Druids are not Hippies!

[Edena_of_Neith]

Cyndelle wasn't philosophical about it.
Nature was sacred, and that was that.

Cyndelle did have a specific forest to protect, and a specific druidical order to answer to.
But even outside her homeland and outside the directives of her order, her reaction was: respect nature, or go away. Constantly hack and burn and kill animals, and I want nothing to do with you (sorta like a paladin dealing with a neutral character acting greedily and selfishly.)
Cyndelle looked upon farming, towns, and cities with loathing. A necessary thing, perhaps, but not something to be admired. A painful necessity of life, rather.

 

[fusangite]

I appreciate all the information, very interesting. Don't most of the Arthurian legends depict something closer to 2nd to 6th century Britain though?

The Arthurian legends depict England in the 5th and 6th centuries as people in the 12th through 14th centuries imagined it. This is why I find them so cool.

There were conservation inititives in the Middle Ages once they realized that they really needed wood and they were cutting down a aweful lot of it. And when you consider their transportation networks, getting wood from other places was a lot more hassle/expense than simply making sure wood was more available locally.

This is a good point. For once, I find the fuzzy terminological divide in popular politics helpful. Druid as conservationist makes sense; druid as environmentalist does not.

 

[Kuld]

I often want to ask those really anti-human activists, if you're so opposed to everything humans do, why don't you just advocate mass suicide?

Unfortunately, they probably do. There are certain extremists who believe that the total human population should be less than a few million and they are currently trying to figure out a way to make it so.

 

[Reynard]

For once, I find the fuzzy terminological divide in popular politics helpful. Druid as conservationist makes sense; druid as environmentalist does not.

That sums it up for me, as well, I just failed to identify the word I meant when I wrote 'hippe'. Environmentalist is it.

Thanks, fusangite.

 

[Reynard]

Unfortunately, they probably do. There are certain extremists who believe that the total human population should be less than a few million and they are currently trying to figure out a way to make it so.

Which has to be in the Top Five Cool Campaign Seeds Ever. It would especially neat in a setting like Eberron or Iron Kingdoms -- which are less rural and rustic than, say, the FR -- and instead of a Dark lord or Evil Necromancer, the Big Bad is the Druid Heirophant who finally gets fed up with civilization to the point of wanting to cast the world back into a pristine state. And edeavor for which ancient rituals of Flood, Earthquake and Valcano would be pretty useful.

(Damn -- too bad I already have 2 campaigns...)

 

[Shadowdweller]

In my view, D&D druids, at their best, should hearken back to the world before the 13th century. In those times, gods, humans, buildings, trees, everything were part of nature because nature meant everything and the principles by which everything operated. So, first of all, I have a lot of trouble with the idea of druids not worshipping gods but somehow, instead, worshipping an impersonal force. This is bad history, bad anthropology, bad theology and bad mythology. Of course, many people like playing campy or modernist versions of RPGs where it is not important or, in fact, not even desirable to do those things well. I'm not saying that people doing that are having the wrong kind of fun; they are just having a different kind of fun than I like to have.

Heh. Agreed for the most part. I think amongst players the concept of some unified force called Nature is overdone and overrated. It seems like a lot of people really don't put much thought into developing a philosophy and theology for druids or druid characters. It also seems like this is left deliberately vague in the RAW so as to facillitate different viewpoints.

I think the druid class fits a whole variety of potential animist and shamanistic roles very well. A druid might, for instance, commune with hidden spirits that live in every large rock, river, and grove of trees. A druid's spell might be no more than communing with a firespirit and asking it to serve as a Flame Blade.

One has to understand that before large nations made expansive religions possible in the real world, there was a whole variety of local gods or "spirits". Cultures like the Greeks had their pantheon, but they also had a wide variety of little local powers and household gods. Evidence and remnants of these are everywhere, even in the Saints of medieval Catholicism. Worship of such beings fits the druid class very well imho.

 

[KRT]

Concepts like the "balance of nature," conservation and the like are modern ideas insofar they deploy the idea of nature as separate as a concept...

I think balance of nature to a Druid is very different but also very important. In fact its the ability to leverage that balance that gives the Druid his power. A human sacrifice is a powerful lever from which the Druid could glimpse or effect the future. I think Druids were very opportunistic, they studied the nature system and used it for gain. This included using their knowledge to secure high positions in society. Forbidding any of their knowledge to be written was a method to keep the gravy to themselves. Helping their tribe/clan/people was only to help themselves, as would be any responsibility they felt to the environment at large.

 

[eyebeams]

No modern attitude injected into D&D irks me more that the eco-friendly, tree hugging hippie Druid.

/rant

Actually, if you look at what hippies did during the period the subculture was truly in vogue, then you'd get examples of characters who are considerably more dynamic, dangerous and threatening than the typical D&D druid. Most druids don't organize caravan heists to fund attempts to subvert the governments of city-dwellers, for instance.

 

[Reynard]

Most druids don't organize caravan heists to fund attempts to subvert the governments of city-dwellers, for instance.

Yet, they should.

 

[VirgilCaine]

Which has to be in the Top Five Cool Campaign Seeds Ever. It would especially neat in a setting like Eberron or Iron Kingdoms -- which are less rural and rustic than, say, the FR -- and instead of a Dark lord or Evil Necromancer, the Big Bad is the Druid Heirophant who finally gets fed up with civilization to the point of wanting to cast the world back into a pristine state. And edeavor for which ancient rituals of Flood, Earthquake and Valcano would be pretty useful.

(Damn -- too bad I already have 2 campaigns...)

That's nifty. This has been...is...will be...a great thread.


[chitzk0i: You know I'm gonna use that, right? ]