Lore · Gods of the Pantheon
Tunare, Mother of All
Every Kelethin druid, every Felwithe paladin, every unicorn in the Faydark owes something to Tunare. Hers is a story told mostly in the things she has loved and lost.
Born of Norrath
Her faithful say the world itself is alive, and that Norrath gave birth to Tunare, from whom all life then came. To worship and protect the land is to honour the Mother of their Mother, and they will fight to the death to defend it. Druids and rangers follow her in great number, and so do a great many elves.
Goddess of growth
She is the goddess of growth and life, the Mother of All, neutral good in temper. She made the high elves and the wood elves and watches over them still, and they repay her by guarding creation from anyone who would despoil it. In the oldest descriptions she rules the Plane of Growth and appears as a very attractive older woman in flowing robes, crowned with vines and leaves. Karana, Erollisi Marr and Rodcet Nife stand with her; Bertoxxulous and Innoruuk stand against her.
The elves and their losses
Tunare was among the gods of Brell’s first pact, and she made the elves to watch over the surface of the world. Her children raised the Elddar Forest and the city of Takish-Hiz. Then the losses began: first their king and queen, taken by Innoruuk, and at last the forest itself, burned away under Solusek Ro’s sun.
Tears and nymphs
Her grief took a shape of its own. In the in-game book Tale of Two Nymphs, Tunare looks on as her elves are ruined at Solusek Ro’s hands and weeps upon the land. Each tear became a nymph, born to tend the places his anger had twisted, and wherever a tear fell a different kind of nymph arose.
Equestrielle
Of all creatures she favours the unicorns, who guard her purest forests. Because they stand for purity, the dark gods delight in ruining them, and the most famous of them suffered exactly that: Cazic-Thule himself tore the horn from Equestrielle and corrupted her, and she roams the forests of Faydark still.
Tunare’s Chosen
In Verant’s early live-event stories the goddess’s name was bound to a mortal one: Firiona Vie, Tunare’s Chosen. After Bloody Kithicor, Firiona went to Kelethin seeking a worthier way to honour the Lady than prayer and thanks alone. In another tale Equestrielle tells her that the Mother of All herself must be summoned over the loss of the Lifeguide, a staff Tunare had given her. And when a hard year that had begun with Firiona’s capture by the iksar Danak Dhorentath came to an end, the new outpost on Kunark that bore her name held the annual Festival of Tunare’s Harvest.
A conversation in the Wakening Lands
Once, the Echoes of Faydwer tale goes, Tunare walked out of the mist in an emerald gown, flowers springing up wherever she stepped, to visit the dragon Wuoshi in his ring of stone in the Wakening Lands. He had been sent there in Veeshan’s service, yet she thanked him for guarding her forest too. Wuoshi answered that he cared little for the politics of the Claws or of the Ring. The forest was his home.
Temples and quests
In Felwithe her paladins and clerics serve together as the Clerics of Tunare, and her symbol quests begin with Yeolarn Bronzeleaf: “We of Tunare are charged with protecting the Great Mother from the forces of Innoruuk. Even now, the evil minions of this foul deity are despoiling our great forest.” The fight never ended. In 2010 she enlisted Karana and Druzzil Ro to send adventurers back into the Elddar Forest, recovering lost knowledge for the struggle against Mayong Mistmoore.
Online Adventures
Even in EverQuest Online Adventures her voice carried. When portals spewing giants opened at Lake Rathe, Halas, Forkwatch and Hazinak, “an agent of Growth” spoke to the Norrathian Times. Whatever their alignment, the agent said, “we all return to the lands when we are slain.” The agent asked the druid and ranger protesters to stop chaining themselves to trees, and sent helpers to Surefall Glade to keep the portal there healed.
Sources
[1] Allakhazam: Tunare · [2] Library of Erudin: Tunare · [3] Library of Erudin: “The History of Norrath” (original EverQuest manual text) · [4] Library of Erudin: Elddar Forest · [5] Library of Erudin: EverQuest RPG Player’s Handbook — Tunare (White Wolf, 2002)
Keep reading
Retold in our own words from the sources listed on this page; short quotes are marked and sourced. The illustration is an original AI-generated painting made for this page alone, not from the game.