The Feywild, also known as the Plane of Faerie, was an outer plane known as the verdant home of cunning fey and endless desires. To walk through the land of the Feywild, one risked death from all matter of creatures, and even if one survived the perils of the Feywild, they could end up never being able to leave. The call of the Feywild was difficult to resist to mortals, and many fey, like elves, eladrin, and faelings, were so deeply attracted to it that they could be willing to risk their lives to return to it if they left.

History

The Feywild around 50'000 b. OW was part of a wide stretch of largely uninhabited forest on which multiple celestial and bestial realms thrived. During the Celestial Wars, this huge land was gradually parceled into various outer planes, notably Arborea. But a wide stretch of land on the outside of these planes remained unclassified. Due to its intrinsic similarity to Arborea, and since it was not bound by rules as had been imposed on the actual planes, many Arborean queens - notably the Seelie Court - moved to the uncharted areas instead, forming it through magical means into an extravagant and extraordinary place. A huge variety of factions resided in the area, making it incredibly wild and dangerous.

By far the largest part of the population was made up by various fey, most of which had come from Arborea or already had ancient roots in the uncharted forests. Mūyn'ell, the ancestors of faelings, and gfnuur, darklings, were the most common. However, around 42'000 b. OW, a legion of devils under command of a secumvirate marched into the forests, looking to attack the celestials from behind. But the army was quickly incorporated into the tangled feywild, forming the first half-fiends. The six generals formed the Unseelie Court and became a fixture of the later Feywild.

In 41'000, the Dictation classified this wild area as Feywild, and since then it remained a full outer plane. It had an especially powerful magical connection with the prime material plane, which often led to population exchanges between the two.

Features

Perhaps the most iconic feature of the Feywild was its inherent magic. Its inhabitants had intuitive access to all kinds of spells, and could draw from great sources of power. This was due primarily to an extensive fugue built upon a number of imprisoned life primordials. The most famous of these was Arbor Gaunear, called The Roots, who sometimes spoke directly to those who used his power.

Fey Crossings

Travelling between the Feywild and the material planes was very easy. Many mortal towns and villages had legends of enchanted forests, and how young men would brave the woods only to return 20 years later but not looking a day older.

Throughout the material plane were Fey Crossings, planar portals that existed in odd locations. Some could be forests home to the fey, while others could lie between stone arches in long forgotten ruins to some past civilization. There were even fey cities that crossed into Thozeia on set schedules, or sometimes completely randomly. When a small village noticed that their plants were growing far larger than the other surrounding villages, it could be due to the forest near them suddenly being home to a Fey Crossing.

There were similar locations across the feywild that led directly to the material planes.

Travelling the Feywild

Journeying through the plane was far harder than just entering into the Feywild. There were the dangers of a very exotic and deadly wilderness. The trees themselves could try to kill travelers who didn't know not to collect the fallen branches, and beasts grew large and deadly in this magical land.

Mapping the plane was essentially impossible. Not only did it have an incredibly tangled nature, but landmarks also regularly shifted locations and travel times were never consistent. Some cities completely disappeared when they traveled to other planes, while forests could appear out of thin air where before had lied a lake or a rugged mountain. Often, walking somewhere took a vastly different amount of time than coming back.

Travel

Due to the great distance between the inner planes and the Feywild, physical travel was rarely used. Inhabitants of the planes sharing a border with the realm could easily travel into it, but few did because of the inherent dangers. Also, direct teleportation was impossible and forbidden by the Dictation. Instead, travelers had to use fixed portals, but one could rarely know where these led.

Mortal Visits

Visiting the Feywild could be an exciting journey for any adventurer, though it wasn't without its dangers. It was generally impossible to know where portals leading into the Feywild actually led, and while the inhabitants of the Feywild could appear to be helpful, they just as often killed or enslaved visitors. They could be cruel and calculating when it came to weighing another’s life and were only interested in their own enjoyment.

The Feywild was filled with enchanting forests and enchanting people, and many who returned from it found themselves ill-adjusting to the boring qualities of nature of their home plane. The Feywild instilled a longing for adventure and new experiences, the desire to experience the fantastic and truly strange.

