Feywild (ˈfeɪwaɪld)
The Realm of Faerie
Stepping into the portal was like settling into a warm bath, though the chill didn't fade from the air. At first, everything muted—the roar of the river around the rocks below, the chirping of frogs and crickets on shore, the evening bustle of the town behind him... A moment later, the world erupted into vibrant life. Frogs and night birds sang a chorus; the air was awash with autumn scents; the moonlight painted the flowers in iridescent blue, silver, and violet; and the rushing of the river became a complex symphony.
— James Wyatt, Oath of Vigilance
The Feywild is one of two echo planes of the Material Plane. Suffused with beauty, potent magic, and unrestrained emotion. Some scholars deem it the original plane of existence (a fact supported and proclaimed as truth by the Fey), rent apart during the Convection and torn in three by the arcane and divine might of the Cauldron.
Some visits have visitors depicting the Feywild as always bathed in twilight, dawn, or dusk from the rising (or setting) sun; yet others describe beautiful nights lit by great bounds of starlight, illuminated by feylight and fireflies; contrasting and contradicting accounts are made by other visitors, who describe days of endless sunshine and balmy spring or summer winds. What is known is that all sensations (sensory and emotional) are heightened within the Feywild. Smells and scents are stronger and more prominent; colours take on hitherto-unknown vivid hues; sounds are clearer and sharper. Yet, at the same time, shadows are darker and impulses and instincts harder to control. Some say that strong emotions even alter the landscape of the Feywild itself: flowers wilting at great sorrow or carefree animals travelling along with those merry visitors.
Entering the Feywild
To enter the Feywild is perhaps easier than it should be: it can be reached entirely by accident. It is unique in this way; no other plane of existence can be entered or left simply by accident (though some say leaving the Feywild is harder than entering it). This is done through what is known as a Fey Crossing: a place where two or more Leylines from the Feywild and the Material Plane intersect. This intersection between planes thins the barrier and thus creates a Fey Crossing, the most famous of which is the Dreaming Weald: a remnant of the Convection as the city of Tor Thalas was torn from the Material Plane and transported to the newly-made Feywild by the raw might of the Cauldron.Domains of Delight
A Domain of Delight is a realm ruled by an independent being. They are usually ruled by an Archfey, the most powerful of Fey creatures and natural leaders of the High Fey nobility. An Archfey gives form to their Domain of Delight, shaping it in ways unique to their personality. Some Domains of Delight are bright and cheery, while others are gloomy, but each one reflects the emotional state of its ruler. A Domain of Delight can be as small as a few acres or as big as a country.There are many such Domains of Delight within the Feywild; some are ruled by lesser Archfey as lieutenants of the High Lords, others are creations of powerful hags or simply manifestations of the Feywild's inherent magic, maintained solely by a prevalent emotion. But all Domains of Delight are wondrous and strange; yet few are as wonderous and beautiful as the Eight Courts of the Fey, for which the Feywild is known even in the Material.
The Eight Courts
While the Feywild is known to play host to far more than merely eight distinct areas, those eight are perhaps the most well-known to scholars from the Material Plane. Known as Domains of Delight, these Fey Courts are each commanded by a particularly powerful
Archfey, known as a High Lord. These are the most powerful of the High Fey and have come to be so intrinsically connected to the Feywild that it is their Domains of Delight in which most of the other Fey reside. These eight territories are divided into the Seasonal Courts and the Solar Courts.
The main difference between the two is that the Seasonal Courts are linked thusly to the power and magic of their High Lords that they are stagnant and locked into a single season. The Solar Courts, on the other hand, experience all seasons and times of day, though it is commonly noted that a particular time of day is particularly beautiful within those Domains of Delight.
Seasonal Courts
The Seasonal Courts of the Feywild refer to the four courts that are locked into a single season by the will and nature of their High Lord. All year round, a singular season is dominant over the lands of these courts. As such, they experience the typical weather patterns and times of day as can be expected in that season.Spring Court
The Spring Court is the Domain of Delight of Berivar, the High Lord of the Spring Court and He With Many Faces. It is a land of rolling hills and eternal plains; silver trees with emerald leaves; of bottomless lakes. It is often said that magic does not simply abound in its lands; rather, it grows there.The many fey of the Spring Court are merry and joyful. They delight in song and dance and revel in the beauty of their lands and home. Its High Lord, Berivar, is granted the ability of shapeshifting not only himself but his surroundings and people as well. Additionally, he is renowned for his great strength and martial prowess.
