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Good, Evil, Nature, and Druids
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<blockquote data-quote="Immortal Sun" data-source="post: 7597710"><p>Nature is one of those elements that I always write up as almost something of a "blue/orange" alignment. From the perspective of humans, nature can seem violent and chaotic, unpredictable and dangerous, but from the perspective of nature, there's a rhythm and order to everything. Druids subscribe to the ideas of natural order, but like the various civilizations of men, "order" can mean anything from survival of the fittest to an "everything in its place and a place for everything". </p><p></p><p>Nature is typically not aligned with traditional good and evil (which even in D&D, is at worst judeo-christian in design or at best greco-roman). The "natural order" favors bringing life when it is needed, and death when it is needed, but rarely when either of those things are wanted, but not in a Thanos perfect-balance "true neutral" way either. Most people (in my worlds) see nature as good, they associate it with life and food and things like that, but there are elements associated with evil (winter, floods, droughts). Nature just sees these things as "things" they're not good or evil.</p><p></p><p>An "evil" druid would likely be more of a "we think he's evil because he kills people and destroys villages sometimes, even of those people are jerks to trees or those villages are destroying the forest". Mushrooms and swamps are no more "evil" to druids than pine trees and posies are "good". If an "evil" druid got out of hand by going full eco-terrorist, "Nature" would respond by getting other druids to deal with it. You'll never find a druid who <em>destroys</em> nature, but you may find a druid who heals one tree and kills another with (to the outside viewer) seemingly no rhyme or reason why he saved one and not the other.</p><p></p><p>There are certainly druids who take "sides" on life and death and thus get perceived as good or evil by outsiders but they're no more good or evil from an internal perspective than rot or new growth.</p><p></p><p>Yes, there are "warped" druids. They're typically druids who buy in to (either on purpose, or by outside influence) external morality systems. "Nature" does consider them bad. But these aren't necessarily ones driven mad by old gods or corrupted by demons (though they're more likely to be), in the same way that you can be <em>too</em> lawful good, you can want to sprout more trees than an area can support, birth too many rabbits or birds beyond what a biome can support, save every tree from rot, wipe away all fungus and so forth. </p><p></p><p>I once made an entire cult of demon-corrupted druids, the demons were trying to sever the material plane's connection to the "plane of life" (a Beastlands sort of plane) and driven mad by the effects of that they were unable to hold any one form, so their features were constantly shifting between various animals. (it was some good body horror times) They went on a massive war against civilization (and were winning) though with some irony they tried to actually bring the Plane of Life to the material plane, which certainly didn't help.</p><p></p><p>Other than that, Druidic orders tend to be transient, learning to be a druid is mostly self-taught, you go into nature and harmonize with the plants and the trees and the earth and revere nature and maybe you'll become a druid. Druids otherwise are inclined to a nomadic existence to experience as much of nature as possible. They are drawn towards places where nature is in danger and that's when they're most likely to meet up but even then they're not likely to stick around unless some threat persists.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Immortal Sun, post: 7597710"] Nature is one of those elements that I always write up as almost something of a "blue/orange" alignment. From the perspective of humans, nature can seem violent and chaotic, unpredictable and dangerous, but from the perspective of nature, there's a rhythm and order to everything. Druids subscribe to the ideas of natural order, but like the various civilizations of men, "order" can mean anything from survival of the fittest to an "everything in its place and a place for everything". Nature is typically not aligned with traditional good and evil (which even in D&D, is at worst judeo-christian in design or at best greco-roman). The "natural order" favors bringing life when it is needed, and death when it is needed, but rarely when either of those things are wanted, but not in a Thanos perfect-balance "true neutral" way either. Most people (in my worlds) see nature as good, they associate it with life and food and things like that, but there are elements associated with evil (winter, floods, droughts). Nature just sees these things as "things" they're not good or evil. An "evil" druid would likely be more of a "we think he's evil because he kills people and destroys villages sometimes, even of those people are jerks to trees or those villages are destroying the forest". Mushrooms and swamps are no more "evil" to druids than pine trees and posies are "good". If an "evil" druid got out of hand by going full eco-terrorist, "Nature" would respond by getting other druids to deal with it. You'll never find a druid who [I]destroys[/I] nature, but you may find a druid who heals one tree and kills another with (to the outside viewer) seemingly no rhyme or reason why he saved one and not the other. There are certainly druids who take "sides" on life and death and thus get perceived as good or evil by outsiders but they're no more good or evil from an internal perspective than rot or new growth. Yes, there are "warped" druids. They're typically druids who buy in to (either on purpose, or by outside influence) external morality systems. "Nature" does consider them bad. But these aren't necessarily ones driven mad by old gods or corrupted by demons (though they're more likely to be), in the same way that you can be [I]too[/I] lawful good, you can want to sprout more trees than an area can support, birth too many rabbits or birds beyond what a biome can support, save every tree from rot, wipe away all fungus and so forth. I once made an entire cult of demon-corrupted druids, the demons were trying to sever the material plane's connection to the "plane of life" (a Beastlands sort of plane) and driven mad by the effects of that they were unable to hold any one form, so their features were constantly shifting between various animals. (it was some good body horror times) They went on a massive war against civilization (and were winning) though with some irony they tried to actually bring the Plane of Life to the material plane, which certainly didn't help. Other than that, Druidic orders tend to be transient, learning to be a druid is mostly self-taught, you go into nature and harmonize with the plants and the trees and the earth and revere nature and maybe you'll become a druid. Druids otherwise are inclined to a nomadic existence to experience as much of nature as possible. They are drawn towards places where nature is in danger and that's when they're most likely to meet up but even then they're not likely to stick around unless some threat persists. [/QUOTE]
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