Druids are difficult to nail down and understand in one simple article. There is a rich history of druidic culture throughout the world, that many today still try to practice. But what is it that the druids actually do? Well, in the simplest terms, a druid is a person who practices wild magic.
This entails things like alchemy, herbalism, and animal companionship rituals. Druids are connected to the earth like no other, and they believe that they draw power from everything that is natural.
This type of culture and concepts of magic make perfect characters for adventure and video game stories. As such, we’ve seen a large rise in druid characters in video games, especially role-playing video games, over the past decade or so.
Druid characters have also been widely popular in the Dungeons and Dragons tabletop board game.
This article will focus on some iconic druid characters from video game history.
Morrigan – Dragon Age
The Dragon Age franchise has quickly established itself as one of the best hardcore RPG experiences on the market. In this game, players can choose how to play. Either create your own character from scratch or choose one of the pre-made existing characters. When creating your own character, you have the option to play as a druid.
Of course, the creators over at Bioware weren’t going to leave out an iconic pre-made druid character. And so, they created Morrigan – the Witch of the Wilds. Morrigan is never actually referred to as a druid throughout the Dragon Age campaign. It’s clear to players, however, that she is in fact a druid by nature.
Ermion – The Witcher 3
The Witcher franchise, like Dragon Age, is now well recognised as perhaps the greatest RPG franchise of all time. Here you aren’t given the option to create your own character from scratch. Instead, you step into the muddy boots of Geralt, a Witcher. The Witchers, like druids, rely heavily on herbalism and using wild magic.
It’s even argued by some that the Witcher culture was heavily influenced by the druids. That’s quite clear to see in each set of values that the two share. However, Witchers are not druids. The franchise has actual druids populating its lands. The most well-known is perhaps Ermion.
He’s been a druid since childhood and acts as the spiritual guidance that Geralt needs on his travels.
Halsin – Baldurs Gate 3
Baldurs Gate is the grandmaster of all RPG games. Many people look to the Baldurs Gate series as the first ever next-generation RPG. It speaks to the popularity of druid culture in video games that Baldurs Gate had many druid characters to interact with.
A fan favourite from the franchise is Halsin, a no-nonsense, up-and-coming warrior druid who makes his introduction by slaying an entire goblin encampment. A bold, but different retelling of a druid character.
Wrapping Up
Like sports betting on the results of an eSports tournament now isn’t that new of an idea, druidry in video games is not a new concept. As you can see there have been some epic druid characters in the RPG genre, and there will surely be more!
