Celestial Stag
Hundred Horns, Eyes of Time, Crown of the Forest
© Steve Bellshaw
Symbol: A three-eyed stag skull with flowers blooming from its antlers.
The Celestial Stag appears as a gigantic deer-like entity, large enough that ancient trees brush against its flanks when it walks. Its antlers form an enormous branching crown. Several tines appear broken, yet the missing fragments hover in their proper places, drifting slightly like leaves caught in slow wind.
The stag's body is cloaked in living growth and it leaves a drifting trail of petals wherever it walks. At night, its lichen patches and eyes glow softly, allowing travelers to glimpse a distant moving constellation through the forest. Its three eyes are different colors and supposedly let it see the past, present, and future of whatever it gazes upon.
The Celestial Stag embodies the wild nature of life and how it resists the ravages of time. It protects forests fiercely but does not prevent predators from hunting or storms from destroying old growth. Death is not a tragedy, it is fertile soil.
Those who respect the balance of nature may receive blessings. Those who attempt to dominate the wild, tame it, or replace it with civilization may be met with misfortune, sickness, or the land itself rejecting their attempts.