PANTHEONS

NEMETONDEVOS

“[The Romans] cannot stand hunger, thirst, cold, nor heat as we can."
"They require shade and shelter, bread and wine and oil, and lacking any of"
"these, they perish. For us though, any grass or root serves as bread, the juice"
"of any plant as oil, any water as wine, any tree as a house. The land is familiar"
"to us. It is our ally. But to them, it is unknown and hostile. We swim the rivers"
"naked, while they cannot cross them easily even with boats. Let us, therefore,"
"go against them trusting boldly to good fortune. Let us show that they are"
"hares and foxes trying to rule over dogs and wolves.”

— Boudica’s Prayer to Andarta, Cassius Dio’s Roman History

ANDARTA -- GODDESS OF WAR

Aliases: Andraste, Andate, Andred

Background: Andarta was the first Gaulish warrior, and the last. With the first sword, she slew the Tarvos Trigaranus, a Titanic bull so massive that a family of giant cranes lived and fished in the swamps on its back. In doing so, Andarta created the first nemeton, an enormous tree connecting The World to her new Godsrealm. When Caesar led her pan- theon’s destruction, Andarta alone neither fled nor fell. He destroyed her nemetons on the continent, but she repelled his conquest of Britannia, where she flourished for another 100 years. Only when her daughter Boudica, last confirmed Scion of the Nemetondevos, finally fell to Rome’s might was Andarta herself unable to hold the island. She fell at last, to the winged Goddess Victoria.

Andarta is the epitome of the Gaulish warrior, fearless to the point of recklessness. She has been known to shun devout worshipers for the slightest sign of fear, prompting soldiers to eschew armor and clothes to gain her favor. This favor comes in the form of absurd luck, with waves of enemy fire missing the naked warrior entirely. She is the most unrelenting in her hatred of the Theoi, and it’s no co- incidence that priests at old Roman temples in Britain have recently found “#FuckTheTheoi” burned onto their walls.

Incarnations of Andarta are similarly uncompromising and unflinching, and demand nothing less from subordinates. Their natures drive them to avenge and reclaim, though not necessarily through violence. They might be ruthless military officers or mercenaries, but they might also be local business owners undaunted by global corporations or tena- cious leaders of minority political parties who just will not let that damn law go through. Still, any Visitation that would awaken such a Scion would be a violent trial, likely gifting them with relic skulls of whatever tested them at the end. If other Gaulish Scions ever collude with members of a certain Mediterranean pantheon, they had damn well better not let an incarnation of Andarta get wind of it.

Provinces: Hunter, Leader, Warrior

Dominions: CHANCE, ENDURANCE, FINESSE, NEMETON, PASSION (Bravery), WAR