Category: Celtic Gods

About

Cernunnos is the name given to the horned god depicted in Celtic mythology. He was a god of life, fertility, animals, as well as the underworld. He has also become a major figure in Wicca and is representative of the male side of the duotheistic system.

Smite Lore

Standing upon the edge of the wooded realm of Cernunnos, one can feel the invitation and the threat. “Come and feast,” it calls. “Nature provides an abundance of crops and wild game.” Yet, the same voice turns dark. “Treat everything with due respect,” it warns. “This is not your home.” And, should one peer intently enough through the shadowed branches, a figure can be seen, horned as a stag, clothed in moss and leaves, eyes burning like untended embers. Cernunnos is master here, and although he has much to offer, he will not tolerate greed.

Time turns on the Sacred Wheel, Spring to Summer, Summer to Autumn and Autumn at last to Winter. Cernunnos was there at the shaping of the wheel, born of the womb of the All Mother before Gods were Gods and the land was shapeless. This wheel is not of his making. He is both master of it and slave to it, transforming with the seasons like the world beneath his feet. He bears a heaving metal torc around his neck as a permanent pledge of loyalty to this cycle of life and death that only he can drive.

Once, it was said, there was no break between his realm and this world. They were the same. Perhaps a time will come when the world shall once again be his. Then, all can walk among the whispering leaves. So long as they remain humble. For the arrogant, Cernunnos hunts. What are these other Gods? Guest or prey?

When to invoke

Cernunnos is best to invoke in situations regarding nature as well as the changing of the seasons. He is a god associated with many animals and can be worshipped during spring and fall festivals for a bountiful hunt.

Image Source: https://smite.gamepedia.com/Cernunnos

About

Artio is the goddess of bears, nature and fertility in the Celtic Pantheon. She was primarily worshiped in the region of Gaul and associated with spring and the guardian of the cycle of seasons and the cycle of life and death. She is known to be able to change into a bear as well as a woman wearing an outfit made out of a bear skin. She is also associated with the constellations Ursa Major and or Ursa Minor.

When Gaul was conquered by the Romans they likened her to the goddesses Artemis and Diana.

Smite Lore

Ice melts in cascading waterfalls from jagged mountain peaks, pouring into rivers roaring white to the cold sea. Straightening slowly, like aged men, trees and fauna of the underbrush, now free of snow-weight, reach for the sun. It is spring; the world awakens from darkness and death to grow green again. Her hibernation ends. Coat wet with fresh rain, Artio, Goddess-Bear, roars into the chill morning air.

She is guardian of the cycle. Not the passage of time, but the balance of things. There is no spring without winter, no death without life, no darkness without light, no goodness without evil. Nature declares these opposites into law and Artio is the enforcer.

Among the ursine she runs, sometimes in the shape of a woman, lithe and wild, sometimes as a bear, brown and fierce. Nowhere in the forest do there stand shrines in her name, for Artio is less worshipped and more respected. Perhaps, instead, she looms overhead, a constant presence in the twinkle of the stars, a connection of glistening light; the constellation Ursa Major.

When to invoke

The best time to invoke Artio is during spring and fall celebrations given her association with the cycle of the seasons.

Image Source:https://smite.gamepedia.com/Artio