Granbwa

Alignment: TN

Pantheon: Primordial, Major Deities

Areas of Concern: Nature, Forests, Plant creatures, Land, Insects

Domains: Animal, Earth, Plant, Repose, Scalykind

Subdomains: Caves, Dragon, Growth, Insect*, Leshy, Souls, Thorns*, Venom

*Requires the Acolyte of Apocrypha trait.

Favored Weapons: Injection Spear, Crook, Thorn Bow

Symbol: A pine tree with a monstrous jaw, vines spinning around it.

Sacred Animal(s): All Insects

Sacred Color(s): Green, Brown

Obedience: Sow the seeds of a thorny or venomous plant close to the walls of civilization, allowing nature to take over the borders of civilization and threaten it. Gain a +4 profane or sacred bonus on Fortitude and Will saving throws against effects from plants of plant creatures. The type of bonus depends on your alignment—if you’re neither good nor evil, you must choose either sacred or profane the first time you perform your obedience. Once made, this choice can’t be changed.

Lore: It is said that at the beginning of the universe, only a few primordial deities existed, which gave birth to many others. Granbwa is one of these primordial deities, representing nature itself, but more so nature on the land. They were never about water, although their sphere of influence extended a bit to the realm of water with plant life living underneath the sea.

With the rise of mortal races and their extension of civilization, pushing back the borders of nature itself, Granbwa was infuriated with how nature was trashed and destroyed for selfish goals. As a collective representing each plant, each tree, each insect crawling in nature and flying about, Granbwa decided to give life to ancient trees, turning them into the first sentient protectors of the forests: the treants. Extremely powerful, they kept mortal races from exploiting and destroying extremely old forests, some of them turning towards the worship of the forests and the force of nature. Lizardfolks were amongst the first to turn towards the worship of Granbwa, but Elves eventually turned towards that worship as well.

To better understand their new worshipers, Granbwa created new races of sentient plant life, the first of which were the Leshies, meant as a bridge between mortals and nature. They were the first ambassadors of nature, and taught people the way of Nature, the way of Granbwa. They were also the ones who taught the first druids of the world, making people embrace Nature itself, but in doing so, they had to give up their urban ways, let go of metallic weapons and armor, and use what nature would give them to defend and represent it. Not all druids let go of metallic weapons, but the most fanatical do.

While some would see farmers as people who made compromises between civilization and nature, Granbwa never saw it that way. Granbwa represents nature at its wildest, unforgiving, relentless and merciless, just as nature should be.

Also, Granbwa sees undeath as being a heinous crime, an atrocity that needs to be purged, as it stops the normal cycle of life. For Grabwa, everything comes from the earth and must eventually return to it. Undead break that cycle and hurt nature, and thus should be purged.

Most societies abandon their dead at the entrance of an ancient forest because they believe that Granbwa will free the soul from the body once the body decomposes on the ground, the body feeding the ground for more life to spring from it, and the soul is then guided by Granbwa to the Boneyard.

Divine Fighting Technique: See Abadar's Crossbow (Except it's usable with bows instead of crossbows, and replace bolts by arrows in the text).