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Members of the Great Mother's clergy divide themselves into two factions of roughly equal size. Those clerics who minister to farmers and agricultural workers in cities, towns, and villages refer to themselves as Pastorals, while those in the wilder, older sect that caters to the wilderness call themselves, with a touch of arrogance, the True Shapers. Members of both sects recognize no central authority - theirs is a highly individualistic faith. Chauntea sets out a doctrine outlining a general sect of values and taboos, but how each cleric adapts this code for herself and her flock is largely a matter of personal interpretation.

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They preach a respect for the natural world and emphasize programs of replanting, careful irrigation, and crop rotation to ensure that the earth is not despoiled.

Militant druids of Silvanus scoff at these lessons, however, claiming that the very act of agriculture is an affront to nature. It allows more people to live in a given area than can be sustained in the long term, and hence fosters overpopulation and environmental destruction, despite the best intentions of the Pastorals. They assert that over time, Chauntean agriculture, with its diverted waterflow, drained wetlands, and emphasis in supporting cities, will do irreparable damage to the natural balance. The Pastorals discount them, but such reaction screeds have caused a great deal of turmoil among the True Shapers (most of whom are themselves druids). Numbers of the more primal Chaunteans have become Silvanites in the last century, leading to a cooling of relations between even the more moderate members of both clergies.

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