Druids¶
Contested
Named in the open question Bhaal's prison: the newest account of demons makes the Druids of Nyx the wardens of the archdemon Bhaal, while the Proturan faction notes give his imprisonment to the Light of Kalar.
"Druids do not worship the gods and reject them as operating against the best interest of the mortal races at worst and being apathetic to their plight at best." — The Nature of Magic (S208)
The druids are keepers of the wild places and of a magic older than the gods' favour. They were once a single order, ruled from a tree fortress that stood between the planes and armed with staves given by the first wizards; after the Shattering they broke into small, secretive regional orders with a language of their own. Few of those who call themselves druids can still cast. In the Fourth Age and Fifth Age they appear as circles tending sacred groves and as the demon-hunting Druids of Nyx.
Origin¶
The 2022 treatise counts druidism among the Elder spellcrafts, the forms of Elder Magic: it "manipulates ethereal magic through ancient incantations and mystic rituals. The Druids were originally an order of Eldritch which had developed their own form of Spellcraft separate from the other Eldritch Magi. Many such unique forms of Eldritch Spellcraft were lost when the Gods struck down the Eldritch. However, Druidism survived and was spread to the younger races" (S208). The same passage gives the druids their creed: they "do not worship the gods and reject them" (S208).
The class draft of 2016 tells the order's history from the Shattering's side. "Before the Shattering, the Druids were a single order within Wood Elven society. Each ordained druid was gifted with a worldstone staff from the Ventari Archwizards in order to perform their magic. The Archwizards tasked them with governance over the forests and wild places of Terrun" (S367). The Ventari Archwizards are the first wizards of the Ventari, whose number the sources dispute (see Arcane Magic).
Taer'ustol and the Great Trees¶
"The Druidic Order was administered from a central location known as Taer'ustol. It was located somewhere deep in the forests of Uoreskall (Yore'skall) in what is now the desert of Qomn. Taer'ustol was a tree fortress that existed across planar spaces and would only appear on the material plane to those with the right keys. Taer'ustol governed a number of regional centers known as the Great Trees (often smaller tree fortresses patterned after Taer'ustol) which in turn governed a number of large Druid Forests, which in turn governed Druid Groves. Maintaining a natural balance in the wilds and rooting out corrupting influences was the primary mission of these druids" (S367).
"After the Shattering, many of the Great Trees were destroyed, those handful that survived were lost to planar rifts which severed them from the material plane and set them adrift in the Void. The latter included Taer'ustol" (S367).
The scattered orders¶
"Cut off from most of the Druidic hierarchy as well as from their peers, the surviving Druids on Terrun passed on their traditions and knowledge as best they could through the tumultuous centuries that followed the Shattering. The result is that there are now many distinct Druidic orders, almost all of them confined to a relatively small region. In a few cases, orders have merged together to cover a larger area. In some cases, a lack of Wood Elves to recruit has forced the recruitment of Human or Half-Elven acolytes" (S367).
"The Druids are known to be very secretive and have their own magical language in which they record all of their magic. It is said the ability to use this language is gifted to each acolyte in the form of a blessing from a High Druid and their memory of the language is immediately lost should they ever try or be forced to vocalize it" (S367). The language is described under Languages. "They all hold to the belief that natural law supercedes the laws of civilization" (S367).
Few of them can work the magic they keep. "Spellcasting Druids are exceptionally rare, however, and many so-called Druids are mere caretakers of a legacy they are not truly able to practice themselves (they lack an Ethereal Focus)" (S208).
Druids of Nyx¶
The best-known order in the Fifth Age is devoted to demons. "Their specialty is hunting, capturing and imprisoning demons. They make frequent use of form entrapment and can track Dae'cilia on the same plane using a thread drained of all of its energy. They will also hunt down warlocks in order to curb the power of powerful demons. They are the wardens of the imprisoned archdemon Bhaal, and prioritize curbing the power of the other archdemons on the material planes" (S019). Bhaal, "previously considered the most powerful archdemon", is "the only archdemon still imprisoned by the Druids of Nyx" (S022). The Sancturi notes remember an older trust: one of the three pieces of the Worldstone Heart "was later given by the Grand Archprefect of Kalar to the Druids to assist them in their imprisonment of 2 Archdemons". That piece is the one Asmodeus took, "what has allowed him to take over defacto control of the Mithis Plane" (S132; see Mithis Heartstone). The goddess the order is named for, and her other servants, are described under Nyx; a planning note of the Proturan campaign wonders about meeting the "Head of the Druids" in a plot where Bhaal bargains for his freedom (S076).
Circle of Ruendor¶
In the Fourth Age the nearest druidic circle to Marshford is the Circle of Ruendor, "40 NE of Dueneport (90 miles from Marshford)", at the town of Lauthdun, "wooden palisade, a small castle", in the coastal forest of Arnyr; its druids in the Marshford campaign were Kostras and Bellani (S361). The same notes name a druid of the elves of Elarin'Thalas, Thalmyr, "Druid antagonist that gave his life to restore Guardian Circle" (S361).
Gap
No source describes a druidic rite, how a High Druid is chosen, how the Druids of Nyx are organized or where they keep Bhaal, or what the Circle of Ruendor does.
Earlier accounts¶
The 2016 class draft makes the druid "a Mithis Spellcaster, normally of a Wood Elven tradition. Human and Half-Elven Druids are very uncommon but not unheard of" (S367), where the 2022 treatise makes druidic casting Ethereal and Eldritch in origin (S208). The Compendium lists the druid among the casters of the Living sphere, beside the Green Wizard, with the Witch Doctor and the Maleficus as its dark counterparts (S372, see Casting Focuses of the Earlier Ages).
Legacy rules for the druid are kept under Mechanics: Druid.