Help with Unique Druid Backstories That Aren’t the “Treehugger” or “Lost in the Woods” Trope

I think that maybe, if you play a drow, you could do something like despising the way they disrupt the order of nature and abandoning them behind. Or is that pretty much all drow backstories?

Ive had an idea for a druid for a while who came from prehistoric times and was frozen in ice or something before being reawakened in the modern day. Focusing on dinosaur/prehistoric animal wild shapes, with spells like magic stone, primal savagery, shillelagh, stuff that fit that basic primal theme. 

Remember that there's so many different parts of nature than just forest. What does a desert druid look like? A tundra druid? A mountain druid?

maybe a druid who lives in a volcanic land and wants to spread the volcanic-ness? like, they want to spread their biome. i'm starting to think 'bout it a bit myself.

At one point I saw a nature documentary narrated by Werner Herzog.  It was... harrowing.  Nature is not noble or kind, it will grind you to dust and move on, never caring or even acknowledging that you ever lived.  If I ever create another druid character, that's what I'll be starting with.

Quote from Thoughtwire >>

If I ever create another druid character, that's what I'll be starting with.

Werner Herzog as a druid would be incredible

“Civilization is like a thin layer of ice upon a deep ocean of chaos and darkness.”
― Werner Herzog

The only thing more dangerous than evil is callous indifference. 

Druids are connected to nature, but nature has MANY different faces and aspects. You don't need to be a treehuger to be someone spiritually connected to nature.

The Druids from the tables I played and GM'd usually varied a lot regarding their backgrounds and how they used their magic:

An ordinary person who ate an arch druid who was transformed into a mushroom and is now possessed by them whenever they use the special Spore's druid wild shape ability; a ninja who acts as a spy and assassin just as much as they were a hardened survivalist, having druidic magic as a secret technique from their clan, passed down through generations; and even a member of the thieves' guild who uses wildshape to either distract people while their friends are picking pockets or turning into small critters to commit burglaries.

When I play Druid, I usually decide the subclass before thinking about a backstory that might fit it:

You could make a Nature scholar for the Circle of the Land. Someone that gained druidic power by study and research instead of religious or spiritual devotion to nature.

You could make a predator/hunter for the Circle of the Moon. A person who uses druidic magic to savagely hunt other creatures, be it animals or people (maybe a follower of Malar or something similar)

Maybe someone who wants to spread blight or is the source of a fungal hivemind for the Circle of Spores.

Perhaps a person who acts as the destructive side of nature, burning down forests to allow new things to grow in their place for the Circle of Wildfire.

Or even a sea explorer who looked at the stars so much for guidance, that they were able to learn to channel their power as a Circle of the Stars druid.

Druids can be surprisingly flexible if you are willing to divorce them from the traditional image we have of them. Just like how Clerics are way more than just healers.

Quote from JpksBR >>

 

 

You could make a predator/hunter for the Circle of the Moon. A person who uses druidic magic to savagely hunt other creatures, be it animals or people (maybe a follower of Malar or something similar)

Maybe someone who wants to spread blight or is the source of a fungal hivemind for the Circle of Spores.

 

 i really like thece two