The druids and The Torc Trilogy

Druids are members of the educated, professional class among the Celtic peoples of Gaul, Britain and Ireland.  The druid class included law speakers, poets, doctors and other learned professions but were best known as religious leaders.

Very little is known about ancient druids.  They left no written accounts of themselves and the only evidence are a few descriptions left by Greek, Roman and various scattered authors and artists.

Archaeological evidence has been uncovered pertaining to the religious practices of the Iron Age people but not a single artifact or image has been unearthed that can undoubtedly be connected with the ancient druids.

Druids play a large role in the books from The Torc Trilogy; I like to think they form the physical link between the modern world and the past.  They have power and dominate various chapters and I liked the way I could play with the mysticism surrounding them then portray them as vulnerable human beings.  The power struggle between them and the Phoenix Legion is evident throughout my three novels and the persecution to which they are subjected is reminiscent of the Nazi control over ethnic peoples in Europe during the 1940s.

A lot of the story in my books takes place underground.  This is an idea of what a druid ceremony might look like in the depths of the earth.

I wanted to use the elements of distrust and constant antagonism between the druids and the Phoenix Legion as a kind of power race; whoever got there first would be the victor.  The druids suffered greatly at the hands of the Phoenix Legion who used the theory of divide and conquer. I also used this to help add mystery to my plot, I was hoping that the reader would not be aware of which druids to trust and which ones to avoid.

Often the druids would conduct a ceremony in a sacred grove.

The druids and the Phoenix Legion were unlikely allies, but both parties were aware of how powerful the other was and by uniting they could became a much stronger force.

Another image of a sacred grove.  Orlagh would have experienced scenes like this when on her Dream Quest.

I was working on the theory that eventually the Phoenix Legion would come to despise the druids and regard them as some kind of ethnic minority, so in each novel the tension between them builds until eventually a victor must emerge.  

Sacred stones also featured in my books as a link between the spirit world and modern day.