In the heart of the forest, a wild elf wields a gnarled oaken staff adorned with various herbs, calling upon the storm's wrath. With a gesture, lightning arcs from the sky, striking down torch-bearing orcs threatening the sanctity of the woods.
Amidst the golden grasslands, a botari woman in the form of a lioness stealthily navigates her homeland. She stalks the hyena cultists of Xolotli, seeking to halt their line of gnolls and preserving her land's tranquility.
Swinging a blade formed of pure flame, a half-high elf charges into a mass of skeletal soldiers, sundering the unnatural magic that gives the foul creatures the mocking semblance of life.
The druid's prowess embodies nature's rage, the gentle embrace of dawn, the guile of the fox, and the might of the bear. Yet he or she disavows mastery over nature, asserting her unity with it. To those who feel his or her ire or trespass his or her sacred groves, the distinction between ruling and aligning with nature is inconsequential.
Harmony with Nature
Druids revere nature, drawing power from its essence or nature deities. Some seek transcendence through nature's mystic spirituality, while others serve gods of the wild, animals, or elemental forces. Termed the Old Faith by the uninformed, these ancient druidic traditions came about alongside structured deity worship, at least amongst civilized peoples.
Druidic spells channel nature's essence—the force of fang and claw, sun and moon, fire and storm. The ability to assume animal forms is a common gift, some delving deeply into this practice, favoring it over their natural state.
Preserve the Balance
Druids perceive the world as delicately balanced. The harmony of air, earth, fire, and water sustains existence, their equilibrium paramount. Cults promoting one element endanger this balance, a threat druids oppose. Cosmic forces—law, chaos, good, evil—also demand equilibrium, driving druids to champion neutrality.
Ecological balance, crucial for plant and animal life, concerns druids deeply. They abhor the unnatural—aberrations and undead cheif among them—leading raids against these intrusions, especially within their domains.
Often guarding sacred grounds or unspoiled regions, druids emerge as active defenders when threats imperil nature's equilibrium, assuming roles as adventurers.
Pursuers of Natural Wisdom
Venturing for knowledge and power, druids embrace adventure. Some heed calls from superiors, while others defend their beloved natural realms. Druids wield divine magic akin to clerics, drawing from nature's power rather than solely from a deity, channeling primordial magic left from the world's creation. Eschewing worked metals due to interference with their primal connection, druids only carry metal weaponry when combating the unnatural, seen as a forewarning of impending peril.
Druids revere nature, deriving their magic from its force, pursuing spiritual unity rather than complete devotion to deities. Embracing nature's impartiality, they maintain neutrality in alignment, reflecting nature's own neutrality. In keeping with nature's ultimate indifference, druids maintain at least some measure of dispassion. As such, they must be neutral on at least one alignment axis, if not both. Just as nature encompasses such dichotomies as life and death, beauty and horror, and peace and violence, so two druids can manifest different or even opposite alignments and still be part of the same druidic traditions.
Communal Priests
Though their organization is invisible to most outsiders, who consider druids to be loners, druids are actually part of a society that spans the land, ignoring political borders. A prospective druid is inducted into this society through secret rituals, including tests that not all survive. Only after achieving some level of competence is the druid allowed to strike out on her own.
All druids are nominally members of such a druidic society, though some individuals are so isolated that they have never seen any highranking members of the society or participated in druidic gatherings. All druids recognize each other as brothers and sisters. Like true creatures of the wilderness, however, druids sometimes compete with or even prey on each other.
A druid may be expected to perform services for higher-ranking druids, though proper payment is often tendered for such assignments. Likewise, a lower-ranking druid may appeal for aid from her higher-ranking comrades in exchange for a fair price in coin or service.
Creating a Druid
When making a druid, consider why your character has such a close bond with nature. Perhaps your character lives in a society where druidism still thrives, or was raised by a druid after being abandoned in the depths of a forest. Perhaps your character had a dramatic encounter with the spirits of nature, coming face to face with a giant eagle or dire wolf and surviving the experience. Maybe your character was born during an epic storm or a volcanic eruption, which was interpreted as a sign that becoming a druid was part of your character’s destiny.
Have you always been an adventurer as part of your druidic calling, or did you first spend time as a caretaker of a sacred grove or spring? Perhaps your homeland was befouled by evil, and you took up an adventuring life in hopes of finding a new home or purpose.
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