Mielikki: Our Lady of the Forest, the Forest Queen (Intermediate Deity)

Symbol: Gold-horned, blue-eyed unicorn's head facing left Home Plane: House of Nature Alignment: Neutral Good

Portfolio: Autumn, dryads, forest creatures, forests, rangers Worshipers: Druids, fey creatures, foresters, rangers

Cleric Alignments: CG, LG, NG

Domains: Animal, Good, Plant, Travel

Favored Weapon: The Hornblade (scimitar)

Mielikki (my-lee-kee) is a good-humored deity who is quick to smile and confident in her actions. She is fiercely loyal to and protective of those she calls friends but considers carefully before including someone among them. While she knows death is part of the cycle of life, she is not as hard-hearted as Silvanus and often intervenes to cure the injuries of a creature because she finds them hard to bear. Mielikki appears as a robust, russet-haired, brown-eyed woman of shapely form and lithe grace, garbed in leather armor of muted green and brown.

The church of Mielikki is well-regarded in wilderness areas, where rangers are often the only shield against the dangers of the frontier. Correctly or not, most see its clergy as far more willing to seek an equitable balance between settlement and preserving nature than the faithful of Silvanus or the elves who have long stalked the forests. Moreover, her church is seen as a necessary counter to the bestial savagery of the Beast lord's followers.

Clerics, druids, and spellcasting rangers of Mielikki pray for spells in the morning or the evening but are required to observe both. They listen to and understand the whispers of the woods after a period of meditation and extended introspection. Once a month, each cleric or druid is required to perform the Song of Trees, a ritual that calls forth a dryad or treant, and then serve the creature by performing small tasks for a day. The church's most holy rituals, called the Four Feasts, take place on the equinoxes and solstices. They celebrate the sensual side of existence and involve singing praises to the Lady in forest depths wherever possible. Celebrations on Greengrass and Midsummer night are similar to the Four Feasts, but they also include planting rites and the Wild Ride, where herds of unicorns gather and allow the faithful to ride them bareback through the forest. On years when Shieldmeet follows Midsummer, the Ride continues for that day and night if desired. Almost all clerics of Mielikki multi-class as rangers or (to a lesser extent) druids. Her druids may use armor and weapons allowed to rangers and not be in violation of their sacred oaths.

HISTORY/RELATIONSHIPS: Mielikki is the daughter of Silvanus and sister of Eldath. Gwaeron Windstrom and Shiallia serve her, and Lurue the Unicorn is her mount when she rides into battle. Mielikki is friendly with Shaundakul and Lathander and opposes evil-aligned deities, particularly Malar, Talos, Talona.

DOGMA: Intelligent beings can live in harmony with the wild without requiring the destruction of one in the name of the other. Embrace the wild and fear it not, because the wild ways are the good ways. Keep the Balance and learn the hidden ways of life, but stress the positive and outreaching nature of the wild. Do not allow trees to be needlessly felled or the forest burned. Live in the forest and be a part of the forest, but do not dwell in endless battle against the forest. Protect forest life, defend every tree, plant anew where death fells a tree, and restore the natural harmony that fire-users and woodcutters often disrupt. Live as one with the woods, teach others to do so, and punish and curtail those that hunt for sport or practice cruelties on wild creatures.