AHC: Druids in 16th/17th Century Galicia!

[Pesigalam]

Don't you just find it amusing when you encounter something made unintentionally hilarious by shoddy research?

I was pudding around the internet when I ran into this Creepypasta:

http://www.creepypasta.com/the-carpathian-carver/

Ah, yes, the demon, referenced to as ‘The Carpathian Carver’ on the Internet. I collected an assortment of tales of folklore and anecdotal evidence on the creature. The earliest accounts attributed to the Carver date back to the mid sixteenth century, during a period called ‘The Ruin’, a period of war for control of Ukraine. One origin story describes a chance encounter between a tribe of druids and a brigade of Russian soldiers. Fearful of their blue-painted bodies and wild faces, and mistaking their sacred runes for black magic, the druids were slaughtered.

I just find it so funny that the author did enough historic research to know what ‘The Ruin’ is referring yet apparently not enough to know who/where/when Druids were.

So here's your challenge: have the Celtic Druids somehow survive at least up until 16th/17th Century... in the Carpathian Mountains/Galicia region.

And no, they can't just be Slavic pagans -- they have to worship the pre-Christian Celtic pantheon.

EDIT: If you can't think of a way for Druids to somehow move to the Carpathian Mountains and hold out until the early modern era, how about instead Druids specifically you have a group of Celtic Pagans (not necessarily ethnically Celtic but they do have to worship the pre-Christian Celtic pantheon)?

 

[LSCatilina]

In order to have Druids survive in XVIth century Poland and Hungary, you'd probably need Druidism to be a thing in these regions in Antiquity to begin with.
Which it wasn't (it seems to have been mostly centered in western Celtic cultures). Of course, you'd need as well these regions to be really celtized, but that's yet another inconsistency to deal with.

 

[Midnight-Blue766]

I thought this was the Iberian Galicia at first!

 

[Captain Jack]

I thought this was the Iberian Galicia at first!

So did I. And frankly, that would actually be more plausible!

 

[Indicus]

It's more plausible that it could happen in the Galicia above Portugal.

 

[LSCatilina]

It's more plausible that it could happen in the Galicia above Portugal.

It's not clear if Druidism was a thing in Celtiberian culture, tough. It's possible that they didn't knew the evolution that Gaul and Britain did, or less so, implying at a greater power of priest and vates.

 

[Pesigalam]

In order to have Druids survive in XVIth century Poland and Hungary, you'd probably need Druidism to be a thing in these regions in Antiquity to begin with.
Which it wasn't (it seems to have been mostly centered in western Celtic cultures). Of course, you'd need as well these regions to be really celtized, but that's yet another inconsistency to deal with.

It's not clear if Druidism was a thing in Celtiberian culture, tough. It's possible that they didn't knew the evolution that Gaul and Britain did, or less so, implying at a greater power of priest and vates.

OK, how about this to make the challenge slightly easier:

If you can't think of a way for Druids to somehow move to the Carpathian Mountains and hold out until the early modern era, than how about instead Druids specifically you have a group of Celtic Pagans (not necessarily ethnically Celtic but they do have to worship the pre-Christian Celtic pantheon)?

 

[LSCatilina]

If you can't think of a way for Druids to somehow move to the Carpathian Mountains

Well, I can think of a way, but it implies either a Gallic presence comparable to the one that existed in southern Britain or Anatolia historically, either a parallel development in Eastern Celtic peoples which incidentally, poses the necessity of actually having an actual Celtic hegemony Carpathian Mountains to begin with and not just Cotini)
The main problem is that it would require PoD in Antiquity that could seriously change history.

Anyhow : the Gallic "migration" is probably easier to pull off, except it poses on question : why should they go there and not, well, anywhere they went IOTL that was richer, wealthier or
closer.

The second possibility, assuming we have a clear Celtic hegemony in the Pannonian basin, requires that the Amber Road would be deemed as important by Greeks as Tin Road was, and at least one thallasocratic power in upper Adriatic comparable to Massalia (Lower Adriatic wouldn't do any good, giving the natural obstacle represented by Dinaric Alps) roughly at the same place than Venice or Trieste.
Then the appearance of complex chiefdoms would make the rise of an intellectual elite (comparable to Greek philosophers or Persian magi) associated with political power (that could itself use its broader mobilisating structures) much more likely in cunjunction of an hellenistic philosophical and cultural influence.

Of course, in this case, they might not be called "druids" and will likely be different from their historical Gallic counterparts (maybe bards ITTL Celto-Pannonia would be the origin of this equivalent to Druidism for exemple).

Celtic Pagans (not necessarily ethnically Celtic but they do have to worship the pre-Christian Celtic pantheon)?

Paganism is not an organized religion with clear, but rather a shifting set of beliefs and practices. With some time (and especially with Celts being fairly isolated on Carpathians IOTL) and outer influence (Germanic, Sarmatian, Roman, proto-Balto-Slavic, etc.) it would certainly be unreckognizable by the Middle-Ages.