Tenets of Faith for Cernunnos


Advice


My regular group is starting up a RotRL campaign, so everyone is building new characters. One member of the group wants to play a CG gnome cleric of Cernunnos (Empyreal Lord), which I think is a fun idea. He came across the faith trait Zealot from Gnomes of Golarion, and wants to have that as one of his traits.

Zealot wrote:

Prerequisite: You must match the alignment of your chosen deity exactly.

Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus on Knowledge (religion) checks, and that skill is a class skill for you. As long as you remain completely faithful to the tenets of your faith (as determined by the GM), you never suffer from the Bleaching.

The only problem is I can't find any fleshed out description of the tenets of Cernunnos. The closest I've found is from the Bestiary 4 section on Empyreal Lords,

Spoiler:
Cernunnos' Faith

Good fey, intelligent plant creatures, and mortal rangers and druids worship Cernunnos. Elven fighters and rogues often view him as a patron of luck and good fortune, but others pray to him for strength against evil. His sacred places are secluded groves, waterfalls, and deep forests.

Cernunnos's holy symbol is the head of a stag, ram or similar horned creature with torcs or rings hanging from its horns. His favored weapon is the longbow. He grants access to the Animal, Chaos, Good, and Plant domains, and access to the Azata, Feather, Fur, and Growth subdomains.

but that's pretty vague. I'm thinking of generally letting him slide with statements about respecting nature, working with servants of friendly good gods (e.g. Desna), and fighting against any great evils ... but I'd love one or two more specific items. Any suggestions, either homebrew or from PF resources as to ways to get slightly more concrete tenets for this faith?

Thanks for the help, guys!

Silver Crusade

Cernunnos is the ancient Celtic "Horned God", a masculine fertility god also associated with the Wild Hunt.

He represents the male or masculine aspect of nature, sometimes protective, sometimes destructive.

For an interesting take on Cernunnos I recommend reading "Slaine: The Horned God", an old 2000ad graphic novel.


What supervillan posted, pretty much matches my take on Cernunnos.

You could also make him the consort of Desna, if you want him more firmly established as an Inner Sea presence.


Many ancient religions didn't exactly have religious tenets as we think of them in the modern sense, but that view of religion is so pervasive that it has been added on to the pantheistic gods in our gaming.

In general the Gods were believed to be powerful, but not necessarily a source of morality or teaching. You worshiped them as much because you didn't want to get stepped on like bug as you did because you valued them. And typically worship meant practicing specific rites to honor/appease them, rather than living your life in a certain way.

If you want this view of Cernunnos, having the tenets be practicing the rites is appropriate. Things like thanking the spirit of an animal after hunting it, performing certain ceremonies on holy days, stuff like that.


Thanks for the feedback, guys. Your comments are in line with my thoughts on the matter, which makes me feel a little more confident about it. :)


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Quote:

Cernunnos–Celtic God of Life

Celtic God of virility, fertility, life, animals, forests and the underworld. The Horned or Antlered God is born at the winter solstice, marries the Goddess at Beltane, and dies at the summer solstice. He alternates with the Goddess of the moon in ruling over life and death, continuing the cycle of death, rebirth and reincarnation.

Symbolizes element of earth, love, fertility, death the virile male aspect and the dark half of the year. The two fold aspect of the God year with the Greenman or Jack o’ the Green being his light aspect. This takes on a similarity to the Oak King and Holly King legend.

Leads the wild hunt at Samhain, hence the day best associated with the Dark Lord. Also A consort to the mother Goddess. Druids knew him as Hu Gadarn, the Honored God. Ancient Celtic images show him seated in a lotus position, naked, with antlers or horns on his head. Christians demonized this benevolent God for easy conversion and is where the image of the Christian devil comes from(Couldn’t be further from facts nor truth but alas yet another tragedy of misdeed and “bearing false witness”, to quote a commandment).

Animals that were sacred to him: bull, ran, stag, and horned serpents. Variants: Cerowain, Cernenus, Herne the Hunter.

---from here

Also What is druidry

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