Gun

Gun
Bending Reed; Lord of the Fields

Symbol: A stalk of bamboo
Home Plane: Wilderness of the Beastlands
Alignment: Neutral Good
Cleric Alignments: Lawful Good, Neutral Good, Chaotic Good, Neutral
Portfolio: Grasses and grains, farmers, soft-style martial arts, crafts made from plant-based materials
Worshipers: Farmers, peasants, monks, rangers, druids
Domains: Healing (Restoration), Knowledge, Nobility (Martyr), Plant (Growth), Preservation
Favored Weapon: Staff

Physical Description:
While his size can vary from that of a fresh blade of grass to a towering tree, Gun has a generally humanoid appearance, taking the form of a leanly-muscled male. His skin is obviously of vegetable matter, and ranges in color and consistency with the seasons and the area in which he is dealing at the time, from the light green with patches of wildflower shades of spring, to the dark, vibrant green of summer, to the yellow and orange and gold of ripe gruit and grain in autumn, and finally the rich, deep tones of earth and bark in winter. Gun's eyes are dark blue pools that see deeply, and are filled with an ineffable calm. Gun's moods change slightly with each season, though even with these minor fluctuations he is always fairly calm in temperament, seldom growing agitated, let alone losing his temper.

Description of Nature, Personality, and Dogma:
Calm and contemplative, Gun knows that his manifestations into the Prime Material Plane are intended for use, and that the only way that they can achieve their purpose is by dying. With eash death comes a rebirth, however, for the roots of grasses live even after the stalks are cut, and will regrow with time and proper care. He encourages his clergy and followers to behave similarly, accepting their lot in life with equanimity and grace, and then improving things in simple, small ways, just enough to make life bearable, and even enjoyable. To Gun and his followers, suffering and even death are simply part of the grand cycle of existence, and overcoming their fear of such things is supposed to be one of their chief struggles. Gun also strongly espouses hard work, though the form that work takes is highly negotiable, so long as it is honest in nature. Things created from plants, from carved wood to woven baskets, and also raising useful plants, such as crops or orchards, are both Gun's specialty, and he encourages his worshipers to follow life paths that let them work with such things. Farming is a holy profession for Gun, and he teaches that all should regard it as such.

Clergy, Places of Worship, Important Rituals, and Servitor Races:
Most of Gun's clergy are simple peasant priests who tend to the needs of the farmers and other common folk who need their assistance. It is rather easy to become a cleric of Gun, as he has several wandering priests who regularly make circuits between various towns, providing clerical services and also acting to educate the children of the communities they visit. Those chidren who show promise are quickly recruited into Gun's clergy by these wandering priests, who take potential candidates for the clergy aside and instruct them in the ways of meditation. Gun himself will commune by vision with those candidates who he selects, causing a staff of living bamboo to grow right in front of the meditating cleric-to-be. This bamboo staff serves as both weapon and holy symbol for the new cleric, though it has no special properties beyond its miraculous generation, and can be easily replaced by similar bamboo stalks (for smaller holy symbols) or staves (for larger ones), which remain alive and capable of replanting so long as they are in the possession of a true cleric of Gun. These bamboo symbols die within a day of leaving a Gun cleric's possession, unless they are planted in an appropriate location to promote their growth.

Gun has no large temples, but only small village shrines, with a few more significant worship sites marked out by a single tall, standing pole, wrapped in living vines, usually found in a bare circle somewhere in an otherwise full field near a larger village center, large enough for a significant number of people to meet there. These more important worship sites are where many simple fertility rites take place, the most notable of which is a dance by the women of child-bearing age, whether they have had children or not, around the pole, wrapping ribbons around it as they dance. This is performed immediately after harvest is completed, and after this rite is complete, all the people of the place where the harvest is finished take part in a general celebration, made complete with music performed on wooden instruments.

As a simple peasant's deity, Gun has no major servitor races. Treants tend to be favorably disposed towards him and his worshipers, however, as are most plants, intelligent and non.

History and Relations:
One of the elemental powers that claimed Therafim as his domain, sharing its power with the draconic deities, Gun is an elemental embodiment of plant life, specifically the purposes to which plant life can be put as it dies. As such a primal being, he has existed since plant life first existed, though the power of Therafim itself has allowed him to achieve a full, deific manifestation.

Gun is on fair terms with most other good-aligned deities, though the more chaotic-aligned can find his seeming laisez-faire personality to be infuriating at times. He is on especially good terms with Nimbus and Sylver. While Karn and Gun are occasionally at odds because of personality, it is a friendly sort of rivalry, and they consider each other to be the best of friends despite their intermittent quarrels. On the other hand, Gun is often a direct competitor with Vetiveri, and while the two are seldom in direct opposition, they seldom get along. He is completely opposed to Lugscar, and the two are regularly at odds, and does not like Dan Dao, though he is too polite to mention it.

Favored Offerings and Justifications for Direct Intervention:
Watching over the works of farmers, crafters, and others who labor for their living, Gun seldom has need for things of material value. What impresses him most are things that require a great deal of labor as well as skill to produce. An offering of such a carefully-made object, or a large quantity of the fruits of a famer's fields requiring similar time and painstaking labor and care, is often enough to get Gun's attention in times of great need, should protection of some sort be required. However, he is even more likely to directly intercede when a laborer puts in a great deal of time and effort and attention, and still fails to produce results through no fault of that worker's own. In this case, Gun is known to take compassion on the struggling worker, and provide a subtle divine assistance. This assistance usually takes the form of just enough extra-mortal power to make what the laborer is attempting to do possible, without being too obvious about it. If the laborer in question shows gratitude after such assistance is given, then it is very likely to come again in the future in times of similar need. If no gratitude is shown, then future assistance is unlikely until that laborer has learned some serious life's lessons.