The land was filled with powerful fey queens who used mortals to entertain them, either by gifting strange magics or by sending them out on quests. When they made these deals, it could be dangerous for outsiders who didn't realize that the Feywild itself enforced blood pacts made on its soil. If one vowed to sing of the beauty of a nymph for a fortnight but failed in doing so, their voice could disappear, never able speak again.

Surprisingly, the flora of the Feywild was only dangerous in some occasions. Travelling through the ever-shifting realm could be a beautiful experience with many wondrous sights, such as pixies dancing in the night sky, emerald oceans of grass, or even seeing the court of a fey queen. The Feywild was a land like no other and left an impression on everyone, typically that of yearning to return.

Structure

Eladrin cities were sprawling complexes, often similar to the size of mortal metropolises in the material realm. A famous one was Zalenial, the Final Bastion, a sprawling city that spent the months of spring and summer on an island on Thozeia. During this time, many mortals visited, holding great festivals and markets, and also resupplying the city in exchange for large amounts of fomorian meat, gems, and other useful resources. Then, in autumn and winter, the city went back to the Feywild, where it lied on the border to the Feydark. It was the last city in the area, because all others had already fallen to the attack. During the long siege, their resources were lean, and they fought their best to survive until their return to the material world.

Feydark

Beneath the magical forest of the Feywild lied the dark and twisting caverns of the Feydark, sometimes described as a reflection of Oshmondu's Caverealm. This land was a sharp contrast to the beautiful world above it and was home to fomorian lords, cyclops, Elle'Nūr (night elves) and other horrors whose only goal was to destroy the surface dwellers. They regularly conquered some patches of land above ground, most notably a large valley next to Zalenial, which were also seen as part of the Feydark because the plant life there changed, turning very dark and twisted like the caves below.

Fomorian Cities. The fomorians had cities all over the Feydark and were constantly at war with each other. Fomorians never bowed to another, and many were considered quite mad by the surface dwellers. Many of the fomorian lords suffered from extreme paranoia and killed any who they suspected to be assassins or who even might become an enemy in the future.

The three biggest cities of the fomorians were Harrowhame, Mag Tureah, and Vor Thomil. They were each home to not just to their fomorian lord or other rulers, but also to slaves, spies, assassins and the massive fomorian armies accruing to destroy the surface dwellers.

Mag Tureah was the mightiest and most formidable fomorian stronghold, ruled by a fomorian dynasty thar produced King Thrumbolgs, known as the First Lords. This powerful citadel was besieged for centuries. Many fomorians tried to take control of the city, but strange creatures walked its halls and drove off all invasions until the first Thrumbolg was able to clear the citadel.

Inside the citadel were hundreds of portals to the material plane, though they were impossible to keep track of. Many faded in and out of existence every few hours, days or even weeks. Adventurers who wandered ruins on the material plane could suddenly find themselves inside of Mag Tureah, with no recollection of how they ventured there. There were even rumors that some of these portals led not to the material plane, but to fiendish realms.

Another city, Vor Thomil, was under night elven rule. They had gleaned control over the fomorian city through cunning and deals, and now ruled it with an iron fist. They used their subjects to make massive raids on the surface, primarily kidnapping surface elves as slaves. The Thomins also regularly sent groups of emissaries to known Fey Crossings, hoping to strike an easy deal for an unwitting visitor to break and be enslaved. The malicious night elves were most known for their Pain-Pleasure dungeon, where deal-breaking mortals were made to inflict self-torture upon themselves.

Borderlands and the Wild

Past the "civilized" lands were even wilder expanses not under the rule of any queens. Traveling to these locations was very dangerous, and most travelers avoided it if they could.

The Dread Isle. This island existed somewhere above the Sea Lord's domain of coral reefs. It was home to treacherous waves, jagged rocks, and mysterious creatures. It was constantly flitting from the Feywild to other planes, and any who found themselves on this island could never leave.

The island tried to kill any visitors, because it was home to the psychic Su Monsters that resided in its treetops. The Su Monsters watched over their island, with a special focus on the snakefolk who also lived here.

