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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Orius" data-source="post: 4765897" data-attributes="member: 8863">Actually, I really should have posted this back on Wednesday, but I was busy all week, and didn't have time to work on it.  I'm writing this article to be fairly edition neutral, but it's most strongly influenced by material from 2e and 3e.Everyone's heard at least rumors of the infamous Shadow Druids, the sub-circle of druids who hate civilization and want to destroy it and everything associated with it.  But the druidic faith is broad and exists throughout the whole world, and within it are many variations that mirror the diversity of nature herself.  And that variation has given rise to the Urban Druid.Now many would say this is a contradiction, but it isn't, for even in the grandest cities of the world, the druid can have a place.  Just as bees construct hives, humans build cities, and the Urban Druid recognizes this as part of humanity's nature.  For the Urban Druid, it is important for city dwellers to understand how to live in harmony with nature, as harmony is one of the elements of the druid's neutrality.The Urban Druid's personal circle is based in or very close to the city she serves.  Often this will be a park of some sort in the city.  In this park is the sacred grove which is at the center of the druid's faith.  The most traditional druids naturally prefer a circle of grand oak trees where they carefully cultivate the mistletoe needed for their rituals (special care must be taken since druids are aware that mistletoe is a parasite, and a city park will not by its nature have a very large stand of trees), maintain scrying pools of pristine water, and offer sanctuary to some of the wildlife that makes the city their home.  Not all Urban Druids will have a grove such as this, after all the grove must exist in harmony with the local ecology and a druid knows better than to force oak trees to grow in a desert.Since many traditional druids find cities to be uncomfortable, the Urban Druid will often recruit new members of the circle from the city's population.  Generally, orphaned street urchins who show promise tend to be favored, as merchants and craftsmen wish to see their children inherit the family business and aristocrats are grooming their children to walk through the halls of power.  No one will object to a druid taking an orphan under her wing, and in most cases orphans are invisible and no one even notices.  However, in some cases a wealthier parent who is sympathetic or friendly to the Urban Druid may ask her to train a younger child in the ways of the druid.The Urban Druid takes unto herself the following responsibilities in her city:She cares for the local wildlife.  Most cities have some wild animals in them.  Although these animals are almost never very large, there are still feral dogs and cats, squirrels, rabbits, bats, pigeons, crows, and over birds, and various insects, spiders and other arthropods.  The Urban Druid will try to prevent these animals from being abused or treated cruelly.  However, the Urban Druid does recognize that some animals like rats, fleas, or cockroaches can be health hazards and pests to the city's inhabitant and assists in keeping their numbers down without causing undue harm.She educates the inhabitants of the city about the natural world.  After all, one who is ignorant of nature cannot fully respect or appreciate her.She offers healing to those in need.  This is not done in competition with the clerics of the city's churches and temples, but to complement them.  Where a cleric might ask for a donation for his services to maintain his church, the druid has less need for money and may give her services as a charity to those who are in need.  If an epidemic plague strikes the city, she assists the local clerics in fighting it by using remove disease.  She also uses her healing abilities to act as a veterinarian in the city, caring not just for the wild animals but domestic beasts of burden and even pets.She helps to keep the city's population fed by preventing the spoilage of food.  When food rots, it's wasted, people go hungry and more pristine land is wasted to make up for the difference.  (See the slow rot spell from the 2e book Tome of Magic for applications to produce, a DM could create a similar spell that works for meat.)She keeps an eye on the weather.  The city's ruler and merchants may very well be concerned about the weather conditions and how it will affect the city and trade.  She uses control weather, control winds, and control water to protect the city from the most harmful storms, winds, tornados, or floods.  She does not prevent normal precipitation, only limits weather and weather affects that would be harmful to the city and its inhabitants.She fights pollution.  She tries to prevent garbage and waste from getting out of control (the decompose spell from the 2e Priest's Spell Compendium is very useful here; it reduces any organic material to compost).  She also tries to prevent the city's sewers from polluting the local water supply.  Some Urban Druids have worked with the local wizards' guilds to produce sluices for the sewers which affect the water passing through them with a continual purify food and drink spell.The Urban Druid prefers to work with a city's rulers instead of against them.  Wiser rulers who see the benefits that the Urban Druid can provide will respect the druid's views.  The Urban Druid will not attack a ruler that opposes her except as a last resort, since the rulers will often retaliate against the druid's sacred grove.  The Urban Druid also doesn't punish the entire city if the problem is only a single autocratic ruler, she sees no reason to cause mass destruction and harm innocents when a creeping doom in the ruler's bedchamber works just as well.  When facing popular opposition in a more democratic-minded city however, the Urban Druid will summon elementals, cast earthquakes and call up storms of vengeance to display her wrath and demonstrate the awesome power of nature.  Such destruction is only used as a last resort or in retaliation for the destruction of her sacred grove, since rebuilding the city will mean trees cut down for timber, rocks quarried for building stone and so on.  The Urban Druid knows better than to invite further natural destruction by wantonly laying a city to waste.</blockquote>

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