Tuathan Church

Tuath Dé (folk of the gods), gods of the Sea and Land

Description: The official church of the Feudal Kingdoms and the Tuathan people, established after their long journey northward from an unknown disaster in the south.  Strongly influenced by veneration of the Old Faith, which remains a viable faith in the background.

Also known as the Tuatha Dé Danann (folk of the goddess Danu), the gods of the Tuathan church are often depicted as kings, queens, druids, bards, warriors, heroes, healers and craftsmen who have supernatural powers. They dwell in the Otherworld but interact with humans and the human world. They are associated with the fey and the alfar races.  During their migration northward, they displaced and warred with the local Firbolg tribes, a conflict that ended in one massive battle that the Tuathans barely won.  Since then the two species has generally co-existed without incident, the Firbolg sticking to the forests and the wilderness, and the Tuathans founding kingdoms and countries.  The Tuathan's traditional rivals are the Fomorians (Fomoire), who represent the destructive powers of nature, and whom the Tuatha Dé Danann once defeated in the Battle of Mag Tuired, driving the creatures into exhile.

The Tuatha Dé Danann are described as a supernatural race, much like idealized humans or elves, who are immune from ageing and sickness, and who have powers of magic. The powers most often attributed to the Tuatha Dé Danann are control over the weather and the elements, and the ability to shapeshift themselves and other things.  They are also said to control the fertility of the land.  

They live in the Otherworld, which is described as either a parallel world or a heavenly land beyond the sea or under the earth's surface. Many of them are associated with specific places in the landscape, especially the sídh mounds; the ancient burial mounds and passage tombs which are entrances to Otherworld realms. The Tuatha Dé Danann can hide themselves with a féth fíada ('magic mist') and appear to humans only when they wish to.

Dogma

The Tuathans believe that those that live well, or die well, become spirits that travel over the sea and the firmament to the Lands of Light, an unspecified heaven somewhere in the Otherworld that is larger than life.  A place of violent moods and deep affections, of whim backed by steel, and of passions that blaze brightly until they burn out. Its good-natured inhabitants are dedicated to fighting evil, but their reckless emotions sometimes break free with devastating consequences. Rage is as common and as honored as joy in the Land. There the mountains and forests are extravagantly massive and beautiful, and every glade and stream is inhabited by nature spirits that brook no infringement.

It’s said that something wild lurks in the heart of every soul, a space that thrills to the sound of geese calling at night, to the whispering wind through the pines, to the unexpected red of mistletoe on an oak—and it is in this space that the Tuathan gods dwell. They sprang from the brook and stream, their might heightened by the strength of the oak and the beauty of the woodlands and open moor. When the first forester dared put a name to the face seen in the bole of a tree or the voice babbling in a brook, these gods forced themselves into being.

The Tuathan gods are as often served by druids as by clerics, for they are closely aligned with the forces of nature that druids revere.

Tenets of the Faith

• Tend and respect nature, for they are our mother and our father.
• Favor the hoe and the plow, but keep the sword and the shield ready.
• Water is life, memory, and strength, from the Sea we came, and to the Sea we return.
• There is beauty  and passion in all things.
• Craft and creation benefit both the hand that creates and the hand that wields.
• Remain vigilant against the return of the Fomorians the insidious powers of the dark.

Tuathan Creation Myths

Related Faiths

• The Old Faith
• Western Druids

Servitors 

• Elementals
• Nature Spirits
• Unicorns
• Equinal, Avoral
• Seraphs

The four Legendary Artifacts of the Tuathans

• The Sword of Nuada
• The Stone of Destiny (Danu)
• The Cauldron of Diancecht
• The Spear of Conflict (Rhiannon/Morrigan)