What can you tell me about the Feywild?
It's an echo of the Prime Material Plane, but suffused with Fey magic and creatures. It is a twilight realm, with time being inconsistent.
>>46677679
Why does it mask itself with magic?
>>46678209
Moreover, how pained would a fey be if its faerie glamours were to be removed?
>>46677679
Terrible place, it's made out of all the leftover bits of creation that the gods thought were too gaudy or naff for the prime. Also full of elves and gnomes, but I repeat myself.
>>46677679
Don't go there.
If you do, don't eat anything, don't drink anything, don't touch anything with bare skin or your hands, don't trust anything, don't make deals with anything, don't get off the path, don't get distracted and don't forget anything. And never fucking ever stay there for more then a day.
>>46678588
It would be incredibly off-putting.
>>46678885
For the fey, or for the non-fey who would dare to dispel the sidhe's mystical masques?
>>46677679
Spoopy. And not the regular kind. The kind that seems nice before BOO IT'S SUPER SPOOPY TIME NOW WITH EXTRA SPOOPY
>>46679102
Yeah, it basically the culmination of every negative or devilish portrayal of the fae across history.
Looks pretty but holy shit get the fuck out as quick as possible or your anus is gonna be spread more than butter is on toast in the morning.
>>46677679
In my setting the world the campaign is set in is a font of creation. Unknown to the people living on it each person has a spark of the divine within them. This same font of creation put out more magic, more energy than the world can handle. Excess magic is channeled into the shadowfell and feywild where it is stored.
The feywild is all that is too bright, too magical, and too alive for the material plane to hold. However when the material world is off balance it also functions as a reservoir to bring the world back into focus, same with the shadowfell.
The problem in my setting is that the feywild was deliberately cut off from the world about 1,000 years ago by humanity and now that magical nuclear holocaust in the Not!Louisthe15thEurope has ripped a bigger "hole" into the shadowfell the Not!Europe has a no man's land that is basically Dark Sould and growing.
Im trying to lead my players into the deepest depths of that land so they can try to find a solution, and end up reopening by accident an opening to the feywild.
"Fey are ill news!" is vastly overexaggerated under a D&D context.
In 3.5's core Monster Manual, we have:
Dryad: Usually chaotic good
Nymph: Usually chaotic good
Satyr: Usually chaotic neutral
Sprite, Grig: Always neutral good
Sprite, Nixie: Always neutral
Sprite, Pixie: Always neutral good
4 out of 7 are good, 3 out of 7 are neutral, none are evil. If you meet a grig or a pixie, it will be neutral good ~99.999999% of the time.
4e is an awkward case due to "fey" being a much broader term for "anything native to the Feywild," including owlbears.
In the 5e core Monster Manual, we have:
Dryad: Neutral
Green Hag: Neutral evil
Pixie: Neutral good
Satyr: Chaotic neutral
Sprite: Neutral good
2 out of 5 are good, 2 out of 5 are neutral, and 1 out of 5 are evil.
So where is "around fey, watch yourselves" coming from?
Folktales-wise (even in Grimm stories), fairy tales are depicted as a roughly even split between benevolent and malevolent (you know, like humans). Even then, the malevolent ones tend to target humans who were, in some way, deserving of punishment, because these fairy tales served the purpose of cautionary tales and morality plays to scare youngsters into good behavior.
>>46680695
One of the consequences of the Feywild opening back up is that Dragons, who have long been trapped in the Feywild will be able to return.
There is currently only one known dragon in the material world (all the rest are sleeping and may never wake). She doesnt want everybody else to return because it will upset the balance of power, one where she is basically an arms manufacturer. She maintains a younger and weaker consort who helps her produce eggs. These eggs are then corrupted by magic to be fused with drake blood and become non sentient but uber strong drakes which she sells to different nations as mounts.
Anyway the older dragons back in the Feywild are chomping at the bit to get back to the material plane. They know the nature of the world and its power, and want to claim it. However their children in the feywild are odd.............basically they are dragon otaku, being fascinated by random objects. Instead of normal hoards of gold and treasure each dragon fixates on a single item or theme and builds their hoards around that idea. Also the magic of the Feywild is changing the dragons, making them take all manner of new and whimsical forms. The older dragons hate their children and will sometimes kill them on sight, or before they are even hatched.
