The Wild Beyond the Witchlight brings two new backgrounds to Dungeons & Dragons. Each is tailored for characters that have a strong link to the Feywild or the traveling Witchlight Carnival. The feylost background is for characters that grew up in the fey realm. The Witchlight hand background is for those who work in the Witchlight Carnival but might be seeking to leave.

Click a background below to learn more about it:

• Feylost
• Witchlight Hand

Feylost

The feylost is a great background for anyone trying to create a character like Rip Van Winkle, who wandered into the Catskill Mountains one day, fell asleep, and awakened two decades later. There are a few key differences, however.

• The feylost disappeared from their home plane as a child. They might have been kidnapped by evil fey, been spirited away by eladrin, or simply wandered into the woods one night and ended up at a fey crossing.
• After growing up in the Feywild, the feylost returns to their home plane. Perhaps they’re haunted by their memories, which grow hazier with each passing day. Think Neo from The Matrix — the feylost has gotten a glimpse of what lies beyond the rabbit hole but can’t figure out how to return!

Benefits of the feylost background

The feylost are transformed by their time in the Feywild. Characters with this background have a fey mark, which can be anything from iridescent eyes to a tail. This mark comes with a unique benefit that players and Dungeon Masters will enjoy. The background also comes with the Feywild Connection feature, which helps you to survive the unique dangers of the fey realm.

Upon choosing the feylost background, characters gain the following proficiencies, languages, and equipment:

Skill Proficiencies: Deception, Survival

Tool Proficiencies: One type of musical instrument

Languages: One of your choice of Elvish, Gnomish, Goblin, or Sylvan

Equipment: A musical instrument (one of your choice), a set of traveler’s clothes, three trinkets (each determined by rolling on the Feywild Trinkets table included in The Wild Beyond the Witchlight), and a pouch containing 8 gp

Source: The Wild Beyond the Witchlight

Meet Toby 'Arakhor' Tendrys, a feylost teen adopted by the eladrin

Toby Tendrys is an 18-year-old human who ran away from an orphanage in his early teens. He hitchhiked for weeks until a stroke of bad luck found him imprisoned by a green hag named Stena Moonbone, who constantly muttered: “ You look so familiar, boy… Can it be? You, the spawn of that knight?”

A group of summer eladrin came to Toby’s rescue. Slaying the hag, they freed Toby and gazed upon him with wonder before urging the bewildered child to follow them through a fey crossing. There, Toby learned that the eladrin were protectors of Galdria, a grove containing a tree that bore spell-enhancing fruit.

Galdria had been seeded a thousand years ago by an elf who fell in love with a human, and Toby’s eladrin guides led him to a mural showing the human co-founder. The knight bore an uncanny resemblance to Toby, and was in fact his distant ancestor. In awe of his lineage, Toby decided to stay in Galdria. He spent five years amongst the eladrin, adopted a faerie dragon named Cor, gained the nickname “Arakhor” (“tree warden” in elvish), and protected the grove against thieving redcaps and other hags of the Moonbone Coven, who desired revenge for their sister’s death and had long lusted after Galdria’s fruit.

One particularly fierce battle against the hags resulted in them unleashing a jabberwock on Galdria. In a fight that took to the skies, Toby sliced the jabberwock’s head clean off with his vorpal sword but was thrown to the ground and fell through a fey crossing. The impact badly injured Toby and left him in a coma, and he would’ve died if not for a family of farmers who nursed him back to health.

Toby awoke from his coma after three weeks and now suffers from amnesia. He only recalls snippets of the years he spent living amongst the eladrin. He longs to return to the life he once knew — if only he could remember what the Feywild is.

Using Toby in your games

Toby is inspired by the classic “chosen one” trope in fiction, as well as Neo in The Matrix. Martial classes will fit him well, considering his proficiency with the vorpal sword, and his backstory could be the basis for a campaign where the characters must save Galdria from the Moonbone Coven.

Toby’s Fey Mark manifests whenever he comes into contact with flowers, which always seem to bloom in his presence thanks to Galdria’s lingering magic. At times, Toby has visions of his faerie dragon, Cor, who cries out in Sylvan: “Where are ya, Toby? We’re tryin’ to find ya!”

Witchlight hand

The Witchlight hand background ties your character directly to The Wild Beyond the Witchlight. They work for the grandest carnival to ever travel the planes of existence, the Witchlight Carnival. If you dreamed of running away to join the circus as a kid, this background is for you. Here are key details to note.

