• sylver_dragon@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    19
    ·
    edit-2
    2 months ago

    Real Druids are kinda an unknown. We have writings about their practices and beliefs from Roman writers and much later Christian writers. The former were known to be exaggerate and just make shit up when it came to “barbarians” and the enemies of Rome. And the later were often working with incomplete knowledge and also making shit up. This was muddled further by 18th Century work which liked to make ancient cultures even more fantastical. And then you get all the Neo-Pagan revival crap which cast their own beliefs onto ancient cultures, such as the druids, which completely muddied the waters. The fact is, we don’t actually know a whole lot about the real Druids.

  • TheGreatDarkness@ttrpg.network
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    15
    ·
    2 months ago

    Fun fact about druids - in their tradition pretty much every break from the norm, like writing things down or cutting herbs wrong, was punishable by being clubbed to death.

    Fun fact two: In France Druids were exterminated by Romans with help of Bards. Bards were basically a competting sect of the same faith with Druids and they sided with Romans to save their own skins and eliminate their rivals.

  • dragonshouter@ttrpg.network
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    2 months ago

    To be fair the word has drifted a lot from its inception. If you want the second one you need to do some very in depth research on Celtic social dynamics. Also it’s more fun to have magic Though it would be cool to have an actual magical druid as a religious leader of a group.

    Same way that the word Tyrant just meant absolute ruler but in a neutral connotation; kinda like the word king. NOW it means an unjust ruler but it just meant ruler to early Greeks