>>46677679
it makes my heart sing.
>>46680761
Benevolent Fey are the worst ones to get involved with, they legitimately think they're helping.
>>46680881
>Example of a sleeping dragon in the material world sleeping while disguised as a glacier.
>>46680761
The real problem are the archfey, not minor fey like dryads or pixies.
They are just the right level of terrifyingly powerful, great enough you don't have a ghost of a chance against them, but not quite yet in the godlike realm of mortals not being worth their time.
About like the Dreadlords from Ravenloft.
Feywild is basically Ravenloft with better lighting.
>>46680761
Because they're basically the past version of urban mytj aliens like the Greys and alien abductions. People IRL had all sorts of superstitions (or memes) about keeping them from messing with your shit. Fairies = bad is mostly pulled from Tam Lin these days. Also Not Disney!Peter Pan was a chaotic stupid psycho due to being raised by fairies. On the other hand the alignments shown is just D&D trying to have its cake and eat it too. They should probably all be chaotic neutral or something. That said, they're not bad just alien, and a bit spooky.
>>46680930
Alignment is a cosmic force under the Great Wheel of 2e, 3.5, and 5e, and it has always been a roughly even split of consequentialist ethics (consequence-based) and virtue ethics (intent-based).
This is why the Harmonium's good intentions but extremist methods and outcomes ultimately led to Arcadia's third layer of Nemausus slipping down towards Mechanus; and also why any non-fallen aasimon (angel), archon, guardinal, or eladrin one meets is very likely to be a legitimately good person, as opposed to a well-intentioned extremist.
If a creature is good-aligned under an edition with the Great Wheel, it is probably good.
>>46679079
>>46681042
I'm glad you brought up the Archfey. I've recently been trying to incorporate them more into my own campaigns, but I'm not certain how best to really nail how otherworldly they are. Any tips?
>>46678209
It's thought to be a living shard of the astral realm, projecting as it does into the "northern" side of Limbo where Limbo abutts with Arborea - the touch of pure nature and pure chaos combined with the astral realm's innate abstractness makes it both innately slippery and hard to find or traverse and especially susceptible to narrative magics.
It is said that a bard with a sufficiently well told tale can shape the feywild to their story's whims, allowing fast and somewhat reliable travel both to and through it.
Rumors abound of crap bards, forever lost and trying to remember the next bit of their tales until they die of thirst or exhaustion, or being deposited in some especially uninhabitable area of the prime material as punishment.
Other rumors abound of the Singing Ferrymen who offer safe passage to people they find lost in the feywild for the price of a song.
(there are even rumors of the Dark Morrismen, who use the feywild to prey on naive primes as they dance their ominous silent prancing)
>>46681042
>>46681173
Let us inspect some of the archfey of AD&D 2e, then, straight from Monster Mythology.
The Seelie Court (whose mobile divine realm travels through the NG/CG Beastlands, CG Arborea, and CG/CN Ysgard) has a staggering 11 members:
Titania: Greater goddess, neutral good leaning towards chaotic good
Oberon: Lesser god, neutral good leaning towards neutral
Caoimhin: Demigod, neutral leaning towards chaotic good
Damh: Lesser god, chaotic neutral
Eachthighern: Lesser god, chaotic good
Emmantiensen: Intermediate god, neutral good
Fionnghuala: Demigoddess, neutral good
Nathair Sgiathach: Intermediate god, chaotic good
Skerrit: Lesser god, neutral leaning towards chaotic good
Squelaiche: Demigod, chaotic neutral leaning towards chaotic good
Verenestra: Lesser goddess, neutral leaning towards chaotic good
The Unseelie Court has exactly one member:
The Queen of Air and Darkness: Intermediate goddess, chaotic evil
That gives us 5 out of 12 archfey as good, 1 out of 12 as good leaning towards neutral, 4 out of 12 as neutral leaning towards good, 1 out of 12 as neutral, and 1 out of 12 as evil.
>>46681173
They can vary widely, but I'd say they're generally more a force of nature than a person.
Not to say they can't talk or reason, just that you're having a tea party with a supermassive black hole and the fact that she's a lovely hostess won't stop your spaghettification when you get too close.
