Profile

Your Character's Name
the Green Man (Jack-in-the-Green)

Your Character's Realm of Influence
fertility, growth, rain, spring and summer, trees, gardens, babies, rebirth

Your Character's Pantheon
Celtic mythology

Your Character's Relatives (if any)
Most of the Green Man's mythology has been lost so details are unknown; but he will feel at home with fertility and nature gods, as well as Celtic gods such as Brighid and Morrigan (though he is considerably older than they, and regards them a bit like the new kids who take themselves too seriously). He claims Sheela-na-Gig as his sister, though the relationship is more like they are the male/female aspects of the same divine influence.

A 500 Word Summary of Your Character (History, characteristics, temperment, foes, etc.)

Jack-in-the-green is a character for the RPGs otherways, divinsanity and milliways_bar. He is the Green Man, a figure from Celtic mythology, a Father Nature-type. He is easy-going, playful and mischevious, a god of rebirth, fertility and growth. In D&D terms, he is a force of chaotic good.

He can shape-shift into a boar, a dragon or a cat, but normally looks like a green-eyed, red-haired man (with a slightly greenish cast to him, as if he's standing in light from a green stained-glass window.) He often has leaves in his hair and clothes. He has a faint Irish accent.

As a fertility god he's very enthusiastic about sex, both for himself and for other people and creatures. He cannot lie and is capable of prophecy. His apartment is overflowing with plants and flowers, and he has a close relationship with trees. He loves gardens and can, quite literally, commune with the Earth. He can bring rain. He understands the language of babies (they are new beginnings, and thus, his creatures.)

He has no enemies as such, though he is opposed to destruction, needless death, and waste. He is more comfortable in parks and gardens than in streets and buildings, and happiest on a farm or in a forest.

The Green Man represents our "deep kinship with the trees and woods, irrepressible life, and the cycle of renewal and rebirth". This masculine energy of the Forest is known by many names including Robin of the Wood, Green Man, Jack in the Green, Cernunnos, the May King, and the Green Knight from Arthurian legend, among others.

The Horned God of the forest, Cernunnos is the Celtic God who is Lord of Animals and of the Hunt. This famous ancient depiction shows Cernunnos with his antler headdress as the Wild Stag surrounded by Celtic knotwork on a lead-free pewter disc. Cernunnos is believed to appear whenever there is wild abandonment and the passion of inner fire burns brightly.

Can't cite source, alas, as I can't remember where it came from.

As a resident of Olympian Meadows, he has claimed a rooftop apartment with garden space, and works as a garden and landscape designer. He has a reputation for being the best gardener in New York.

He goes by the name of Jack Green among mortals. His real name is a secret. (Perhaps it holds his magic. Perhaps he doesn't really know what it is. Perhaps he doesn't have one.)

The Herne aspect:
One of the Green Man's aspects in the mythology is Herne the Hunter. Herne is usually seen as either a great stag or a large man with stag horns, dressed in furs. Herne is a protector of the forest--not quite one of the Fae, but with strength and powers to look after forests and forest creatures. Jack becomes Herne when the need arises, when one of his creatures needs protection or he needs added authority.

Seasons:
So, the seasons are changing, and Jack's appearance is going to change with it. For spring and most of the summer he's going to look a bit younger, a bit more like a boy; for winter, he will look more like a grandfather-type. His divine friends and family will know who he is; others may have to reaffirm his identity for themselves.

The Lorax:
Under certain circumstances (and by request, if desired), Jack will appear as the Lorax. He speaks for the trees.

Apartment Number
P01, the penthouse

Jack-mun: misslucyjane.

The Green Man
Pantheon.Org entry
Mything Links: the green man
the mystery of the green man
The Green Man of Canterbury
the Deptford Mice by Robin Jarvis


Using David Wenham/Billy Boyd/Bernard Hill as the human faces for the Green Man. No disrespect etc. intended.