Obad-Hai
The Shalm. N Intermediate power of nature, woodlands, freedom, hunting, beasts (He/Him)
Realm: Outlands / The Hidden Wood (moves, usually near Fortitude or Faunel)
Symbol: A mask of oak leaf and acorns
Pantheon: Flan (Oerthian)
Obad-Hai, also called the Shalm, is an old-timer among the gods. Chant goes he’s been around since the first leaf budded. While he’s favourite of the Flan people of Oerth, Obad-Hai is a power who welcomes any who tread the green paths—be they rangers, druids, or elementalists—all who hold nature dear. He appears as a lean and weathered old man, as ageless as the hills. Clad in brown or russet, he usually carries a wooden staff. He’s called the shalm because of the instrument he plays— it’s like a large flute-trumpet. The haunting melodies he plays are older than most civilisations, and tap into deep primal magics from simpler times.
Old Obad-Hai’s got a knack for shifting his shape and mingling with mortals. He can be as human as the next cutter, or a dwarf, gnome, or halfling, depending on his whims. And it’s not just the humanoid races he’ll mimic; he’s known to take on the form of various animals or fey. According to the Old Faith, Obad-Hai is reborn every spring, growing from a young boy into the Stag King and then into a weathered old man by the end of the season. When winter comes, he meets his end at the hands of Nerull, only for Pelor and Beory to ensure his return come spring.
As for his relationships with other powers, he’s in a bit of a rough patch with Ehlonna and is outright at daggers drawn with Phyton. Karaan, the vile nature deity, is like the dark to his light. Amongst the Flan pantheon, he’s often seen rubbing shoulders with the likes of Beory and Berei, gods of the agricultural leaning.
Obad-Hai’s teachings are all about living in harmony with nature, and the understanding that life and death are two sides of the same leaf. His ways though are perhaps are a little harsher and less forgiving than some of the other nature powers. When his followers hunt, they go after the weak and the sickly first, for nature’s ways aren’t what mortals think of as kind. He is nevertheless revered by humans, dwarves, fey, gnomes, and halflings alike. The tribes of the Flan on Oerth hold him in particularly high regard, seeing him as a guardian of the wilds and a guide for those who tread the green paths.
Some graybeards suggest that Obad-Hai is an aspect of Silvanus, Cernunnos or even the King of Trees. That’s as maybe. Perhaps all of them are aspects of an ultimate nature power. Who can say, those powers move in mysterious ways, after all. Since the re-emergence of the Plane of Wood he’s also been seen there, perhaps looking to establish a second realm.
Canonical Sources:Â Deities & Demigods [3e] p86-88 (description of power); Dragon Magazine #29 [1e] p29 (Obad-Hai avatar stats and background); Dragon Magazine #342 [3e] p51,54,56 (initiate priests)
Source: Jon Winter-Holt