Appearance

Sybil’s preferred form is that of a dark skinned wild elven woman in hooded tunic of darkest green, wielding a silver tipped spear. It is said that on the nights of a full moon, Sybil can be seen patrolling the wilds with a pack of keen-eyed lycanthropes in her wake.

Tenets

Five things a follower of Sybil should do:

1. Respect your prey. Take what is needed, replace what is lost, and waste nothing.

2. Protect the wildlands from those who would exploit or despoil them.

3. Acknowledge your weaknesses and seek to improve them constantly; become stronger through vigilant training, not through tricks.

4. Be the light in the darkness. Aim to inspire others against corruption through your words and actions.

5. Share your knowledge with younger generations and your kin. Pass on your gifts.

Five things a follower of Sybil should not do:

1. Lose your connection to the wilds by dwelling too long in urban areas.

2. Use poison or disease as weapons or tools. Your hunt should be a pure contest between predator and prey.

3. Let your prey suffer.

4. Be sedentary or satisfied. If a hunt does not come to you, find one.

5. Betray your pack or lead them to their destruction.

History

Sybil is not a goddess native to these lands. She was pulled into this realm when the old gods waged war and were made mortal. She partnered with Dunarthos who, at the time, was God of the Hunt. The two quickly fell in love, but fate had other plans. The brown dragon Nidhogg devoured the roots of the World Tree, which gives life and connects all the realms. With the help of the Fenrir Wolf, the two hunters defeated the brown dragon and forced him to flee, but the damage done was far too great. Dunarthos, her love, sacrificed himself and became the roots the tree needed to survive. He gave up his hunter’s title, passing it to her before becoming one with the land. He is the father of nature and she acts as his guardian.

Celestial Heaven: The Hunting Grounds

Sybil and Dunarthos are bound to each other in all things, and even if an existence where they were separated was possible, such a life would ultimately have no meaning. Without the World Tree to protect, there is no hunt. And without the Hunt, the world tree would inevitably fall to the assaults upon its roots. Thus, it should come without surprise that Sybil has drawn her Celestial Heaven close to Yggdrasil, so much so that the barrier between the two effectively overlaps. Any being can simply traverse from the great expanse of Sybil’s domain directly to the trunk of the World Tree simply by walking as one would normally; no portal magic is required. Indeed, many of her servants do just that, as hunts are regularly called to defend Dunarthos against those that would seek to defile or destroy him.

With one small yet notable exception, Sybil’s Heaven consists of every sort of natural landscape imaginable, all completely unmarred by most signs of civilization. Large animal hide tents illuminated by campfires are the closest the Spirits of her realm will ever come to the comforts of city life, and yet none would have it any other way. Here, they can hunt nearly any prey they desire in nearly any natural environment they wish. Those who are particularly blessed may find that the Fenrir wolf has joined their Hunt, and those few able to keep up with the great Spirit are often rewarded for his blessing. Sybil’s realm is not meant for those who let themselves become complacent or idle, for one must always seek new prey and ever strive to refine their skills. While a true death is not possible on a hunt, Spirits can and often do sustain enough damage to temporarily discorporate their spiritual forms. The long process of reformation is painful enough that most Spirits rarely make the same hunting mistakes twice, with many opting to join the various clans and tribes that populate her realm.

However enjoyable and fulfilling these simple hunts may be to the Spirits of Sybil’s realm, they yet serve a greater purpose. Once every six months, the Goddess of the Hunt is able to temporarily pull Arthos’ moon closer to her realm via strenuous manipulation of the Ethereal Winds of the Astral Void. This causes it to enter Arthos’ shadow, giving rise to a lunar eclipse and the red Blood Moon that follows.

As the Deity of Secrets, Dietremen, has ownership over the moon, a curious thing then occurs. A portion of the Hunting Grounds and Delubrum Noctis overlap in a shadowy jungle of cold and night. Sybil attempts to glean secrets from Dietremen’s realm within this overlapping Divine forest, but for what purpose is utterly unknown. Both squabble and mutual trade has occurred within this strange space, but both sides of the Angelic Host refuse to speak of it.