• Witchlight hands enter the Witchlight Carnival in their youth and earn their keep working behind the scenes. The carnival’s owners, Mister Witch and Mister Light, remain mysterious after many years, but other workers can be close friends.
• The Witchlight Carnival travels to many different planes, but Witchlight hands know little about these foreign realms due to spending most of their time in the carnival. Nevertheless, while their knowledge is incomplete, perhaps they’ve caught glimpses of the Shadowfell, the Feywild, or even various D&D worlds like Greyhawk or Eberron — making perfect fodder for a tall tale told around a campfire.
• Witchlight hands begin their adventuring careers when the carnival becomes less alluring. Perhaps the glitz and glamour have grown tedious, or maybe the Witchlight hand simply wants to explore one of the realms the carnival briefly visits.

Benefits of the Witchlight hand background

Those with the Witchlight hand background gain a Carnival Companion that they can call upon for advice. This buddy won’t voluntarily leave the carnival, however. They also gain a feature called Carnival Fixture, which offers certain benefits at the Witchlight Carnival. 

Upon choosing the Witchlight hand background, characters gain the following proficiencies, languages, and equipment:

Skill Proficiencies: Performance, Sleight of Hand

Tool Proficiencies: Disguise kit or one type of musical instrument

Languages: One of your choice

Equipment: A disguise kit or a musical instrument of your choice, a deck of cards, a carnival uniform or costume, one trinket (determined by rolling on the Feywild Trinkets table included in The Wild Beyond the Witchlight), and a pouch containing 8 gp

Source: The Wild Beyond the Witchlight

Meet Mapril, sarcastic tiefling Witchlight hand

Mapril is a 22-year-old tiefling who has faithfully worked on the Witchlight Carnival grounds since she was 14. Sardonic, sarcastic, and renowned across the carnival for her deadpan responses to just about everything, Mapril is actually much more emotive these days than she was as a youth. She grew up in a remote village where the locals were superstitious about tieflings. There, Mapril’s human mother — who worked with horses at a local ranch — was considered the town pariah for giving birth to a so-called “devilkin.” When she was 14, Mapril’s mother passed away, and the young tiefling was all too happy to leave her miserable town behind. She took to the road, wondering if she might run into her father — supposedly a circus performer.

Mapril never encountered her father, but she did come upon the Witchlight Carnival, which happened to be visiting her homeworld for a brief five days. Mildly attracted to the bright lights and loud sounds, Mapril found herself wandering near the carnival’s stables just as a particularly ornery horse was acting up and threatened to stomp his trainer, a just-as-ornery human named “Peanut” Pete. Mapril had an affinity for horses thanks to the time she spent working with her mother on the ranch. She managed to calm down the beast. Peanut Pete took an immediate interest in her animal handling skills and asked if she wanted to stay on as his assistant. She said yes.

Over the next eight years, Mapril was Peanut Pete’s finest helper when it came to corralling the carnival’s horses and foxes. She even participated in a few big top acts, though she never really took to the ridiculous butterfly wings that needed to be worn by all carnival performers. However, Mapril has recently grown tired of circus life. She finds herself wishing she could track down her father, if only to punch his lights out for his absence.

Mapril has gingerly begun discussing the topic of leaving with Peanut Pete. For his part, Pete laments her departure but knows that all kids need to leave home someday.

Using Mapril in your games

Mapril is meant to be an acerbic, mildly cynical character like the protagonist from the television sitcom Daria — an intentional choice to contrast the cheerful, colorful environment that she grew up in. Her knack for working with animals might make her a good ranger, and the search for her father serves as an intriguing homebrew hook for Dungeon Masters hoping to spin a larger tale out of The Wild Beyond the Witchlight.

Mapril’s Carnival Companion is Peanut Pete, who is cranky toward most folks but reserves a soft spot for Mapril, his “right-hand gal.” Originally a farmer from the Greyhawk territory of Ahlissa, Peanut Pete worked in a wide variety of locales — including a brief stint in the Underdark — before settling on his current role as a Witchlight Carnival animal handler. He’s willing to share his worldly knowledge with friends that Mapril can vouch for, and his tent serves as Mapril’s Carnival Fixture whenever she returns to her old stomping grounds.

Embrace a myriad of fey possibilities

Toby and Mapril are but two of the possibilities that can be created using the Feywild-themed backgrounds in The Wild Beyond the Witchlight. Dungeon Masters and players searching for deeper Feywild lore will find a plethora of material once the book releases on September 21. Be sure to preorder it on D&D Beyond, and get ready to dive into a world of wonder and whimsy that lies just beyond the Material Plane!

Jeremy Blum (@PixelGrotto) is a journalist, gaming blogger, comic book aficionado, and fan of all forms of storytelling who rolled his first polyhedral dice while living in Hong Kong in 2017. Since then, he's never looked back and loves roleplaying games for the chance to tell the tales that have been swirling in his head since childhood.