The Forest Maiden is a wild and free creature. She is Nature's force, uncontrolled. While she cedes the chaos of the boiling sea and thunderstorm to the Storm Lord, she revels in the savage joys of the forest and glen. She hunts with wolves, dances with nymphs, and runs with deer. Her nature is chaotic, but neither good nor evil - she is as amoral as the predators and prey she spends her time with. Like the animals, she can and does show tenderness towards defenseless newborns. The Spring Maiden is more generally associated with birth and rebirth, but the wild Forest Maid is the patron of the infant as well. The Forest Maiden is the least sympathetic of the Maids, and the least popular. Her shrines and temples tend to be in secluded natural places, and her human worshippers members of ecstatic cults in her honor.

The Forest Maiden is typically grouped with the Queen and Sorceress Aspects as part of a "power triad": power over nature, over humanity, and over the supernatural. This Aspect, however, does not mesh well with her Mother and Crone counterparts. She chafes at the artificial laws of the Queen and views the Sorceress's arcane power with suspicion. For their part, they do not get along too well with her, but both recognize that her asocial wild nature is integral to her power. The Storm Lord is the only one of the Lords she will associate with. Each regards the other warily, fearing encroachment on her or his sphere, but recognizing a kindred spirit. Forest Maiden is one of the few Aspects that will have anything to do with Fortuna.

The Forest Maiden has a small and varied following. Knights of the Road with their small holdings deep in the forests may venerate her. Bandits and hermits worship her, as well as ecstatic hunt cults. The hunt cults are by far the most visible of her worshippers, if perhaps the smallest group in reality. Their wild chases and bloody sport (sometimes rumored to include human or other sentient prey) are the stuff of gory fireside tales.

The Forest Maiden's own followers produce little artwork; most depictions are found in other temples. She is typically symbolized by a lithe, nude young woman wielding a pair of long knives. Her bird is the hawk. Other clergies often use a hawk's feather to symbolize the Forest Maiden's faith; her followers and clergy themselves prefer some preserved part of an animal they have killed themselves. Claws, antler pieces, and teeth are common. Her colors are green and black.

The Clergy

There are persistent rumors that wild wood nymphs are somehow connected to Forest Maiden - either that they are sacred to her, or that they number among her faithful and her clergy.

Priestesses of Forest Maiden tend to be mobile, wandering Saromatia's forests. If they come across a town, they look to see if any will join them in a wild and free life in the woods. A few permanently attach themselves to bandit bands; the wild lifestyle and pack mentality fit well within their faith.

Priestesses are typically skilled in all manner of forest lore. Many are accomplished herbal healers. Despite their generally brutal and bloody reputation, the Forest Maiden's clergy are known for compassion to pregnant creatures, infants, and young creatures. More than a few are skilled midwives.

Shrines and Temples

The only widely known temple to the Forest Maid is in Garonne, as part of the large temple complex there. It is an open patch of ground grown wild with city weeds. Four mournful priestesses tend it - assignment to the city temple is a punishment for these wild women.

The Forest Maiden's other sacred sites are usually located deep within the greensward and are defended against intrusion. It is assumed that there is a High Priestess - someone must send the caretaker priestesses to Garonne, after all - but she, like her clerics, keeps to herself. The High Priestess of the Vision Crone might know her identity and location, but if she does, she will not say.

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