Brokenstone Vale was home to lycanthropes who had conquered it from the eladrin lords after a bloody and hard fought war. Here werebeasts were free to live, though if they ever left their lands they risked being hunted by most fey. As the moon was far brighter and stronger here, and stayed in the sky far longer, it created an almost giddy-like excitement for lycanthropes, causing them to be more bloodthirsty and savage.

Throughout the Vale lied ruins of castles and towers from past werebeast rulers that were now in ruin. On the mountainsides that surrounded the vale were old mines home to wererats. While most lycanthropes chose to live a solitary life, some gathered in tribes, and there was even a small village near the border of the vale, where traders could come and purchase the rare wood that grew in the vale. Still, the lycanthropes were very isolationist, and the village was often laid to waste by tribes who did not want any outsiders in the Vale.

The hatred of faelings and eladrin was strong among many of the werebeasts, and some would even leave the Vale just to hunt and kill fey. Others made deals with the fomorians to help them kill the archfey.

Culture

Natives of the Feywild could feel its excitement and desire cursing through their blood. Not only did the wild magic exist in them, but their desire to experience new things and to be unbound and to live to the fullest was strong. The inhabitants were used to the exotic smells of flowers and found it humorous when outsiders were entranced by the smell.

The raw nature and extravagant wonder of the plane gave its inhabitants all the time to work on their greatest desires, and many even took this for granted. The fey had an intrinsic understanding of their world, and behaved accordingly with visitors. They understood that the Feywild was dangerous, and so they had to be as well. For outsiders, they were often cold and calculating like the huge wild beasts that roamed their beloved forests, or charming and beautiful as a facade for deadly trickery.

Promises and Boundaries

While the fey appreciated individuality and personal freedom, they still set boundaries and respected promises. Fey that made pacts and bargains, usually formalized with their blood, were magically bound to their promises, and breaking an oath placed them under the power of the other party. To swear an oath or promise favors to another was reserved for times of desperation or maybe for a desire of extreme fun.

Furthermore, fey respected traditional laws called faelegi, although these could vary depending on place and time. The most common such positive law was that producing, owning or carrying cold iron was forbidden, and anyone caught doing so was immediately placed under the power of the person who spotted them. Overall, these faelegi acted like walls instead of shackles, giving some wriggle room for manipulation and trickery.

Visitors were placed under the same rules as anyone else, even though they often couldn't know them. Most important to fey were that anyone was bound by pacts, which they often abused on unwitting people hoping to cheat a fey - after all, mortal servants were an appreciated commodity.

Society

Seelie and Unseelie Courts

These two archfey courts were the oldest ones of the Feywild, dating back to its establishment during the Celestial Wars. Then, the original fey - ruled by archangel Titania, a fey-touched avatar of Holderfreud, the celestial plane - stood against a fiendish invasion. However, the Feywild quickly embraced the intruders, accepting them as half-fiends and half-fey. The leaders of both factions came to an agreement known as the Court Pact around the same time as the Dictation.

According to this, Queen Titania and her Seelie Court were given sovereignty over "all good-minded fae", while the Six Queens formed the Unseelie Court. Each Court had the power to make powerful fey into archfey, or queens. While initially this was a means of maintaining power over the whole plane, these subject archfey relatively quickly formed or took the lead of separate factions, making the Feywild into a complicated pattern of half-spoken alliances and insecure agreements.

Titania and her sixty-six children, the spirits of nature, had their court in a grove of trees that were all identical and arranged in a perfect pattern. At its center lied Titania's palace, while each daughter had rooms somewhere in the grove. The place was protected by minotaurs and faeries, while the court also commanded an army of faelings to impose its interests. There were often a number of active Fey Crossings in the border area of the grove. While mortal visitors often believed that the Seelie Court was a safe place of good-intentioned celestials, this was wrong. While they did not torture or kill for fun, the Seelie mistresses did enjoy enslaving visitors by tricking them into breaking pacts, and could badly hurt or kill mortals for other reasons.

