DRUIDS

Mortals seek the divine. This was true even before recorded history and the cognizant worship of the pantheon of the Father of Serpents. Before enlightened understanding, mortals saw the world and its mysteries and splendor and attributed divinity to what they beheld. Such primitive animism can be encountered in the Wandering Islands and other wild places of the world even today. In civilized lands, however, the vestiges of this worship have given rise to the practice of druidism.

A druid is no hermit living in the deep forest or high mountains like an ozrut, or a hoary beastkin ignorant of the wider world, forever gazing upon the moss clinging to the boles of trees to the exclusion of all else. Understanding the world through druidism includes all facets of nature, even extending beyond to extraplanar realms. Whatever their appearance or social integration, a druid is apt to be highly knowledgeable. Unlike sorcerous power which emerges spontaneously from certain bloodlines, druidic understanding is almost always the product of education. However, that education may be as formal as a salon in Moonstone, or otherwise, like oral tradition passed through generations of tribal knowledge.

No matter the particulars of druidic practice, however, certain beliefs are held in common. Foremost is the conservation of the natural. The wilderness, untrammeled by civilization, must be protected. The details, of course, are in continual debate. To some it means that the wilds must remain inviolate, untouched, and perhaps even unseen by mortals. Others allow for the celebration and enjoyment of the natural world by all, so long as it is preserved for the future. At the other end of this spectrum are druids concerned with the maintenance of nature as a resource for the use of mortals. The wilds may be despoiled in need, so long as it is respected and repaired. To such druids, a well-tended farm is as much a part of “nature” as is a primeval grove which has stood untouched for thousands of years. Indeed, there is a small sect of practitioners in Moonstone who regard that ivory city as a unique garden to be tended. They see the arrangement of buildings and environs much as diviners of an astrological bent might consider patterns in the stars.

The antithesis of this belief would be the ruthless exploitation of the natural, and unfortunately an exemplar of such must be detailed here. A form of druidism is practiced by the soldati, commissioned to categorize the bounty of a world, both in its resources such as minerals, plants, and wildlife, and the flowering of magical energies. While stretti labor in mines for ore and broad-backed galiardi haul away timber to feed their industries of war, druids among the invaders tap and drain natural wellsprings of power in the land. Their purposes are not well understood, with captured soldati claiming the stolen magical essence is sent away from the world of Geb.

Lampooned by Amberite satirists and southern wags, the tenet of balance in the world is one of the least understood and most nuanced. The image of the unkempt druid with sticks in her hair, toting about a scale to measure the portion of the meal she eats vs. drops on the ground, or debates how she shall offset her good works one day with mischief the next makes for irreverent comedy. However, it misapprehends how even the average mortal tends to seek balance, even if only in moderating themselves. Indeed, that is the true nature of druidic balance. It does not seek a sort of stasis, with one plant nourished, another uprooted and then alternating, but rather a measured, understood cycle of rising and falling.

The connection between these tenets is readily apparent. The natural order is to be conserved, and the natural order is one of cycles. Grota stands opposite dolina, sea and earth, growth and decay, civilization and wilderness. Thus, to some druids, the lives and works of mortals are part of the natural world too, things to be conserved and tended. The druids of the Orchard of Dove are a potent example: their husbandry of the Orchard extends back beyond recorded history and in the modern era they have guided and moderated the Kings of Dove, the Balloted Constabulary, and now the Lords Captain of Dovenhead. Their wise tutelage lends legitimacy to the successive rulers, and it may be that Dovenhead’s continued placid progress through the storms of history is thanks to their subtle guidance.

In addition to the preceding tenets, there is also action in belief. A druid is not a passive observer to somnolently watch the change of seasons or the course of a forest fire until the flames lick at the meadow full of wildflowers they would prefer to protect. For druids, the emphasis is on proactive response. It is not enough to merely stand athwart a developing problem. Druids are frequently busybodies or inveterate gossips, forever investigating or educating themselves to better understand the ebb and flow of the natural order, or tinkering to best protect and conserve the world and its wilds.

This leads into the final tenent of druidism, that of resolution in unison. Druids are enjoined to solve problems in a way that provides for all. Action must be taken, but the easy route of simple denial or destruction should be eschewed. For instance, if Baltine lumber interests seek to clear-cut a mountainside, the druid should seek to find a way to meet their needs, while providing for replanting, or protecting the most critical stands of trees. If a tribe of beastkin has been forced into land under a druid’s protection, the druid should not bar their path: if they truly cannot be allowed to live and hunt on the land, he should be prepared to find a more suitable home for them and help to establish them there. Those engaging honestly with druids will almost certainly be offered a compromise. However, dealing in bad faith will surely rouse a furious storm when the druid realizes a resolution favorable to all was never possible.