>>46681042
>>46681173
>>46681404
>>46681490
Now, what of 4e's archfey? This edition does not give us the alignments of most of the archfey. Those we do have statistics for are meant to be villains outright.
We have no statistics for the leaders of five out of six major courts (Coral, Gloaming, Green, Summer, and Unseelie; the only statistics we have for a court leader are those of the evil-aligned Prince of Frost of the Winter Court, and even then, he is simply the most powerful fey of that deeply fragmented and wholly disorganized court).
We do, however, know from page 12 of Heroes of the Feywild that the most powerful of these courts, by far, is the Summer Court, led by Queen Tiandra.
>Of all of the archfey, Tiandra commands the largest following of Sidhe lords and other eladrin.
The Summer Court also hosts the Court of Stars (not an actual court in the faction sense, but in the conclave sense), which every other court must attend. That gives the Summer Court a distinct advantage over every other court.
It also just so happens that Tiandra is good-aligned. In fact, the Shiradi Champion epic destiny, which represents being a personal agent of the Summer Queen, requires the character to be non-evil.
In other words, the single most politically powerful archfey in all of 4e is good-aligned, and her court is the largest and most influential as well.
Everything is currently pointing towards the fey of D&D 2e, 3.X, 4e, and 5e leaning towards good alignments in general.
>>46677679
Turns out it's just an old name for Wales.
Yeah, disappointing, right.
Turns out the Welsh are slightly magic.
>>46681689
Does that mean Edward Kenway was a fairy?
>>46678209
It's a big guy.
>>46681558
I don't really think it's one or the other. People can have good but weird fey who're sympathetic to others but don't always have solutions that work or even make sense to non-fey and it might be harmful but unintentional.
>>46678209
Why do mortals mask themselves in mundanity, safety, and bureaucracy.
>>46682377
Because we're big guys.
>>46681801
>>46682507
Please stop, you're embarrassing yourself.
>>46682768
*yourselves.
Also, no.
The Feywild is the anchor of the other plane. It connects to Mitsattu on Earth, the anchor of the home plane. It's where the Witches came from with their Eladrin. It's magic will taint anything from the home plane, just as the home plane tainted the Eladrin. It's natural geography is almost identical to Earth's.
>>46681127
I got that reference.
>>46677679
It's wonderful and spooky at the same time.
>>46681241
Jim Morrison reference?
>>46678837
That shit is legit scary man. The world can be supet freaky.
>>46682768
for you
>>46684231
No, a discworld reference.
>>46679102
Yeah, like you walk into a meadow with sunlight pouring through the canopy just right so that it illuminates all the particles floating in the air and makes the place seem to glow with a miraculous light, until you pass your wisdom check and realize that the whole meadow is dark and the leaves crunching underneath your feet have actually been piles and piles of dead butterfly wings instead
All I know is that it is home of the worst sort of elves.... Like... Super Elves, even normal elves find them annoying.
>>46678209
How does a fairy fly so good?
>>46690776
They have a special "ballast fluid" that flows through her hollow bones and is redistributed in response to stimulation from the fairy's inner ear.this fluid rapidly crystallises and scinterlates when exposed to air, and is the source of the idea of "pixy dust"
>>46690909
Why do fairies shoot people with elfshot before throwing them out of the plane of the Feywild?
>>46677679
Basically, you know how in Christian Mythology, theres the Garden of Eden? Thats the Feywild.
Its the Prime Material as it once was, suffused with magic and an extraordinary diversity of life, before the influence of the Shadowfell began to weaken it. The Prime Material, then, is where these used to intersect, though both sides long ago seperated it off from themselves for fear of spreading ''contamination''.
This also means that the Feywild has dinosaurs and shit like that, various pre-historic species, including ancient and primitive humans.
>>46680761
A chaotic good satyr can rape your pretty ass six ways until sunday (that is the actual stipulation) without being counted as evil. It's a minor racial ability.
>>46690947
they are sadistic, much like young children
>>46680761
>So where is "around fey, watch yourselves" coming from?
Because /tg/ is full of edgy faggots who think everything needs to be a horrifying monster.
