Kul Tirans: Putting the Pagan in Druids

Ok, big disclaimer here: I get that a lot of people identify with paganism as a rather benign, nature-worshipping religious/spiritual lifestyle and I don't want to offend anyone who uses that word to describe themselves.

But one of the things about Druids in a lot of RPGs and particularly in WoW is that they tend not to feel very scary - generally they're one of the most unambiguously Good with a capital G classes in the game.

And that's fine.

But what about the creepier, scarier form of Druidism? The kind that scared the hell out of the Romans, who, despite being the quintessential pagans, had a much more urban and less mystical religious belief structure.

I will say that with the Worgen, the link of Druidism with Warcraft's equivalent of werewolves is certainly an example of scary druidism, but they often fail to emphasize the scariness of the Worgen now that they're a playable race (something I really wish they'd start pushing.)

But man, if you wanted creepy druids, well... behold:

(Thanks to MMO-Champion.)

Yes, that's travel form for Kul Tiran Druids. All of their shapeshift forms that we've seen so far (which have been Bear, Cat, and now this) have this feel to them: skeletal faces, fleshy bodies, and then gnarled wooden roots for legs.

It's pretty clear that the Druids of Kul Tiras have derived their druidic practices from the Drust - a group of humans who lived there prior to the Gilnean colonists who would become the Kul Tirans. We know Gilneas had its harvest witches, but I would bet that Kul Tiran druidism had to borrow from the Drust, given the way that their forms look like the witch fetishes the Drust used against their foes.

It's interesting to see how the two new Druidic races (not counting Highmountain Tauren, who are certainly connected to Cenarius) seem to have come by their powers totally independent of Malfurion's teachings. The Zandalari demonstrate this by having all dinosaur-based animal forms, while the Kul Tirans have these odd wicker-man creatures.

Man, if I weren't sold on making a Kul Tiran druid before, you can bet I'll be doing it now. (Oh man, and with tier 15's Haunted Forest set for transmog when I'm not using the Heritage set...)

I feel kind of bad for my old Night Elf, who I've had since Vanilla, because I think my Kul Tiran might be taking over his spot as main Druid.