LAWNER CHARACTER TYPES:

DRUID

Druids are spiritual, nature worshipping Mancers, who through their affinity with nature, gain and grow abilities linked with their area of learning, knowledge and affinity.

Any race can become a druid; any sex or ability of person can find themselves drawn to the side of nature that is spiritual and usually hidden from the knowledge of normal peoples. A druid will find their love of the wild and of the world running its own course, to become the only thing that makes sense to them. Sometimes it affects people when mere children, others it may be when they are old and already following a path, which they felt strongly for, only to be suddenly aware of another essence to life.

The philosophy of the druid is the only uniform quality that they all share. The druid will find that the wilds are not the place for construction, manufacture or books. Druids discard all or most possessions, living frugally and simply. Etiquette and sociability may be retained but the stigmas of wealth, power or image are lost. Druids realize that all nature is a form of life, that no creature is above any plant and no living thing is above the water, land or air. All things are equal in nature. The druid’s knowledge is passed by an oral tradition, tales and stories are how they teach and learn from each other. They learn to understand discipline and understanding are important to great knowledge and with great knowledge comes great connection. They learn to understand, communicate, influence, care for and eventually become the very natural things that intrigue them so. They gain these knowledges and abilities by exposing themselves to the essences of these elements, by allowing their whole beings, mind, spirit and physical body, to attune to their surroundings. Druids often loosely worship particular parts of nature, be it an element, animal or plant or even a locality. Often a greater spirit may contact them and this may be a higher elemental or even a deity. Druids may worship these in conjunction to their other highly prized subjects.

The time spent living in nature’s arms and studying it means they tend to avoid society, especially when first starting out on their new path. Some may have connections with settlements, from where they can, time to time, gather necessary resources and in return give what knowledge they can to aid and help pay for their goods. Money is something they never have, trade or ‘in kind’ trade is their way, and how they view all life. They may trap, hunt, fish or only eat plants as all life is seen as cyclic and can be utilized by all as needed. All wealth is seen as wasteful and only leading to unrest and unhappiness, therefore to non-affinity.

Druids are as diverse as the races upon the world. Alignment can be any, but often forms the way in which the druid treats those outside of their normal localities. They may or may not be hostile to strangers and have vices much like the race to which they belong. Those drawn to druidism usually find some resource from which to learn and evolve from, whilst others may be taken by another druid as an apprentice.

Apprenticeships are always for seven Dodecates; it is during this time the druid becomes attuned to their environment. They are taught orally, the ways of all things natural and some unnatural. Given lessons and tasks that open up their awareness and spirits to their locations. A druid may take any number of apprentices but never more than they know can survive on the resources available to them. The relationship between apprentice and mentor can be as impersonal or personal as they both wish.

After the seven Dodecates the mentor may ask some essence of nature to communicate with the apprentice and if they are ready, they will gain the powers of the druid. Sometimes however, this happens on its own, especially if the apprentice is very attuned. Should an apprentice fail to attune they may be released from the apprenticeship and sent back home, released and abandoned to allow nature to decide on their fate, kept as a servant or partner or if the mentor is of an evil, unlawful or neutral alignment perhaps even sacrificed as an offering and focus to their icon of worship. Druids do not see sacrifices as evil in any way. It is a means to an end. Completely believing in reincarnation, the cyclic way of nature and the survival of the fittest they comprehend sacrifice of any living thing, or non-living thing, as a way to bring about focus and release or concentrate the natural energy. Sacrifices are very ceremonial affairs but may be simply done. They are almost always carried out with the druid’s sacred blade. The sacred blade changes with the growth of the druid. A new druid uses bone, carved by themselves or passed down from a previous mentor; it is replaced by the horn blade when the druid has gained more spirituality. Once the druid is well attuned the blade is changed for that of one of gold. The softness of the metal demonstrates the druid’s belief in strength even in the weakest and it is only with the golden blade that they can cut the mistletoe or dig up the deadly man-root safely.

As the druid progresses in affinity they gain abilities unlike normal people. They embody the qualities of priest, mage, elementalist and herbalist, as well as parts of enchanter, occultist and shaman. Only when fully attuned do they exhibit druid-like abilities.

The location of a druid is not restricted to the woods or forests, or highly vegetative areas of the world. Places are wide and varied, the cold lands have its share of druids, as do wastelands, subterranean tunnels and many caves, even some underwater civilizations and environments have their own druids.

The elements open to druids tend to reflect their locality of affinity. Those most frequent of druids, the wood or forest druid tend to be attuned to the elements of plant, animal, earth, water, weather and nature itself.

The druid learns extensively the locality in which they reside, often discovering, but not necessarily utilizing, resources found by divination or through communication with some aspect of nature. Regardless of their alignment the druid is the protector and balancer of the locality in which they reside and will defend it to the end. Eventually the druid becomes so attuned they even sense through empathy the locality of their demesne, being able to sense almost all life and effects of nature throughout their locality. They can with a little focusing ‘feel’ any and all events taking place within the wood. It is this ability that enables the druid to react to things within their locality that may be harmful or just unnatural.

Druids usually make one particular feature or place a sacred place; often highly spiritual, magical or one of outstanding natural beauty. The place of this demesne could be a temple, glade, grove, dell, ruin, cave, peak or shore. The actual place is unimportant but here the druid can become even more powerful and they hold most sacrifices here to bring even more energy to the site. Names for the demesne can be: Demesne, Sacred Place, Sacramental, Grove Of Oneness or Focalheart.

The belongings of a druid are few and often simple. The druid will need certain specific items to perform all the needed tasks they may need to perform. These could include the simplest of robes, food, water and shelter. It can then include specifics such as the druid blade, animal skins, headdresses, salves and ointments, gems, soils, stones, bones, feathers, animal parts or simple jewellery used in ceremonial rituals, as well as maybe a special sacred staff, cauldron or other item.

Druids may be taught Mancery by their mentor or by a higher being. They often create Manc never heard of before or Manc held in awe of by other Mancers. This can lead to some distrust from other Mancers. Unlike a normal Mancer or priest the druid only ever uses their powers when truly needed and never to impress or raise their own self-image. Powers may be used to discourage others through a display of power but is rarely for the druid's benefit however. A druid is more likely to scare off unwanted attention than destroy it.

A druid must often ‘focus’ this means attune to nature and their locality and harmonize with its essence, while in this state they can work Manc, enchant and acquire greater self-being. It usually takes the form of raising the arms, eye or head and some other personal action, chant or song, whatever allows them to attune. Each druid develops their own way of ‘focusing’ the time it takes to focus partly depends upon the personal method, fatigue of the druid, Level and balance in the locality towards the druid. Distractions can hinder the focus, whilst synchronized focusing can speed the method or increase the affect.

In essence a druid is a religious Mancer who is in control and is controlled by the elements, nature and looks to address or redress the balance of nature by learning the secrets of nature and harmonizing with it. They realize that nature is all good, evil, law and chaos and so must be prepared to be all as well.

Common deities worshipped by Druids include: Dythos, Elthanharna, Shellathet, Ibarint, Acronafast, Techna.

Lesser-worshipped deities include: Enos, Meter, Fortel, Crastane.

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