Hey all. To cut the point, I was wondering if I could write my character to be a druid that doesn’t necessarily subscribe to the whole “protect nature” shtick.
From the very bare bones research I did on the forums, one point caught my interest; that Nature magic wasn’t any different than schools of Arcane, Light, or Shadow, and could be learned by anyone for any reason. There were some post that even suggested that shapeshifting isn’t even a druid-specific skill, and could theoretically be used by mages and such.
The reason I ask this question is because I was led to believe that, to be a druid, you had to be some kind of “chosen defender” of nature or be born into the practice, or be a certain race. The point I found above, and a few others, made me uncertain if this was actually the case, and I’d hate to accidentally turn my werewolf into a snowflake with blatantly incorrect lore.
For my character, I chose druid because I liked the idea that they dabbled in arcane and nature, which, to me, opened the door to justifying a druidic mage; primarily a practitioner of magic who uses nature to efficiently grow plants for alchemy, heal himself and others, and take advantage of the forms to make a nomadic lifestyle easier to cope with. The “astrology” or “starry” vibe of Balance also inspired me to work in themes of star watching and concepts similar to zodiac’s and fortune telling, though that bit is MUCH less thought out and would need more research.
As you can tell, those relatively selfish reasons don’t line up with what I used to think were requirements to become a druid, but now I think it might be more feasible than I first thought. I wanted to check with more knowledgeable people before I potentially go into TRP and embarassment myself, though.
This doesn’t have to be a strict “yes you can” or “no you can’t” answer, either! I’d like some discussion, suggestions on how to potentially reach my desired story within the lore, or just theory crafting on how exactly druidism and nature magic as a whole works. From the reading I’ve done, there’s no solid consensus as of now?
Oh, and if you’re wondering “why not just play a mage that uses nature on the side”, I just generally prefer the gameplay elements of druid, hence why I stick with it and wanted to see if I could make it work.