Harvest Witches in Gilneas.

[Deleted]

Hello! Now, before I say anything else, I'm sorry if there are other threads on this. Feel free to delete it if that's the case. this will probably be quite long, and while this might seem like I'm stating what little lore we have on them for no apparent reasons I do have questions here and there as a beginner roleplayer. And hey, who knows, perhaps another druid is looking for the info I'm confirming here?

Intro
Harvest Witches. They've always fascinated me lore-wise, because we only have tiny scraps of lore to go with. I'm planning to faction change/realm transfer my druid to Argent Dawn EU from being a Tauren into a Worgen. What originally drew me to them was how they seemed to be inspired by the celtic druids of our own history, which I've always been interested in. They seem to be rural sorcerers, and often looked at with suspicion and contempt - perhaps the priests of the holy light go around preaching witchcraft was evil, regardless whether they use shadow(Warlocks) or nature(Druids)?

History
It seems before the teachings of the holy light spread around the human nations, the primitive human tribes were led by "Druids" more like our own medieval druids than the Kal'dorei shapeshifters. But when light worship became rooted in human society, these druidic keepers were quickly forgotten and their ways went extinct. Yet when Gilneas walled itself off, due to this isolation, Gilnean Druids managed to live on in the fringe of society. Even then, they almost went extinct as an order, until the gilnean crops failed and the entire kingdom was almost wiped out by starvation - yet the few remaining Keepers of the old ways managed to save the harvest through magic, which seemed to have rejuvenated their numbers a bit due to the order not going extinct after all.

Ka'ldorei contact and the Worgen curse
When the worgen infested Gilneas, unfortunate harvest witches who became afflicted with the curse seemed to find that their druidic magic was amplified, probably because the curse was druidic in origin. In addition, contact with Night Elves could have opened up the chance of further training into what we see as the in-game class "Druid" - shapeshifting and commanding nature and wind. Morphing into a worgen is a shapeshift in itself, so experiencing this transformation could have made learning bear/cat/sea lion/stag/moonkin form easier. And from what I've seen, some Worgen have even joined the Cenarion Circle.

So... questions!

1.) I'm not sure of my warcraft lore pre-WoW, but weren't the humans worshipping the holy light for a long time by the time the greymane wall was erected? If this is true, then when all the other human nations abandoned druidic practice Gilneas was still connected to them all. What was so special about Gilneas that the practices managed to survive until the isolation period, when it disappeared in all other kingdoms? Could this have been due to the typical Gilnean stubbornness which made them cling on to the old ways?

2.) Seeing as they could only perform minor druidic acts such as encouraging crops to grow and healing with the power of nature before contracting the curse, it's not a big stretch to assume that shapeshifting was unknown prior to that. Yet something caught my eye while reading the King Greymane short story on the official website;

He had heard that druidism was practiced among some of Gilneas’s agrarian folk, but he hadn’t been exposed to it until recently.

...does this suggest that the harvest witches could shapeshift BEFORE contracting the curse or meeting the night elves, even if it were only into crows?

3.) From reading all of this, how do you guys think a harvest witch would be roleplayed?

-Would they avoid the city? Would they be shy, preferring the company of the trees, wildlife, or other harvest witches?

-Could Worgen form in fact be tapping into some kind of ancient nature spirit which lives in Gilneas? If so, that could be interesting and make the druid stand out.

-Do you think a harvest witch would travel by horse, or embrace the wild side and run around on all fours as a bestial worgen?

-Would a harvest witch prefer to remain in human form, or worgen form?

4.) And finally, if you happen to play on Argent Dawn EU, are there any guilds who would accept a character such as this?

Thank you for taking the time to read this!

[Deleted]

Thats a pretty nice idea maybe ill try RPing a harvest witch too

[Khorianas]

Interesting ideas and surely a really cool concept to roleplay. I'll try to answer some of the questions you brought up, or at least give a bit of food for thought.

