01/19/1518 Gahlen Waterfall

 

Hello and welcome. This is a sermon about our faith, the faith of

Ateraan. About our tenets and truths, and our daily life.

 

Nature faith is the faith of balance. All beings, all things of our

world consist of the five elements of Ateraan - earth, air, fire, water

and spirit. There is no beginning and no end, everything goes in eternal

cycles and circles. We believe in the balance of all things, be it

natural phenomena or our lives.

 

We need to get a deep understanding of nature, to be able to act

responsible with our world, to protect it, to take the right decisions.

We have a tenet to express this goal, the tenet of knowledge. It is our

duty to learn from nature, from ourselves, and from others every day.

And to act ob behalf of what we learned, and teach the world about it.

 

Balance means, most natural processes are self regulating. They don't

need any involvement by us. If there are too many deers in the forest,

the wolves will get more food, more wolves will survive, which leads to

a decrease of the deer population. That's simple. However, there are

different kinds of balances, stable and unstable ones.

 

A round boulder on the top of a hill may be in balance at the moment,

but if you push it too far it may roll down the hill. If you have only

one pair of deer and twenty wolves in the forest, the wolves will kill

the deer, the population won't recover, and deer and wolves will die.

 

So this situation may require intervention. This is what our truth of

responsibility teaches. We sapients are part of nature. Ateraan gave us

the ability of free will. But this privilege gives us the responsibility

to care for our world.

 

You may say Ateraan can care for herself. But we are a part of Ateraan.

We are her tools to care for herself. It is our duty to be vigilant

toward whatever could destroy the balance of our world. And this is what

our tenet of duty says. And not all threats for our world are natural.

Not all can be handled by the natural balance.

 

You might have heard the legends of the final fight against the great

destroyer under the command of the Warlock, the fall of the guardians.

It was a fight against creatures from another dimension, who were about

to wipe out all life on this planet. This epic battle, which not only

decided the fate of our world, but probably of the whole cosmos, took

place right here east of Gahlen, at the border to Quolinara. And druids

did their duty and gave their lives in this battle. But if it would have

been only druids, they surely would have failed. People of all guilds

and species fought together. Even the three faiths put aside their

conflicts and fought hand in hand against the bigger threat.

 

And this is what the tenet of focus teaches us - always be aware that

the protection of our world is the most important thing for us, and not

being distracted by worldly conflicts. They may occur, of course, but we

should always have the bigger picture in mind.

 

And the legend of this battle also teaches us about our fourth tenet -

unity. Diversity is our strength, and everyone can contribute with their

abilities. You don't need to be a strong fighter, if you can contribute

with your wisdom. And if you are not wise, you maybe can contribute with

the strength of your muscles. This is true for the sapients of Ateraan

as a whole, but also for the people inside our guild - we have fighters,

healers, teachers, bards, preachers, hunters among the druids... and

they all contribute to the great goal, the protection of our planet.

 

So if you want to be a part of this - may you choose the path of a

druid, devote to our faith as a member of another guild, or simply

support us in whatever way - you are most welcome.