Druids and Animism in D&D

[Hexmage-EN]

Druids, spellcasters who draw power from the spirits of nature, have been a part of D&D for a long time. So why does D&D often neglect to detail what these spirits are like?

I personally am working on designing an animist worldview for druids, barbarians, rangers, and paladins who follow the Oath of Ancients. One challege with designing a full-blown animist religion for D&D is that there's never been a consistent model for what one looks like or what nature spirits are. 4E did the most with a dedicated primal power source, a defined pantheon of Great Elders, and an origin story tieing them to both gods and elemental lords but independent of either, so I'm using it as the base, but it still didn't explain very well how the fey were involved with the primal spirits despite including a number of fey-themed primal powers.

Other takes on nature religions in D&D include:

- Nature gods (most common)
- Nature gods one with the land of their worshipers (Maztica, Ubtao)
- One true goddess, many spirits (Jakandor's War Mother and nature spirits)
- Fey as nature spirits (check out the Spirit of the Land from 3E's Monster Manual 2 for a fey that looks like an earth elemental bear)

The fey connection is kinda hard to reconcile, because a lot of fey don't seem nature related at all (boggles, quicklings, and red caps, for example). According to an interview concerning Tomb of Annihilation there was a lot of uncertainty as to whether the new chwinga creatures should be classified as fey or elementals, with the latter winning out because it apparently fit their role better.

I would guess that part of the reason the designers are hesitant to focus much on nature spirits is because then they might need to create a Spirit World plane to stick somewhere in the Great Wheel, but in my opinion this would be unneccessary. You could easily say that these spirits dwell on the Border Ethereal of the Material Plane, primarily utilize proxies in the form of druids, animals, elementals, and fey, and usually speak to mortals directly through their dreams. They only manifest themselves in the Material Plane when something very destabilizing to nature's balance happens.

I'll admit I'm not familiar with every take on animism in D&D. I'd appreciate any new info.

 

[Blue]

"What these spirits are like" can easily vary by setting. It's not something to be codified by the core books, just like how the ubiquitous goblin can vary if it's in the Forgotten Realms or Eberron.

Much like there could be, but doens't need to be a Spirit Plane - that's really something for the setting to detail. Or not, if it's not a big deal for the setting.

I'm not putting down the idea - my current campaign actually has very strong animism roots and they feed one of the major plot arcs. But that doesn't mean that I could or should transplant the strong connection from my setting into the generic core setting.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

I think there should be at least some consistent identity for these spirits. Goblins may differ in specifics between settings but there's still a core concept of what a goblin is. The spirits that druids and some barbarians call upon are ill-defined because D&D for the majority of its existence hasn't decided what role nature spirits and fey fill (though there have been several attempts).

I'm personally developing my own take on an animist tradition in my setting. Here's some of what I've got so far:

- The world was made from pieces of the Elemental Planes whose elemental spirits were suppressed by the gods to make the world stable.
- The gods, distracted by matters in the cosmos, departed. The suppressed elemental spirits began to explore the Border Ethereal plane, with some managing to take corporeal form as chwingas (tiny humanoid elementals introduced in Tomb of Annihilation).
- The mortals, curious about the chwingas, began to use the mysterious plants and fungi the chwingas would grow with their magic to perceive the spirits still in the Border Ethereal.
- The earliest druids communed with these primal spirits and aided them in manifesting through spells and rituals.
- The spirits began to manifest in different ways. Some would allow themselves to be conjured in elemental forms resembling what they once were, while others would bond with animal spirits, or even the spirits of mortals.
- In the Feywild the first fey appeared as a result of spirits manifesting in response to strong emotion and wild magic. Some, like dryads, bonded with other spirits of nature to aid them, while others, like boggles and redcaps, wanted to pursue their own existence in imitation of mortals. Because the primal spirits dwell in the Border Ethereal and are working in that transitive plane to preserve nature it often falls to their fey allies to represent nature's needs corporeally when druids are not present to channel the spirits through their magic.
- In the Shadowfell a similar phenomena occurred, but the gloomy realm's pitiful sorrowsworn were rejected by their spirit and fey kin.
- Primal spirits and those fey who remain allied with their spiritual kin are connected to the physical essence of the world. Though there are Great Elder Spirits who permeate much of the world's Border Ethereal and offer archetypes for the lesser spirits to emulate, druids and other users of primal magic mostly find themselves communicating with and evoking magic from local spirits.
- The followers of the Old Faith reject the idea of leaving the world for an afterlife in another plane. Instead, they seek to either join the spirits of their homeland or be contually reincarnated there. An afterlife separated from the land and the spirits an Old Faith adherent spent their whole life surrounded by does not appeal to the faithful.
- Like many cities dominated by the worshipers of the gods, Old Faith communities claim the patronage of guardian spirits. Where they diverge is that these spirits have a specific connection to the community and the surrounding land, and they are thought of more as family than as beings to be worshiped. Outsiders are discouraged from trying to worship these spirits, as it is believed to distract them from their role as guardians of the locale.
- One of the secrets of the spirits is that several of the most powerful Great Elders were former lords of the elemental planes. Gray Roarer, spirit of tornadoes, is in truth an archomental once known as Ty-h'kadi who was bound to the Material Plane. Other subdued elemental lords bound to the Border Ethereal of the world are Black Land, spirit of fertile soil, Father of Rivers, who created the springs that provide water to the land, and Everflame, an entity of purifying and transformative fire.
- The druids' wild shape ability is drawn from the Primal Beast, a spirit that can embody the form of any beast. Usually when a druid assumes animal form they channel the Primal Beast and borrow one of its aspects. However, there are many other, lesser animal spirits linked to different places in the world that druids may commune with; a druid assuming the form of a wolf in a region protected by a white wolf spirit may find they have taken on the spirit's likeness.
- Among the Great Elders none is more feared than Whisper, the Dark Sister. She opposes those mortals who defy the Old Faith and ignore the spirits. Her enemies are set upon by swarms of vermin, hunted by man-eating beasts, preyed upon by perytons, and stalked by lycanthropes who organize themselves into sadistic beast cults. Whenever mortals exploit nature's spirits Whisper makes sure to get back what nature is owed.

