Druids, The Discussion of Genocide. Why Not?

[Fenix]

This thread is just to generally move that entire discussion OFF of the summon creature suggestion thread, and into a new one instead to keep it at least mildly still on topic. Go at it, kids.

[maeglhachel]

Aug 23, 2014 16:23:52 GMT -5 Trollfiend said:

Culture doesn't always break nature. That's what I said. You seem to have twisted my response into "all culture destroys nature", but that's not what I said. It couldn't be further from what I said.

Alright, sorry if I took this out of context.

What I was trying to say was:
Your perspective is totally valid.
And, there may be more totally valid perspectives.

I haven't even started to go into my OOC take on this, but I've played a mogwli-type of character druid who would have mistrusted any kind of culture as the road to hell (and had a bear fammy who wasn't called Baloo), while for Julie greed was the cardinal sin, not culture (and with her acceptance of culture she was probably a lot closer to the real-world druids of the Celts.)
Until a DM tells me that one of the two aren't valid interpretations of the druid theme, I'll continue expecting there to be this kind of friction among druid and will imagine those things to be topics in druid circles much like tenements of the faith are discussed in church conclaves.



(If I _were_ a druid OOCly, I'd prolly accept culture as such as something that naturally evolves from living in larger groups. But it can cross lines. Like crude oil is nature, but is plastic? Is plastic waste in oceans? I, personally, feel there is a line somewhere, even if I couldn't define where it is.)

[Trollfiend]

Aug 24, 2014 2:36:23 GMT -5 maeglhachel said:

Aug 23, 2014 16:23:52 GMT -5 Trollfiend said:

Culture doesn't always break nature. That's what I said. You seem to have twisted my response into "all culture destroys nature", but that's not what I said. It couldn't be further from what I said.

Alright, sorry if I took this out of context.

What I was trying to say was:
Your perspective is totally valid.
And, there may be more totally valid perspectives.

I haven't even started to go into my OOC take on this, but I've played a mogwli-type of character druid who would have mistrusted any kind of culture as the road to hell (and had a bear fammy who wasn't called Baloo), while for Julie greed was the cardinal sin, not culture (and with her acceptance of culture she was probably a lot closer to the real-world druids of the Celts.)
Until a DM tells me that one of the two aren't valid interpretations of the druid theme, I'll continue expecting there to be this kind of friction among druid and will imagine those things to be topics in druid circles much like tenements of the faith are discussed in church conclaves.



(If I _were_ a druid OOCly, I'd prolly accept culture as such as something that naturally evolves from living in larger groups. But it can cross lines. Like crude oil is nature, but is plastic? Is plastic waste in oceans? I, personally, feel there is a line somewhere, even if I couldn't define where it is.)

I recommend reading 2nd Edition Complete Druid's Handbook. It's a wonderful read and you can find the PDF format for free on the internet.

Druids are quite commonly found dealing directly with city officials in attempts to help the city become better neighbors with nature. It talks about ways druids can help the two co-exist. Cities aren't perfect by any means, but if the druid can ehlp them find a happy medium, his day has been a good one.

Fortunately, there's no plastic in Faerun. Otherwise, druids would have to go berserk on virtually every single city. There is a line yes, but it doesn't have to be so horrible as to shun everything that's man-made. If it was that bad, druids couldn't ever wear armour, jewelry, use enchanted gear, or weapons, or whatever. 99% of a druids inventory and equipment and enchanted items are man-made. Let's give the druids a break, shall we?

Even Malarites live with a certain balance towards cities. They're about as warlike as you can get. If it weren't for the Malarites several cities would starve during the winter.