Shar paid no mind to Selûne's answer, which had missed the point entirely. She merely gave a knowing laugh. "Artemis's own divine portfolio isn't that of a moon goddess.
She leans more toward hunting."
"Huh?" Selûne asked, a little bewildered. "What? Has the old man finally decided Chauntea isn't useful anymore?"
Hill settled his mind and tried hard to work out how the sisters' conversation had shifted to Chauntea.
Hunting... what did that have to do with the Earth Goddess?
Then he finally remembered Malar, the God of Beasts, who was rumored to be the child of the Earth Goddess and the Father of the Forest.
Once Artemis truly appeared in Toril as the Hunting Goddess, the one she would directly suppress was Malar, who wanted all humanoid beings dead, leaving only plants and animals upon the earth.
Malar, Toril's famously useless god who had nearly been killed even by a demigod, had actually died before.
He simply had a pair of biological parents who usually kept quiet but would do their utmost to save their son at a critical moment.
So there was a reason evil druids often chose to cooperate with Malar's followers, or even became his followers themselves.
Although Hill had never said anything, he could actually sense nature's harsh, deadly side in Malar.
It was just that his parents were rather selfish... Chauntea and the Father of the Forest had clearly joined their divine souls. There was little affection between them; they had simply wanted to produce an offspring destined to exist.
Chauntea, who ought by rights to have become the Mother of the Earth, had actually evaded many of the duties that should have belonged to her.
The subterranean space between Toril's surface and the Underdark was the most typical example of a place she