Hyrn the Horned Lord
  1. Notes

Hyrn the Horned Lord

Gods

🌲 Hyrn the Horned Lord

God of the Hunt, Beasts, Wild Honor, and the Primal Call
Patron of Rangers, Stalkers, and the Wild Hunt
Alignment: Neutral

📜 Lore & Origin

Hyrn the Horned Lord is the embodiment of the primal hunt—the blood-soaked frost, the breath of the wolf, the silent arrow through the heart. He is the feral brother of Ky, the Nature Mother, born of the deep woods and stormy skies. While she blooms and nurtures, he stalks and culls, maintaining the sacred balance through strength and survival.

Hyrn is not a destroyer of civilization, but its wary observer. He is respected—never tamed—by mortals. Nisaba, goddess of order and agriculture, is his sister-in-law, and some legends say it was her tempering influence that taught him to accept ranger oaths and guide warriors who walk the line between wilderness and civilization.

Above all, Hyrn is the Lord of the Wild Hunt, a spectral host of hunters and hounds said to ride across the night skies during solstices and blood moons. To die well in battle, or to live as a true predator of the natural world, is to earn a place in this otherworldly chase. The Hunt rides not just for sport, but as a ritual—balancing the forces of life and death, guiding lost spirits, and punishing those who desecrate wild places.

🦌 Depiction

Hyrn appears as a towering, antlered figure cloaked in shadow and leaf. His face is often hidden beneath a stag skull helm, his eyes glowing green with preternatural awareness. He wields a spear made of bone and bronze, and is often flanked by ghostly hounds, ravens, or beast-spirits.

His silhouette is often glimpsed at the edge of firelight or between trees—never fully seen unless he wills it.

Symbol: A stag skull or a pair of antlers silhouetted against the moon
Sacred Animals: Wolves, stags, hawks, and spectral hounds

🛕 Worship & Doctrine

Temples: Rare—his worship is conducted in sacred glades, hunter’s shrines, stone circles, and beneath hanging antlers. Offerings are made at the foot of trees or left at crossroads in the woods.

Clergy Titles: Wildmarked, Horned Wardens
Holy Days: The Winter Solstice (Night of the Wild Hunt), Autumn's Dusk (last full moon before harvest), and the First Kill of the Season
Sacred Rites: The Blood Trail (a ritual hunt reenacted to initiate rangers), the Antler Oath (for those who pledge themselves to protect the wild)

🗡️ Tenets of the Horned Lord

Followers of Hyrn must:

  • Honor the cycle of predator and prey. Kill with purpose, not cruelty.

  • Leave no wound festering in the wild—end suffering swiftly.

  • Never hunt for mere sport, and never waste what is taken.

  • Uphold pacts with nature and kin-beasts; betray neither.

  • At death, face it standing and unafraid—so the Hunt may claim you.

Rangers, druids, and barbarians often invoke Hyrn before setting off into unknown wilds. Some frontier communities revere him during lean winters or dangerous migrations, offering venison and bone-carved totems to keep his favor.

🔮 Special Spell Access (Arcane Crossovers)

Clerics or ranger-priests of Hyrn may prepare the following OSE Advanced Arcane spells as divine, drawn from the raw powers of the wild hunt and nature’s fury.

Spell Level Spell Name Divine Meaning in Hyrn's Faith
2nd Animal Summoning I The horn’s call—summon beasts to aid in the hunt
3rd Fly Take the wind’s path as the hawk does
4th Polymorph Other Invoke the Hunt—change flesh to predator or prey
5th Commune with Nature Speak with the deep woods and hear what they know

Note: Spells must be prepared at dawn or dusk, with offerings of blood, horn, or claw.

🦴 The Wild Hunt

Those who serve Hyrn in life may join the Wild Hunt in death—a spectral procession of beast-warriors, ancient hunters, and lost souls galloping beneath the stars. The Hunt is both myth and afterlife, vengeance and mercy. To the faithful, it is a reward; to the defilers of the wild, a curse.

On stormy nights, the Hunt may be seen as shadows across the moon, accompanied by howling winds and the cry of horns.

"When death finds me, I shall run beside Hyrn, laughing with my blade in hand."
— Oath of the Horned Brotherhood

✨ Holy Garb of Hyrn

“Cloak yourself in the forest’s silence, and let your scent be wind and blood.”
— Hornward Rite of the Stag-Marked

The followers of Hyrn the Horned Lord do not wear shimmering vestments or gilded holy symbols. Instead, their sacred garb is a living bond to the wilderness—crafted from the hides of beasts they have respectfully hunted, bones of honored prey, and gifts from the forest itself. Each piece is earned, not bought.

To Hyrn’s faithful, garb is not decorative—it is totemic, sacred, and practical, used not only for spellwork but for survival in the wilds. These items must be made by the cleric or received as a gift from another of the faith.

Wearing the appropriate garb is required to prepare and cast spells or invoke blessings from the Horned Lord.

🦴 Stages of Sacred Garb

1. Cloak of the First Kill (20 gp)

  • Appearance: A weathered leather mantle, stitched from the hide of a personally hunted animal (usually a deer, wolf, or boar), with feathers, teeth, or claws woven into its seams.

  • Granted To: Initiates and those preparing 1st-level spells.

  • Focus Use: Required for spellcasting; without it, divine prayers fall unheard.

“Mark your pact in blood, not ink.”

2. Circlet of Antlers (75 gp)

  • Appearance: A simple crown of carved antler tips bound with sinew and dyed leather, bearing Hyrn’s symbol burned into the brow.

  • Granted At: Upon reaching 2nd-level spells.

  • Focus Use: Required for preparing or casting 2nd-level or higher spells.

  • Optional Effect: While worn in a natural setting, grants +1 to initiative rolls (DM discretion).

“Raise your brow to the moon and be known to the Hunt.”

3. Gorget of the Howling Grove (300 gp)

  • Appearance: A throatpiece formed from bleached wolf jawbones and etched greenstone, strung on braided leather cords. Some versions have bits of moss or pine still clinging to them.

  • Granted At: Upon casting 3rd-level spells. Often bestowed during the Rite of the Antler Moon.

  • Focus Use: Required for 3rd-level and higher divine spells.

  • Optional Effect: Once per day, when hidden in wilderness, may gain advantage on a single Stealth or Survival check (DM discretion).

“Your voice must echo the howl. Your breath must blend with wind.”

🐺 Rules for Divine Focus in Hyrn’s Faith

  • Spellcasting Restriction: Hyrn’s clerics and wild priests must wear or bear their sacred garb to prepare and cast divine spells.

  • Defilement or Loss: If the garb is desecrated, lost, or destroyed, the cleric must slay a worthy beast and craft a replacement under a full moon.

  • Turn Undead or Channeling the Hunt: Attempting to Turn Undead or invoke the Wild Hunt’s fury without proper garb imposes a −2 penalty and may attract Hyrn’s ire (ominous howls in the night are common warnings).

Marks of Servitude

  • 1st: Small antler nubs form beneath the scalp or behind the ears.

  • 2nd: Eyes reflect like those of a stag or wolf.

  • 3rd: Hair grows coarse and smells of pine and musk.

  • 4th: Canine teeth subtly elongate.

  • 5th: A ghostly crown of antlers appears during wild rites or casting.