This celestial event is additionally her method of signalling to all in her domain that the Wyld Hunt has begun. The quarry of the Hunt is none other than the Fenrir wolf himself, but even so much as simply laying eyes upon Sybil’s truest companion as he stalks the vast expanse of her realm is a feat only ever accomplished by the most skilled of hunters. However, those few that manage to go further and wound the great wolf in some fashion are granted Sybil’s greatest prize. Having achieved the very epitome of what it means to be a hunter, The Huntress surrenders dominion over their Spirit and grants them leave to join the Hunt-Masters of the Wormwood. While many of the otherwise unaligned Hunt-Masters do not care for the meddling ways of the Gods, they do not refuse the incredibly skilled candidates that she provides to their ancient order. As the mortals upon Arthos expand in number, so too do those willing to defile it for their own selfish ends, thus requiring more mortal Hunt-Masters to punish the worst of these offenders. Some of the more ancient Hunt-Masters have begun to raise alarms regarding the obviously divided loyalties of these new recruits, but for now, necessity demands that they accept them into their ranks.

Realms Within The Hunting Ground

• The Moon-Kissed Plains

For those mortals blessed by Therianthropy in life, the Moon-Kissed Plains will ultimately be their destination in death unless they have been directly claimed by another God or Dragon. Even if they did not serve Sybil directly while mortal, something within their animalistic soul calls to this place, and it is a call that they cannot refuse. The Black Tide itself will be unable to hold them for long, and they will soon wash up upon the shores of Sybil’s realm.

The plains are a simple place, consisting mostly of temperate grasslands and small copses of trees, with the occasional mountain or two to liven things up. Animals and beasts of all sorts populate this realm, both as hunting companions to be made or game to be hunted by its Therianthrope residents.

The full moon that constantly shrines above this small plane is not the celestial object owned by Dietremen but is instead a facsimile created in memoriam of the world she left behind. Its light empowers and strengthens the animal’s soul that dwells within its own, but unlike The Nightkeeper’s moon, it does not fill them with an uncontrollable bloodlust unless Sybil wills it.

In the world she was forced to leave behind, Therianthropy was not a curse but a blessing bestowed upon those who curated a close connection with a powerful spirit of the wild. Sybil suspects that the powers of the Dark took what should have been a sacred gift on this world and perverted it with its lust for blood and lack of control. That violation was what drove her to create this demiplane. Here, those simultaneously blessed and cursed can finally experience what their gifts should have provided, untainted by darkness and deceit. Here they are free to run, hunt, and bond with the natural world as they should have been in life.

However, it is whispered that was not this plane’s only purpose. Once, entire armies of were-creatures stood ready, at the beck and call of a now-dead god. Fearsome warriors that knew few equals, almost none could oppose them as they ravaged all that would violate the natural world. Some believe that Sybil’s wholesale acceptance of these Spirits, regardless of their faiths in life, means that she intends to reform these armies. But for what purpose? None can say for certain because she will not.

• The Hunter’s Dream

In the Hunting Grounds, the quarry that Spirits generally come across are usually creatures they would have hunted in life. That is to say, the hunts they experience here are generally limited by the sorts of pursuits they could have conceivably carried out were they still mortal.

The Hunter’s Dream has no such restrictions. Taking the form of a simple cottage surrounded by a wild garden, a tall waif-angel bids those selected to dream of lying down upon the cottage’s sole bed. As they drift off into a deep slumber, their consciousness awakens to find themselves in an entirely different world. Here, the Hunt is only constrained by the limits of the Spirit’s imagination or the lived experiences of Sybil herself. Quarry never before seen by mortals’ eyes bounds through alien landscapes, and weapons both legendary and utterly foreign to most mortals are available to be wielded. Any scenario that is not directly heretical or against the tenets of Sybil or Dunarthos is fair game. Imaginary hunts involving triumphs over Nidhogg are commonly requested, as are invasions of Dietremen’s moon by Sybil’s loyal therianthrope Spirits.

The amount of raw divine power that maintaining a plane like this is not required, and thus The Hunter’s Dream is actually quite small. The privilege of using it is generally only granted to her favoured or those who have otherwise greatly impressed her.