D&D 5E (2014) WOTC Possibly Removing "Druids" for Religious/Cultural Sensitivity Reasons

[Sacrosanct]

sorry Dragons were celtic and Oriental gotta go with Druids.

The new title will be "Places and Stuff".

Dice & Nerds. let's just cut to the chase.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Didn't you hear? JC said they might get rid of "Dungeon" in the name because of the negative and sexual connotations. The new rulebooks will be called "Places & Dragons".

Domiciles and Dragons. Keep the alliteration, acknowledge the home-invasion aspect.

 

[nevin]

Dice & Nerds. let's just cut to the chase.

no nerds is offensive to 3 people on the internet. didn't make it through the cultural sensitivity committee.

 

[nevin]

we might only be left with "Book" as the title.

 

[Reynard]

No, it's not. speaking as a Catholic here.

Oh, irony, thy name is Sacrosanct

 

[Mannahnin]

And neo-pagans aren't also appropriating "druid" from ancient history?

Exactly. We don't get to claim ownership of the word. It predates us by a long time.

Well this has sent me down a rabbit hole. I could've told you that Druids had a priestly or shamanic role in Celtic societies and were pretty much wiped out during the Christianization of the British Isles. But that is about it. Some neat things I learned:

• It seems that Druid and Bard both come from the same area and time, with some people in folklore having both titles.
• There is very little written records from Druids with speculation that they were forbidden from writing down what they knew.
• The term Druid died out sometime in the 2nd century, makes a return in medieval times in poems/mythology, followed by a larger revival in the 18th and 19th centuries.
• It seems divination was a big part of their job in societies along with being philosophers, advisors, and handling religious affairs.
• In more modern times there are a lot of groups using the term Druid for religious and cultural reasons. Wikipedia lists some of the more prominent groups as well as some statistical breakdowns of modern Druids and what brings them together and sets them apart.

Druid refers broadly to the priestly caste of pre-Christian Gaul and Ireland, Wales and Celtic Britain. "Bard" is generally a later concept, and can refer to a number of different things. In Ireland, for example, filí were an elite class of poets and genealogists to kings, who recorded, composed, and recited epic tales and also were said to perform some magical feats of prophecy (where there's some overlap with Druids, or draoithe). Musicians in general were lower status, though the term Bard became more elevated later, toward the Early Modern period.

Per surviving texts of Irish law such as Bretha Crólige and Uraicecht Becc Druids retained legal status and rights (though much diminished over time, as Christianity supplanted indigenous religion) through the ninth century or so. Or roughly five centuries after Patrick. As Ireland's conversion was peaceful and gradual, there was no "wiping out" of druids. No pogroms or slaughter. They were supplanted in religious roles by Christian/Catholic clergy, and gradually waned in influence and the training and traditions died out.

Modern groups using the term Druid include the fraternal orders dating to the 18th century revival (full of romanticism and terrible scholarship, including outright frauds like Edward Williams AKA Iolo Morwanyg), and Neo-Pagans and Reconstructionists from the late 20th century. But no one has any claim to ownership of the term, and it means a bunch of different things to different groups.

 

[nevin]

Oh, irony, thy name is Sacrosanct

/well hell!.......;-)

 

[Sacrosanct]

Oh, irony, thy name is Sacrosanct

Yeah, that was joke when I started using the name 25 years ago. congrats on finally getting it.

(For the record, while raised Catholic, I haven't been practicing for decades. For lots of reasons I won't go into here because it isn't the time or place.)

 

[MGibster]

Priest IS the broad, culturally agnostic term.

When I took my anthropology courses many years ago priest was the term that was used to describe someone who was authorized by a religious organization to guide the religious beliefs of others.

 

[Umbran]

Bards are as much culture as class...

You seem to be missing the point. We tolerate variations on things, and have for decades. Calls for "there should only be one in this space" ring hollow in the face of that history.

Edit to add: I mean, in the game as published. You are free to limit classes and options as you wish. I mean, simply saying, "there is no deity with the Nature Domain in this world" and Nature clerics go poof! and disappear. No need to edit them out of the book just 'cuz you don't like them. It is a potluck, not every dish needs to be any one person's tastes.