| Game background | |
|---|---|
| Title(s) | The Woodshaper |
| Home plane | Olympian Glades of Arborea |
| Power level | Lesser |
| Alignment | Chaotic Good |
| Portfolio | Nature, Beauty, Farming |
| Domains | Chaos, Good, Plant, Sun, Water |
| Superior | Lendor |
| Design details | |
In the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, Phyton is the Suel god of Nature, Beauty, and Farming. Phyton's symbol is a scimitar in front of an oak tree.
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Phyton was first detailed for the Dungeons & Dragons game in the World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting (1983), by Gary Gygax.[1] Phyton was further detailed by Lenard Lakofka in Dragon #90 (1984), in the article Gods of the Suel Pantheon III.[2]
Phyton was one of the deities described in the From the Ashes set (1992), for the Greyhawk campaign.[3] Phyton is described as one of the good deities that celestials can serve in the supplement Warriors of Heaven (1999).[4]
Phyton's role in the 3rd edition Greyhawk setting was defined in the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer (2000).[5]
Phyton is most often depicted as a tall, handsome man, slender and youthful-looking, though he can appear as any creature of the forest.
Phyton was once like most other nature deities, but now represents man's dominance over nature, which pits him and his followers against druids, other nature gods, and others who would protect the wild from mankind's depredations. For this reason, he is a foe of Obad-Hai. Wee Jas also bears Phyton great enmity, for his dominion over beauty.
Although a human deity, Phyton currently dwells with the Seldarine in Arvandor, though he also has a realm in Ysgard.
Phyton teaches that the nature in its natural, untouched state can only be made more beautiful by the hand of mankind. Therefore, gardens, crop fields, and swamps drained for fertile soil are no less wondrous than mountains and forests. He also teaches that animals should be domesticated whenever possible, but those which prove harmful to man or his works should be destroyed.
Phyton is chiefly a human deity.
Phyton's priests believe that man can always improve on the design of nature, be it clearing forests for agriculture, cutting roads through mountains, building dams, draining swamps, redirecting rivers, culling ugly or harmful plants, or domesticating animals. They protect farming communities and look for ways to best use the land to man's advantage. Each often chooses a region to oversee, usually one day's walk in diameter.
Temples of Phyton can be found in Geoff, the Gran March, Highfolk, the Pale, Ratik, the Duchy and Principality of Ulek, the Urnst States, and among the humans of Celene.
Prayers are often made to Phyton to ensure timely harvests and bountiful crops.