Feywild
The Feywild, also known as the Plane of Faerie or simply Faerie, as well as Isan Meidan by the uldra, was an "echo" of the Prime Material Plane suffused with potent magic, and unrestrained emotions. It was the place from which fey originated, and from where the first elves arrived in Faerûn.
The Feywild was a place of unrestrained and awe-inspiring natural beauty. The plane is always bathed in twilight of the setting (or perhaps rising) sun, with lanterns and fireflies providing additional, haunting lights. Visitors to the plane found that all sensations, both sensory and emotional, were heightened. Smells were stronger, colors were more vivid, and sounds were clearer, but at the same time shadows were darker and impulses were harder to control. Strong emotions even altered the landscape of the Feywild itself, wilting flowers trailed the despondent or furious and carefree animals traveled alongside chipper and cheerful individuals.
The most common means of traversing in or out of the Feywild was through a fey crossroad, which often required special knowledge of how to pass between the planes.
The Feywild was a place of unrestrained and awe-inspiring natural beauty. The plane is always bathed in twilight of the setting (or perhaps rising) sun, with lanterns and fireflies providing additional, haunting lights. Visitors to the plane found that all sensations, both sensory and emotional, were heightened. Smells were stronger, colors were more vivid, and sounds were clearer, but at the same time shadows were darker and impulses were harder to control. Strong emotions even altered the landscape of the Feywild itself, wilting flowers trailed the despondent or furious and carefree animals traveled alongside chipper and cheerful individuals.
Getting To Faerie
It was believed the barrier between the Feywild and Toril was especially weak on Ches 19 of the Calendar of Harptos. This occasion was celebrated as the holiday Fey Day in the Faerûnian city of Waterdeep.The most common means of traversing in or out of the Feywild was through a fey crossroad, which often required special knowledge of how to pass between the planes.
Notable Inhabitants
- Dara Algwynenn Kalinoth, a moon elf princess that became the prophet of the Cult of the Howling Hatred.
- Sharlario Moonflower, one of the first elves to emigrate from Faerie to Toril.
Geography
As an "echo" of the Prime Material Plane, its geography was similar although not entirely identical to that of Toril, but the natural landscape was markedly more dramatic and beautiful in the Feywild, with mountains standing straighter and sharper, rivers flowing clearer and faster, flowers bloom brighter and more fragrantly, and weather manifesting in supernatural ways. While most Prime locations and landmarks had analogues in the Feywild, sites of civilization in the Prime could be so unimportant in the Feywild as to be easily missed, while natural landmarks might be significantly more majestic or extreme. 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.
Localized Phenomena
Time
Further complicating any visit to the plane was that time did not flow the same in the Feywild as on the Prime. 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.Arcane magic ran more freely and powerfully in the Feywild than it did in the Prime, and it was for this reason that so many of its inhabitants and landmarks were suffused with magic. As an additional consequence of this all-encompassing magic, arcane spells tended to be amplified in power or duration when cast in the Feywild, and other times would manifest in entirely unexpected ways.
Fauna & Flora
The inhabitants of the Feywild varied in temperament from kind to malicious, but almost all had a mischievous side to them and few stopped to consider the needs or worries of visitors to their home. While many of those living in Faerie were untamed, large numbers also congregated according to race or by political allegiance. Just as the geography was reminiscent of Toril's, some of its inhabitants existed as fey "echoes" of Prime creatures.
All manner of fey species were found within the Feywild:
All manner of fey species were found within the Feywild:
- The leShay were an enigmatic species that were among the Feywild's most powerful inhabitants;[65] though the various archfey were undoubtedly even more powerful.
- Fey eladrin were the beings that had the closest thing to a civilization in the Feywild. They were the descendants of the elves that never left the Feywild, and over the millennia had become suffused with the plane's primal magic.
- Other creatures that dwelled within the Feywild included moonstone,[69] mirage, and faerie dragons; fomorians and their servitor cyclopes ruled much of the Feydark; and harengon, who were blessed with good fortune. Goblinoids, ogres, giants, and blights could all be found in the more sinister regions of the plane.
