I'm going to fill out and expand on my thoughts and ideas regarding the Fey in DnD, the nature of the Feywild and Shadowfel, and how I use them in my games. Some of this will deviate from 5e canon, some will simply add to it. I'll be doing this in multiple posts, all organized with headings and all that. In a separate thread which I will link here, I will throw ideas around about homebrewing mechanical bits for Fey/Shadow character options, monsters, NPCs, items, etc.
The Fey
“Think of every fairy-tale villainess you've ever heard of. Think of the wicked witches, the evil queens, the mad enchantresses. Think of the alluring sirens, the hungry ogresses, the savage she-beasts. Think of them and remember that somewhere, sometime, they've all been real.
[herein I talk about the Fey very generally, and the Feywil
Fey, in general. Confusing to many, the denizons of the Fey are collectively called The Fey, Faery/Fairy/etc, but also Sidhe, Aos Si, Tylwyth Teg, Tuatha, and many more besides. They are as diverse as the creatures of the mundane world, however, with types and races too numerous to possibly name here.
The Fey Courts: First, the courts are not singular. Titania has her court, and Oberon his own, etc, but all the Summer Fey also belong to The Summer Court, which is sort of like the UN of Summer Fey. Same deal for the Winter, but not for the Wild or Gloaming Fey. The Wild Fey, vary in whether they have any lesser courts, rulers, rules, or even names. The Gloaming Court is a special case. See The Gloaming Court.
What about Seelie and Unseelie? Well, the short answer is, it’s complicated. Many mortals mistakenly associate Seelie with Summer, and Unseelie with Winter, but that just isn’t true. Winter’s Wolves actively work to protect mortals from Aberations, Fiends, and Necromancers, while many Dryads would as soon ignore the existence of mortals, and will bring a fierce and deadly wrath against despoilers of their woods. Meanwhile, beings like Fomorians are simply Wild.
What Seelie and Unseelie denotes is the attitude of the Fey toward mortals, especially those of the mundane world.
The Otherworld. Also called Faery, The Fey, and various other names. Rather than Feywild and Shadowfell as too different planes, here they are presented as one plane, quite close in places to our world, and quite far in others. As seasons pass, and other events and circumstances change in our world, the Fey changes as well. During our winter, the lands touched by Winter grow, and the Winter Fey grow stronger. So too, Summer and our summer season. Some Fey, like Pixies, are even more affected by what happens in the Material Plane. (see: Fey races, for more)
Faerie is a land of extremes, so much so that many mortal scholars believe that it is actually two planes which sometimes intersect, namely, the Feywild, and Shadowfell. In truth, the two are simply two types of regions found within the Otherworld. Feywild, are places of vibrant life, where colors, scents, and other sensory input are almost too much for unprepared mortals to bear. In Winter Lands, the cold air bites deeper, smells and sounds carry further, the glow of the sun off the snow and ice pierces the eye like no sun ever has or will in the Material Plane. Shadowfell, are areas where entropy seems to reign, where the dead dwell, before moving on to their final rest, and were dark creatures from nightmares hunt and are hunted by shadow men and their Raven Queen.
Summer Fey: These fey tend to enjoy the sun, growing things, lively music, optimistic art and stories, and the thrill of the hunt and/or battle. They’ve little appreciation for cold winds, short days, or the eery silence of snow covered winter nights. A Summer Fey wants music, and laughter, and air thick with the smells and sounds of growing things.
Their tricksters tend more toward Robin Goodfellow, and less toward the murderous Kelpie.
Their Knights laugh, enjoy eachother's company, extol the virtues of their friends and rivals, rejoice in a good challenge, and generally inspire the good kind of Paladin, though just like Paladins, they can be unforgiving, relentless, extremely wrathful enemies.
The rage of a Summer Fey is the wrath of a Hurricane. The favor of the Summer Fey is sweet lemonade under the shade of an old willow on a lazy summer day.
Scions of Summer might be more inclined toward Charm, "harmless" illusions, Light magic, Persuasion over Deception.
Summer Rogues are more likely Swashbucklers than Assassins
Bards more likely Valor or Glamour, though all courts have their Lore Bards
Their Knights more likely Paladins of The Ancients and Rangers of most conclaves, though less often Stalker than the others.
Summer Wizards are rarely Necromancers, but otherwise have no special preference toward any school, compared to other Fey, all of whom excel at Illusion, Conjuration, and Evocation.
Good Summer Fey are less common than Neutral, but more common than Evil, and tend to be amiable, happy, merciful to the weak, and implacable toward evil, with a strong and vengeful sense of fair play and justice.
Evil Summer Fey, while not common, aren't unheard of, and tend to take the form of a tyranical sense of entitlement, reckless and destructive passion, and a heedlessness toward the consequences of their actions. Such Fey are more likely to draw mortals into some manner of sport, knowing and not caring that the mortal is unlikely to survive the experience
Winter Fey: The Fey of Winter are of a colder, harsher, and less amicable breed from their Summer cousins. Their realms are rarely places of sunlight and growth, though many are the deep green of dark, cold, ancient, coastal forests.
Winter's children love ice, and snow, and the bite of clean, cold air, and generally dislike warm air, strong smells, or other sensations associated with summer and spring, tend toward sarcastic and/or dark humor, or else grim humorlessness, enjoy the emotional catharthis of tragic plays and music, visual art which draws the viewer in and elicits strong, abstract, emotional response, etc. Their ballads are less likely to end happily, and a WInter Fey can give an artist no greater gift than to react to their art with an open, unabashed display of emotion, especially tears.
Many WInter Fey banners and regalia incorporate the combination of stark white and crimson red, which outsiders naturally assume symbolises blood on the snow. For many Fey, however, the red is the deep, sweet, red of the Pomegranite (a winter fruit), or of strong wine, though the famous WInter Wine is a deep purple in colour. For other Winter Fey, the red is certainly blood. WInter Fey hunters love nothing more than the stark clarity of smell, sound, and vision that comes with a winter's morning hunt.
Winter magic tends more toward curses, offensive illusions, spells which cause the target’s body to betray them, like Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, and magic which instills fear or drains the will of it’s target.
In skills, Winter’s children tend toward Deception over Persuasion, though many consider themselves more honest than Summer, because they do not hide their nature. You know that a winter fey’s words are a riddle, by the way they speak them, the dark twinkle in their eye at your confusion, their laughter when they see your fear.
The friendship of Winter is deep, but hard won. It is the fierce friendship that strikes against your enemies unless you make them promise not to. The friend who laughs hysterically at your embarrassment, but would curse a family to the 9 generation for speaking a mocking word against you. They make very tricky, dangerous, lovers.
