Cernunnos
The Jaws of the Hunt, the Stag Lord, the Horned Lord. CN/CG lesser power and/or empyreal lord of beasts, wild places, hunts, witches (He/Him)
Pantheon: Celtic (Gaulish, Welsh—as Gwen ap Nudd, Briton—as Nodens)
Symbol: Antlers
Realm: Outlands / Tir na Og / Wandering
Cernunnos, known as the Jaws of the Hunt, is the power of beasts, wild places, hunts, and witches. His presence can be felt throughout all of the the wild expanses of Tir na Og, celebrating the untamed and mystical aspects of nature.
Typically depicted as a grizzled male woodland hermit with antlers, Cernunnos is something of an outsider of the eladrin race. Unlike his more refined peers, this feral cutter embodies primal nature. He stalks through the forests with the stealth and grace of a stag. He’s a guardian and master of beasts, from the majestic deer of the plains to the cunning fox in the undergrowth and the wise owl perched in the oak. Cernunnos is a patron of witches and warlocks whose focus is on nature and wilderness. He can be a hands-on blood too, and has been known to preside over arcane rites conducted in the heart of the forest under the moonlit sky.
His domain isn’t confined to a specific location but wanders through the dense forests and untrodden paths of this mystical land. The essence of his realm is the wildness of nature at its most unbridled, and it follows him. It is even able to overlap the realms of other powers, for a time at least. In his realm, followers and petitioners of Cernunnos—who’re carried along with the realm when it moves, but rarely have fixed abodes themselves—are likely to be druids, hunters, and those who practice the old magics. They seek harmony with the natural world, respecting its rules and rhythms. Rituals honouring Cernunnos involve offerings to nature in secluded glades or sacred groves, where the boundary between the mundane and magical is at its thinnest.
Cernunnos’ influence on the natural world extends beyond the physical, touching upon the spiritual and magical. He represents the cycle of life and death, the hunt, and the changing of seasons. He is a personification of the wild heart of nature—mysterious, untamed, and ancient.
Cernunnos and the Wild Hunt
For a power of simple and natural domains, Cernunnos is a complex character. How, you might ask, can a cutter be both pro-wild animals and also pro-hunting? Turns out Cernunnos has multiple aspects, which share much common ground but also diverge.
As the Jaws of the Hunt, Cernunnos has nebulous ties to the Wild Hunt. He may or may not be the Master of the Wild Hunt—chant goes the Master is an aspect or avatar of Cernunnon, or a proxy—maybe even all three. As the Hunter, Cernunnos aims to keep the population of wild animals strong by taking the weakest and winnowing the herd.
As the Protector of the Wilds, Cernunnos hunters the hunters! Woe betide any hunters who kill wantonly or disrespectfully, for they’re the primary targets. But Cernunnos also seeks to make the hunt more challenging by fighting back against hunters by casting down weather, raising up entangling undergrowth, or infusing creatures with rage or dire powers to enable the hunted to fight back. Chant goes that this aspect of Cernunnos is some kind of eladrin empyreal lord who’s either got the same name, or is also a manifestation of the power. Deities are funny like that.
A third aspect of Cernunnos the hunter is to hunt down the enemies of the Celtic pantheon. He’s been known to pass names along to the Wild Hunt, and once those bashers get hold of a scent, they’ll chase it across planes.
Source: Jon Winter-Holt; Bestiary 4 [PF1e]