1) Maybe, the other kingdoms just didn't practice/recognize druidism im the first place? If I recall correctly their first contact with druids was through the Kaldorei. Maybe all the other druids were just thought of as people with green thumbs?

2) Again in that context: Druidism does not have to be the act of shape shifting. Healing through nature magic (which is in the end divine magic iirc) and encouraging crops to grow effectively also is druidism. So I would assume they did not shape shift or did not know about it before meeting the Kaldorei, and Graymane simply witnessed the healing/growth magic. (I usually despise the use of in game terms in this context, but think strictly resto druids.)

3) I think the origin of the worgen form is rather well explained in the gilnean starting area and in Lore/Ingame books. How I remember it, The Worgen form is in fact connected to Goldrinn, an ancient wolf spirit, but she is not native to Gilneas but all Azeroth. I would think all shapeshifting is done by attuning to an animal spirit, but in this case it is forcefully and contracted via a curse. Maybe harvest witches have a better understanding of the curse but it will affect them equal to all other Gilneans. I also don't really know how far common peoples knowledge about the curse goes, to be honest.

All other points under 3 depend on the explicit character. It would be a personal preference. My only worgen RP character, despite being fierce and reckless, prefers his human form and keeps it as much as possible as he considers the worgen form unpractical in his environment (He is a sailor mind you)

4) Acceptance of a character depends on the execution and the plausability of the story you put behind it. I would say the Lore background is solid, so it just depends on your actual rp-performance.

Disclaimer: This is all personal opinion and interpretation.

[Deleted]

Thanks for all of the advice, Khorianas! you've given me a lot of food for thought. I'm leaning towards a more "lost in the big city" Roleplay at first, where my character could slowly develop and become more relaxed around the huge buildings of stormwind - but still preferring the peaceful park area. I've heard about a guild on AD called the Gilnean League, made up of gilneans from all walks of life. They have a druid sect known as the "Disciples of Goldrinn" which support your answer to 3). When I get my druid over there, I'll ask around to join!

Mind you, as a harvest witch, I won't just be roleplaying in Gilneas. Westfall seems like a rather interesting place for that kind of roleplay as well.

[dangelo37]

This may be a little off of the main topic here but I found this piece of information regarding the history of the Worgen curse. It could hint as to why Worgen have the ability to be druids at all. This is a particularly good page to read up on for Worgen Druids and their history.

Druids of the Pack

I did a lot of research a while ago and it's all very fascinating to me. Keep this thread updated if you find out more things about Worgen!

[The Madgod]

This may be a little off of the main topic here but I found this piece of information regarding the history of the Worgen curse. It could hint as to why Worgen have the ability to be druids at all. This is a particularly good page to read up on for Worgen Druids and their history.

Druids of the Pack

I did a lot of research a while ago and it's all very fascinating to me. Keep this thread updated if you find out more things about Worgen!

Anyone can become a druid if their mindset is in the right place and they're willing to learn.

And this was the connection by which the worgen were able to keep full control over themselves while they were transformed, not really why they're able to be druids, though it's definitely a part of the reason why they were able to find people willing to teach them true, full druidism.

Also, use wowpedia.org. It's more up-to-date and higher quality. Wowwiki went downhill a long time ago.

[Deleted]

I'm aware of the Druids of the pack - but I'm not asking about Kal'dorei druids, not even strictly worgen, but more about the Gilnean Druids. What most present Worgen Druids were BEFORE the curse. Before meeting the Night Elves, or transforming into Worgen. I find the concept of a Gilnean Druid being more like our own medieval druids than the Night Elven keepers very fascinating. I can almost picture a a guild serving as a coven of harvest witches roleplaying in the wilds of Gilneas. This is what I love about WoW - everything is fairly packed together so you don't spend hours running from a town to that forest to kill those spiders, but for a roleplayer, there's still enough of that forest to enjoy as simply a forest. The northern forests of Gilneas, between the forsaken camps near the wall and Gilneas City, seem a very good place for this. And the marshes bordering Gilneas with Silverpine could work as well.