The enmity of Winter is the overwhelming wrath of the blizzard, or the creeping frost that kills fruit on the vine. If you’ve angered, or gods forbid, betrayed a Winter Lord or Lady, despair, foolish mortal. Empires have fallen for the smallest betrayals against Winter. The greatest of the Fey are indistinguishable from gods, within their realm of influence. Summer will kill you, smash your army, and adopt your children. Winter will destroy everything you have ever loved, known, touched, and then leave you alone in the wreckage, and if you are very, very, lucky, they won’t use your children to do it.
Their tricksters play more directly dangerous games, and their tricks are more likely to be cruel. On the bright side, they are less likely to accidentally kill you, as they are less likely to forget you exist, or that you are mortal.
Winter Rogues are more likely to be Assassins
Bards are more likely to be of the College of Swords, or Venomous Whispers
Winter Knights are likely to be some manner of Warlock, Vengeance Paladin, thought Ancients are also fairly common, Storm Barbarians, or Bladesingers.
Wizards tend toward Necromancy more than Summer, but less often than Gloaming Fey do.
Evil Winter Fey are like villains from folk tales. Cruel, malicious, petty, and insidious.
Good Winter Fey are less common than Neutral, but hardly unheard of. They are not as kind as many folk expect Good beings to be, but value fairness, avenge the weak against the predatory strong, despise cowardice, often take a grimly determined stance toward defending their kin/friends/world against outside evil, and are usually less concerned with day to day “goodness” as they are with defeating supernatural evil. Many good Winter Fey form the vanguard in the war against the corrupt children of the Great Old Ones.
Winter Fey of all alignments are noticeably more comfortable in the presence of evil Fey, so long as they follow the rules in their presence, and have less simple grudges. Ie, they are less likely to hate goblinoids, but more likely to have a grudge against a single creature, house, bloodline, kingdom, etc.
WInter Fey do not take mortal lovers as often as Summer or Wild Fey, but it does happen. Where Summer Fey tend to never know they have mortal children unless those children find them, Winter Fey always know. Often to the child's chagrin, as even a well intentioned Winter Fey has vastly different priorities and morals than most mortals
Still working on this. Definately the Wild Hunt is comprised largely of Wild Fey, but the Wild Hunt is odd in ways similar to Gloaming, in that some Fey are both Wild, and SUmmer or Winter.
Unlike Gloaming, the Wild Fey have dozens, perhaps hundreds, of courts, kings, etc. The Goblin King is one, The Lost Boys of Peter Pan would likely be Wild Fey,
Fey Goblins are not like their mortal cousins, in many ways. They vary more in appearance, for one, and are much less tribal, and more closely related to the Puca and other tricksters.
Fey cousins to the familiar Troll, Ogre, Giant, Spider, and many others also exist in the WIld Courts, or simply alone in their own domains. Kenku are often Wild, though many flock to Winter and Gloaming.
More later, I promise. Hopefully with less of a delay this time.
Gloaming Fey: The Gloaming Court is the most mysterious of the Great Courts, and has masked members from other courts, the Wild Fey, and the beings from the lesser Gloaming Realms, all collectively known as the Council of Eidolons, or The Gloaming Council (often simply, the Gloaming, or Night, much as the Winter and Summer Courts are often called Winter, and Summer, respectively). Eidolons, or lords and ladies of the Gloaming Court, are generally masked, or under some manner of disguise.
Many lesser fey of the Summer and Winter Courts seek respite from their own courts here, as well the chance to mingle with Fey from myriad realms. While the Gloaming Council meets in the same physical space every time, that space appears where and when it will, at the whim of the Sisters.
The Gloaming Court always meets at midnight, and the physical structure wherein they meet is known as The Last Palace.
The Sisters: These three sisters are identical in all physical traits, except for their hair. In demeaner, domain, and temperament, they are as different as they are physically alike. Finally, all three are alike, in that their true names are known only to the three of them.
The Raven Queen. Known by many names, her true name is as lost to history as her sisters’ are. As her name implies, she rules over the crows and ravens of the Feywild, as well as many Fey who exist in the liminal spaces between life and death, though most intelligent undead, such as liches and wights, exist in fear of her wrath. Her Raven Knights, Nightsingers, and other servants delight in few things more than the destruction of undead, and necromancers. She appears as a woman in her early thirties, painfully beautiful, with void black hair, alabaster skin, and eyes that reflect the star-lit depths of the night sky.
The Red Witch. Her crimson hair sets her apart from The Raven Queen’s ebony hair, and like her sister, she dresses to match. She favors tight fit, flowing, red dresses, or blood red hunting leathers. She is believed to be the most powerful sorceress of the three, and her eyes are those of a wolf, bright green and piercing. She is guarded by were-wolves, wolf-blooded Vryloka, and Blood Wolves, which are a kind of Gloaming Fey Dire Wolf. She has been seen in battle, wielding a greatsword made of pure obsidian, eldritch energy flying from sword and outstretched hand.
The Silver Knight appears somehow younger than her sisters, though no one can seem to describe why. Her hair is the same silver of her hair, and her irises are a shifting, swirling, circle of silver fog. Otherwise, her features are identical to her sister, and yet, the impression of youth persists. Her servants are primarily Mist blooded Vryloka, and an order of Pact Bound Paladins (Paladin/Warlocks), who she grants spells like Fog Cloud, Gaseous Form, and Misty Step. Like her, they adorn themselves in Fey silver, which is essentially mithril. Her armor is silvery chain, fit tight with a craftsmanship mortal armorers couldn’t dream of.
Gloaming is considered neutral territory, and The Three are often consulted as impartial judges of disputes. For greater disputes, the Eidolon Council is called in full.
Withing the Fey, there exist realms that seem at odds with the general perception of the realm. Places where dark beings rule shadowy courts, where even the wolves of winter are on their guard, and where Death itself is part of the land and all those who manage to live upon it.
It is in these realms that most Shadar-kai, Darklings, Vryloka, and most of the monsters associated with darkness and death (or undeath) who dwell in the Fey find their homes.
Night hags are more common here than elsewhere, as well.
The realms themselves are varied, as are the people in them. The city of Night is nestled inside a valley in the foothills of the great mountain Tithering. The valley is known simply as the Vale of Night, though locals call it The Vale, and most outsiders simply call both city and valley by the same name. Withing the valley, the sun never truly shines, and cannot directly be seen even in the brief hours of twilight in the middle of each day. The valley is light only by starlight, and the slow moving moon, which seems closer here than elsewhere in the Fey, and slightly tinged in violet.
Night is the home of the greatest number of Vryloka outside of the Isle of Ravens, as well as large numbers of Shadar-kai, Tabaxi, Svirfneblin, Kenku, Drow and Half-Drow, and a few Duergar, as well as a wide variety of very small populations of other races.
