The Tuatha de Dannan on Duria

Worship of the Tuatha de Dannan during the Third Age of Man on Duria was relegated only to the druids of the Calmerian Marches and, to some degree, secluded giant tribes of the Divian Mountains. Even during this time, worship of the Tuatha was markedly different than worship of the Elder Gods across Duria. While there were certainly holy places associated with the Tuatha and stories told of their deeds among the tribesmen, they were not directly worshiped or propitiated in the same way as the Elder Gods expect.

At the conclusion of the Third Age of Man, stories about the Tuatha and the druids who exposed their wisdom were already beginning to spread. Upon the Recession of the Gods, the druids of the Tuatha began their first foray into the wider world beyond the Calmerian Marches in over two millennia, providing many of the same services that the now-powerless clerics of the Elder Gods had provided. It was generally believed among the druids that the Fourth Age of Man would mirror the Second Age, with the druids providing spiritual guidance to the populace while the Elder Gods remained unable to affect the mortal world.

This was not to be. The powers of the Elder Gods returned a mere forty years after their Recession and, for the first time, druids and priests found that they were co-existing and, in some ways, competing for the spiritual hearts and minds of the mortal populace. In some areas, the priests re-established themselves rather quickly, their divine authority having been lost well within the living memory of many. In others, particularly in the former Cambrecian states that distrusted the priesthoods of the Elder Gods, the druids continued to provide spiritual and even judicial services to the populace.

Centers of Tuathan belief on Duria include the Calmerian Marches (where the Archdruid of the Golden Oak still resides), Auteria, Danas, Kamara, Malvetia, Numentora and Dakra. Rumor is that a second Great Henge is under construction in the Volasci Forest of Numentora and it is said that druids have made serious inroads allying themselves with the rebels of Stenoa, much to the consternation of the Dorakian mages.