Homebrew Darkfey Species Details

The Darkfey walk between the Fey Wild and Shadowfell, and represent the overlap of those two realms. The Darkfey join animalistic qualities with their humanoid form, often sporting great feathered wings and long horns or antlers. While they have often been labeled as "evil" by other creatures, the Darkfey prefer to think of themselves as in-touch with their base emotions. The Darkfey draw power from emotions like anger, love, lust, joy and hate, and feel everything deeply. With their emotions, they change form. Darkfey appear to have white owl wings when they feel calm or neutral, and black raven wings when they feel either deep love or hate. When they feel their deepest emotions, their wings take on the appearance of a flaming phoenix.

For this reason, Darkfey often find it hard to lie or deceive -- their bodies inevitably give them away. Their societies tend to be insular, and it is rare for even the creatures of the FeyWild and Shadowfell to see a DarkFey, though they have plenty of legends about them. Darkfey societies are built on an ideal extreme honestly, which other creatures can feel goes too far. The few Darkfey that visit the Material Plane struggle with this, and may even have learned to repress any emotion in order to better exist within other societies; though, repressing such powerful emotions can eventually have explosive consequences.

The Darkfey Worship the Phoenix, a complex goddess of both light and dark, life and death. It is said that the Phoenix first created the Fey Wild and Shadowfell, and created the Darkfey as caretakers who could look after both planes. Some worshipers believe that upon dying, their soul will not go to join Phoenix, but instead they will be reborn, perhaps in a new body in a new plane. While other fey scoff at this, they must admit that they have never seen a Darkfey ghost or spirit.

Darkfey Traits

Age: Like elves, Darkfey typically reach adulthood around 100 and can live for hundreds for years. They are slightly smaller than most humans, typically only reaching 4 or 5 feet in height.

Emotional Changes

Darkfey can change appearance and color based on how they feel. These changes are largely outside of the Darkfey's control and happen automatically. When a Darkfey is calm or neutral, they appear white with owl wings. When they experience strong emotions, Darkfey become black with raven wings. When experiencing especially powerful emotions, Darkfey can become fiery red with flaming phoenix wings.

Flight

Starting at 3rd level, Darkfey gain the ability to fly up to the same distance as their walking speed.

Fey Ancestry

You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed.

Magic Emotions

When your character feels extreme emotions, either positive or negative, your character may have a surge of uncontrollable Wild Magic. You may roll (or your DM may have you roll) on the Wild Magic Surge table to determine the outcome.