 

[Blue]

I think there should be at least some consistent identity for these spirits. Goblins may differ in specifics between settings but there's still a core concept of what a goblin is. The spirits that druids and some barbarians call upon are ill-defined because D&D for the majority of its existence hasn't decided what role nature spirits and fey fill (though there have been several attempts).

... list for your own setting removed ...

I think you've answered your own point. The majority of the bullet points you have are not generic enough for a base identity. It's great for a setting, I'd play in it. But it's full of world creation myth, proper nouns, creatures not part of the core books, motivations and enmities, religions, etc.

If there was a generic base, you'd have to remove much of it to make room for your setting. In other words, it would be making your great setting ideas harder and "further from core".

Leaving it open leaves a place for DMs to be creative. Or to ignore it if it's not what they want to focus on. I'm a fan of just broad strokes for system-related fluff if the system isnt' tied to a single setting. I'd prefer a "fighter and some flexible subclasses" and leave something like "these are the knightly orders, the mercs, and the gladitorial pits" to a setting.

 

[Reynard]

Druids do not resemble their historical antecedents at all anymore (and only vaguely did to begin with) and are now very broad archetype. Some druids might be animists, but certainly not all or even a significant minority.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

Maybe Mike Mearls will use Primal Spirits in his 5e Nethir Vale homebrew. If he does and likes what he sees, I wouldn't be surprised if they find their way into official products.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

Druids do not resemble their historical antecedents at all anymore (and only vaguely did to begin with) and are now very broad archetype. Some druids might be animists, but certainly not all or even a significant minority.

Well, historical druids weren't animists. They were priests of a theistic religion. What the D&D class is going for is more "shaman", really. Which is a very broad archetype: Siberian shamans don't bear much resemblance to Amazonian shamans.

 

[Reynard]

Well, historical druids weren't animists. They were priests of a theistic religion. What the D&D class is going for is more "shaman", really. Which is a very broad archetype: Siberian shamans don't bear much resemblance to Amazonian shamans.

Are they? Going for shaman, I mean? I think the whole thing has been so thoroughly D&Dised there really isn't a real world analogue. "Druid" now means power and scary nature wizard across multiple forms of media. No different than how poorly paladins reflect Charlamange's knights or how poorly barbarians reflect Conan.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

Are they? Going for shaman, I mean? I think the whole thing has been so thoroughly D&Dised there really isn't a real world analogue. "Druid" now means power and scary nature wizard across multiple forms of media. No different than how poorly paladins reflect Charlamange's knights or how poorly barbarians reflect Conan.

A D&D druid is, roughly, a person who lives in the wilderness and/or as part of a hunter-gatherer tribe and draws power from spiritual beliefs about animals and nature. That is, if a simplified description of what shamans do, certainly what shamans stereotypically do.

 

[Eltab]

So why does D&D often neglect to detail what these spirits are like?

Because the IRL societies which did spend time and effort considering the spirits of nature, were not literate. They didn't leave their own records to study or use as inspiration for D&D Sourcebooks.
We do have some Roman records and some Age of Exploration -era records to work with, which (alas for your purpose) are written from an outsider's viewpoint.

Conclusion: learn what you can, and think about it. Then make up what you have to.