Quote Originally Posted by Thinker View Post
Druids were big on sacrificing slaves or outlaws to cure diseases, stave off famine, prevent natural disasters, or recover from some setback. It was generally not considered OK to sacrifice people of the tribe.
Actually of the several sacrificial victim bodies that archaeologists have recovered from bogs, all except one show signs of being respected upper-class citiziens; in other words kings, chiefs or druids were more likely to be sacrificed than slaves. According to one classical account of a human sacrifice (highly suspect I know) the Celts considered it an honour to be sacrificed and indeed, the people of the tribe rushed forward to volunteer. In any case there is no evidence of a "foreigners only" sacrifice policy.

Likewise, the reason for sacrifice may not have been to end plagues or other disasters. History of religion expert Bruce Lincoln feels that the early Indo-Europeans believed the universe was created by an act of sacrifice by the first being(s) who existed and, therefore, human sacrifice was a pageant-like re-enactment of the creation of the world. It was less "if we kill this slave the plague god will go away" and more "if we sacrifice our noble king as the First King was sacrificed, his blood will flow into the land and the universe will be sustained for another age."

See his book Death, War and Sacrifice for details.

Of course a fantasy world can put whatever gobbledygook it wants in the mouths of druids, but if you want to make it seem like early Ireland, that's probably the way to go.