Haern

The Rhythm is the ever-changing, never static, flow of Nature. The Way of the Hunter is as complex as the Rhythm itself, but is known by three names - The Way of Defiance, The Way of Destruction, and The Way of Severity. This rhythmic balance is the realm of Haern, as He is the force that keeps the Rhythm in motion. The hunt is about sacrifice - clean and merciful, a conscious and deliberate choice of a greater good over a lesser good. Good, to the Hunter, is this application of force in the appropriate time, space and proportion. Evil is the misapplication of such force, or the unwillingness to act at all. It is a virtue to know one's place in the natural order of Aetolia. To allow another to dictate this to you is a vice.

Haern finds virtuous these traits of strong will, severity and destruction, and seeks a balance of rhythm, rather than of stability. It takes courage to not fear dissolution and to know that all spiritual principles are indestructible. His realm encompasses all animals, and He harbors a respect for the prey as well as for the skilled hunter. He is intolerant of transgressions and is known to bring swift action against any creature that oversteps its bounds, or any abomination that has no place in Nature. His followers include a mixture of those who strive for a strict balance in Nature, those who value strife as an agent of growth, diversity and harmony, and those who see themselves as passionate advocates of the wilderness and the wild.

As fresh blood on the cold, pure snow, the colours of Haern are crimson and ivory. His symbols are a red bone claw on a field of white, and the open triad, a three-branched knot reminding of the Ways. The bear, the serpent, and the raven are held sacred by those who follow Him.

History

Haern was created by Varian, the Celestine, shortly after the birth of Severn and Lanos in the Age of Creation. He was formed as part of a Triad that represented the Cycle of life and death - Lleis was His sister, and Dhar was His brother. In the First Mortal Epoch, Lleis challenged the Pantheon to build homes for mortals to gather and flourish within, and Haern was crowned as the winner of the competition for painstakingly dotting the landscape of Sapience with trees and forests and hills and valleys - truly a home for a majority of life.

In the year 63 MA, while Lanos was lost in the realm of shadows, Haern was preoccupied by an invasion of creatures of darkness. When He finished hunting them, he turned his attention to Eleusis and the Great Oak, declaring that it was time to awaken the only tree of power still dormant and use its power to build the Duiran Council. It was not a simple feat, however, and He quarreled with Slyphe over who would act as patron over the Council. This caused the Maelstrom to sabotage the ritual that the Hunter would need to use in order to awaken the Great Oak. After a short conflict, both Gods agreed to share patronage of the Council and the ritual was attempted once again, this time with success.

In the year 168 MA, after having disappeared from mortal perception for many years, Haern once again returned to the Prime Material Plane.

In the year 324 MA, Haern endeavoured to rid the Aalen Forest of the plague that the Dreikathi had brought to it many years before. Following a communion with the spirits of Dendara, He suffered an injury that would gradually weaken Him over the course of the following years. Auresae was beseeched to diagnose the Hunter's curious affliction in the year 338 MA, and discovered that it was the work of Severn, who used this as an opportunity to ambush the Lady of Fire and the Hunter. Just as it seemed like They would be cut down by Their sibling, a human refugee of the slave quarries of Delve by the name of Danerran bravely placed himself between the Gods. This distraction proved fatal for Danerran but allowed Haern and Auresae to counterattack, shattering the Axiom of Severn in the process. The Divine essence released by the breaking of the Axiom infused the corpse of Danerran with power and raised him up as a new God - Damariel, the Unbound. It was then revealed that He was the reborn essence of Lanos and that Arion had sacrificed His own essence to fuel Damariel's creation.

In the year 431 MA, Haern, Damariel, and Slyphe clashed with Maghak. During the battle, Haern was overcome by a bestial presence, forcing him to brutally beat the near-dead Maghak despite the pleas of His siblings to withdraw. In an act seen as savage, even by the Hunter's standards, He ripped the heart of the God out and allowed Slyphe to consume it, transferring the domain of Air from the Sovereign to the Tempest.

In the year 473 MA, mortals in Duiran began to despair at the absence of the Hunter. It was soon revealed that He had been captured by the Cult of Kaarn and was in danger of having His essence stripped away by His captors. Warriors from both Duiran and Enorian entered the site of His prison, Prophet's Hollow, in a rescue attempt that resulted in many deaths. When it seemed as if the Cult was going to succeed, Slyphe miraculously arrived to save Its brother. In the aftermath, it was discovered that Kaarn's prison had been weakened during the melee.

In the year 476 MA, during the chaos and conflict caused by the Leviathan, Haern led His followers on a hunt for a monstrous boar that had been twisted by the blood of Golgotha. When the beast was slain, Haern used a bone from its corpse to forge a new spearhead, which was then combined with wood from the Great Oak to form a powerful weapon that He hoped might assist in the destruction of the Leviathan.

The Temple of Thorns

The Temple of Thorns is Haern's central point of worship in Sapience. Located in the Dun Valley in the deepest reaches of the swampland, it contains an expansive courtyard and the Altars of Instinct, Defiance, Destruction, and Severity can be found here, each representing one of the tenets of His religion. The courtyard is home to three massive trees - the Tree of Whispers, the Blood Tree, and the Ivory Tree. The horn of Huwald is located here in the Temple.