The city is ruled by a council of 19 representatives of the major powers of the city. Each of the races listed above has at least one member on the council, as do the following groups, as well as the handful of power Guilds in the city.
The Order of Violet Rose is an order of Paladins and Rangers dedicated to protecting the innocent from the dangers of the dark, and often ally themselves with vampire hunters and the like. Their founder is the Vryloka woman known as Mara Larissa, who is said to be descended from The Red Witch herself, and is by all accounts at least 800 years old. It is said that in her youth, she lead the band of heroes who claimed Night from the clan of vampire lords who had held it for millenia, and broke the power of their dark empire. She is one of only two surviving members of that band, which was given the name of "The Silver Hand" by the people they liberated.
The Order of The Obsidian Chain is a monastic order of warrior-sages, mostly Monks with some Rogues, who were also founded by a member of The Silver Hand. These monks are dedicated to understanding the powers of the dark, and mastering the strange influence of the supernatural heritage of the various peoples of Night. The founder, Irik Devernal, was a male Shadar-kai who famously fought with a spiked chain made from enchanted obsidian. His current successor is a capable administrator and extremely intelligent scholar called Tuala D'arcant, a female Half-Drow. Her daughter is believed to be next in line, particularly as the girl's father is a direct descendant of Devernal himself, but currently her youth and the wild nature of her Shadar-kai blood pushes her beyond the walls of Night, out into the world. She seeks adventurers with a desire to hunt down and destroy a great evil. The order is filled with the wilder beings of Night, who often feel drawn to the mission of gaining master of their own nature, neither abandoning what they are nor allowing it to determine for them who they are. Shadar-kai, Duergar, Darklings, and many of the city's few Gnolls roam the halls of the Order's monastery, the Obsidian Stair.
The Dragon's WIng is the primary military order of the city, known for their discipline and their use of all the natural and supernatural powers of their members to protect the city. The Wing was founded by the Svirfneblin Hexblade Aegris Draconis Embereye, who legends say tamed the first of the Shadow Drakes which the elite captains of the Dragon's Wing fly into battle. Aegris is the other member of the Silver Hand who survives to this day, though he is in his final years, and seeks only to find a worthy successor to his power, and to the secrets of his Tome of Power.
The College of The Last Glimmer is a Bardic college founded by the Vryloka skald Sofya Rembrandt Turnik, who was the sister of Mara Larissa, and who has been gone from the city for nearly 2 centuries, presumed dead. She was one said to be descended from The Lady of Silver Mist, though scholars and those who knew here believe this is simply an example of deification by the people who loved her. This college is dedicated to providing "a light in the darkest places", and excel at dispelling fear both magical and mundane, and at countering the magics of others in general, as well as lifting the spirits of their compatriots. Bards of this school can be found in nearly any settlement in the Fey, with a little lucky timing, and the Library of Lost Books is their home. The library existed before the city was liberated, and Sofya claimed it as her new home as soon as the dust had settled over the final battle of liberation. New books seem to appear on the shelves of the library without any rhyme or reason, and if moved (in an attempt to organise them, for instance) they will reappear in the same spot where they began within a few days, making it nearly impossible to steal from the library. The bards of The Last Glimmer maintain the library, but spend most of their time in practice, and in leisure, when they aren't traveling the worlds in search of new stories, and dark places in which to shine a light.
----------------- That's all for now! I'll try to update more later.
Summer's wolves tend to worship Sehanine or other beings associated with the moon, and act as protectors of the lesser Fey and mortals against the creatures of darkness and decay.
Winter lycanthropes are more likely to be predatory than their Summer kin, but many Winter Wolves stand against what they call The Terror Beyond The Night, and mortals call abominations, aberrations, or beings of The Far Realm. They are still wolves, at heart, and are far removed from their Summer kin in attitude.
The term Winter Wolf is used to refer to all lycanthropes who stand guard thus, not just werewolves. Many Summer Fey Lycanthropes join packs of Winter Wolves, sometimes for years on end, recognizing the common enemy.
Eladrin, Gnomes, dryads, Puca, Nymphs, and a few others are equally represented in all courts.
Pixies, Sprites, Ogres, Goblins, Firbolg, and many of the non humanoid Fey are primarily Wild Fey.
Hags, Banshee, Changlings, Shadar-kai, and many other Fey with dark reputations swear fealty to the Winter Court, most often.
The Gloaming Court is a special case, but Shadar-kai, Vryloka, Shades, Banshee, Kenku, and some others fill much of the ranks of this court, especially the Guards and personal servants of The Three Sisters.
Satyrs and Fauns, Centaur, Hengeyokai, Swan-mays, as well as various small Sidhe and other creatures make up much of the Summer Court.
*The Vaes Shadar, and the Three Sisters.
Shadar-kai, and the two “families” of Vrylocka, are actually one race, of the same race of which the Three Sisters were born. Vrylocka are just more similar to eachother. Internally, in places where they all coexist, they differentiate by calling themselves by descriptive nicknames. Collectively, they are the Vaes Shadar, which roughly translates to “Speakers of Shadar”, and is also the name of their ancient language.
Shadar-kai are called Ravens, Crows, or Shadows, they are the most slender and small of the three, and their appearance is most different from their cousins. Their hair tends to be either a coal black so dark it’s difficult to see in anything but bright light, muted grey, or sometimes stark, bone white, and their skin ranges from pale white like the Vrylocka, to the grey of stone, or a charcoal drawing.
Wolf-blood Vryloka are called Wolves, or Blood Wolves, and tend to be sturdier than their cousins, and more commonly had blood red hair, and stouter frames. They are often mistaken for were-wolves for their ability to transform into a Blood Wolf, but cannot enter a hybrid form, and are unaffected by the lunar cycle.
Mist Vryloka are called Fog Knights, Mistborn, Fog Men, and Dhampir and tend to be prettier, and more charismatic than their cousins, and their hair tends to be glossy black or shining silver, often with a streak at the temple, etc. These Vryloka are capable of taking on the form of a could of silvery mist, similar to the Gaseous Form spell.
Besides their unnatural coloration and hair colours, all three “families” have rather unusual eyes. The Mistborn are the least unnerving, for their eyes simply seem too deep, with pupils that seem endless as the night, and iris’ that shine a silvery glow through their normally pale green or hazel colors. Shadar-Kai have pupil and iris as dark as their void dark hair, and staring into them is uncomfortable for most humans and other folk of the mundane world. When they experience strong emotions, tiny motes of light can be seen in their iris’, as if the stars were appearing in a pitch black sky. Wolf Blood eyes are the most obviously unnatural, because they shine bright with the moods of the Vrylocka, and are the eyes of wolves, not of humans.
