The Revised Druidism Guide

[The Druidic Order 200]

Druidism: A Revised Guide

 

Forenote:: This revision to the original Guide by Arik has been carefully considered to further define and clarify Druidism and it's magic, helping Druids to better understand limitations, speed of progression, and their ability to be creative.  The original Guide was a solid foundation, and like all foundations they were meant to be built upon, as we have now done.

 

Druidism is an ancient form of magic, tied to the most ancient of all Guilds of Aegis, the Druidic Order.  Centuries of guarding secret knowledge and protecting nature has been this Order’s calling, bringing balance through healing land and spreading verdure with their unique arts.

 

Druidism is controlled in such a way, and taught, through a clever process of training that is designed to “indoctrinate” the student into a certain way of thinking, opinion, etc.  That is not to say it is always successful, but it is a powerful tool of regulating who has access to these arts.

 

As with any training, these things occur in stages.  The most commonly known one is Dedicancy.  This stage is most common because it is the one newcomers enter the Order as.  During this time they are given tasks and lectures over a period of time that teach them the Order’s culture, and an appreciation for all things natural.

 

This process, cleverly designed, to open the mind of the Dedicant to the flow of nature, through meditation, assistance and an understanding of ways.   When the Dedicant has finally completed their tasks, and their Guide has deemed them ready, they are instructed to devise and complete theirGrand Task, a milestone task for a Dedicant that shows they are ready to take on the full mantle of responsibility of being a Druid.

 

Upon completing this task the Guide takes the Dedicant to the Attunement Pool, an area within the grove high in natural Druidic Energies, and begins the Attunement Process.

 

This process involves the Guide invoking an ancient knowledge to forge a connection to Nature within the mind of the Dedicant.  One could consider their initial training to be similar to opening a small hole to allow light to pass, and then the attunement process as using the small hole to bore a larger one, creating a ray of light-a connection.

 

Thus is the way one comes into Druidism.

 

The Arts:

 

Druidic Magic is broken down into several subtypes:

 

Control of Nature    Blight Healing

      Healing         Nature’s Communion

Shapeshifting

Nature’s Communion

Defining the Tiers

 

This is the starting point of all Druidic abilities. One is connected to the ebbing flow of life around them. They can feel, see, listen, and even speak to nature and creatures that inhabit it. Yet when just attuned, the connection itself is weak. Your abilities just beginning and through training, experience, and meditation, your communion will become stronger and your requests and abilities easier to manage. No Druid can advance in any druid magic subtype more than their current Communion Tier, PERIOD.

 

For more detailed information on interacting with animals of various types/behaviors through communion, and requesting their aid, a separate post is being prepared for these details, and a link will be put here when it is ready.

Tier 1:

The Druid has been attuned. You connection is weak, but only just beginning. Through mediation, you are able to slightly feel the ebb and flow of life, faintly hear the melodies within the trees and plants yet cannot make out their meanings. This goes the same for animals. Through mediation, you can hear their words, but the words they speak you will not be able to understand. During this time, it is recommended to meditate and focus on strengthening your connection.

 

Tier 2:

Reaching this tier can be achieved within 2-3 IRL weeks through training and meditation. Your connection to nature strengthened, requiring less time to meditate in order to be able to feel the ebb and flow of life a little more within the plants and a little more attuned to the melodies, hearing them clearer. Upon hearing animals, you will be able to understand a few words here and there, but not enough to fully understand the meaning of what they speak.

Tier 3:

Reaching this tier can be achieved within 2-3 months through training and meditation. You will be able to strongly feel the ebb and flow of life and be able to listen to the melodies without the need of meditation, even the whispers of the trees. You will also be able to understand animals more, but with a few words not being understood. Depending on the situation, animals will be able to comply with some requests.

 

Tier 4:

Reaching this tier can be achieved within 7-8 months through training and meditation. Feeling the ebb and flow of life is almost second nature to you now. The melodies of nature and whispers of the trees heard almost clearly. Animals’ words are able to be completely understood and, depending on the situation, will comply with requests.

 

Tier 5:

Reaching this tier can be achieved within 12-14 months through training and meditation. You are completely at harmony with nature, feeling the ebb and flow of life without even a second thought. The very nature around you reacts to your presence. Animals will take pause at the druid, their language completely understood and, given the situation, can be easily soothed and will comply with most requests from the druid.

 

 

Control of Nature

Defining the Tiers

Control of Nature enables the druid to interact with the plants around them. Whether as simple as growing a flower or as difficult as controlling roots and trees to aid you when needed. Each tier here is determined by your Nature’s Communion. It is REQUIRED to be taught this by someone already highly learned in this subtype.  Once you are Tier 3 or above in Control of Nature, you can self improve through practice and meditation over time.

