Legend has it that the first druid was a man bewitched into the Lady’s service by her magic.
Some tales have it that this was a mighty warrior of noble birth who wandered into her realm one day. Impressed by his boldness and having need of influence beyond the borders of Galahir, the Lady enraptured him with her powers and caused him to foreswear his old path in favour of a new life of service in her name, preserving peace and balance throughout the world.
Other versions of the tale have the man as a mere foot soldier, the sole survivor of a particularly brutal battle in the God War, who swore fealty to the Lady having witnessed her attempting to save his people.
Still others have him as a learned mage who sought the Lady out to study her unique nature in the years following the God War and instead fell hopelessly in love with her and swore an oath to be forever in her service.
Whatever the truth, the man became the first of the sacred Order of Druids, a secretive sect which has grown and spread to cover the entire world with a network of agents dedicated to the teachings of the Lady and the preservation of balance.
To be a druid is to forsake all other masters, all other loyalties and pledge oneself completely to the Lady and her works. It requires a particular combination of skill, intellect and raw physical stamina and prowess, to say nothing of courage and determination.
It is a profession suited more to humans than any other noble race, and it is for this reason that the Order of Druids is almost exclusively composed of humans.
Elves may be stronger magic users, but they also lack humility and the will to subvert themselves to a greater cause.
Dwarfs are stubborn, and generally mistrustful of anything and everything that is not dwarfish.
During the God War, the Lady learned the capacity for humanity to sit right on the edge of morality and judgement, to walk the grey line others either do not or cannot see. It is no accident that she chose a human as the first druid, nor that the order is mostly human in composition to this day.
Druids are masters of magic to rival even the greatest elven mage, though they use magic in a very different way.
Where elves and human mages tend to forcefully take what power they require and actively bend it to perform their will, druids are more subtle, sensing and feeling the ripples, ebbs and flows of magical force and gently altering these to achieve the desired effect.
Ever mindful of the need for balance in all things, a druid will never commit to ‘mastery’ of one or the other form of magic as other magic users do, nor will they ever attempt magic that is beyond their limits.
To be a druid is to accept limitations rather than push against them, to ensure the world and the forces which shape it are disturbed as little as possible by your actions.
Where an elven battle mage might be described as a tsunami of magical force, pummelling his opponents with raw magical might, a druid is more akin to a river, gently eroding with natural force.
Where a human wizard might spend years mastering one particular lore or element of magic, a druid will study all, seeking never to master, but merely to guide appropriately.
A druid is a spy as much as a mage and leader, and must be able to escape difficult and often outnumbered situations should they be discovered.
They must also often take responsibility for the direction of armies in battle, marshalling their disparate resources to the best possible effect, sometimes while ensuring the foe is not completely destroyed.
Thus, every druid is statesman, warrior, general, mage, academic and more. There are no comparable individuals in the world, and no similar order exists in any of the realms of men, elves or dwarfs.
So subtle are the druids, that to this day the full extent of their infiltration and works in the world at large are not even suspected, far less known.
Elves, dwarfs and men of whom a druid knows every last intimate detail, who he may even have walked a mere step behind during many years of observation, would still greet him as a stranger should he reveal himself.
Such dedication and power require great sacrifice. A druid forsakes all former ties, all former family, friends and oaths when admitted to the order.
Nothing less than total dedication to the Lady and her cause is acceptable.
It is telling that in the centuries since the first druid, not one of their kind has betrayed this dedication, nor even appeared close to doing so.
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