Blood Wolves can understand Vaes Shadar, as do most crows and ravens. Many banshee learn the language, but otherwise few outside the Vaes Shadar speak, read, or understand the tongue of Old Shadar.
Current draft of Shadar-kai and Vryloka for 5e:
Shadar-kai
Stats: +2 Dex, +1 Int
Speed: 30 ft. (see, Natives of Darkness)
Alignment: Shadar-kai tend toward Chaotic, due to their need for constant stimulation. They swing Good, Evil and Neutral in roughly the same rate as humans.
Born in The Valley of Death: Due to their origins, Shadar-kai can reroll their first failed death saving throw in a given day. Rolling 1 only counts as 1 failure, instead of 2.
Dark-vision: 60ft
Hearts of Winter: You are acclimated to extreme cold, and have advantage on saves against the effects of cold, including from magical sources, such as a spell that deals cold damage.
Natives of Darkness: Shadar-kai draw strength from the shadows, and can become one with them at need. Your speed increases by 5ft while in dim light or darkness, and you can use a Bonus Action to enter a Shadow Form. You gain a teleportation speed equal to you speed, so long as you or your destination are in dim light or darkness. If you and your destination are in bright light, the teleportation speed is equal to half your speed, rounded down. This can be maintained for 1 minute, requiring Concentration. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again until you have completed a short or long rest.
At 6 level, when you use this ability, you become partly incorporeal for the duration, gaining Resistance to Piercing, Bludgeoning, Slashing, and Necrotic damage, and Vulnerability to Radiant damage.
Languages: Common, Vaes Shadar (language of body language, trilling, coughs, and other vocalizations which is known only to Shadar-Kai, their Vryloka cousins, and to crows and ravens.
Vryloka
+1 Cha, +1 Str
Speed: 30ft
Vampiric Heritage: You are both Living and Undead. Whenever an effect on you would change based on whether you are Living or Undead, you can choose which you “are” for the purpose of that effect. Additionally, you have Resistance to Necrotic damage.
Human Heritage: You look pretty human, so you have Advantage on checks made to pass as one.
Eyes of Night: You have Darkvision out to 60ft.
Blood Price: You gain vitality and strength when you defeat your enemies. When you reduce an enemy to 0hp, you gain 1 Hit Die. Any Hit Dice gained beyond your normal maximum expire after 1 minute, and you can never gain more extra Hit Dice than a number equal to your Constitution Modifier (minimum 1). You can use your Hit Die as a bonus Action, or as a Reaction when you gain one through this trait, once per round, to do one of the following:
You can move your speed. Attacks of opportunity made against you during this movement are made with Disadvantage.
You gain Advantage on your next attack roll, or your next Ability Check to Intimidate or Charm a single target.
Gain Temporary HP equal to your Hit Die + Your Constitution Modifier.
Blessing of The Sisters: Choose one of the following. This is your Subrace.
Silver Knight’s Blood:
+1 Charisma
Blessing of Creeping Mist: You can spend 1 Hit Die as an Action, or as a Reaction when you gain a HD via the Blood Price trait, to turn into mist. This works the same as the Gaseous Form spell, with some exceptions.
You retain your speed.
Fire or Radiant damage cause you to have disadvantage on the concentration check to maintain mist form.
You can maintain the form for 1 hour longer at level 3, 6, 11, 14, and 17.
Red Witch’s Blood
+1 Strength
Blessing of the Wolf: As an Action, or as a Reaction when you gain an HD via the Blood Price trait, you spend 1 Hit Die. Your body transforms into that of a Night Wolf. This transformation follows the rules of the Druid’s Wild Shape, except that you can only take the form of the Night Wolf. A Night Wolf is a normal Wolf, with glowing eyes, and fur ranging from coal black to crimson red. Additionally, In wolf form your Hit Points are equal to 1d8(or 5)+Con Mod per level. You can stay in wolf form for a number of hours equal to 1 + 1/3 your level, round down.
Spells of Old Shadar
Prerequisite: Shadar-kai orVryloka
You know the forgotten magic of your ancient ancestors.
You ignore the effects of fog, mist, or heavy rain, on your vision, out to a distance equal to your Darkvision.
In addition, you learn Fog Cloud and Allies of Shadar, and you can cast the Fog Cloud without spell slot or components. Allies of Shadar is a 3 level spell, which summons a sooty black Dire Wolf, known as a Night Hound, and a Shadow Crow. A Shadow Crow is a Raven, but has a CR of ¼, and stats as below. The wolf understands Common and Vaes Shadar, and can speak Vaes Shadar, and has an Int of 6. Both creatures are friendly toward you, remember you upon subsequent summonings, and have vague memories of Shadar, but are forbidden by Gaes to give any direct information concerning it’s fate. In all other ways, the spell functions the same as Conjure Animals.
You can cast each spell once. Once you have cast the spell, you cannot do so again until you complete a long rest.
Blood Wolf
Prerequisite: Vryloka, Red Witch’s Blood
You have studied the old rituals of your kin, and the Red Witch who blessed you with the wolf’s blood. You can speak to wolves and other canids, and retain your Keen Hearing and Smell trait, even while in your natural form.
You gain the following benefits while in Wolf form.
Double the time you can stay in Wolf Form.
You can Dash as a bonus action, and can track and move quietly at full speed.
You can spend a Bonus Action to add 1d6 to the damage of your bite attack, and cause your bite attack to be considered magical.
You can do this twice, after which you must finish a short or long rest to do so again.
Silver Knight’s Mercy
Prerequisite: Vryloka, Silver Knight Blood
While in Mist Form, you stretch out to cover a space equal to ½ your speed, filling that space with dense fog. You can exempt yourself and up to 3+your charisma mod creatures from the visual impairment. Such creatures see normally. Additionally, you can now spend an action to affect one or more creatures within the space you occupy. You can make one of the following attacks when you are in mist form, or when you are in a square of dense fog or mist. If not in Mist Form, range is 10ft. While in Mist Form, the range is any creature without your space.
Mist Lance: Attack with Str or Dex +proficiency, 1d6+str/dex cold damage.
Sleeping Fog: As You can do this once/long rest. Can spend 1 HD to increase by 1 level.
Shadow Born
Prerequisite: Shadar-kai
You have attuned yourself, using ancient rituals, to the shadowstuff of the world. When you are lightly obscured, such as from dim light, you are treated as if you are in darkness for the purposes of stealth. Your speed increase in dim light or darkness increases to +10ft.
While in Shadow Form, you no longer teleport at half distance in full light.
Shadow Raven
Small Fey Beast
CR ¼
Str 8 (-1) Dex 15 (+3) Con 12 (+1) Int 10 (0) Wis 12 (+1) Cha 10 (0)
Flyby. The shadow raven doesn't provoke opportunity attacks when it flies out of an enemy's reach.
