Wisp

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DO NOT, EVER, under ANY circumstances, give a Fey your name. Seelie or Unseelie, it does not matter. Even if they are trying to convince you that it is a good deal. Even if they offer you an exit from the Feywild. Even if they offer you all of the riches in the world.

— An excerpt from The Lost's Guide to Surviving the Feywild

Wisps are a species from the Feywild containing the detatched souls of a dead mortal. Wisps are formed when a person's soul becomes tied to the Feywild before they die. If that person dies within the Feywild, they become a Wisp.
Wisps are a few centimetres long in diameter, and emit a soft glow. They cannot be seen from far away, and only become visible upon approaching them.

Beacon for the Lost

Most Wisps became what they are by having their name stolen upon becoming lost in the Feywild. Because of their origins, many Wisps spend their time leading lost travellers in the Feywild to safety.
Some, however, are still bitter. They will take advantage of the desperations of lost travellers, leading them into more dangerous places or deeper into the Feywild, sometimes bringing them directly into the domains of an Archfey.

Lifespan

Wisps are functionally immortal. They do not naturally die, and they are very difficult to kill. However, it is possible to kill a Wisp, with the proper tools. Silvered weapons are one of the few types of weapons that can cut through the outer shell of a Wisp, and magic is useless against them.
It is possible for the soul to be retrieved from a Wisp, which requires a large amount of care and dexterity to do so without harming the Wisp. More on this can be read later in this document.

Magic

While Wisps lose access to most types of magic upon becoming a Wisp, they are still able to use small amounts of utility magic, intentionally or unintentionally. This presents itself in teleportation: if a Wisp is in danger, they will teleport out of the way and out of range of sight. However, Wisps can also cause some things around them to have a similar soft blue glow, which is a method that a clever Wisp might be able to communicate.

Uses

While Wisps do not give any byproducts, nor would it be ethical to harm them to obtain it, being within close proximity to a Wisp will reduce a person's Feylost Sickness. However, this proximity is not able to reverse any effects already caused by being feylost, but it is able to slow the progression of the illness.
Some Wisps are willing to stay near travellers to help with this, while others will go where they please or even actively leave when someone is attempting to approach them.

Language

While it is very difficult for a Wisp to communicate with a mortal being, they do have a sort of "language" they are able to use amongst one another. This "language" is not actually a language, but is a set of phonemes that map onto those of the languages that the Wisp spoke in life. Due to this, if two Wisps do not share a common language from when they were alive, they will be unable to communicate with one another.
The languages that Wisps speak to one another sounds like the faint ringing of small bells to any mortal listening in. This is because the magic used to allow the Wisps to produce the neccessary sounds to speak is not accessible to the living, and the amount of magic it would take to allow mortals to understand a Wisp is far too taxing for any given Wisp.

Lifespan

Biologically immortal

Geographic Distribution

• Feywild

Wisp by notahumanhand

Corrupted Wisp by notahumanhand

Corrupted Wisps

It is possible for a Wisp's form to become corrupted. this happens if a Wisp harbors too many negative emotions, such as resentment, regret, or anger. Their forms become unable to handle the surge of negative emotions, and the Wisp will turn from a lighter blue to a crimson red. These Wisps are much more magically adept than their "nicer" counterpart, which makes them a bit more dangerous.

Abilities

Corrupted Wisps have the innate ability to turn invisible for short periods at a time. In addition, they have access to low levels of purple magic, allowing them to confuse people that they target, or turn groups against one another.

Behaviour

Corrupted Wisps lose access to the magic that allows regular Wisps to communicate with one another. Corrupted Wisps will often turn against each other, and have defined "territory" that they protect and keep out of the hands of other corrupted Wisps. Corrupted Wisps will try to indirectly mess with travellers, sending them into a dazed state or causing one to go mad and attack the others, from afar.

Life as a Wisp

The soul inhabiting a Wisp is fully aware and conscious at all times. In addition, due to their connection to the magic of the Feywild, they experience time in a slowed-down manner, even more disconnected from time than the actual Feywild itself. They are unable to experience any of their senses other than sight and any magical senses they possess.
Due to these combined conditions, it is incredibly easy for a soul to become insane. This can lead to Corruption, but it can also lead to a purely mental version of Fey Insanity.

Retrieving the Soul

Assuming that a Wisp has not become corrupted, it is possible to retrieve their soul, for the purposes of sending them to the afterlife or returning it to their body. This must be done incredibly carefully, is it requires severing the soul from its connection to the Feywild, which can risk harming the soul itself. If successfully done, a person can be revived using death magic (as long as their soul is willing and their body is intact). However, upon being revived, the person obtains Feylost Sickness in the later stages, due to the time spent in and exposed to the magics of the Feywild.

Whims of the Fey

There is one other way for a Wisp, corrupted or not, to no longer remain a Wisp. This is, if an Archfey decides that they want to make the Wisp into one of their types of fey. Balvan could turn a Wisp into a Faeryn, while Hethranil could turn one into a darkling, and Yxjun could turn it into one of any Unseelie forms.
This is incredibly rare, however, and only happens if that Wisp does something to attract the attention of an Archfey. If a Wisp has brought tens to hundreds of people into a certain Archfey's domain, that Wisp may be granted a form by that archfey. Alternatively, some Archfey (like Yxjun) may be keeping an eye out for any Wisps that are particularly good at causing trouble.