Some More Small Gods of the Old Forest

This post is for Glogmas ‘25 and is in response to Loch Eil’s post from October 2022 called Small Gods of the Old Forest. Merry Christmas! Happy holidays!

Collage by me. Don't Fear the Reaper (2025).

Miercoles

Miercoles is lost again. He limps his way between ferns with a large floppy hat, a pipe made of gold, and a dim lamp on the end of a long pole. He ferries the dead through the eternal forest to their resting place. He is a poor guide, and the journey takes much longer than it should. You’re all dead anyway, so the delay doesn’t bother him, and he tells you that it shouldn’t bother you either.

Summon him through a ritual human sacrifice if you like, but there’s not much point. You'll die eventually; you’ll see him soon enough.

What does he want?

1. Better shoes. His are bursting at the seams.

2. To see his good friend Godot. Godot doesn’t show. Godot never shows.

3. Tobacco, whatever kind you've got.

4. New glowing crystals for his lamp.

5. News of his sister, Arcadia, who runs the woods with lesbians and deer.

What are his boons?

1. Company on the journey.

2. A light in the darkness.

3. A joke at exactly the right time.

What are his banes?

1. Getting endlessly lost in the woods. He might do that anyway, though.

2. Isolation, in life and death.

3. Lung cancer.

Sansan

In another life, Sansan was a forced bride, a fate that ended promptly when she turned 20 and vanished. She was reborn as a shadow woman, incorporeal and visible only in one’s periphery. She moves through the forest in a beautiful whisper gown made of shade and dapple. Her eyes, black and thin, have hints of nebulas in them. Despite her agelessness, her maturity is arrested; she carries a dollie everywhere she goes.

She appears only to young girls and those who care for them; they are under her protection in the forest, as are anyone else she deems vulnerable. Attract her attention with a plucked rose, scattering the petals around in the shape of a horse. The more accurate the horse-petal drawing, the more corporeal she appears. 

What does she want?

1. To be loved, honestly and sincerely, by a kind and noble prince.

2. A new dress for her dollie, made of sunflower petals.

3. For news of the death of her kidnapper-husband or any of his ilk.

4. A cascadua flower, a bone-white flower that is used in tonics and tinctures.

5. To know what's happening with her sometimes friend Godot. She insists her inquiries are to be kept secret.

What are her boons?

1. A star made of crystals and shine.

2. A russet colored pony with braids in its hair.

3. A moonpearl, the shape of a tear.

What are her banes?

1. Shadetouch poison, seeping out of your seams.

2. An accounting of your crimes among a jury of your peers.

3. Your shadow strangles you slowly, methodically.

Lenora, the Wickerwoman

Lenora is a huge flaming wooden goddess that sets fire to the trees and shrubs she brushes by as she hikes endlessly through the woods. She's the goddess of forest fires, renewal, the pine. She inspires terror in those who crave continuity and grants sparklers to children, and her fires must be fed regularly to not peter out. Her heartfires burn brighter if you can get her talking about what she loves (the smell of the earth after it rains, charring the sacred, her family and friends), but she's not much of a talker.

As tall as a hill and blazing hot, she's impossible to miss coming. But if you need to summon her, a simple offering of old brush will do. Speak up, she can't hear you very well from down there. No, please, louder still.

What does she want?

1. Same as what anyone wants. News of Godot.

2. But nothing really, she's alright at the moment 

3. No really, she's doing fine.

4. Well, if you insist. She needs a new ribcage. Oak is best. 

5. And some beech as a snack while you're at it. But only if it's not too much trouble.

What are her boons?

1. A fresh start, a new perspective.

2. A pinecone, imbued with power.

3. The burning of your enemies.

What are her banes?

1. The destruction of all that is sacred.

2. A 10th-degree burn.

3. Getting stomped on.

Mr. Noddle

The chief architect of the forest cathedral, Mr. Noddle is a civilized and efficient man. He reads the morning paper. He drinks black coffee. He lives in a tent made of grey-green leaves and goes barefoot in the mossy glade just south of the cathedral. His eyes smoke when he talks, and he’s always talking. His left hand is a prosthetic wooden hand. It was injured in the war. What war? Glad you asked…

Summon him at the cathedral or by his tent by stomping just a hair too loudly. It will annoy him enough to appear and peer over his grey rimmed glasses at you. Although it’s poor footing to start off on…

What does he want?

1. A listener for his rant about the downsides of translation. “Like looking at the back side of a carpet.”

2. A little piece of chocolate. Dark chocolate, no fruit or nuts. Salt is okay. 

3. New glasses. His readers aren't as strong as they used to be.

4. Coffee from a tiny town called Netten, where the beans are collected only by children in the moonlight.

5. To stop waiting for that damn Godot to show up.

What are his boons?

1. A guided tour of the cathedral, with bonus complaints about copycat architects.

2. "What, you want more from me? No, no, absolutely not. I'm too busy."

What are his banes?

1. A bad foundation.

2. A splitting headache.

3. Getting permanently banned from the cathedral.