Summer Court
Also known as the Seelie Court, the Summer Court is the Domain of Delight of Titania, the Summer Queen, and High Lord of the Summer Court. It is a land of sparkling waters and calm woodland glades filled with sunshine. The temperatures of the Summer Court range from cool in the evenings to unbearably hot and sweaty in the day, yet for its Fey inhabitants, it is perfect. It is said that one must never eat the food from the Summer Court, lest one never leaves, so enchanting is its beauty. So renowned are its ivory-white cliffs that many mortal painters have tried to capture its beauty and vividness, yet all have failed.Summer Fey are stubborn and, if roused to action, a furious sight to behold. They prefer direct confrontation and as such, their High Lord is most renowned for her... direct attitude. Beyond her position as the most powerful of the High Lords, Titania is gifted in particular with a mastery of water and is known to be an artist through such magic in addition to a self-proclaimed Queen of the fey.
Autumn Court
Ruled by
Quorian, the High Lord of the Autumn Court and Prince of Flame and Smoke. The Autumn Court is like a jewelled latticework of reds, oranges, golds, and greens; it is autumn in all its splendour, so vivid that it is hard not to simply stand and look. It is a land of grand forests and golden farmland tended by the Lesser Faeries; a land of snowcapped mountains and rushing streams between grand, rolling foothills.
Its people are celebratory and wild, but also cunning and downright ruthless. It is the Autumn Court where the greatest struggles for power and the grandest intrigues occur. Its High Lord, Quorian, is a wielder of fire and flame; he is a ruthless man, like his sons, and strives to do the best for himself and his Court.
Winter Court
The Winter Court (also known as the Gloaming Court and Unseelie Court) is an inhospitable land. Gripped in the throes of eternal winter, its soaring mountains are forever snow-capped and its lands are bedecked in towering evergreens. Where other Courts have lakes and rivers, the Winter Court is frost and snow, with frozen lakes and seas. Yet not all is inhospitable.
The palaces and homes spread throughout this land of eternal winter are lit with great hearths and the Frozen Court of the High Lord of Winter, the
Morrigan, the Queen of Air and Darkness, is perhaps a more primal place than any of the other palaces of the High Lords of the Fey. Some describe it as beautiful; the most feral needs and animal desires and killer instinct pitted against the season of cold and death—the will and desire to fight, to live, even when there was no shelter, no warmth, no respite, no hope, and no help. Others, primarily in the Summer Court of Queen Titania, view it as primal and barbaric. The Queen of Air and Darkness is, by her very nature, a master of ice and cold: her court is frozen by her will, and as such she herself is often described as frigid and glacial: she has the patience of stone and is as eternal as her winter.
Solar Courts
Unlike the Seasonal Courts, the Solar Courts of Dawn, Day, Dusk, and Night, the Solar Courts experience all seasons: they are not bound to them by the magic of their High Lords. As such, as opposed to being named for the seasons, they are named for specific times of the day. Yet even there, they differ from what most might expect: the Solar Courts do not alter the sun's path, though if they wished to, the High Lords could possibly manage such a feat.Instead, the part of the day upon which the Court has been named is said to be the most beautiful. Thus, in the Dawn Court, the dawn is the most beautiful, likewise for the Day Court which has the most beautiful days, similarly for the Dusk Court, where dusk is said to be fairest, and the Night Court which has the most beautiful nights.
Dawn Court
With Skies tinged with the purple-pink remnants of the sunrise long into the day, the Dawn Court is the sprawling Domain of Delight of Kalirin, the High Lord of the Dawn Court, known as Light-Bringer and Cursebane. Such is his power: granted by the Cauldron and Corellon Larethian, Kalirin is capable of summoning light and breaking curses and the functioning of magic as easily as another might breathe.Day Court
An expansive land of flowing hills and roaming streams, the Day Court is the Domain of Delight of fair Coriver, the High Lord of Dawn and Prince of Life. For that is what the Day Court represents, with its rushing waters, rolling hills, and cloudless cobalt-blue sky. It is a land of life, death, and everything in between, with young copses of trees covering the horizon of the eternally rolling plains and illustrious marches and mountains of the Day Court.Its High Lord, Coriver, is granted the power of healing and eternal youth (even for an Archfey), and uses this freely and well for the improvement and wellness of his court. Yet, he is capricious and fickle: his gifts are as greedily taken as they are freely given.
