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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 8109759" data-attributes="member: 6790260">Druids care about the Cycle, wherever it appears, however it manifests. They work to keep the wheel turning. It may turn in new directions with time; it may lurch or slow, but with Druid efforts it keeps turning nonetheless. The Cycle is impersonal; it doesn't exist the way Ioun or Bahamut do, as entities linked to but distinct from the concepts they embody. The Cycle may have proxies and representatives, such as ancestor spirits. It may greatly empower specific representatives, such as the spirit of an ancient forest or a great mountain. But ultimately, these things are either merely emblems that let us understand the greater, undifferentiated Nature, or transitory concentrations of power, like the crest of a wave or the flash of lightning. Becoming too attached to any individual manifestation or emblem prevents real understanding of the thing, the Cycle, being manifested or symbolized.Clerics care about a Doctrine. It may be (usually is) the will of a deity or set of deities, or it may be personal faith. Either way, there is some set of specific values that the Cleric holds, which they do more than espouse (any old priest or devout person can do that). They do the terribly hard work of understanding that doctrine, and supporting others who follow it. They are shepherds and teachers.And yes, this does mean that there's going to be a little similarity between "Cleric of Nature" (who, implicitly, holds nature-related values) and "Druid," but it's the reason and focus of their interests that differs. A Cleric of Nature has "faith in" Nature, so to speak, while a Druid need not have any faith per se but instead simply "knows" that the maintenance of Nature's continual self-renewal is necessary for whatever reason. It's the difference between knowing that loving relationships are important and need to be maintained even at personal cost, and believing that Love is a divine force that shapes existence. Both will likely engage in similar behavior (with sufficient abstraction), but the reason and intent are different.(Two other comparisons are relevant here: Cleric vs Paladin, and Druid vs Shaman. Paladins are crusaders and standard-bearers, and tend more toward evangelism and rallying the faithful rather than ritualism and teaching the faithful. Shamans do focus on all those "transitory" manifestations and emblems, seeing the vast undifferentiated Nature as too vast, too undifferentiated, instead linking their territory and allies/people to the meaningful representations Nature provides. As WoW shamans put it, "All that is, is alive." These four distinctions--Paladin, Cleric, Druid, Shaman--all matter in the Arabian Nights style Dungeon World game I run, though the details are a bit more specific than the above.)</blockquote>

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