Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hexmage-EN" data-source="post: 7484551" data-attributes="member: 79428">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.</blockquote>

Verification