Mimicry. The raven can mimic simple sounds it has heard, such as a person whispering, a baby crying, or an animal chittering. A creature that hears the sounds can tell they are imitations with a successful DC 13 Wisdom (Insight) check.
Actions: Beak or Talons.Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 2d4+3 piercing damage.
I am working on better stats for Kenku, and I may post stats for a fey version of the goblin, playable fey ogres, and some others. Maybe Gnolls. I like the idea of Wild Gnolls are a way in for less demonic, simply savage/wild, version of the gnoll in 5e.
In Faerie, and in the many material worlds, there are places where the boundaries between worlds are thin, called Crossings. These Crossings are as varied as the individuals who use them, and those who guard them. You might fall asleep in a quiet glade in a deep forest, and the night of the new moon, having failed to see the ring of mushrooms marking the edges of the glade, or perhaps failing to note their significance. In the morning, you look to the sky, and it is an evening sky with a brilliant green and blue borealis dancing across the dome of the heavens like a procession, and you realise that you are not in the place wherein you fell asleep.
Another person might enter the Fey intentionally, having created a door in their garden from the fallen branches of Feywild trees, blessed with the waters of a specific river on a specific night, and with a little offering of milk and berries every morning, they can open the door at will to walk into a guarded room in a secret tower within the Feywild.
Sometimes, entire areas of the world exist half in, half out, of the Fey, or phase in and out with the seasons or the movement of the stars. The Blue Tower of the Order of The Cerulean Key appears in a different location throughout many worlds, and can only be predicted by a prodigious scholor of astronomy, or a person who has aquired one of the Order's closely guarded Almanacs.
Within the Fey, there are villages, guard towers, monestaries, and trade outposts near many of these Crossings, and the people who occupy these spaces are much more familiar with the material world than their cousins in the deeper Feywild. There are several orders of knights, monks, rangers, arcanists, and druids, who guard the Crossings, watch over the trade between worlds, and occasionally venture into other worlds to retrieve stolen items, apprehend criminals, or for other less straightforward purposes.
The Feywild as part of the world
The Feywild (and by extension, the Shadowfell) needn't be a separate world from the material world of your games. Instead, you can incorporate these ideas into geographical regions, such as an ancient forest where live ancient fairy queens and terrible giants. This can make the Fey into a much more accessible "realm" that seemlessly fits into your campaign world.
Using the example above of the Blue Tower, such a tower needn't exist in another Plane, but could easily simply move about the natural world as described, and have guarded doors that lead to some of the most magical places in the world, such as the ancient forest of Maeg Turanth, the dire swamp of Maeg Caerdor, the desert oasis of Al Valahar, and the royal guest chambers of the Palace of Night, where dwells the Queen of Air and Darkness.
Travelling to these places is often arduous, and the land around them and within them can seem to twist and change as you travel through it, either drawing you deeper in, or keeping you on the outskirts, unless you can find the hidden path, speak the secret words, or carry the ancient relic that causes the land to let you pass unhindered.
Another advantage to this approach is that you can more easily have an emmisary of a Fey Court show up in your game, and more easily explain a party that includes Fey races like Satyr or Pixies or Shadar-kai in an otherwise "mundane" group.
Been trying to figure some of these things myself and I look forward to seeing where things go from here.
Updated! There is more to fill in for each court, and I will post stats as well, soon.
Does anyone know how to create spoiler blocks on these forums, btw? It would greatly aid in keeping this readable.
Also, I'd be willing to pay a small amount to anyone willing to clean up the format and wording, fix spelling, etc, and format it all as a nice pdf. I can't do much, but I would certainly pay what I can afford.
You only need to highlight the text you wish to be put into a spoiler and click the exclamation mark at the top of the editing box. As seen in the spoiler below.
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THanks! Is it possible to put text in place of the word "spoiler"?
Are you interested in feedback or the adding of ideas?
Sure, as long as it isn't of the, "Your whole goal/approach/everything you're doing is wrong, you should just use this other thing that already exists" variety, I am all for feedback and ideas!
I'm going to fill out and expand on my thoughts and ideas regarding the Fey in DnD, the nature of the Feywild and Shadowfel, and how I use them in my games. Some of this will deviate from 5e canon, some will simply add to it. I'll be doing this in multiple posts, all organized with headings and all that. In a separate thread which I will link here, I will throw ideas around about homebrewing mechanical bits for Fey/Shadow character options, monsters, NPCs, items, etc.
The Fey
“Think of every fairy-tale villainess you've ever heard of. Think of the wicked witches, the evil queens, the mad enchantresses. Think of the alluring sirens, the hungry ogresses, the savage she-beasts. Think of them and remember that somewhere, sometime, they've all been real.
Mab gave them lessons.”
― Jim Butcher, Small Favor
[herein I talk about the Fey very generally, and the Feywil
Fey, in general. Confusing to many, the denizons of the Fey are collectively called The Fey, Faery/Fairy/etc, but also Sidhe, Aos Si, Tylwyth Teg, Tuatha, and many more besides. They are as diverse as the creatures of the mundane world, however, with types and races too numerous to possibly name here.
The Fey Courts: First, the courts are not singular. Titania has her court, and Oberon his own, etc, but all the Summer Fey also belong to The Summer Court, which is sort of like the UN of Summer Fey. Same deal for the Winter, but not for the Wild or Gloaming Fey. The Wild Fey, vary in whether they have any lesser courts, rulers, rules, or even names. The Gloaming Court is a special case. See The Gloaming Court.
What about Seelie and Unseelie? Well, the short answer is, it’s complicated. Many mortals mistakenly associate Seelie with Summer, and Unseelie with Winter, but that just isn’t true. Winter’s Wolves actively work to protect mortals from Aberations, Fiends, and Necromancers, while many Dryads would as soon ignore the existence of mortals, and will bring a fierce and deadly wrath against despoilers of their woods. Meanwhile, beings like Fomorians are simply Wild.
What Seelie and Unseelie denotes is the attitude of the Fey toward mortals, especially those of the mundane world.
The Otherworld. Also called Faery, The Fey, and various other names. Rather than Feywild and Shadowfell as too different planes, here they are presented as one plane, quite close in places to our world, and quite far in others. As seasons pass, and other events and circumstances change in our world, the Fey changes as well. During our winter, the lands touched by Winter grow, and the Winter Fey grow stronger. So too, Summer and our summer season. Some Fey, like Pixies, are even more affected by what happens in the Material Plane. (see: Fey races, for more)
Faerie is a land of extremes, so much so that many mortal scholars believe that it is actually two planes which sometimes intersect, namely, the Feywild, and Shadowfell. In truth, the two are simply two types of regions found within the Otherworld. Feywild, are places of vibrant life, where colors, scents, and other sensory input are almost too much for unprepared mortals to bear. In Winter Lands, the cold air bites deeper, smells and sounds carry further, the glow of the sun off the snow and ice pierces the eye like no sun ever has or will in the Material Plane. Shadowfell, are areas where entropy seems to reign, where the dead dwell, before moving on to their final rest, and were dark creatures from nightmares hunt and are hunted by shadow men and their Raven Queen.
