An archfey patron who treats their warlocks like instagram followers and rubs them in other archway's faces. "See, Titania? I have more warlocks than you!". Many of their spells contain a magical rune that looks oddly similar to a hashtag. 

Seems ok. As long as you don't mention insta or hashtag directly, it makes sense. In the PHB it actually says that some patrons collect warlocks, and xanathars says about boasting of them using a mark of binding.

And now I'm imagining a pair of archfey, archfiends, or noble genie patrons comparing their warlocks' races, levels, and multiclass levels as if they're Pokemon cards.

A vain Archfey who collects Warlocks to boost their own esteem and gets competitive with rival Archfey or other powerful beings about the number & strength of their collection would ABSOLUTELY make sense in most traditional depictions of the Fey. And it would be completely in-character for them to cause the pyrotechnics of their Warlocks' spells to be "themed" somehow. The only warning I would give is that you are handing your Dungeon Master a veritable treasure trove of story possibilities that your Warlock might get sucked into, so be prepared :)

Haha, I think this is a great idea, the Archfey would encourage their 'followers' to do more and more outrageous things and tag them in it. There by having more influential , important or 'cool' followers.

Paladin: Why did you force us to fight this camp?  I mean, they're evil, but we could have gone around them.  aren't you normally live and let live.

Warlock: (heavy sigh) Orc Slayer Challenge, my patron wants to raise awareness for the number of Fey creatures killed by Orcs each year. 

That is funny🤣🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂😂

"We wouldn't have had to attack this camp, but another follower apparently upped their number yesterday when he came across an Orc Nursery.  That's just cheating frankly"

Quote from 6thLyranGuard >>

And now I'm imagining a pair of archfey, archfiends, or noble genie patrons comparing their warlocks' races, levels, and multiclass levels as if they're Pokemon cards.

 this is ******* genius, oh man i smell a tournament arch

This is getting wilder by the minute and its amazing, keep it up 

Quote from Sly_Fox >>

This is getting wilder by the minute and its amazing, keep it up 

 i dont think there are much more directions you can take this idea however

but another thing, what about other patrons? shure this makes perfect sense for an archfey, but are there any other patrons with whom this idea works? like some fiends also have a habit of warlock collecting while also being sufficiently self-absorbed, so maybe you could have an personal rivalry between one of the archfey and ether an demon prince like grazzt or an archdevil like Fierna,  where both of them are competing for followers like the above concept but its aestetically more interesting

also make shure with these patron rivalries that each gimmic has an spell gimmic like one with animal spells like the beast speech invocation, pact of the chain, dominate beast and conjure fey, another an fiend with stuff like command, dominate person and suggestion who is just really dominating, give each patron a diffrent pact boon their minions are given and diffrent invocations, make shure they are distinct

So what about trades? The patrons swap "futures" in their ability to get a Warlock to join their "side"? In extreme cases, a fiend might try to take away a GOO's warlock or similar.

How about dungeon crawls and other planned excursions becoming "Live Events" with faeries or other creatures showing up to watch from a safe distance, or maybe a not so safe distance.

Quote from Halavor_TheWeird >>

So what about trades? The patrons swap "futures" in their ability to get a Warlock to join their "side"? In extreme cases, a fiend might try to take away a GOO's warlock or similar.

 are you talking straight up warlock commerce, you get one warlock and i get one, or are you talking trying to persuade an warlock to surrender their patron and come join you? becuase as a rule GOO patrons are completely incomprehensible, and so they do not really collect patrons

Quote from ArtificeMeal >>

Quote from Halavor_TheWeird >>

So what about trades? The patrons swap "futures" in their ability to get a Warlock to join their "side"? In extreme cases, a fiend might try to take away a GOO's warlock or similar.

 are you talking straight up warlock commerce, you get one warlock and i get one, or are you talking trying to persuade an warlock to surrender their patron and come join you? becuase as a rule GOO patrons are completely incomprehensible, and so they do not really collect patrons

 I'm not sure. Could be both: A fiend trying to swipe a GOO's warlock might lead to some serious Spelljammer level politics. Fleets of Demons and devils charging down Cthulu or other badass stuff. An Archfey swiping a fiendlock in a trade only to have the fiend realize his card is for a Warlock long dead... The possibilities are endless

Quote from Halavor_TheWeird >>

Quote from ArtificeMeal >>

Quote from Halavor_TheWeird >>

So what about trades? The patrons swap "futures" in their ability to get a Warlock to join their "side"? In extreme cases, a fiend might try to take away a GOO's warlock or similar.

 are you talking straight up warlock commerce, you get one warlock and i get one, or are you talking trying to persuade an warlock to surrender their patron and come join you? becuase as a rule GOO patrons are completely incomprehensible, and so they do not really collect patrons

 I'm not sure. Could be both: A fiend trying to swipe a GOO's warlock might lead to some serious Spelljammer level politics. Fleets of Demons and devils charging down Cthulu or other badass stuff. An Archfey swiping a fiendlock in a trade only to have the fiend realize his card is for a Warlock long dead... The possibilities are endless

 but again, cthulu is not interested in his warlocks and should not know that they exist, warlocks of the old one are more like wizards who exploit the existence of old ones to uncover secrets about the weave, but then again you are not forced to go that route and you could just as easily say that patrons are aware of their warlocks and protective over them, it is just that again, old ones are supposed to be like immortal and before time, and i think it just fits better aesthetically to have juvenile yet powerful fiends and fey, perhaps even some celestials, as the ones who compete in this little game, again a patron who treats their warlocks like Instagram followers

a

 but again, cthulu is not interested in his warlocks and should not know that they exist, warlocks of the old one are more like wizards who exploit the existence of old ones to uncover secrets about the weave, but then again you are not forced to go that route and you could just as easily say that patrons are aware of their warlocks and protective over them, it is just that again, old ones are supposed to be like immortal and before time, and i think it just fits better aesthetically to have juvenile yet powerful fiends and fey, perhaps even some celestials, as the ones who compete in this little game, again a patron who treats their warlocks like Instagram followers

 I think that's overgeneralizing Cthulhu. Cthulhu's inscrutable and unknowable, he might well be cognizant of a powerful warlock, or some other massive spell cast in his/her/their name. The PHB as written states: "The Great Old One might be unaware of your existence or entirely indifferent to you, but the secrets you have learned allow you to draw your magic from it." It doesn't preclude Cthulhu knowing a warlock, liking (or disliking) a warlock, or using him/her in a scheme that the warlock does not even know exists.

Quote from Halavor_TheWeird >>

a

 but again, cthulu is not interested in his warlocks and should not know that they exist, warlocks of the old one are more like wizards who exploit the existence of old ones to uncover secrets about the weave, but then again you are not forced to go that route and you could just as easily say that patrons are aware of their warlocks and protective over them, it is just that again, old ones are supposed to be like immortal and before time, and i think it just fits better aesthetically to have juvenile yet powerful fiends and fey, perhaps even some celestials, as the ones who compete in this little game, again a patron who treats their warlocks like Instagram followers

 I think that's overgeneralizing Cthulhu. Cthulhu's inscrutable and unknowable, he might well be cognizant of a powerful warlock, or some other massive spell cast in his/her/their name. The PHB as written states: "The Great Old One might be unaware of your existence or entirely indifferent to you, but the secrets you have learned allow you to draw your magic from it." It doesn't preclude Cthulhu knowing a warlock, liking (or disliking) a warlock, or using him/her in a scheme that the warlock does not even know exists.

 fair point, but i still think GOO patrons do not really fit this theme set up by the original post the same way that archfey might