Earth (LL)

__TOC__
==Earth (intermediate god)==
Earth is known by several names: Earth Mother, Nokomis, and the Grandmother. She is the beginning and end of all life, for all mortal beings spring from her bosom upon birth and return to it upon death. She feeds all animals, men, and plants, and is the provider of the Water of Life.
Earth derives her power from the Great Spirit, who has bestowed upon her the ability and duty to nurture life. However, she is free to use this power as she pleases and does not answer to him in any subservient sense. She can create up to a 100 square miles of land or ten million gallons of water at will an without tiring. Further, she can accelerate, decelerate, or control the growth of any plant, or cause earthquakes of such magnitude that everything within the affected area must save versus death magic or be destroyed.
Earth is usually visible in her true form to all mortals, though few realize what they are looking at. She abides in the ground upon which they stand, the soil which they till, and the rocks upon which they sit. Those who know what to look for sense her as a warm presence in all that surrounds them.
Role-playing Notes: Earth is a patient and careful deity. She is the most likely of higher Indian deities to answer the individual supplications of her worshipers. As a rule, her base chance to respond in any given case is increased by 1% for each level of the beseecher, and by 5% if the beseecher is a priest of her order.
Earth prefers to guide her worshipers through a wide range of omens. Almost anything can serve as a sign of her pleasure or displeasure: a white eagle, a black wolf, a burning tree. Often, the meaning of such portents is unclear, and the recipient must enter a deep trance to clarify its meaning.
However, when she finds it necessary to discipline a transgressor. Earth's punishments are severe and unmistakable. In cases of tribal offenses, she often sends a flood or earthquake to devastate the wrongdoers. Individual offenders fare little better: being attacked by a black bear or bitten by a snake is considered an unmistakable sign of her enmity.
Statistics: AL ng; WAL n or ng; AoC life, nature, food; SY stalk of maize.
==Earth's Avatar (Druid is)==
Earth's avatar always takes the form of an old woman. She casts spells as an 18th level Druid, save that she can call upon any clerical spell in the plant or animal spheres.
: Str 18/00
: Int 18
: MV 15br
: AC O
: #AT 1	
: Dex 16
: Wis 19
: SZ 5'
: HD 18
: THAC0 3	
: Con 18
: Cha 14
: MR 35%
: HP 144
: Dmg 1d6 +7
Special Att/Def: Earth's avatar cannot be injured by weapons made of unworked natural materials. For example, a wooden club or stone arrowhead causes her no damage, but she is affected normally by any weapon of forged metal. Earth's avatar can burrow through soil or rock at the same rate she moves on the surface.
==Duties of the Priesthood==
Earth's clerics must meet the standard requirements for druids, except they must always be of neutral good alignment. Usually, but not always, her priests are women. Whether male or female, however, her clerics must prove their fruitfulness by being parents, and usually have between 4-8 children living in their lodge. Losing the ability to bear children is considered a sure sign that an individual has lost Earth's favor, though this seldom happens to even to the oldest of her clerics.
Priestesses worshiping Earth preside over two important ceremonies each year: the Blessing of Spring, when life returns from the bosom of the Grandmother, and the Sacrifices of Fall, when important magic items must be buried in the fields or thrown into raging rivers so that the life will return to the fields in the spring.
Clerics worshiping the Earth Mother may use clubs or sickles to defend themselves or, if necessary, to prevent the desecration of the land. Earth allows her priestesses major access to the animal and plant spheres, and minor access only to the elemental, summoning, and weather spheres. Once they reach the 4th level of experience, she also grants her clerics the ability to summon and command 1- 6 wolves. At the 8th level of experience, she allows them to instantaneously grow one tree per day, up to sixty feet in height, provided they have the proper seed to plant. At the 12th level of experience, she permits her priests to travel over water as if it were land.
Statistics: AB as druid; AL ng; WP clubs or sickles; SP all, animal, plant, elemental, summoning, and weather; PW 4) summon and command 1-6 wolves; 8) tree growth (see above); 12) water walking; TU: turn. 
==Sage Advice (Dragon Issue #197)==
Last issue, I promised to start giving unofficial suggestions for using the optional spheres of priest spells from the Tome of Magic with the deities in Legends & Lore. I'll work through one pantheon a month until they're all done. Here's the list for the pantheon:
* Earth: Major: Wards; Minor: Time, Law or Chaos (priest picks one).