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Message: <blockquote data-quote="steeldragons" data-source="post: 5768256" data-attributes="member: 92511">My game world has a large druidic organization, world wide (and the most ancient organization/religion still existing in the game world).Their core belief in maintaining  "the Balance" of the natural energies and state of the world gives them little to no impetus to become involved in the "momentary" and thoroughly transient political and worldly battles and powers of what they refer to as "the realms of Men." So, as an organization, gaining such power and commanding other sapients doesn't really, other than in a few extreme "legendary" circumstances, influence their actions.The organization has the foundation as set forth by 1-2e, i.e. as one increases in level/power there are fewer druids at the "top". The 13 MOST powerful druids of the world constitute the "governing body" of the organization, "the Grove." The Grove oversees various sacred sites and the security/maintenance of places of natural power...usually through the assignation of middling to high level druids assigned to those sites, called "Keepers."The most powerful druid in the world is the undisputed head of the organization, the Lord of Oaks, for whom all other druids serve as an informational network, filtered through the Grove who act as a advisory council for the Lord of Oaks. The Lord of Oaks is viewed as having been reincarnated innumerable times and is really in the physical world as their "last go 'round", if you like. Reincarnation is certainly one of the order's primary beliefs and it is an unarguable fact that one becomes reincarnated, through the millenia, until their understanding of the Balance and the natural energies of the universe is complete. The embodiment of this "perfect understanding/unison" is the Lord of Oaks, who then is able to retire/become one with the Balance and/or may opt to be reincarnated again...just for fun, I guess.Druids are souls believed to have already gone through enough incarnations (as trees, rocks, streams, animals, etc..) to be reincarnated as sapient beings again, inevitably drawn to become druids again and increase their rank through the organization until all will eventually become a Lord (or Lady) of Oaks and then move on from the world.The development and growth of their shapeshifting ability is meant to allow the druid to experience the world through the eyes of the creatures they can become (and eventually plants and various elemental states they achieve as they rise in level). Through those experiences, the druid is believed to achieve a much greater understanding of the world and the Balance, which they retain without the need for (and in addition to) personal reincarnation.So, as such, the spell Reincarnation is kind of seen as a bit of "cheating" or "jumping the gun" as the being retains their mental state and abilities...which "normal/natural" reincarnation [usually] does not.A druid would opt to, indeed accepts as fact that they will be, reincarnated "naturally" in the course of the normal cycle of life/through the Balance.In certain cases it would be, I suppose, acceptable or necessary...seen as the will of the universe/Balance in that particular druid's ascension. For non-druids, magically imposed/chosen Reincarnation would be viewed as a very large stepping stone to that soul moving toward being able to become a druid (or a reminder that they had been and perhaps lost their "way"?) and eventually ascend beyond the physical world/cycle.So that would be viewed as a "good" thing by the druid organization...but it is certainly not something that is forced upon the mass population...or imposed on themselves as some sort of "power grab."All souls achieve their unison in the Balance in their own time...nd that time may easily take multiple thousands of years..."Time" is viewed rather differently by druids than other beings/religions.I must say with all of that philosophical fluff in place, since I'm now thinking about it, I have never had a player desire to have their PC Reincarnated as opposed to "Raised" or "Ressurected." So, how it would really work in my world's play...I can't be too sure. But as an instrument to increase the organizational or personal power of a particular druid is not something that would be acted upon or even conceived by most druids and would definitely NOT be condoned by the Grove or Lord/Lady of Oaks.GREAT topic/thread though! I love this stuff!Have fun and happy "coming back as a fish or something" <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />--Steel Dragons</blockquote>

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