Domains of Delight
The Feywild responds to unfettered emotion. It's not uncommon for flowers to turn and tremble if there's a heated argument nearby. If someone is filled with malice, their footprints might wither the grass under their feet or cause underground insects and worms to burrow to the surface. Birds chirp merrily in the presence of those who are joyous and squawk angrily at those who are perpetually dour. Nosy trees lean in to overhear whispers of conspiracy, eager for delicious tidbits they can gossip about later, and a rock might reshape itself to look like the creature that's happily sunning itself on the rock's surface.
Time and distance in the Feywild are mutable, as is the plane's geography. Roads are uncommon, and those that exist are as likely to change as the land around them. Because of the distance between locations is not fixed and dilations in time are commonplace, a journey that took one hour yesterday might take three days tomorrow. Feywild natives are accustomed to the plane's mutability. For them, it's no more peculiar that the sun rising and setting on the Material Plane.
To fit the theme of whimsical mutability, the Feywild is vastly different from the Elemental Planes, as there is generally no structure to the geography in the traditional sense at all. Instead, the plane is divided up into splinter domains, called Domains of Delight, each one virtually a separate plane in its own right. Each Domain of Delight is ruled over and shaped by a residential descendent of the Tuatha De Dannan, named archfey (though any fey denizen may later become an archfey if their power of will, emotion, or personality grow strong enough).
As an archfey's power waxes or wanes, their Domain of Delight can grow or shrink. If their domain grows big enough to abut or overlap another archfey's domain, a territorial dispute can arrise. Until the dispute is resolved, other Fey denizens of the overlapping domains must defer to both rulers. Such disputes rarely last long; in the end, one archfey is given sufficient incentive to move elsewhere, or the two archfey learn to live with each other (and other denizens of the region must answer to both).
An archfey whose Domain of Delight doesn't overlap with another archfey's domain can surround their domain's border with walls of shimmering mist or some other magical effect that hides the domain from view and, if the archfey wishes, prevents creatures from entering or leaving the domain without a key, a guide, a password, the answer to a riddle, the archfey's consent, or magic.
Feywild Guides
The Feywild has its own illogical logic that visitors from other planes can never fully grasp. A guide who is well-versed in the ways of the Feywild can save travelers time and frustration, possibly even their freedoms and their lives -- by helping them avoid or get around the illogical logic. While visitors are easily vexed by roads that lead nowhere and forest trails that double back on themselves, a capable guide can see the road through the road and the trail beneath the trail. In doing so, the guide sidestes the confusion and leads charges safely to their intended destination. Conversely, a bad guide can easily get an adventuring party into trouble.
The Winding Way
The Winding Way is a path or road that meanders throughout all domains of the Feywild. Thought now to be somewhat sentient, the Winding Way can often sense the need or intent of a traveler. As mentioned before, time is insignificant in the Feywild, and great distances can be traveled quickly, or short distances can take large amounts of time. Directions are near useless, but when traveleing upon the Winding Way, intent plays such an important role.
When a traveleer stumbles upon the Winding Way, or finds it with the help of a guide, the Winding Way takes them to where their heart truly desires to go. A strong-willed traveler or fey can find themselves at their desired destination mere minutes after setting off on their journey.
Another tradition involving the Winding Way is the tradition of autumn boxes. As you will continue to discover while learning about the Feywild, promises, oaths, intent, and will are immensely powerful within this plane. It is said that if you are in need of answers or seek a certain fey folk, you can leave a note expressing your intent in a small wooden chest upon the Winding Way. If you do, the autumn box will reach the fey that can answer your question or it wll find its way to whom you seek. Rumor has it that once an autumn box is closed and left upon the Winding Way, none can open it except for the intended.
Comments