The Gloaming Wold is a particular Druidic cult dedicated to Gwynn ap Nudd in particular.
More information can be found IC by reaching out to characters affiliated with it, such
as Signe, a known adherent if you ask around.
It's major premise is about balance of the light and dark.
For centuries, the Druids ruled. They were the source of all answers. Divination, healing, judgment—all were their purview. Then the Romans came, and with them decimation of a power structure that had existed back into the dark shadows of human history. The Romans butchered, slandered, and destroyed.
Today, the Druids are still the keepers of the old ways, the judges, and far-seeing. They alone know the deepest mysteries of aging magics. But there have been schism, and different septs have their own ways and followers. They are still mysterious, more aloof and sometimes harder to find, sometimes lurking at the boundaries of society rather than being at the center of it. But it is wise, still, to fear and respect them as of old….
Signe is a Priestess of the Gloaming Wold, a group of druids and priests that focuses its worship upon the Horned Hunter sometimes called Arawen, Gwynn, or Cernunnos. The sept often sees to the rites of Manhood, and ensures the populace does not neglect to tend the darkness in themselves, lest the darkness overcome them.
Gwynn ap Nudd — The Horned God
That Dread feeling in the wilderness, the rustle in the Brush.
The Hunter, Arawen. Called Pan and Faunus by the Romans, Cernunnos by the Gauls.
King of the Otherworld, King of Faerie, Lord of the Hunt, God of lust and virility, God of Vengence, Lucifer (a possibly mistaken or just provocative laim by the Roman Christians) Lord of Winter, Lord of Animals
Gwynn is seen as a tall, lithely muscled man with the horns of a stag. Often bare-chested, sometimes with the lower body of a goat. Sometimes masked.
With his spectral hounds he is said to lead the hunt through the forests of the land, taking as his prey lost men and women to return to the Otherworld.
Symbols - The Serpent
Holy Day - he plays a prominent role at Beltaine and the Summer Solstice, but his high holy day is Samhain, when he leads the Wild Hunt
Regionally, Gwynn is one of the most tributed of the gods. He is feared and respected, for he represents some of the darker desires and sides to nature and humanity. To ignore or reject Gwynn is to invite the darkness to overtake you. Respect for Gwynn helps maintain the balance of the soul, where both lighter aspirations and darker desires must be tended. It is believed it is impossible— and undesirable— to attempt to banish all darkness from the soul, for darkness has its place and purpose.
In addition, Gwynn is the collector of souls, whom he takes to the Otherworld, which may or may not be Faerie.
Practices of the fictional Gloaming Wold may seem barbaric by today’s standards. However, while there is an extent to which fantasy must be integrated to fill out holes, this fantasy is based in practices that come from animistic and nature based religions from around the world, many of which we can witness even in the present day. Eating of raw flesh and organs from a fresh kill is something practiced in many cultures throughout time, both ancient and even into the modern day, such as in certain Blackfoot Tribes both past and present. The eating of the fresh kill, or in some cases drinking the blood, is seen as a transfer of life force and is not considered barbaric or gross.
Anyone who feels uncomfortable with the darker side of nature-based religion need not participate, even should they choose to participate in the fictional sect’s philosophies. I also welcome discourse on the topic. Nothing in this is meant to offend, and all effort has been made to remain anthropologically relative and true.
While the day to day practices and religious rites of ancient pagans in the British Isles are largely lost to us, save for archaeological finds and Roman propaganda, we can look to “primitive” cultures in more modern times, whose nature-based religions and lack of modern sensibilities as well as animal-centric spiritualism can educate us on the nature of older religions whose people labored under similar circumstance.
For one of many examples, I offer the well-researched http://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/guts-and-grease-the-diet-of-native-americans/
Finally, I in no way criticize or belittle the way of life of these people, both ancient and modern. The use of the term “primitive” is a shortcut to communicating a different way of life that is far more basic and close to the realities of life and death. It is best not to judge other cultures over these matters, especially by modern sensibilities.
Ancient Britain was a place where death was always near, where men and women were subject to wildly unpredictable and frightening natural phenomenon, where death in giving life was common, as well as war and famine. Religion was always a way to cope with the unknown, and the danger and fear in which people tried to eke out an existence. We have to remember these people didn’t have grocery stores. They had to kill, gut, and clean what they wanted to eat. They wasted little. They did not balk at eating the fetus within their kill if there was one.
They coped with their passions and did not judge in terms of good and evil. There was acknowledgment of less palatable desires. Instead of banishing these things from their thoughts, many ancient cultures explained these possibilities in allegories in which gods raped, murdered, stole, and sought vengeance. Religious studies reveal that the manner in which gods conducted themselves was the manner in which people tried to conduct themselves. The saintly Christ sets an example to his followers to be compassionate, selfless, and self-sacrificing. A great many ancient religions have these ‘good’ gods, but there are also the gods of vengeance, hate, war, and other ‘darker’ qualities. Clear signs of these ‘darker’ gods having been worshiped indicates the people of that faith saw ‘good’ and ‘bad’ in an entirely different way than faiths like Christianity. “Darker" gods were not seen as an enemy, but as entities that demanded their worship, and to which they gave respectful attention.
