Hi everyone!

[Andrea]

Hi guys, my name is Andrea, a 24 years old born in Rome; Italy. I'm a bloodline of Julius Cesare... I joke!

For the first time I'm going to run a campaign set in Birthright after a decade in Greyhawk (my fave setting).

I would ask you every help to understand in the best way the setting, every tip and amatorial product.

So, the first answer:

Do how may druidic circles exist? Info about them? ecc...

Thank you in Advance. Grazie!

[kgauck]

Druidic circles are generally devoted to Erik, the Old Father of the Forests. His faith is dominant among the Rjurik people, but his temples can also be found among the Anuireans and the Brecht as well. Erik's wife, the sun goddess, Avani is dominant among the Khinasi, so I would imagine that Erik's priests and practices are are simply a small sub-set of her temples in Khinasi.

While there are some places in Anuire and Brechtur where Erik has political and social authority, it is quite reasonable to argue that Erik has circles elsewhere as well, but that they simply lack political and social power, and the resources that flow from that power. There are plenty such references.

The circles (and temples) of Erik are based on druids, clerics of Erik, rangers, and bards (called Skalds) plus assorted fellow travelers when the temples of Erik are politically dominant. Where Erik's power is dominant, you can expect to see allied faiths (such as Avani, Ruornil, and Laerme) as affiliated sects.

Erik has several roles, including the nature god, the patron of the Rjuirk people, and a champion against the humanoids. Certainly those who primarily worship Erik as a nature god will seek out natural places to construct circles. As a patron of his people, Erik may well have great temples where the people are, in cities, towns, and villages. Certainly one might expect to find the druids in the circles and the clerics in the temples, but I doubt its a hard and fast division.

[Sorontar]

Since you might be meaning "circles" as in Druidic groups...

The Druids are divided into two different groups, the conservatives (The Emerald Spire) and the liberals (The Oaken Grove). There is no major rivalry between the two groups (well nothing that they fight about) but generally only congregations for one will be found in any province.

The Spire likes to maintain the old traditional Rjurik way of life, being nomadic and working off what the land has to offer. The Grove is more urban and settled, being more happy to work with the land to provide more for the community, provided it is not to the detriment of the land. Therefore, the Grove is more likely to be associated with the large towns and trade than the Spire. The Grove is more likely to be spreading its influence into Anuire and Brechtur.

Both groups have their Grand/Arch Druids, who is the regent for the entire group. Each holding in the provinces has their own high druid, but they tend to follow the same beliefs as their boss. There doesn't seem to be the same degree of splinter groups as for the churches of Haelyn etc..

As an alternative, some DMs have used Druids of Ruornil the Moon God, Winter Druids of Kriesha the Cold Goddess, or even Shadow Druids. Some have let elves be druids. However, these are all new approaches which have not been agreed upon by the community here or incorporated into the D20/3.5 Birthright rules. Doesn't mean they can't be used though!

Hope that helps.

Sorontar

[Andrea]

Thank you so much!

Another question: What is the Roele's banner?

[geeman]

At 08:39 AM 5/21/2008, Andrea wrote:

>Do how may druidic circles exist? Info about them? ecc...

Let me see if I can put this into different terms than other folks
have used that spell the issue out a little more clearly:

There are no druids in Birthright. The setting material does often
refer to "druids" but what were 2e druids when the setting came out
are probably better described as specialty priests than a more strict
reading of the druid PC character class. They are a sort of hybrid
druid and specialty priest. A specialty druid, if you will. The
priests of Erik are pretty much identical to the 2e druid character
class game mechanically, but in terms of their organization and
behavior they are much more devoted to Birthright`s setting material
than the standard D&D (or Greyhawk since you mentioned that)
material. So... they don`t dual for rank. There are/is no great
druid or grand druid. They do not become "hierophants" in the sense
that 2e druids from Unearthed Arcana do. They are not organized in
the way that standard, 2e (or some later incarnations) druids do.

Instead, that sort of extra-game mechanical material is part of the
BR domain structure and exists on a domain by domain basis. Some
temple domains are similar to the 2e standard in a few ways, but when
it comes to background material and the "culture" of the BR priests
of Erik, I think in almost every case they differ more than they have
in common with druids.

There are several temple domains in BR that have priests of Erik in
them, and they tend to differ from one another about as much as they
differ from 2e druids. For example, compare The Emerald Spire (which
is all over the Rjurik Highlands) to the Old Father of the Forests
(in Brechtur) and you get very different religious
organizations. Compare to Treucht Chauchen and you get an even
broader view of the situation. In fairness, I should note that the
TC might not be priests of Erik at all. There might be priests of
Erik in the temple structure because it is believed the "church holds
both Ruornil and Erik in high esteem" but the actual priests of that
temple might also be dedicated to the Moon god. Or they might be
worshipping the ehrshegh who is their regent because that also
happens in BR. From my POV, however, some combination of all three
of those types of priests is probably the most likely and useful
interpretation. Even in the most particular interpretation of that
temple domain, however, one could easily justify a character with
levels in the druid character class, so the comparison remains apt.

Even within the temple structures there is some room for
interpretation. The Emerald Spire is spread out over a very large
(for BR) area of land. From one end of the organization to the other
there might be some shift in how things are viewed under the general
rule of their regent structure--and that`s amongst the supposedly
more "conservative" temple.

So I would suggest that there are no "circles" per se. Similarities
to that system of portraying druids could exist in several existing
domains, but it`s only one possibility among a disparate group.

Gary

[geeman]

At 08:40 AM 5/23/2008, Andrea wrote:

>Another question: What is the Roele`s banner?

The Banner of Roele is the standard or flag of Michael Roele that was
lost when the emperor was killed by the Gorgon. It appears in the BR
computer game. I don`t recall seeing it in any of the published
works.... It seems to me it gave you some sort of bonus to military
units during the large scale combat system when it was in your
regent`s inventory. It`s been a while....

Gary