Tier 1:

The Druid has had their first lessons beyond their attunement and have been instructed on proper meditation to learn how to begin to interact with the living world around them, listen to the melodies of nature, and start to make requests of nature.  At this early stage, most requests will go unheard by nature without the guidance of a more powerful Druid.  With attention, a Druid of this skill could perhaps coax a single plant into a healthier state through meditation and care.

 

Tier 2:

The Druid has learned, through lessons and meditation, how to influence already growing plants, and with focus draw into them more life essence with which to grow slightly faster than normal.  With effort, they can aid a small number of plants in growing more healthily, becoming more lush, or yielding a better harvest, but cannot overly affect the speed of their growth.

 

Tier 3:

The Druid has spent years in both meditation and lessons, and can begin to manipulate plants. At the beginning of this tier, a druid would need to have focus when requesting the movement of things, like roots or vines. Even making a seed begin to sprout and grow from their own essence within their palm would require a lot of focus. As the druid starts to become familiar with this tier, they start to truly understand the ebb and flow of life within the plants they wish to request from, requiring less time to focus upon said movements.

 

Tier 4:

The Druid has spent a few decades meditating and taking counsel from their peers and instructors.  They can manipulate roots, vines, and smaller plants with ease, and larger plants and trees with focus.  They can grow plants to full size with focus and effort over a fairly short period of time.  Plantlife has begun to note your presence when you enter an area, and are more likely to respond to your requests.

 

Tier 5:

The Druid has spent several decades in lessons, and in meditation beyond these lessons, attuning to the intricacies of the living world around them.  Plantlife around you responds actively to your presence, flowers blooming even in their off-seasons as you pass by, crops seeming more vibrant, and plantlife healthier and lush with minimal attention from the Druid.  Nearly all requests that do not upset Balance will heed to the Druid’s call, even to the most ancient of plants and trees to some extent.

 

Nature’s Healing

Defining the Tiers

 

Healing is one of the greatest yet most dangerous abilities a druid can learn and achieve. It can be as simple as using a specific type of herb to remedy a headache to as hard as giving one’s own life energy into that of another to heal them. This subtype is not to be taken lightly for, if not learned enough, one runs the risk of even ending their own life if they do not act carefully. It is REQUIRED to be taught by one already highly skilled in this subtype. Once you are Tier 3 or above in Nature’s Healing, you can self improve through practice and meditation over time.

 

Tier 1:

The Druid has taken their first lesson from their teacher, and has been taught some of the core concepts of Nature’s Healing.  They are able to use their power to enhance reagents and remedies, but not to heal directly.  Using bandages and reagents, a Druid can administer more effective first aid than an average non-Druid, enhancing the healing properties of the reagent(s) used. During this tier as well, the druid is taught about different types of herbs and the capabilities of how each herb can affect/help within healing.  The Druid will still fatigue quickly from this technique as they are just learning how to draw from themselves, and have not learned how to moderate this process yet.

 

Tier 2:

The Druid has refined the basics on their own and through further instruction, and has begun to learn about the living essence that is present in all living things of nature, be it plants, animals, or people.  They have generally observed their instructor while sitting within a Fairy Ring to allow them to better see the flow of living essence during a healing lesson.  They are still unable to heal anything in this manner, but they can begin to practice the method, and their bandages and remedies will be quite effective, and will fatigue them far less as they have begun to learn how to draw more carefully from themselves.

 

Tier 3:

The Druid has had many lessons, and has been taken out on many ‘learn by example’ trips by their teacher.  Through meditation and practice, they have begun to understand the flow and transfer of life essence from reagents and plants to aid in healing a person or animal.  They have been instructed on the dangers of healing, and the need to pace themselves, lest they draw too much and cause damage upon themselves.  It is extremely important at this skill level to use powerful living essence from reagents, or be within a Fairy Ring or a powerful natural area, to avoid drawing too much from themselves.

 

Tier 4:

The Druid has refined their skill at transferring living essence from themselves and reagents to heal a victim on their own.  They must still take care, but they have mastered how to draw essence from reagents, and to direct their own to aid their efforts.  Flesh wounds can be healed over the course of minutes, more severe wounds taking longer and much more effort, putting great strain on the Druid.  Only flesh and skin can be mended, not bone.  The Druid is able to heal a few people before the strain becomes too much for them.