We do bones, motherf***ker!
Summer Fey: These fey tend to enjoy the sun, growing things, lively music, optimistic art and stories, and the thrill of the hunt and/or battle. They’ve little appreciation for cold winds, short days, or the eery silence of snow covered winter nights. A Summer Fey wants music, and laughter, and air thick with the smells and sounds of growing things.
.We do bones, motherf***ker!
Winter Fey: The Fey of Winter are of a colder, harsher, and less amicable breed from their Summer cousins. Their realms are rarely places of sunlight and growth, though many are the deep green of dark, cold, ancient, coastal forests.
Winter's children love ice, and snow, and the bite of clean, cold air, and generally dislike warm air, strong smells, or other sensations associated with summer and spring, tend toward sarcastic and/or dark humor, or else grim humorlessness, enjoy the emotional catharthis of tragic plays and music, visual art which draws the viewer in and elicits strong, abstract, emotional response, etc. Their ballads are less likely to end happily, and a WInter Fey can give an artist no greater gift than to react to their art with an open, unabashed display of emotion, especially tears.
Many WInter Fey banners and regalia incorporate the combination of stark white and crimson red, which outsiders naturally assume symbolises blood on the snow. For many Fey, however, the red is the deep, sweet, red of the Pomegranite (a winter fruit), or of strong wine, though the famous WInter Wine is a deep purple in colour. For other Winter Fey, the red is certainly blood. WInter Fey hunters love nothing more than the stark clarity of smell, sound, and vision that comes with a winter's morning hunt.
.We do bones, motherf***ker!
Wild Fey
Still working on this. Definately the Wild Hunt is comprised largely of Wild Fey, but the Wild Hunt is odd in ways similar to Gloaming, in that some Fey are both Wild, and SUmmer or Winter.
Unlike Gloaming, the Wild Fey have dozens, perhaps hundreds, of courts, kings, etc. The Goblin King is one, The Lost Boys of Peter Pan would likely be Wild Fey,
Fey Goblins are not like their mortal cousins, in many ways. They vary more in appearance, for one, and are much less tribal, and more closely related to the Puca and other tricksters.
Fey cousins to the familiar Troll, Ogre, Giant, Spider, and many others also exist in the WIld Courts, or simply alone in their own domains. Kenku are often Wild, though many flock to Winter and Gloaming.
More later, I promise. Hopefully with less of a delay this time.
We do bones, motherf***ker!
Gloaming Fey: The Gloaming Court is the most mysterious of the Great Courts, and has masked members from other courts, the Wild Fey, and the beings from the lesser Gloaming Realms, all collectively known as the Council of Eidolons, or The Gloaming Council (often simply, the Gloaming, or Night, much as the Winter and Summer Courts are often called Winter, and Summer, respectively). Eidolons, or lords and ladies of the Gloaming Court, are generally masked, or under some manner of disguise.
Many lesser fey of the Summer and Winter Courts seek respite from their own courts here, as well the chance to mingle with Fey from myriad realms. While the Gloaming Council meets in the same physical space every time, that space appears where and when it will, at the whim of the Sisters.
The Gloaming Court always meets at midnight, and the physical structure wherein they meet is known as The Last Palace.
The Sisters: These three sisters are identical in all physical traits, except for their hair. In demeaner, domain, and temperament, they are as different as they are physically alike. Finally, all three are alike, in that their true names are known only to the three of them.
Gloaming is considered neutral territory, and The Three are often consulted as impartial judges of disputes. For greater disputes, the Eidolon Council is called in full.
We do bones, motherf***ker!
Night, Shadow, and Death
Withing the Fey, there exist realms that seem at odds with the general perception of the realm. Places where dark beings rule shadowy courts, where even the wolves of winter are on their guard, and where Death itself is part of the land and all those who manage to live upon it.
It is in these realms that most Shadar-kai, Darklings, Vryloka, and most of the monsters associated with darkness and death (or undeath) who dwell in the Fey find their homes.
Night hags are more common here than elsewhere, as well.
The realms themselves are varied, as are the people in them. The city of Night is nestled inside a valley in the foothills of the great mountain Tithering. The valley is known simply as the Vale of Night, though locals call it The Vale, and most outsiders simply call both city and valley by the same name. Withing the valley, the sun never truly shines, and cannot directly be seen even in the brief hours of twilight in the middle of each day. The valley is light only by starlight, and the slow moving moon, which seems closer here than elsewhere in the Fey, and slightly tinged in violet.
Night is the home of the greatest number of Vryloka outside of the Isle of Ravens, as well as large numbers of Shadar-kai, Tabaxi, Svirfneblin, Kenku, Drow and Half-Drow, and a few Duergar, as well as a wide variety of very small populations of other races.
The city is ruled by a council of 19 representatives of the major powers of the city. Each of the races listed above has at least one member on the council, as do the following groups, as well as the handful of power Guilds in the city.
The Order of Violet Rose is an order of Paladins and Rangers dedicated to protecting the innocent from the dangers of the dark, and often ally themselves with vampire hunters and the like. Their founder is the Vryloka woman known as Mara Larissa, who is said to be descended from The Red Witch herself, and is by all accounts at least 800 years old. It is said that in her youth, she lead the band of heroes who claimed Night from the clan of vampire lords who had held it for millenia, and broke the power of their dark empire. She is one of only two surviving members of that band, which was given the name of "The Silver Hand" by the people they liberated.
The Order of The Obsidian Chain is a monastic order of warrior-sages, mostly Monks with some Rogues, who were also founded by a member of The Silver Hand. These monks are dedicated to understanding the powers of the dark, and mastering the strange influence of the supernatural heritage of the various peoples of Night. The founder, Irik Devernal, was a male Shadar-kai who famously fought with a spiked chain made from enchanted obsidian. His current successor is a capable administrator and extremely intelligent scholar called Tuala D'arcant, a female Half-Drow. Her daughter is believed to be next in line, particularly as the girl's father is a direct descendant of Devernal himself, but currently her youth and the wild nature of her Shadar-kai blood pushes her beyond the walls of Night, out into the world. She seeks adventurers with a desire to hunt down and destroy a great evil. The order is filled with the wilder beings of Night, who often feel drawn to the mission of gaining master of their own nature, neither abandoning what they are nor allowing it to determine for them who they are. Shadar-kai, Duergar, Darklings, and many of the city's few Gnolls roam the halls of the Order's monastery, the Obsidian Stair.
