In this series, we’ll be expanding on the work begun in our supplement of faeries and fariy tales, Fey Folio, by extending the world building, exploring additional mechanics, and fleshing out the Fey’s fantastical world. Join us as we embark Into the Wilds.
Before we begin in earnest, we should overview all we’ve crafted before, laying out our worldbuilding in the sand and opening it to discussion. Specifically, in this article, we’ll be taking a look back at the first chapter, Lore of the Fey, to introduce newcomers to the Feywild and its machinations. As we go, I’ll be making notes on things we can improve upon in later articles.
The Feywild
For those not in the know, the fey (and the elves) originate in a magical plane of existence called the Feywild, which is suffused with magic.
Mortals from the Material Plane can travel there via fey bridges, various hidden portals that exist between the world, but are often ill-equipped to comprehend a world that has more magic than their own.
This, certainly, is something we need to expand upon further. Other than this reference, the dreamlike nature of the Feywild, and the ways magic “loosens” reality were not explored enough in the book. Moreover, we didn’t focus much on the nature of Fey Bridges or the various forms that might take.
But the Feywild isn’t a chaotic mix of sleepy woods and tranquil rivers, it has discrete regions: gleaming cities, wild magic forests, and gardens of Archfey. For their part, the cities are almost entirely the domain of the fey elves, opulent, isolated eutopias, each with their own unique underlying sinister edge.
Each of these areas of the Feywild needs to be elaborated on more deeply, but none moreso than the cities.
Feykind
The Feywild is uniquely defined by the fey in ways that other planes are not; the Material Plane is not called the Humanslog, nor are the lower planes called Demonsteads. In (very) brief, the fey are:
As bizarre and eye-catching as this is in practice, the general Fey attitudes, their unique view on the world, is where they become extremely interesting. We generally break down Fey Attitudes into three important bits:
Haughty Superiors
Fey are nigh-immortal and innately magical; humanoids are simply lesser creatures, and prefer to use such creatures as chess pieces, targets for pranks, or subjects for dominion. They demand total respect from lesser creatures, and will use magic to disproportionately redress the balance.
Contempt for Property.
Immaterial Wealth.
I have designs to expand upon this notion mechanically, that to sign a contract with a Fey or otherwise secure their allegiance should be outlined instead of conventional currency.
Fey Politics
“Seelie” and “Unseelie” are clumsy distinctions made by humanoids; fey politics are far more elaborate. Generally speaking, the most powerful fey creatures claim the titles of Archfey and compete for the allegiances and pledges of loyalty from other feykind. Every archfey commands a Faerie Court, a grand chain of supplication, extending from the archfey themselves.
In the Fey Folio, we define seven courts, name their archfey, and expound upon their tendencies and Convictions. In this series, we’ll likely expand upon that further, and we shall definitely include statistics for the fey.
Moreover, something we didn’t focus on at all is that each Court maintains a very small territory in the Feywild: a Garden. We imply that different Courts have important locales, that the Emerald Court is centered on the Great Grove and that the Obsidian Court is ruled from a grand Obsidian Throne, but do little more. In this series, we intend to expound them in more detail.
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Next time we’ll be laying out a roadmap for this article series: where we’ll go, how we’ll do things, and in what rough order. Stay tuned, and feel free to leave comments below!
