Druidas

Reclusive mountain dwellers, the Druidas long ago forged an alliance with the dragons of their home lands. Mindful of nature, and once non-violent, their lands were overrun by the orcs and they now live in hidden communities, fighting a guerrilla war against the occupiers. It is testament to their tenacity and skill that the advance of the orcs is kept in check largely by the losses they sustain attempting to keep a hold the rich lands of the Druidas.

Naming Traditions

Family names

The Druidas typically do not hold family names, instead showing allegiance to their clan instead. When an individual moves clan, which happens due to marriage, exile or capture, they assume the name of their new clan.

Culture

Major language groups and dialects

The Druidas speak a variation of Common, albeit with a peculiar dialect that many outsiders find difficult to understand. Even between clans, the dialect can vary substantially, though most clans are able to understand the dialect of the others. The isolating nature of the mountains, and the unique environments within, tend to bring with it new words and concepts. The clan druids do their best to ensure that the language does not drift too far, and remains intelligible with the rest of the Common language.

Culture and cultural heritage

The Druidas, like all other human cultures on Everland, worship the gods of the Dawn War pantheon but unlike the other human groups, have a strong draconic influence in theirs. Where Tyr generally holds the place as the 'chief' of human gods, for the Druidas it is Bahamut, with Tiamat being the opposing force. Silvanus, Mystra and Savras are also important deities. Worship of the gods is led by druids and is very ecumenical, although priests are fairly common. Each clan is based around a village, with a totem that best represents a clans history and culture taking centre place. The orc invasion saw a great many totems lost, and clans are only just recovering a sense of identity. Raids to recover captured totems are undertaken whenever possible, even if the totem does not belong to the clan undertaking the raid.
Prior to the orc invasion, Druidas society was largely pacifistic; inter-clan violence was forbidden and disputes were settled through a series of challenges of strength and skill, with the druids being the final decision makers. Druids were expected to hold to a higher authority than the clan, and whilst they served a clan exclusively, they were supposed to show neutrality in all things. Since the orc invasion, the Druidas have become more martial, their previous experiences with inter-clan competition transferring well to warfare.
The clan is the basic social structure and each clan prides itself on self-sufficiency; asking another clan for assistance is perceived as shameful and a failure to a clan's ancestors. This has been slightly relaxed since the orcs invaded most of the Druidas' homelands, with clans often banding together to offer supplies to replace that which have been stolen, and creating joint warbands to fight the orcs.

Druid of the Druidas