The Dragon's WIng is the primary military order of the city, known for their discipline and their use of all the natural and supernatural powers of their members to protect the city. The Wing was founded by the Svirfneblin Hexblade Aegris Draconis Embereye, who legends say tamed the first of the Shadow Drakes which the elite captains of the Dragon's Wing fly into battle. Aegris is the other member of the Silver Hand who survives to this day, though he is in his final years, and seeks only to find a worthy successor to his power, and to the secrets of his Tome of Power.
The College of The Last Glimmer is a Bardic college founded by the Vryloka skald Sofya Rembrandt Turnik, who was the sister of Mara Larissa, and who has been gone from the city for nearly 2 centuries, presumed dead. She was one said to be descended from The Lady of Silver Mist, though scholars and those who knew here believe this is simply an example of deification by the people who loved her. This college is dedicated to providing "a light in the darkest places", and excel at dispelling fear both magical and mundane, and at countering the magics of others in general, as well as lifting the spirits of their compatriots. Bards of this school can be found in nearly any settlement in the Fey, with a little lucky timing, and the Library of Lost Books is their home. The library existed before the city was liberated, and Sofya claimed it as her new home as soon as the dust had settled over the final battle of liberation. New books seem to appear on the shelves of the library without any rhyme or reason, and if moved (in an attempt to organise them, for instance) they will reappear in the same spot where they began within a few days, making it nearly impossible to steal from the library. The bards of The Last Glimmer maintain the library, but spend most of their time in practice, and in leisure, when they aren't traveling the worlds in search of new stories, and dark places in which to shine a light.
----------------- That's all for now! I'll try to update more later.
We do bones, motherf***ker!
Fey Characters
If your game has PC lycanthropes,
Eladrin, Gnomes, dryads, Puca, Nymphs, and a few others are equally represented in all courts.
Pixies, Sprites, Ogres, Goblins, Firbolg, and many of the non humanoid Fey are primarily Wild Fey.
Hags, Banshee, Changlings, Shadar-kai, and many other Fey with dark reputations swear fealty to the Winter Court, most often.
The Gloaming Court is a special case, but Shadar-kai, Vryloka, Shades, Banshee, Kenku, and some others fill much of the ranks of this court, especially the Guards and personal servants of The Three Sisters.
Satyrs and Fauns, Centaur, Hengeyokai, Swan-mays, as well as various small Sidhe and other creatures make up much of the Summer Court.
*The Vaes Shadar, and the Three Sisters.
Shadar-kai, and the two “families” of Vrylocka, are actually one race, of the same race of which the Three Sisters were born. Vrylocka are just more similar to eachother. Internally, in places where they all coexist, they differentiate by calling themselves by descriptive nicknames. Collectively, they are the Vaes Shadar, which roughly translates to “Speakers of Shadar”, and is also the name of their ancient language.
Shadar-kai are called Ravens, Crows, or Shadows, they are the most slender and small of the three, and their appearance is most different from their cousins. Their hair tends to be either a coal black so dark it’s difficult to see in anything but bright light, muted grey, or sometimes stark, bone white, and their skin ranges from pale white like the Vrylocka, to the grey of stone, or a charcoal drawing.
Wolf-blood Vryloka are called Wolves, or Blood Wolves, and tend to be sturdier than their cousins, and more commonly had blood red hair, and stouter frames. They are often mistaken for were-wolves for their ability to transform into a Blood Wolf, but cannot enter a hybrid form, and are unaffected by the lunar cycle.
Mist Vryloka are called Fog Knights, Mistborn, Fog Men, and Dhampir and tend to be prettier, and more charismatic than their cousins, and their hair tends to be glossy black or shining silver, often with a streak at the temple, etc. These Vryloka are capable of taking on the form of a could of silvery mist, similar to the Gaseous Form spell.
Besides their unnatural coloration and hair colours, all three “families” have rather unusual eyes. The Mistborn are the least unnerving, for their eyes simply seem too deep, with pupils that seem endless as the night, and iris’ that shine a silvery glow through their normally pale green or hazel colors. Shadar-Kai have pupil and iris as dark as their void dark hair, and staring into them is uncomfortable for most humans and other folk of the mundane world. When they experience strong emotions, tiny motes of light can be seen in their iris’, as if the stars were appearing in a pitch black sky. Wolf Blood eyes are the most obviously unnatural, because they shine bright with the moods of the Vrylocka, and are the eyes of wolves, not of humans.
Blood Wolves can understand Vaes Shadar, as do most crows and ravens. Many banshee learn the language, but otherwise few outside the Vaes Shadar speak, read, or understand the tongue of Old Shadar.
Current draft of Shadar-kai and Vryloka for 5e:
Shadar-kai
Stats: +2 Dex, +1 Int
Speed: 30 ft. (see, Natives of Darkness)
Alignment: Shadar-kai tend toward Chaotic, due to their need for constant stimulation. They swing Good, Evil and Neutral in roughly the same rate as humans.
Born in The Valley of Death: Due to their origins, Shadar-kai can reroll their first failed death saving throw in a given day. Rolling 1 only counts as 1 failure, instead of 2.
Dark-vision: 60ft
Hearts of Winter: You are acclimated to extreme cold, and have advantage on saves against the effects of cold, including from magical sources, such as a spell that deals cold damage.
Natives of Darkness: Shadar-kai draw strength from the shadows, and can become one with them at need. Your speed increases by 5ft while in dim light or darkness, and you can use a Bonus Action to enter a Shadow Form. You gain a teleportation speed equal to you speed, so long as you or your destination are in dim light or darkness. If you and your destination are in bright light, the teleportation speed is equal to half your speed, rounded down. This can be maintained for 1 minute, requiring Concentration. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again until you have completed a short or long rest.
At 6 level, when you use this ability, you become partly incorporeal for the duration, gaining Resistance to Piercing, Bludgeoning, Slashing, and Necrotic damage, and Vulnerability to Radiant damage.
Languages: Common, Vaes Shadar (language of body language, trilling, coughs, and other vocalizations which is known only to Shadar-Kai, their Vryloka cousins, and to crows and ravens.
Vryloka
+1 Cha, +1 Str
Speed: 30ft
Vampiric Heritage: You are both Living and Undead. Whenever an effect on you would change based on whether you are Living or Undead, you can choose which you “are” for the purpose of that effect. Additionally, you have Resistance to Necrotic damage.
Human Heritage: You look pretty human, so you have Advantage on checks made to pass as one.
Eyes of Night: You have Darkvision out to 60ft.