>>46691253
> because /tg/ is full of hot topic fascists who discovered that people care less if you vent your racism against demographics that don't really exist
FUCK THE N- I mean, Elves. Yes, Elves. And Xenos.
>>46693194
...You're not wrong, but I don't think it's the motivator here specifically. I think /tg/ just wants to act like it's smart because it knows something about old mythology and fairy tales that the average person may not know, regardless of whether it's also accurate to the fiction they're actually discussing.
>>46681127
wooow pulling an obscure reference there... the comic with the magic dogs right?
>>46693631
Well, to be fair, the fae are kinda often dickish in myths.
I dunno about other cultures but in Ireland theres still farmer leave a bucket of milk for the fairies on Mayday so they can farm in peace without their cattle all dying and shit like that
>>46693657
It's still just that one meme, that's a picture of four ewes.
It feys the wilds.
Animal-concepts lurk there that would wreak havoc on our world's ecosystems. Tigers mixed with elephants. Saber-toothed lolis. Sharks mixed with gorillas.
Also, cider spiders. They're basically cider bottles on eight legs that feed on yeast and fallen apples. You twist their legs off and drink their interior. It heals most illnesses.
>>46693695
That doesn't mean every fictional setting has to have that particular interpretation of fairies, is my point.
>>46677679
>What can you tell me about the Feywild?
The Feywild, also known as the plane of Faerie, exists as an "echo" of the Prime Material Plane. It is from here that the fey originate, giving the Feywild its name, and it is also a place of unusually potent magic.
>>46693728
Oh yeah, of course. Its just one of those things, for a lot of people that grew up in certain mythologies hearing of the fey as being nice and cool dudes is kinda weird.
Like, American stories with leprechauns were always weird to me because ye tend to make them these lovely little trciksters that have gold.
One ''known'' irish Leprechaun, Littlebody, is a musician that threatens to burn you to death if ya take his gold when ya find him, though he will still give ya the gold.
>>46681719
Well he was certainly a faggot
>>46693802
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phzt9Wcd0zA
Most realistic Leprechaun movies of all time.
>>46680695
>feywild and shadowfell as keynesian adjustment mechanisms for the universe
whats next you gonna start aggregating spells too baka
>>46691253
Because the original fey weren't called 'The Fair Folk' because they were nice, but because it was considered best practice not to cause offense.
Not evil as such, but alien, with personalities as varying as humanity, ranging from the daughter of the Erl-king who kills a man for refusing to dance with her because he's busy preparing for his wedding the next day, to the Queen of Tam Lin, who releases one of her vassals without hesitation after a mortal woman proves her love for him, in fact one of her preferred playthings and chosen tithe to hell (Depending on the version of the story)
>>46694454
So the moral of the first story is to cuck your wife if you want to live?
>>46694615
No, the moral of the story is avoid shit you dont understand unless you are assuredly powerful/ tough enough to survive whatever it throws at you.
>>46694615
The moral of the first story is to be glib with the fey.
He probably could have gotten a blessing out of it if he'd been evasive and promised her a dance at the afterparty, or that sort of bollocks, instead of telling her to eat a dick.
Basically, the best way to survive the fey is to be as, if not more tricksy and charming than they are.
Or utterly polite and give them no reason to be dicks. But mostly the first one.
>>46682507
If I brought some color into your life, would you die?
>>46690947
"elfshot" is actually a cartilagonous part of the fairys' secondary sexual characteristics, its purpose is to allow the fairy to penetrate the skin of a potential mate and inject powerful hallucinogens, aphrodisiacs and deadly poison.
>>46694689
Its worth pointing out that Fey often traveled in disguise.
So Fey stories served a triple purpose in terms of lessons:
Lesson 1: There are things that are bigger with you, don't fuck with them.
Lesson 2: Don't wander off into the deep woods alone, that invites trouble.
Lesson 3: Be nice to strangers, you don't know who they really are. If they turn out to be more important than you realized, a snide comment can fuck up your whole life.
Even ignoring the supernatural element, none of these are bad lessons to learn as a peasant. Lots of cultures had some religious or supernatural reason for why you were supposed to treat strangers and travelers with kindness and respect, which was important for trade reasons but was passed along as a story lesson.