 

Tier 5:

The Druid has fully mastered every aspect of the healing of flesh through their gifts, and can draw much more safely from themselves to do so.  In minutes they can mend most non-fatal flesh wounds, and even save someone on the brink of death, with great strain and personal sacrifice.  Some of the eldest healers of this skill are even rumored to be able to mend bone to some extent to aid in it’s natural recovery. ((to be clear, the bone is still more fragile until it heals naturally, but could again bear strain and weight))  The Druid is able to heal several people, depending on the injuries, before the strain becomes too much for them.

 

Blight Healing

 

Blight healing is a most noble ability of the Druids.  Lands afflicted by blight, or plague, disease and death, decay or magical scarring are given new life, and in the place of the infertile soil there is flourishing new life.  It is REQUIRED to be taught by someone already well learned in this subtype in order to progress it.  Once you are Tier 3 or above in Blight Healing, you can self-improve over time through practice and meditation over time.

 

Defining the tiers

 

Tier 1:

The Druid has begun to study the basics, and can more clearly feel taint and imbalance from plants nearby.  They cannot yet heal taint from land, but they can expel sickness from smaller plants and restore them to health with great effort.  The Druid cannot purge taint from the soil itself yet, but they can, with great concentration and effort, cease the further spread of the sickness.  They can only affect plants affected by disease or plague, magical  taint is beyond them.

 

Tier 2:

The Druid has had many lessons, and much practice and meditation in assisting a mentor during Blight Healing sessions, and can now feel blight and imbalance at more distance, generally limited to the immediate ecosystem around them.  They are able to purge taint and blight from most plantlife with great effort.  With great concentration, they can cleanse disease or plague from soil and plants.

 

Tier 3:

The Druid has undergone long lessons, study, and meditation, and over the course of many long years has learned to be able to locate imbalance in the land around them, generally within the same ecosystem.  They are able to bring dead plants back to life by grafting living, healthy bits of similar plants to the dead and tainted plants, essentially reseeding life into the plant.  The Druid is able to purge plague and disease from both plant and soil, and with great concentration they are able to stop the further spread of magical taint.

 

Tier 4:

The Druid has spent decades refining their knowledge of bringing life back to lifeless and tainted lands.  The Druid is able to draw life back into lifeless soil, and purge all forms of taint, be it disease, plague, or magical in origin, from both plant and soil in a medium area around them with concentration and focus.  The Druid is able to bring even the sickest and most tainted of plants and trees back from the brink and restore them to health with effort.  It is rumored that a Druid can even grow a new, healthy tree from the stump of a former tree.

 

Tier 5:

The Druid has fully mastered their studies of Blight Healing.  With effort, they can rapidly heal all forms of taint from both plant and soil in a large area around them.  It is said that with prolonged meditation and focus, a Druid of this skill can even grow life from stone using only pure natural energy.  If there is any trace of life within a plant, they can restore it to full health nearly instantly, and they can sew new life into dead plants in a short time with focus.

 

Shapeshifting:

Shapeshifting is a very rare, mostly unknown ability in Druidism.  Most Archdruids even do not learn of it, and those Druids who are inducted by the Shapeshifters keep the secret well, not even telling their closest loved ones about it unless in dire need.  The average Druid will not hear more than vague rumors of shapeshifting throughout their time as a Druid.  Do not RP it in any shape or form if you have not been approached and gone through the trials and rituals.

 

For information on shapeshifting, refer to:

 

http://www.lordofthecraft.net/forum/index.php?/topic/81980-loredruid-magic-shapeshifting/

[Sister Sequoia 438]

First!  About a month of planning, talking, and coordination.  Glad it is posted finally.

[๖ۣۜ§osa (E.G.I.E.) 520]

...Now I'm thinking on playing a Whitewash Orc that partakes in druidism...
<.<

>.>

Damn you Druids and your shiny new guide.
 

[Pinsir99 526]

Ew Tiers.

[~ Fiend ~ 611]

Ew Tiers.

[mitto 2312]

[Wrynn 1349]

Am I able to contact nature from Asulon through Druidism, as if this is possible. I would certainly like to become a druid, being one of the limited options I have.

[~ Fiend ~ 611]

Well no, I suspect not. Not only is it underwater, so all wildlife a druid could have accessed at the time would be dead, it's also very far away and possibly in another dimension(?).

[cmack1028 549]

Am I able to contact nature from Asulon through Druidism, as if this is possible. I would certainly like to become a druid, being one of the limited options I have.

 

Druidism isn't really a "look into the past" magic, although I suppose an experienced druid could gather a memory from something such as a tree or animal that was witness to a historic event.