The Druids of Feyworld

The druids of Feyworld are traditionally a secretive cult who once thrived only in the hidden “backwaters” of the world. Even after the conclusion of the Second Anchorage, they are often incorrectly viewed as priests by the outside world and, though they do often officiate at religious ceremonies and provide spiritual support to their communities, they are also philosophers, scholars and judges. In Gaelish societies, high-ranking druids are often accorded the respect of a king or clan chieftain and may even serve in that capacity (though a druid-king tends to be rare). Druids tend to have a strong connection to the Otherworld as well, and druids count among their members the few mortals who can operate in the Otherworld as easily as they can in this world. As with most Gaels, the druids follow the traditions of the Tuatha de Dannan, or the Children of Danu, a group of deities who, unlike the Old Gods who created the world, attained deification by transcending their mortal bodies.

The tumultuous events of the last century forced the druids to consider moving out of the hinterlands and into territories that traditionally follow the Old Gods. Their path into the more “civilized” lands is fraught with danger, but the Land calls out to them in pain, seeking respite from the neglect of the Old Gods.

History of the Druids

The Revelation of Amairgen

Original article: The Revelation of Amairgen

The Druidic Order can be traced back over seven millennia, even beyond the Ascension of the Tuatha. Wise Amairgen, son of Golamh, a priest of the Old Gods who had become disaffected by the capriciousness with which they treated mortals, established the Order when he rejected his faith and began to wander the wilderness in search of Truth. For three nine years, he questioned the great Tree-Shepherds, the Treants in their forests older than time, he sat by the knee of the Rock-Singers, the Galeb Duhr who ruled the most frozen peaks, and he spoke to the Deep-Lords, those Tritons who swam the briny sea. Amairgen came to realize that Nature itself was not created by the Old Gods, but only given form by them. It was Nature from which the power of Existence sprang, from which even the Old Gods drew power and, if one listened, one could hear Nature calling to her mortal children.

When he had learned what he could, Amairgen returned to the cities of the Old Gods and brought this new wisdom with him. He did not proselytize, as the priests of the Old Gods did, or admonish the unenlightened, but he did teach those who sought instruction and did respond to those who sought to challenge him. In response to an apostle who encouraged him to actively preach his message, Amairgen replied:

I am Mountain,

I rise high into the sky

And am worn low by wind

Each in my own time.

I am Ocean,

I am driven back by the shore

And yet I also do consume it

Each in my own time.

I am Tree,

I am the sapling that clings lightly to the earth

And yet I become all in my grandeur

Each in my own time.

Because Amairgen taught secrets the Old Gods were jealous of, he was eventually branded a heretic and his followers pleaded with him to flee back into the wilderness. He bade them go forth and keep the search for Truth within them. All but one, Birog of the Silver Tresses, fled into the wilderness. It was from Birog’s account that we know that the priests of the Old Gods imprisoned Amairgen and commanded to deny the Truth. When Amairgen refused, they tried to tie him to a stake, but the wood bent like a rope and declined to support his weight. The priests then raised an iron post and lit a great fire beneath him, but the fire would not rise to consume his flesh. They pulled him down and placed heavy stones on his body. The stones denied their nature and instead rolled off of him. Finally, the priests pulled him from beneath the stones and threw him into a rushing river. Despite the weights tied to him, the river held him aloft and spirited Amairgen away from the priests of the Old Gods. The priests searched long for Amairgen and three of their number finally found him sleeping in a remote glen. Before he could rise, the three pounced upon him and clubbed him to death with their own hands. It is said that Balor, Cerebog and Maelochtar, the three priests who murdered Amairgen, were cursed that day to forever walk the earth unclean, because even Death refused to touch them.