Feywild

The Feywild, also known as the plane of Faerie, was an "echo" of the Prime Material Plane suffused with potent magic. It was the place from which fey originated, and from where the first elves arrived in Dierde.

Description

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. As an "echo" of the Prime Material Plane, its geography was similar although not entirely identical to that of Dierde, but the natural landscape was markedly more dramatic and beautiful in the Feywild, with mountains standing straighter and sharper, rivers flowing clearer and faster, and flowers bloom brighter and more fragrantly. 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. 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. 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. As an additional consequence of this all-encompassing magic, arcane spells tended to be amplified in power or duration when cast in the Feywild.

Cosmography

The Feywild has had a unique relationship with the Prime Material Plane, and consequently was in an unusual cosmological position. When it was created as an "echo" of the Prime, it was relatively easy to travel between them. However, its proximity to the Prime would ebb and flow, and it became an Outer Plane for much of Dierde's history prior to the Dragon Rising, although it existed outside of both the Great Wheel and World Tree cosmologies. Despite this, it retained the unique quality of being closely connected with the Prime. Creatures and fey could sometimes pass back-and-forth between the two planes at matching geographical locations without needing to traverse the Astral Plane. The Feywild also had crossings which connected directly to Arvandor, the Deep Wilds, and the Gates of the Moon, although these were often dangerous or well-guarded. However, there were no connections to most transitive planes, including the Astral Plane, Ethereal Plane, or Plane of Shadow - The Shadowfell. Following the Dragon Rising, the Feywild was returned to its original status as a parallel plane to the Prime. Travel between the two planes continued to be fairly easy as the boundary between them was quite thin, and in some cases there were regions which existed in an overlapping space between the two, a phenomenon sometimes called worldfall. 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. Other locations, such as at Myth Drannor, could be almost completely closed off from the Feywild.

Notable Locations

Though much of the Feywild was the same as the Prime geographically, there were differences, and more importantly, the lands answered to different powers than those on Dierde. Much of the elven or Eladrin civilizations had their earliest roots here and abandoned remnants of their culture littered the landscape. Unlike the elves, however, who had all but abandoned the Feywild, some Eladrin remained behind in the Feywild, most notably the "noble" Eladrin, who maintained strong kingdoms and citadels. Some notable elven cities and settlements were located at points where the barrier between the planes was extremely thin, and as a result they existed in both the Prime and the Feywild simultaneously. Such locations included Evermeet, Evereska, and New Sharandar.

Fey Demesnes

Some regions in the Feywild were known to attune to the most powerful creature nearby, fey or otherwise. These regions would warp to reflect the emotion or attitude of the creature to which they were attuned, with everything from the weather to the landscape changing to be more dismal, peaceful, or dangerous as best befitted the creature's mood. However, a creature could not exert direct or conscious control over their demesne.

Feydark

The Feydark was the echo of Dierde's Underdark in the Feywild. Like most parts of the Feywild, it was more majestic and fantastic than its natural counterpart, with cavernous maze-like tunnels filled with exotic fungi. It was predominantly inhabited by the fomorians, and the most powerful of the Fomorian realms was Mag Tureah, which stood within a country-sized cavern lit by precious gems and stones. This kingdom was ruled by the Fomorian king Bres.

Sildëyuir

Sildëyuir was once a demiplane created by the star elves which connected to their ancestral home in the Yuirwood. Driven to the Feywild by conflict with the local humans, the star elves retreated further and further from the Prime and, by the time of the Dragon Rising, most of the star elves lived within Sildëyuir. Since then the Yuirwood has become rife with blue fire, preventing further travel between Sildëyuir and the Yuirwood. In spite of this, immigration to Sildëyuir continued through the intermediary of Myth Drannor, and the realm became home to many elves and Eladrin. Sildëyuir was located within the same part of the Feywild that the Yuirwood occupied on Dierde in the Prime. There the land was an untamed forest laid beneath a twilight sky, a wilderness broken only briefly by towering glass citadels built by the star elves and other Eladrin.

History

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 (which later became 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. Circa -27000 DR was the first record of the fey immigrating to Abeir-Dierde, which brought them into conflict with the dragons. The Fey ushered the green elves, ancestors of the wild elves and dark elves, to the Prime, hoping that the (at the time) primitive creatures would help them. It was at this time that the ancient elves began their split into the Tel'Quessir of Dierde and the Eladrin of the Feywild. Later, circa -25400 DR, a small group of Gold elves and Silver elves also arrived on Dierde following a magical experiment gone terribly awry that destroyed the Feywild island of Tintageer. Over the millennia, the Feywild slipped further and further away from the Prime, although it still remained inextricably linked. This relationship between the two planes was reversed with the Dragon Rising, although the exact reasons for this remain unclear. It could have been related to large numbers of Eladrin realms in Dierde straddling the two planes, or to increased traffic between the Feywild and the Moonshae Isles during the preceding decade. Regardless, the Feywild was yanked back into proximity with the Prime, opening up new crossroads to the plane. Evermeet slipped into the Feywild, as did the demiplane of Sildëyuir, and at the same time, the Eladrin of the Feywild found themselves newly reconnected to the elven peoples of Dierde. Since the barrier between these two planes became much thinner, the Eladrin discovered that they could slip easily between the Feywild and the Prime at sites of great elven magic and importance, such as Evermeet, Evereska, and Sarifal. With the end of the Second Sundering, the Feywild remained closely tied to the Prime and Evermeet returned to Dierde, although it dwelt in a state of coexistence between the Prime, the Feywild, and Arvandor.

Inhabitants

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 Dierde's, some of its inhabitants existed as fey "echoes" of Prime creatures.

The fey Eladrin 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.
LeShay were to Eladrin what Eladrin were to humans. They were undoubtedly some of the most powerful creatures Living on the plane.
Fomorians ruled much of the Feydark, and commanded many servitor species, the most useful of which were the cyclopes. They were a twisted parody of a beautiful giant race cursed for their hubris.
When a person was injured in the Feywild, their blood could spawn redcaps, a type of bloodthirsty creature that ceased to be if it did not have fresh blood on its cap every three days.
Boggles were a type of mischievous creature that was spawned when a person was overcome by loneliness or abandonment.
Meenlocks were a deformed fey that spawned when someone was overwhelmed by fear in a place touched by or in Feywild.
Hag were a malicious and varied race of fey that delight in tormenting mortals.
Sprites were a race of small fey with the ability to tell if a creature was good or evil by the sound and feel of the beating of the creatures heart.
Satyrs were raucous fey that looked like a man from waist up and a goat from waist down.
Goblinoids, ogres, Giants, and blights could be found in the more sinister regions of the plane.
Dryads were female fey tied to the trees of the Wood.

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.

The Feywild is technically an echo of the material plane, but due to many factors time and space can stretch and bend. So it is near impossible to truly map the Feywild, as well as how the plane will affect people differently so a map for one person might not totally work for another. this is a rough idea of how it affects The Mighty Menagerie during their travels in 2020 as they sought to help the Village of Skola Vale