Blood Price: You gain vitality and strength when you defeat your enemies. When you reduce an enemy to 0hp, you gain 1 Hit Die. Any Hit Dice gained beyond your normal maximum expire after 1 minute, and you can never gain more extra Hit Dice than a number equal to your Constitution Modifier (minimum 1). You can use your Hit Die as a bonus Action, or as a Reaction when you gain one through this trait, once per round, to do one of the following:
Blessing of The Sisters: Choose one of the following. This is your Subrace.
Silver Knight’s Blood:
Red Witch’s Blood
Spells of Old Shadar
Prerequisite: Shadar-kai or Vryloka
You know the forgotten magic of your ancient ancestors.
Blood Wolf
Prerequisite: Vryloka, Red Witch’s Blood
You have studied the old rituals of your kin, and the Red Witch who blessed you with the wolf’s blood. You can speak to wolves and other canids, and retain your Keen Hearing and Smell trait, even while in your natural form.
You gain the following benefits while in Wolf form.
Silver Knight’s Mercy
Prerequisite: Vryloka, Silver Knight Blood
While in Mist Form, you stretch out to cover a space equal to ½ your speed, filling that space with dense fog. You can exempt yourself and up to 3+your charisma mod creatures from the visual impairment. Such creatures see normally. Additionally, you can now spend an action to affect one or more creatures within the space you occupy. You can make one of the following attacks when you are in mist form, or when you are in a square of dense fog or mist. If not in Mist Form, range is 10ft. While in Mist Form, the range is any creature without your space.
Shadow Born
Prerequisite: Shadar-kai
You have attuned yourself, using ancient rituals, to the shadowstuff of the world. When you are lightly obscured, such as from dim light, you are treated as if you are in darkness for the purposes of stealth. Your speed increase in dim light or darkness increases to +10ft.
While in Shadow Form, you no longer teleport at half distance in full light.
Shadow Raven
Small Fey Beast
CR ¼
Str 8 (-1) Dex 15 (+3) Con 12 (+1) Int 10 (0) Wis 12 (+1) Cha 10 (0)
AC 13 HP 15 Speed: 5ft (60ft fly)
SKILLS
Perception +3, Stealth +5, Deception +3
SENSES
Darkvision 120 ft., Passive Perception 13
LANGUAGES
Common, Vaes Shadar. Can speak Vaes Shadar.
Flyby. The shadow raven doesn't provoke opportunity attacks when it flies out of an enemy's reach.
Mimicry. The raven can mimic simple sounds it has heard, such as a person whispering, a baby crying, or an animal chittering. A creature that hears the sounds can tell they are imitations with a successful DC 13 Wisdom (Insight) check.
Actions: Beak or Talons. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 2d4+3 piercing damage.
I am working on better stats for Kenku, and I may post stats for a fey version of the goblin, playable fey ogres, and some others. Maybe Gnolls. I like the idea of Wild Gnolls are a way in for less demonic, simply savage/wild, version of the gnoll in 5e.
We do bones, motherf***ker!
Crossings
In Faerie, and in the many material worlds, there are places where the boundaries between worlds are thin, called Crossings. These Crossings are as varied as the individuals who use them, and those who guard them. You might fall asleep in a quiet glade in a deep forest, and the night of the new moon, having failed to see the ring of mushrooms marking the edges of the glade, or perhaps failing to note their significance. In the morning, you look to the sky, and it is an evening sky with a brilliant green and blue borealis dancing across the dome of the heavens like a procession, and you realise that you are not in the place wherein you fell asleep.
Another person might enter the Fey intentionally, having created a door in their garden from the fallen branches of Feywild trees, blessed with the waters of a specific river on a specific night, and with a little offering of milk and berries every morning, they can open the door at will to walk into a guarded room in a secret tower within the Feywild.
Sometimes, entire areas of the world exist half in, half out, of the Fey, or phase in and out with the seasons or the movement of the stars. The Blue Tower of the Order of The Cerulean Key appears in a different location throughout many worlds, and can only be predicted by a prodigious scholor of astronomy, or a person who has aquired one of the Order's closely guarded Almanacs.
Within the Fey, there are villages, guard towers, monestaries, and trade outposts near many of these Crossings, and the people who occupy these spaces are much more familiar with the material world than their cousins in the deeper Feywild. There are several orders of knights, monks, rangers, arcanists, and druids, who guard the Crossings, watch over the trade between worlds, and occasionally venture into other worlds to retrieve stolen items, apprehend criminals, or for other less straightforward purposes.
The Feywild as part of the world
The Feywild (and by extension, the Shadowfell) needn't be a separate world from the material world of your games. Instead, you can incorporate these ideas into geographical regions, such as an ancient forest where live ancient fairy queens and terrible giants. This can make the Fey into a much more accessible "realm" that seemlessly fits into your campaign world.
Using the example above of the Blue Tower, such a tower needn't exist in another Plane, but could easily simply move about the natural world as described, and have guarded doors that lead to some of the most magical places in the world, such as the ancient forest of Maeg Turanth, the dire swamp of Maeg Caerdor, the desert oasis of Al Valahar, and the royal guest chambers of the Palace of Night, where dwells the Queen of Air and Darkness.
Travelling to these places is often arduous, and the land around them and within them can seem to twist and change as you travel through it, either drawing you deeper in, or keeping you on the outskirts, unless you can find the hidden path, speak the secret words, or carry the ancient relic that causes the land to let you pass unhindered.
Another advantage to this approach is that you can more easily have an emmisary of a Fey Court show up in your game, and more easily explain a party that includes Fey races like Satyr or Pixies or Shadar-kai in an otherwise "mundane" group.
We do bones, motherf***ker!
I'm looking forward to you filling in those other boxes. I really dig the way you're handling the fey wild/shadowfell as one dimension.
We do bones, motherf***ker!
Been trying to figure some of these things myself and I look forward to seeing where things go from here.
We do bones, motherf***ker!
You only need to highlight the text you wish to be put into a spoiler and click the exclamation mark at the top of the editing box.
As seen in the spoiler below.
Do you have difficulty fitting everything you want into your signature? Then check out the Extended Signature thread!
Here's my Extended Signature!
We do bones, motherf***ker!
If there is, I'm not aware of it.
Do you have difficulty fitting everything you want into your signature? Then check out the Extended Signature thread!
Here's my Extended Signature!
Fair enough. Thanks!
We do bones, motherf***ker!
Put some stuff in spoiler tags for easier browsing.
Ive a lot more to say on pretty much every topic. It's just a matter of having the time to type it out and format it and all that.
We do bones, motherf***ker!
Are you interested in feedback or the adding of ideas?
SOBEK! - F.
We do bones, motherf***ker!
I'm getting nice Shivering Isles fibes with Feyworld lore!