FB: Heaven and Earth (Patreon)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! As always, I'm thankful for your support. I hope you have a wonderful holiday (or just a wonderful Thursday, if you don't celebrate). :D

so i realized i was kinda getting ahead of myself with Lune and Genevieve. It's not proper to dive into character conflict without first establishing the setting- so lets explore Rangale, the mountainside all-deer religious commune that is deeeeefinitely not a cult.

Herd/pack animals tend to be polytheistic, believing in a whole wide pantheon of gods. Rangale is unique in that all members of the herd collectively worship just one god, the one true god....Hart, the heavenly stag. Followers of Hart believe that only devout deerfolk will be permitted to follow Hart into paradise. Nearly a century ago, Rangale was founded as a safe place to worship. The creation of an insular, isolated, all-deer community was most definitely not done in response to increasing integration between herbivores and carnivores....

Hart, also known as Father Hart, is an all-powerful, all-knowing god. He is said to have created the universe, and he is commonly depicted with a blazing sun cradled within his antlers, a symbol of his divinity. Hart is....not a nice god. Certainly not a god that loves you unconditionally....more of a jealous and vengeful god that will obliterate you and your entire family if you displease him. The church is fairly puritanical, urging followers to shed themselves of earthly tethers and be like Hart, the ultimate pure being. Followers that give in to sin are taught to fall to their knees and beg Hart for forgiveness, after which the church assigns them manual labor to perform as penance. (Conveniently, this provides the church a handy, constant source of free labor).

Hart is the ultimate leader and protector, and is always willing to guide a lost, pious soul. Though nonbelievers decry Hart and his teachings as cold and cruel, his followers view him more like a very stern father that only wants the very best for his children. Hart is associated with strength, truth, prophecy, wisdom, healing, light, and academia. He is curiously depicted as being untouched by mortal folly like lust, love, and laughter. Save for rut season (an annual period of heightened male aggression/interest in sex), all bucks in Rangale are encouraged to mirror Hart's stoicism in all aspects of life. Thus Lune can count on one hand all the times his father ever smiled at him, and keep in mind, Lune only has three fingers. :/

Rangale is strictly segregated by gender. Males pray to Hart, while females pray to Dunn.

Dunn, also known as Mother Dunn, or the Earth Mother, is not a god in her own right. She's more like a saint. Hart sometimes takes on a mortal form to check in on things on Earth, and Dunn is said to have been a mortal doe that fell in love with him. She loved Hart so deeply that she leapt in front of an arrow meant for him, fired by a heretic. Hart rewarded her sacrifice with eternal life, alongside a pair of shimmering wings. Now Dunn spends eternity with her celestial love, serving as his dutiful wife and helpmate. All girls in Rangale are taught to aspire to be like Mother Dunn- loyal, sweet, and self-sacrificing. 

Dunn is the patron deity of music, art, fertility, harvest, hearth, marriage, forgiveness, and love. She is said to be the guardian of all does and fawns. As such, she's slowly becoming something like a folk hero in Rangale....as Dunn has no divine power like her almighty husband, she must rely on cleverness and friendships to escape trouble. As an alternative to reading their fawns (often dry ) scripture, mothers often invent fun, daring tales of brave Mother Dunn swooping in to rescue lost children and outsmart dastardly predators. These stories are not approved by the church and are considered sacrilege. 

bonus tidbits:

-Hart, who knows and sees all, is always depicted with his eyes open. Dunn, who is naive and trusting, is typically shown with her eyes closed.

-As a child, Victoria once was caught putting marshmallows on the antler tips of her family's Hart shrine. Her mother locked her in a broom closet.

-Rangale is a sexist society, with very rigid gender roles. Only bucks are allowed leadership positions. Does are meant to be wives and mothers. Only very wealthy, very privileged lady deerfolk are able to learn skills outside of cleaning and childcare. Victoria, for example, was allowed to study fine art, as it was thought a sophisticated skill might boost her chances for marriage (her uneven piebald coat is considered unsightly).

-Rangale is also deeply homophobic and transphobic....really they're phobic of any deviation from the accepted norm. Conversion therapy is employed on young queer members, and if they insist on sinning, they are excommunicated from the church and shunned by their families. Rangale also shows deep contempt for predator/prey relationships, and teaches that predators are evil beasts that wrestle with the urge to devour prey alive and screaming.

-As the leader's son, Lune faced tremendous pressure growing up. This was made all the worse by his coincidental resemblance to Hart. All members of Rangale thought Lune was blessed from birth, and would usher them into a new age of purity and prosperity. Really though, Lune's white coat is just a random case of leucism, and his heart is as sinful as anybody else. To this day, Lune still struggles with the fear that Hart is watching and judging him.

-As an adult, some time after she and her brother escape Rangale, Victoria sculpts a beautiful effigy of Hart, then smashes its head off with a baseball bat. She and Lune eventually find comfort in praying to Dunn, who forgives all sin and loves unconditionally.