Green man

Green man

(Creature)

Rare

N

Medium

Leshy

Plant

Level

24

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Images of green men

Source: Bestiary 3, pg(s). 118

Type

Plant
(shapechanger)

CR

26

Environment

Temperate forests

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Images of green men

Source: Bestiary 6, pg(s). 152

Green man

(Deity)

Titles

Leshy King

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Worshipers

Intelligent plants, especially leshies

Edicts

Discover or create new forms of plant life, foster the growth and well-being of flora, preserve areas of natural wilderness

Anathema

Allow flagrant abuse of plant life to go unpunished, damage natural environments, harm plant life except in the pursuit of saving greater plant life

Cleric Alignments (1E)

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Domains (1E)

Plant, Protection, Strength, Weather (Neutral)
Good, Plant, Protection, Weather (Neutral good)
Evil, Plant, Strength, Weather (Neutral evil)

Subdomains (1E)

Defense, Growth, Resolve, Seasons (Neutral)
Defense, Growth, Purity, Seasons (Neutral good)
Decay, Growth, Resolve, Seasons (Neutral evil)

Cleric Alignments (2E)

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Domains (2E)

Healing, Might, Nature, Protection

Favored Weapon

Sickle or club

Symbol

Face made of leaves, details vary by individual

Images of green men

Source: Bestiary 6, pg(s). 152 (1E)
Severed at the Root, pg(s). 65 (2E)

Green men, sometimes called leshy kings in esoteric texts or green watchers or wildewills in colloquial usage, are the divine avatars and guardians of the primeval forest.

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Appearance

Green men can take a variety of forms, but most resemble humanoids made of leaves and bark, with vine-like fingers.

Ecology

Green men are living embodiments of natural plant life. They form when a forest accumulates a large number of natural spirits, the same type of entities that individually incarnate as leshies and answer commune with nature spells. Once a certain threshold is reached, this spirits coalesce and incarnate into a body formed from plant material, becoming a new green man.

Despite their name, green men aren't necessarily male. As they originate from incorporeal spirits of nature that incarnate into a body made out of plant material, most green men find gender a meaningless concept. While some adopt gender in the manner of other beings, these can take on any gender.

Society

Most green men focus almost exclusively on protecting the flora of their homes, and concern themselves with their animals, minerals, and other components only insofar as they affect plants. They normally simply ignore the affairs of animals, a category that to them includes sapient beings such as humans, and are strictly neutral to greater moral questions and divides. However, some green men are explicitly good or evil in outlook; good green men extend their aid and wisdom to all who come into their homes, while evil green men foster the growth of dangerous plants and spread fear and death to any who might threaten plant life, often killing all non-plant life in their domains except for some animals kept to hunt for sport.

Green men are believed by druids to have been the original source of the rituals used to create leshies, and potentially to have been responsible for the creation of other intelligent plants such as arboreals. Green men and leshies maintain a close bond with each other in the present.

Cults and worshippers

Green men possess the ability to grant spells to beings that worship them, but typically restrict this boon to intelligent plants. In particular, leshies are the most likely group to worship green men. Occasionally, however, if a "sapless" follower can prove itself a friend to plants and pass a strict vetting process, a green man will eagerly welcome the strange fleshy follower into the flock.

The edicts and strictures of a green man's cult vary between individuals, but most require their followers to seek out or create new forms of plant life, work to ensure the healthy growth and spread of plants, and preserve natural wildernesses. Followers of green men are also typically forbidden from allowing flagrant destruction or abuse of plant life, damaging plant life themselves unless in an attempt to prevent a great loss of flora, or damaging natural environments.

Most green-man cults are highly localized and avoid evangelizing their patron broadly, though some threatened by the expansion of civilization do seek broader worship to oppose the expansion of lumber operations or agriculture.

References

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.