When considered together, this pair of tenets may remind one of beastkin philosophies in dealing with threats to their way of life. It is possible that druidism, and its pre-historic forms, have left an indelible mark on that race of people. Or it may be that beastkin are closer to the wilderness which druids so revere and the similarity follows naturally, so to speak.

Additionally, one might suspect that these tenets could lead to involvement in matters beyond the usual purview of the natural world. Indeed, among beastkin, druids have been part of tribal politics much like more pantheonically-inclined priests since prehistory. The druids of the Orchard of Dove show that this influence is felt even in civilized nations.

Adherents of the druidic traditions belong to a number of broadly recognized schools of thought. These traditions are separate from the various circles of druidism, which may be thought of as specialties in practice and study. Belief systems cross the lines of specialization, though some circles lend themselves more naturally to certain schools of thought.

There are those who come to the druidic enlightenment and the revelations of natural magic spontaneously, or through idiosyncratic training methods. These varied practitioners are known as primal or, less kindly, hedge druids. They are not part of any organized movement, practicing their craft alone or near smaller communities. If they pass their learning on, it is to a single apprentice who will likely become their successor. The gods mean little to a primal druid: worship does not grant one strength. Indeed, mortals out of contact with civilization, such as tribes deep in the Utter Ice or pods of blue water muruch in the Mor Dyfn, may be unaware of widely understood notions of divinity. Primal druids tend to be concerned with the visceral aspects of natural magic: the assumption of animal forms, enchantments to aid survival, the cycles of simple life. Sometimes, however, a magical awakening marked by violence and untempered by tutoring can turn to obsession with decay or the destructiveness of untamed nature. What rumiany druids can be found are usually primal, having been of a solitary bent even before they came by their magical abilities.

The traditional school promulgated the now-widespread tenets of druidism and is perhaps the archetype of the practice. This school originally spread through beastkin tribes, surviving as slave superstition in the north before experiencing a revival of its purer form in contact with the south. It was adopted quickly by humans and filtered back to the iaret in the north during the 5800’s. Traditional druidism is taught through mentorship and as such there are many strains, with different lineages of teachers straying from or merging with each other. Its vast stores of knowledge of the natural world are handed down orally, and traditional druids also learn the arts of storytelling and singing. Natural talent at mimicry has found ptak druids a treasured place as repositories of spoken lore. Traditionalists are agnostic, for the most part. Most would acknowledge that either Geb is the wellspring of natural magic or that it is Ranute’s gift to mortals or even Apsu’s dreams made real by mortal will, but much like arcane spellcasters, worship of the gods is not required for magical puissance. The Orchard of Dove is the best-known nexus of traditionalist teachings but the school is extremely widespread in beastkin communities throughout the known world. Markotny practice traditionalist druidism, but with certain customs that come from a different age of their own history.

With the rise of modern learning scholarly druidism has diverged from traditionalist teaching. Throughout the 6700’s druidism experienced a fad of popularity in the salons of the Jewel Cities, leading to many practitioners committing their teachings to writing. These texts then spread without the usual control and moderation of traditionalism’s mentorship. This leads to an interesting blend of magical practice, natural philosophy, and arcane understanding as the scholarly school overlaps with wizardry and mundane study. Scholarly druids are in many ways the rogues of the art, experimenting and developing new ways of understanding and interacting with the natural world. Indeed, there are hotbeds of antitheistic sentiment within the school, holding that magic and perhaps even the world itself exists apart from the gods. Astrology and a variant of infernalism concerned with natural spirits and fae creatures are currently in vogue with modern scholarly druids.

Scholarly druids can be found in all walks of life, practicing their craft privately or for communities as well as in the employ of nations. Complete numbers are impossible to ascertain, but a druid encountered outside the Suzerainty is as likely to be scholarly as they are to be a traditionalist. Within the Assemblage, a form is taught by parcham councils, eschewing outside influences and concerned with husbanding what remains alive in the fire-blasted ash wastes. The apkallu developed scholarly druidism from their native monastic teachings, independent of surface traditions.

Ever since druidism took root among the iaret, there have been attempts to reconcile it to the worship of the divine pantheon. Unlike traditionalists, pantheonic druidism directly incorporates worship of the gods in their understanding of the natural world and its gifts. Scholarly druids might scoff at this as “religion with extra steps” but there are devoted adherents of the gods to be found dispersed throughout practitioners of the craft. In fact, pantheonic druidism is the most socially acceptable worship of Ash for iaret. The dividing line between these practices and the miracle-workers of divine magic is not well-understood. Most druids of this school claim that while the gods grant them their magic, it is through contemplation of the natural world, rather than ceremony and prayerfulness. A particular oddity occasionally found within this school is the notion of a slumbering god. This sleeping divinity is what mortals dimly perceive when they stand in awe of nature, and is the source of the power wielded by the magically adept. While most such believers would identify this as Geb, some believe it to be a new god yet to rise and be counted in the pantheon.