Seelie and Unseelie Fey
Most but not all fey served one of two godlike archfey queens, Titania the Summer Queen or the Queen of Air and Darkness, who shared an ancient and bitter rivalry. Those who belonged to Titiana's Seelie Court were known as seelie fey, and were generally good-aligned and represented or celebrated the beauty of nature. They were known to be honorable toward visitors to the Feywild, if a bit mischievous, but they did not welcome non-fey to join their Court. Those who belonged to the Queen of Air and Darkness's Unseelie Court were known as unseelie fey, and were generally evil-aligned and represented or celebrated the darker and more macabre aspects of the natural world. They were generally more dangerous and untrustworthy in their dealings with visitors, however they were known to be more welcoming of non-fey into their Court. The Unseelie Court worked tirelessly to undermine the Seelie Court, sometimes violently but more often through games and cruel mischief.The remaining inhabitants of the Feywild either held no allegiances except at their own whims, or served another of the archfey, such as Oberon, Hyrsam, or the Prince of Frost. Uglier inhabitants of the Feywild, such as fomorians and hags, were generally not welcome among either the Seelie or Unseelie Courts.
History
Formation and Connection to Toril
But tales are told of a time long past, when elves fled by the thousands from war-torn Faerie, that magical land that exists in the unseen shadows of a thousand worlds.
- Excerpt from a letter from Kriios Halambar, Master Luthier of New Olamn.
The Feywild was created by the Primordials, beings of power comparable with the gods. Finding some things of the Prime too "bright" or too "dark," the primordials tore these parts from the Prime, creating the Feywild and the Plane of Shadow (later known as the Shadowfell), respectively. It was believed that the original deities worshiped by the elves, the Faerie gods of the Seelie Court, originated in the Feywild. The first creatures to join them in this world were the Fey, and came in many forms. Circa -34000 DR, the plane came to be ruled by a mysterious fey creator race, who gave rise to the first korreds, sprites, and pixies.
The first record of the fey immigrating to Abeir-Toril from Faerie—as the plane was previously called—came about circa -27000 DR. This great migration included lythari, avariel, and green elves, ancestors of the wild elves and dark elves, and eladrin, ancestors of the other elven races. The Fey ushered the elves to Toril, hoping the then-primitive creatures would help bring down the reign of dragons. It was at this time that the ancient elves began their split into the Tel'Quessir of Toril and the eladrin of the Feywild.
Some centuries later, circa -25400 DR, a small group of gold elves and silver elves also arrived on Toril following a magical experiment gone terribly awry that destroyed the island of Tintageer in Faerie.
During their millennium on Toril, the eladrin established numerous realms that were more-closely linked to Faerie that other locations across the world.
Separation
In the −2549 DR, local drow introduced the Susurrus to the Living Wood in the Eastern Heartlands, severing the bond between the resident fey and the plane of Faerie.Around the Year of Running Unicorns, −500 DR, most of the fey of the Moonshae Isles, including the LeShay and fomorian giants, left their home on Toril for Faerie. The isle of Karador sank beneath the waters of the waters of the Sea of Swords.
After the fall of Iliyanbruen in the 2nd century DR, some elves retreated for the isle of Evermeet, yet others opted for another solution. A group of these elves actually transported Iliyanbruen's capital Sharandar back to the Plane of Faerie.
Over the millennia, the Plane of Faerie had slipped further and further away from the Prime, although they still remained inextricably linked. By the late 14th century DR, the weakening of the bond between Faerie and Toril was observed by scholars from the continent of Faerûn.
Reconnection
The fey settlement of New Sharander was the beneficiary of the renewed connection between the Feywild and the Prime. The city coexisted between both planes, linked by the Fey Crossing portal.This relationship between the two planes was reversed entirely when the Spellplague struck in the Year of Blue Fire, 1385 DR, although the exact reasons for this remain unclear. It could have been related to increased traffic between the Feywild and the Moonshae Isles during the preceding decade, or the significant number of realms that had been built by the eladrin over the course of centuries.
Regardless of the cause, the Feywild was yanked back into proximity with the Prime, and new crossroads and faerie pools were opened up across the Realms. Evermeet slipped into the Feywild, as did the demiplane of Sildëyuir. At the same time, the eladrin of the Feywild found themselves newly reconnected to the elven peoples of Toril.
Since the barrier between these two planes became much thinner, the eladrin discovered that they could slip easily between the Feywild and the Prime Material Plane at sites of great elven magic and importance, such as Evermeet, Evereska, and Sarifal. Ironically, the recently-raised elven city of Myth Drannor was almost completely closed off from the Feywild.
Some time during or after the Year of the Ageless One, 1479 DR, the fomorian king Malabog forged an alliance with the Torillian lich Valindra Shadowmantle and prepared to invade the Realms by means of the transitive city of New Sharandar. The giant-king's war ended before it began, due to the intervention of adventurers from Neverwinter, Jewel of The North.
With the end of the Second Sundering, the Feywild remained closely tied to the Prime Material Plane and Evermeet returned to Toril, although it dwelt in a state of coexistence between the Prime, the Feywild, and Arvandor.
