A Druid Vampire

[Dannyalcatraz]

Not exactly exclusive to vampires.


Most historians and archaeologists I know cope pretty well.

The difference is you actually get to experience all of that up close & personal, again and again and again. It's not happening to some lost civilization you just unearthed, it's happening to you.

Its one thing lose your father & mother...you might "live" to see your entire family extinguished...and your country besides.

Maybe even your species.

 

[Richards]

I seem to remember a 2E book filled with a dozen or so unusual vampires, one of which - if I'm remembering correctly - was a druid vampire who sucked tree sap instead of blood to survive. It was filled with all sorts of oddities like that; there was an aquatic vampire of some sort who turned into an octopus or squid or something as one of its animal forms.

Johnathan

 

[blargney the second]

My general take on druids is a bit different from the standard "protector of nature" one--I view druids more as intermediaries between humans and nature.

I like this - a vampire druid would then be an intermediary between undead and nature.
-blarg

 

[Herschel]

Well, one thing is that if you can still experience human emotions, your vampiric nature means you'll get to see most of who and what you love deteriorate and die.

You'll get to see humanity making the same mistakes again and again.

And as a being that preys on humans (in most legends), you'll be hunted if your true nature is ever revealed.

Not only that, but a druid's CONNECTION with nature would be severed. A druid isn't just some nature advocate or Greenpeace lackey, his/her entire BEING is wrapped up in being part of the natural order.

I can see ways for any other class being able to deal with vampirism EXCEPT a druid. It just makes no logical sense when you look at what a druid actually is. IF they are able to become human again, they may be able to resume as a druid (although I would play them as forever tainted and use that for motivation. Basically make them akin to militant preservers).

 

[Set]

Vampires (and perhaps Ghouls) have the best hook into Druidism, since, unlike many other undead (particularly Liches), the vampire ends up still tied into natural rhythms, such as the need to feed.

It's not like one can ban someone from being a druid for becoming something 'unnatural,' since, by definition, it's not possible to become something 'unnatural.' If it wasn't natural, it wouldn't exist. And since, in the AD&D universe, undead empowered by negative energy exist, they can't be any more unnatural' than living beings empowered by positive energy (yet another non-aligned energy from another dimension).

All life in this setting is 'unnatural,' in that it is empowered by energy from another dimension, and occupied by spirits that leave the 'natural world' entirely to go to other dimensions upon death.

If the druid continues to serve and revere the forces of the natural world, it shouldn't matter if it's animal, vegetable, mineral or undead. It's all 'natural,' in a world where creatures are either empowered by positive or negative energy.

 

[Herschel]

Wow, cheap justification at work. All the way back to 1E days druids hated undeath(which not having turn powers really made no sense, but I digress (unless they were driven to outright slay them)). Vampires are voyeurs to the natural world, they prey upon it from outside of it.

Even the non-evil gods of the dead hate the undead (Osiris, Kelemvor, etc.) as abominations of the natural order.

 

[Diamond Cross]

So what?

It's my story.

I don't have to do things the same way they do.

 

[Doug McCrae]

That the vampire is parasitic is not a problem - in fact the majority of species on Earth are parasites. A seemingly more problematic issue is that the vampire lives eternally and all natural things die. Or do they?

 

[Aeolius]

...all natural things die. Or do they?

That was my thought, as well; immortal jellyfish , 100,000 Year-Old Sea Grass

 

[Hussar]

How about, all natural things stay dead after they die?

In order for a vampire to form, it has to die first. It has no soul because it was never alive in the first place. The human body it killed to become a vampire had a soul, but that's gone. The vampire itself? Nope, no soul. It never dies. It can only be destroyed. And, after it's destroyed, nothing passes on to the next world.

Vampires are no more part of the "natural order" than zombies or I-pod's.