Dusk Court
With a sky consumed by oranges, reds, pinks, blues, and purples of the setting sun, the Dusk Court is perhaps one of the most beautiful of all the Feywild. Its landscape is one of towering ivory mountains and hills; sparkling waterfalls descend into deep valleys of tall birch trees. It is a court featuring the beauty of dusk and twilight, and it is the Domain of Delight of Reloron, the High Lord of the Dusk Court, known also as Reloron Farsight and Reloron Truthseeker. Capable of seeing into the future and peering into minds, he is famed across the Feywild for his scholarly work and his prophecies, which he stores in the Twilight Palace at the heart of his Court.Night Court
Perhaps the most expansive Domain of Delight in all the Feywild is the barren Night Court . A mountainous place of iron will and steel wishes, its towering peaks are capped with snow even on warm days. And though it is named the Night Court, of course, it cycles through the times of day as do the other Solar Courts; though it is said that once the night sky is seen in the Night Court, one will never want to leave.The Night Court is the Domain of Delight of Imdarai, the High Lord of the Night Court and Prince of Darkness. He is granted the ability to manipulate shadow and generate darkness; something he uses to great effect.
Geography
As an echo of the Material Plane, the Feywild's environment is a reflection of that of the Material Plane. It is similar but far from identical to the lands of the Material Plane. The natural landscape is markedly more dramatic and beautiful in the Feywild, with mountains standing straighter and sharper, rivers flowing clearer and faster, flowers blooming brighter and more fragrantly, and the weather manifesting in supernatural ways.
Some landmarks in the Material Plane have equivalents in the Feywild, though even this is changed and altered by the nature of the realm of Faerie and the eight courts within. Sites of civilisation, for instance, can be so small as to be easily missed (or be missing entirely), while sites of natural beauty might be especially majestic or grand. Navigating the Feywild was further complicated by the fact that distances did not always make sense. While two landmarks might be the same distance apart as in the Prime when travelling in one direction, they might be inexplicably further or closer on the return trip.
The very nature of time itself, too, seemed altered in the Feywild, further increasing the difficulty of travelling accurately through the eight courts. While any visitor would experience time flowing as normal, it was often the case that more time was passing in the Prime, sometimes on the order of weeks, months, or years longer than expected, although it was also possible for little or no time to have passed instead. More concerning, leaving the Feywild could have dire consequences. Lost time could suddenly "catch up" to a mortal, sending them into fits of exhaustion or hunger, or even killing them instantly if many years had passed. At the same time, those with no fey ancestry might find their memories of time spent in the Feywild going hazy, if not vanishing altogether.
Through the innate connection to magic maintained by all Fey and in particular the arcane power of the High Fey and especially the High Lords, the Feywild is simply inundated with arcane might. Through this, spells cast within the Feywild might carry unintended effects with them, be amplified in power or duration, or have other miscellaneous effects of the Feywild's innate magic.
Alternative Name(s)
The Plane of Faerie, the Eight Courts
Type
Plane of Existence
Included Locations
Included Organizations
Characters in Location
Inhabiting Species
Through ancient paths and causeways moves magic along known and recognisable patterns through the Feywild. These lines of arcane power and might are known as Leylines, and where they intersect are often wellsprings of power or crossings to other planes or Domains of Delight. The Leylines of the Feywild are a mirrored copy of those in the Material Plane, overlaid like a lively shadow. And where they cross, often a Fey Crossing is created or maintained. Indeed, following Leylines is often an excellent way to find a path to the Feywild.
The origin and nature of Leylines are a hotly-debated topic. Due to their role in crossing easily between the planes, some scholars theorise that Leylines are the way the Cauldron shaped the world: remnants of its power, keeping the realms and the planes together like a stitched thread. Others claim that Leylines are remnants of the Convection: the natural way of magic to flow through the world, made predictable through the gods' united effort.
Leylines are sources of power, and spells or rituals performed at locations where they intersect are often unpredictable or more powerful than their usual selves as the caster, consciously or not, taps into the stream of magic carried through the network of Leylines.
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