Silvanus

Silvanus
Alignment	True Neutral
Divine Rank	Greater God
Pantheon	Faerun, Celtic, Roman
Portfolio	Animals, Trees, Nature, Wild Growth, opposing civilization
Domains	3E: Animal, Plant, Protection, Renewal, Water. 4E Life, Storm, Wilderness
Home Plane	2E: Tir Na Nog (Outlands), 3E: House of Nature (Beastlands), 4E: Deep Wilds
Worshippers	Druids, Rangers, Wood Elves, Hippies, Environmentalists
Favoured Weapon	The Great Mallet of Silvanus!! (Maul)

Silvanus is the god of wild nature in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.

He is served by several deities of nature, most notably Mielikki, goddess of good woodland creatures, which points to some very close analogous between Obad-Hai and Ehlonna from the Greyhawk setting, that they may very well be the same deities just under different names.

History / Dogma

Silvanus, along with Oghma is an interloper deity, recognised on many worlds under many different guises. (Both of them likely originating from the RL Celtic pantheon, where Silvanus is known as Sucellos). In Faerun his portfolio used to belong to Chauntea, but as time went on and after Netheril fell, Chauntea became more associated with agriculture than nature and so lost parts of her portfolio to Silvanus.

Silvanus is one of those old, dawn of time deities along with Chauntea and Lathander who exist to administer to fundamental forces of the universe and have always been greater deities, rather than having risen up from lower ranks of godhood or mortality.

As such, he is typically detached from events in the world, preferring to get involved where his portfolio says so and little else.

However, he is not without ideology; though he has an off/on relationship with the Earthmother Chauntea, goddess of agriculture, domestic animals and gardens, Silvanus believes that you shouldn't fuck with nature and opposes any attempt to tame the wilderness, taking a particular dislike to people who use fire and anyone whose profession is "woodcutter".

Worshippers

Forest Master

The specialist priest for Silvanus is the Forest Master, a transformative spellcasting class that eventually turns the character into a plant-type creature, though it requires quite a bit of concentration to qualify for. (and a little bit of DM fiat -see later).

For prerequisites, it needs 13 ranks of Survival, 8 Knowledge (Nature) and 4 Spot, as well as four Feats (Alertness, Endurance, Skill Focus (Nature) and Power Attack), you need to be able to cast up to Entangle, Plant Growth and Control Plants which in 3.5e is a level 8 spell, but in 3.0e was a level 4 spell. You might want to ask your DM to switch it with Command Plants instead, which is probably the correct interpretation since the spell mechanics were also switched between editions. If you do this, all of the spells are only available to Druids, Rangers or Clerics with the Plant domain, pretty much dictating who can join this prestige class.

You'll also need to have proficiency with a Maul, which is a Martial Weapon listed in the FRCS, but is an exotic weapon in Complete Warrior, either way that will require an extra feat or multiclass level to be spent if you are a Cleric or Druid.

Finally, you need to meet a Treat, which can scupper you if your DM doesn't introduce you to one.

Trivia

• Mentioned above, Silvanus may well have been known as agriculture god Sucellos in the real life Celtic pantheon. The imagery is much the same: a leafy dude with a big giant hammer.
• Silvanus was a god in the real life Roman Pantheon, also "borrowed" from the Celtic pantheon. However rather than being the cranky old fucker who yells "keep off the grass" he was a PROPER god of MANLY bare-chested MEN who spent all their time toiling with their MUSCLES in the fields to bring home food for the wimmin-folk. Thus he was a goddess of agriculture, rather than wild nature, and his cults were exclusively male.
• As another variant on the Silvanus / Obad-Hai mixture, in the Ghostwalk campaign they probably got blended with Corellon Larethian to form Galaedros which is what you'd get if you put Silvanus at the top of a pantheon and gave him a crazy as fuck ex-wife.