D&D General Effect of Druids on Scientific Knowledge in your Campaign?

Cadence · May 9, 2024

Watching the BBC Earth channel on Roku with Attenborough, and was kind of shocked at how recently things like caterpillars turning into butterflies, birds migrating instead of hibernatinf, and whales being mammals and not fish became "scientifically known" and accepted.

If there were DnD Druids and Rangers and Elves, and etc... how much of this would be widely known everywhere at a technologically much earlier stage than IRL? What else would they know - germ theory? Would they tell it widely? Would they be believed? Or would those nature facts not be true in your campaign world (do barnacle geese come from barnacles)? Would the presence of magical origins confound it all (would regular birds not be distinguishable from regular ones)?

bloodtide · May 9, 2024

The thing is it would not be exactly like Earth. The problem is you need all the other science too. Druids can't know about germs, until someone invents a device that can see germs.

And a lot of stuff they would not "need" to know...as magic does it. Healing is an easy one. You don't need to know anything about caring for sick or wounded plants and animals......when you can just fix them with a spell.

Really...until the 18th century...there was a lot of misinformation about nature. Though few really made much of a study of it before then. And a lot was known...but they did not know the why. Humans learned like 3000 years ago to rotate crop fields by trial and error.....but they had no clue why that worked.

But there is the weird 180 stuff.....that druids can know more then 21st century science. Druids can talk to animals...this is beyond 21st century science. They can even talk to plants and rocks. Druids can control animals and become animals.

Necropolitan · May 9, 2024

Cadence said:
caterpillars turning into butterflies

Druid, talking to a butterfly: "You used to be a WHAT?!"

Cadence said:
birds migrating instead of hibernating

Druid, calling out to a flock of birds: "WHERE ARE YOU ALL GOING?!"

Cadence said:
whales being mammals and not fish

Druid, talking to a whale: "Where do baby whales come from?"

Lakesidefantasy · May 9, 2024

My fanasty world is actually flat! and the sun does indeed travel in a giant arc over it each day.

I don't tell my players this. They can live in their own strange delusions.

GMMichael · May 9, 2024

Cadence said:
If there were DnD Druids and Rangers and Elves, and etc... how much of this would be widely known everywhere at a technologically much earlier stage than IRL? What else would they know - germ theory? Would they tell it widely? Would they be believed? Or would those nature facts not be true in your campaign world (do barnacle geese come from barnacles)? Would the presence of magical origins confound it all (would regular birds not be distinguishable from regular ones)?

Druids can probably see the writing on the wall and logical conclusions of human scientific development: factory farms, animal testing, GMOs. The irony is that this puts them in a similar position as oil companies; they need to disrupt and confuse the findings of science to promote their (polar opposite) goals.

Charlaquin · May 9, 2024

Cadence said:
Watching the BBC Earth channel on Roku with Attenborough, and was kind of shocked at how recently things like caterpillars turning into butterflies, birds migrating instead of hibernatinf, and whales being mammals and not fish became "scientifically known" and accepted.

If there were DnD Druids and Rangers and Elves, and etc... how much of this would be widely known everywhere at a technologically much earlier stage than IRL? What else would they know - germ theory? Would they tell it widely? Would they be believed? Or would those nature facts not be true in your campaign world (do barnacle geese come from barnacles)? Would the presence of magical origins confound it all (would regular birds not be distinguishable from regular ones)?

Personally, I prefer to embrace the historical misconceptions. Whales being mammals (for example) only really makes sense in the context of a taxonomic system based on evolutionary branches from a common ancestor, and a world where gods can just create new species from whole cloth kind of puts a damper on evolution as a theory for the origin of species. Sure, both things could exist - Corellon creates the original Eladrin, some of them migrate to various parts of the material plane, and they evolve by natural selection into the various subtypes of elf, for example. But, I think too much science spoils the fantasy. The more closely you look into the science, the less sense it makes in a magical world.

Also, barnacle geese and vegetable sheep are way too awesome not to have be real in D&D!!

Gradine · May 9, 2024

If you're looking for real world equivalents to Druidic thought and practice, there are worse places to start than researching indigenous and other traditional knowledges. Dig into ethnobiological research (particularly ethnobotany and ethnozoology).

There's plenty of ways to relate to and "know" about nature that are outside of traditional "scientific consensus". More importantly, these knowledges are not pre-science; they're very much contemporary.

Druids seem pretty well suited to this construction of knowledge, personally

Paul Farquhar · May 9, 2024

Look at how real world religions reacted to the discovery of evolution.

Meanwhile, druids “meh, we knew that stuff all along”. (If they hadn’t been exterminated by Romans who were afraid of their magic).

Minigiant · May 9, 2024

Druids. Not much

Druids turn into animals but keep their own minds. Druids command animals and dominate their minds.

Rangers: Yes

Rangers actually study animals. They hunt beasts. They tame beasts mundanely and learn how a not dominated beasts act. They forage for plants and mix teas and potions

If you want to know nature science, you go to a ranger not a druid.

Tonguez · May 9, 2024

whales were classified as fish because they lived in the sea, so were beavers, equally bats fly so they are birds. Having mammaries wasnt the determining factor of being a mammal or not.

I do however think that Oozes gives an insight in to germ theory (tiny little oozes in the phlegm), of course that does get defeated by magic - both healing and necromancy.

D&D General Effect of Druids on Scientific Knowledge in your Campaign?

Cadence

Legend

bloodtide

Hero

Necropolitan

Adventurer

Lakesidefantasy

Hero

GMMichael

Guide of Modos

Charlaquin

Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)

Gradine

The Elephant in the Room (she/her)

Paul Farquhar

Legend

Minigiant

Legend

Tonguez

A suffusion of yellow

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