Artemis
GreekGoddessHuntMoonWildernessProtector
Lore
Artemis is a Deity of the hunt, moon, and wild places; she moves through forest and mountain like a season. In the field she is perceived as cool and crystalline—a dry, clear cold that steals the heat from your palms at dusk. The smell that heralds her passage is pine resin mingled with the green iron of crushed leaves and a faint smoke of distant hearths. Sound follows her like a signature: the soft, precise twang of a bowstring, the padding of deer hooves that fall into a careful, ordered silence, and sometimes the far baying of hunting hounds, cut short as if curiosity were recalled. A steady, observant tone suits her—clinical, reverent, and always attentive to the balance between hunter and hunted.
Origin: Greek • Ancient Greece (Arcadia, Ephesus)
Classification: Deity
Field Notes
Observations
- A small silver crescent carved into bark or a ring of untouched doe-tracks around a clearing; at twilight the woods near such marks go unexpectedly and deeply quiet.
Encounter Advice
- taboo: Do not slaughter nursing animals or leave young exposed; do not boast of deeds taken in her forests; never hang trophies stained with cruelty where children or creatures dwell — such acts are blasphemy in her presence.
- reverence: Approach by moonlight where possible; offer simple gifts (honey, laurel, a clean cloak) and speak a vow to protect the young and the wild; observe a respectful silence during rituals and return the first catch or a portion to the wood.
- offering: Raw honey, laurel sprigs, a silver crescent token, or a spoken promise to guard a tract of woods or the young of the land.
Abilities
- Actaeon's FateTransforms mortals who spy upon her unclothed into a stag and condemns them to be ripped apart by their own hounds.
- Moonlit Silver ArrowFires silver‑moon arrows guided by lunar light that strike with unerring accuracy and can fell kings, beasts, or sorcerers in a single shot.
- Call of the HuntSummons spectral hounds and huntresses (nymphal attendants) that pursue designated prey or harass intruders across forests and hills.
Weaknesses
- Bound to the WildHer presence and powers are strongest in untamed places; within dense cities or forged halls her influence and potency are noticeably reduced.
- Oath‑Binding ConstraintFormal sworn vows invoking her name (oaths made at her altars) can ritually constrain her immediate wrath or compel negotiated mercy for the duration of a lunar cycle.