They have the primordial power source but worship the god Silvanus?
Any explanation would be greatly appreciated.
According to legend, when the gods made war against the primordials at the dawn of time, the battles raged across the cosmos for uncounted centuries. The gods slowly gained the upper hand, successfully imprisoning or banishing many of the primordials. However, this war threatened the very existence of the world, as the primordials who brought it forth from the Elemental Chaos clashed with the gods who sought to fix the form of the world in permanence. In the last days of the war, a new force made itself known in the cosmos: the spiritual expression of the world itself. These primal spirits declared an end to the conflict, asserting that the world would no longer be a battleground for the two opposing forces. The gods and the primordials were banished to their home planes, and the primal spirits of the world decreed a balance: world would remain a place where matter and spirit mingled freely, where life and death proceeded in an orderly cycle, where the seasons changed in their unending wheel without interference. The gods and the primordials could still influence the world, but they could not rule it.
These primal spirits are beyond number, ranging from spirits too weak to have proper names to the mightiest incarnations of nature’s power: the Primal Beast, the Fate Weaver, the Great Bear, the World Serpent, and others. They are spirits of winds and weather, of predators and prey, of plains and forests, of mountains and swamps. As the people of the world have come to know these primal spirits and live in harmony with them, some mortal spirits have joined their number after death, just as some mortal souls pass to the dominions of their gods. These great ancestors are among the most potent of the primal spirits.
Characters who use the primal power source stand firmly rooted in the world, between the divine power of the Astral Sea and the primordial churning of the Elemental Chaos. They have some affinity with the native inhabitants of the Feywild, who share their love and respect for the natural world. They are staunch enemies of aberrant creatures whose very existence is a blight on the natural world, as well as of demons that seek to destroy it, undead that violate life’s natural cycle, and (to a lesser extent) those who seek to despoil the wilderness in the name of progress and civilization.
That doesn’t mean that a primal character must be a sworn enemy of the gods, or of a character such as a paladin of Erathis who seeks to settle and civilize the world. There might be some conflict and disagreement between such characters, but they also have many common foes. A primal character’s greatest concern is with creatures and forces that threaten the stability of the world and the balanced cycles of nature. In a broad view, the cities and civilizations of humans and other races are just as much a part of nature as are primeval forests and mountains, and just as worthy of protection.
The excerpt Ranadiel posted is the core D&D explanation for where nature spirits come from. However, the confrontation between gods and primordials happened differently in the dawn of the FR cosmos, so the nature spirits of the Realms likely have a similar effect but a different origin story. We haven't set anything down in print yet about that in 4e (mostly because the serious thinking about the primal power source happened some time after we wrapped up our work on the 4e Realms).
About druid organization... I think it's mostly geographic, not deity-based. The Emerald Enclave would have been a good example, but the Vilhon Reach was hard-hit by the Spellplague. Places like the Moonshaes, Cormanthor, the High Forest, or the Great Dale are home to druid organizations, same as they always were.
Hope it helped a little. (I am not satisfied with this answer though, FR gamers NEED an explenation afore the second PH comes out)
The FR Campaign guide says there is a church of Silvanus in Loudwater. Elsewhere in the FR books, it says that all priests of Silvanus are referred to as "druids". Does this mean they are Clerics with the Silvanus channeling feat, or are they real PHB2 druids?
Real PHB Druids can probably follow Silvanus too. They only invoke his name in respect for him but they channel the primal powers granted by the earth's, ancestors and animal spirits. These totemic spirits/dieties have been present in older times (see Iakhova's reply).
A dieties article on Silvanus relation with the fury gods, nature spirits, exarchs and archfey is in the works Brian?
Yeah, since PHB2 comes out next month, that would be nice. It's kind of why I am asking this question now.
The FR Campaign guide says there is a church of Silvanus in Loudwater. Elsewhere in the FR books, it says that all priests of Silvanus are referred to as "druids". Does this mean they are Clerics with the Silvanus channeling feat, or are they real PHB2 druids?
Probably both. A character is not aware that there's a word after the "Class:" entry on a character sheet. Both members of the class Cleric and class Druid who worship Silvanus can call themselves druids.
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I once asked Robert Jordan some questions about the Wheel of Time books. His response to me was four letters long: RAFO. (I looked it up online, and it means "Read and Find Out".)
That's kind of what I got from reading this other thread. We've been RAFO'd by the Realms Designers. :D