlee. Still stubborn, Silvanus wasn’t going to talk to Pelor (who’d probably pity him and order his siblings to play nice). Mortal belief was the key to everything, Pelor had definitely been right about that, but most mortals were clearly too short sighted (and short lived) to see the wisdom of Silvanus. He had to become more appealing to them, something had to change.
Today, the church of Mother Earth Chauntea is one of the most populous and disorganized in the multiverse. Her dominion over agriculture, animal husbandry, fertility and family makes Chauntea the primary deity to farmers and villagers on most mortal worlds. She gets respect from everyone else who’s not a farmer but like to eat as well. So virtually all mortals living on Material Plane reveres Chauntea to some degree, even Pelor’s worship has fallen behind due to its cosmic focus on things that average mortal doesn’t really care about (much to his chagrin). Consequentially, Chauntea has become the mightiest being outside the primordial greater deities.
Meanwhile, the still unchanged church of Silvanus is tiny, its teachings followed by very few radical druid cults on a handful of worlds. Chauntea and her followers magnanimously say her brash brother does have a point about preserving nature and the natural, which is why any worship of Silvanus is still being allowed to continue. While nobody has seen them both in the same room, it’s generally assumed that Silvanus is ashamed of being overshadowed so hard by his twin and never meets her. Silvanus himself is very happy with today’s multiverse, especially with his crushing victory over Olidammara and having thrown dirt into Pelor’s fiery eyes.
Regular Chauntea worship is basically everywhere but it’s not hierarchical and almost always limited to working classes. Age (which presumably means wisdom) is respected and senior clerics are shown more respect but every cleric of Chauntea is considered equal to all others. Each cleric advises their flock by the basic tenets of Chauntea according to their personal interpretations. Since it’s unlikely that worshippers of Chauntea will be in positions of great power and authority, the simple tenets of the humble farmstead and traditional family values stuff is enough for all their needs. Chauntea’s worshippers are predominantly peaceful but they know protection against wild animals and raiders are always needed, so they do have some martial traditions (and sometimes they ask for help from good natured clergies of battle and protection) but it’s never a focus.
Meanwhile, fey creatures of Ethereal Plane who’s cobbled together the massive demiplane of Feywild from Silvanus’ leftovers have conflicting feelings about Deadbeat Grandpa. Some hate him, some worship him, some think he’s silly. Silvanus does answer the odd prayer from Feywild, but otherwise still thinks they're boring and leaves them be.
Chauntea is well liked by gods of good and feared by the rest, though she insists she’s never given anybody a reason to fear her. Which usually works on mortals but not gods, everyone in the multiverse knows Silvanus is a wild and whimsical god likely to cause massive death and destruction for a bunch of flowers and there’s no telling when his so much stronger twin might feel compelled to help him in an emergency. While Olidammara is well known for his enmity for both and keeps insisting they’re not even twins, the God of Rogues and Roads isn’t the most trustworthy guy around. Olidammara’s church also has fought a losing battle for a long while, they might have a lot more powerful and influential mortals and espousing an elitist spiel against the peasants, but not even kings and wizards want to go hungry. Many gods do know the truth but don’t really care (since it really doesn’t affect anything). Chauntea’s rivalry with Umberlee over coasts is also well known; neither can make any progress on the other’s home turf but many coastal regions on most worlds see regular conflict between their clergies and violence is always on the table when it comes to the Bitch Queen (who has an affinity to and penchant for stirring up the aquatic abominations from Water, who’s colonized many Material Plane oceans). Coastal regions are the only places where Chauntea’s followers are warlike and traditionally vigilant.
Silvanus’ worshippers are usually considered pests or wild animals and mostly ignored.
Praying to Chauntea for anything usually doesn’t work. She’s quite busy and receives too many prayers every day. Besides she’s already doing all the agriculture and family stuff, there’s no need to specifically pray for those and prayers about other things don’t concern her. However speaking up against her is a bad idea, she’s known to hold grudges and send family misforune and those who insult her too often and too publicly tend to draw attention from violent Silvanus cultists. In worst cases (such as a general upswing in Umberlee worship), she can send famines and plagues of stillborns to offending regions.
Re: Teaching new tricks to old gods
Founder of the
Fanclub of the (Late) Chief of Cliffport Police Department 