Vydona
The mantle of Treemender has always belonged to the forest spirit Vydona, and it will likely always be hers. She was one of the Old Gods who elected not to engage in the Siege of Mount Celestia, and instead agreed to follow the victor, whoever they may be. As a result, her domain remained untouched during the aftermath, and while the oceans and heavens were forced to reorganize and suffered from prolonged chaos, the forests saw no such fate. All who simply wanted peace after the decades of war that became known as the Dratarian Wars ventured into these wilds, becoming the first druids and nature spirits. This very public neutral stance that she and many other divines took seemed to have angered someone, however, as many of her fellows began to disappear during Zero Year and the Age of Ancients, with nobody revealing themselves as the culprit or taking responsibility. Mantle after mantle disappeared into nothing, until it was clear Vydona was next on the chopping block. Creighton, Goddess of the Void and loyalist to Maliece, made herself known to Vydona by enacting upon her people incredible cruelty. In Creighton's mind, any of the more powerful Old Gods like Vydona who elected not to enter the war were responsible for Maliece's death, and so rather than simply kill her, the Void Goddess decided she wanted to punish her first.
The Night of Beasts was violent and horrible, and forever changed the future of Thelekar. Far Realm magic corrupted the Tarrastov Spire, one of the Sister Trees at the center of the Tarrastov Woodland. This corruption spread through the sacred places throughout the forests, and totems of worship began lashing out at the druids bound to them. As the totems rotted away, the spirits bound to them were ripped apart and forced into the bodies of the druids tending them, beginning to mutate them into horrible amalgamations of mortals and animals. These shifting beasts were feral and mindless, driven to the brink of death as their bodies ripped and tore, growing to resemble the spirit of the totem nearest them. Wolves, bears, lions, elephants, Tarastov had become a veritable zoo of screaming semi-beasts and Vydona was unable to stop it with her own power. Overtaken with despair and grief, the normally pacifist Vydona lunged at Creighton, beginning a battle that would shake the surface of Thelekar like the divine wars of ages past. The nature goddess may have been powerful amongst her peers, but Creighton had spent millennia preparing to battle gods, and proved too strong to defeat in combat. In a desperate last move, Vydona brought about a curse that would bind the two of them together forever known as the Binds of Apathy, often used at a much smaller scale on unruly prisoners in the mortal kingdoms. It was at this point that the Stormguard arrived, placing the two goddesses within a pocket dimension where they would remain forever more, until two issues could be dealt with: how to separate the two goddesses from one another, and how to suppress the unfathomable power Creighton seemed to possess.
Ever since, Vydona's sacrifice has not been forgotten. She is regularly venerated at the remaining Sister Trees across the continents, and was placed in the Creighton Pantheon alongside her allies and her greatest enemy. Those who worship her are indeed able to call upon the divine domain of Nature, and there have been Paladins sworn to her service before, but most often they find themselves finding sacred places within nature ripe with druidic energy, rather than the structured nature of organized religion. All of her sacred places are protected by guardian spirits that resemble her own chosen avatar: wolves with flora in place of fur, grass and twigs and leaves rustling in the wind, a perfect combination of plant and animal.
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