The Unseelie Court, meanwhile, was the opposite of the Seelie Court and was ruled by Six Queens and their following. They resided in a place where it was alwas night, in a large grove of huge standing stone pillars. The Six lived in the center, while their large attendance - often night elves - inhabited the stones. The place had an army of shadow-wraiths guarding it, although it never went far from the Court. The Six themselves were rarely seen, manifesting instead as a cloud of darkness hovering around six obsidian thrones and issuing orders for torture and death. Their succubus lieutenants, who received any visitors, were well known, however. In the Unseelie Court, abuse of cosmic fey laws was common, and visitors were often badly tortured for the fun of it. Few ever got out of the place, and even fewer died quickly.

Court of Stars

Several times in a year, the Court of Stars was held where a group of archfey gathered to discuss politics and hold great feasts, and this was all watched over by the Summer Queen. The Court of Stars was always held in the treetops of Liessena, a holy ceremonial site featuring huge trees with veins of crystal, and there travelers from all over the realms went to ask for aid or advice. Some travelers, who had waited for an audience for many many years, had even forgotten why they went to the Feywild in the first place.

The Court of Stars together made up of the most powerful archfey in the Feywild, but they didn't rule a single dominion together; rather, the Court served as an agreement of factions that were in no way unified.

Court of Coral

The Court of Coral was ruled over by two immortal Eladrin Sea Lords known as Elias and Siobhan Alastai, a brother and sister who were never granted the title of archfey by the Seelie or Unseelie Courts. Elias Alastai ruled over the shallow water of the lakes, rivers and even coral reefs near the coast, while Siobhan Alastai ruled over the deep water of the bottomless oceans and dark seas. Their court was made up of aquatic creatures of all types.

Gloaming Fey

These fey were known for their power over dreams, darkness, stars, twilight, and dusk. They were ruled by many archfey like the Maiden of the Moon, though they were more a loose league, rather than a proper court, although some of its queens did go to the Court of Stars. The Gloamers' power was less focused on the physical realms of the Feywild, but rather its magical nature.

Green Court

This faction was made up of fey who owed their allegiance to nature and included mostly treants, satyrs and other woodland creatures. The ruling queen was Oran the Green Lord, a fey so powerful that she could sense every tree branch and stream recently visited by one of her followers. She also had a strong relationship with Queen Tiandra, and they were known to be lovers, friends and deadly rivals, sometimes all of these at the same time.

Summer Court

The Summer faction was made up of the spirits of good favor and growth, and eladrin infused with the spirit of Summer were its barons. The Court was overseen by the mightiest of the archfey, Queen Tiandra, also known as Summer Queen. She also oversaw the Court of Stars and was said to be the most beautiful of all the archfey. Though, she was also known as a master strategist in politics as well as on the battlefield. Of all the fey, she had a great fondness for mortals and found their urgency in all things amusing - especially when she could bind them through broken oaths and force their souls to do nothing for centuries on end.

Winter Fey

These icy fey were bound by no leader, though there were several who had great power in their realms. The Prince of Frost was very powerful and vicious, while Queen Fuu visited the Court of Stars. The courts of Winter, whenever and under whichever loose grouping of archfey they convened, were known as the Winter Court and featured mainly long night and cold, dark ice.

Nachtur, the Goblin Kingdom

On the fringes of The Feywild lied the kingdom of the goblins. Here a hobgoblin wizard known as Great Gark, Lord of All the Goblins, amassed the power of all goblin-kind in 32'050 b. OW. He tried building a powerful and recognized goblinoid state in the feywild, and for this purpose sent emissaries to the councils, eladrin cities, and fomorian kindgoms. Only the fomorians answered seriously, and trade relations between the two improved.

His reign did not last long, however, because the lower classes - the goblins - were corrupted by their environment. Although goblin race's ancestors were the fey night elves, goblinkind was not a fey race and therefore ill-adapted to their environment. They were touched by ill-intentioned archfey and transformed into fey goblins², often called bag-fae. When the hobgoblin lords tried rooting out this corrupted element of their grand new kingdom - with iron weapons - they discovered, to their horror, that some of the mutilated creatures transformed into bag-bred, large fearsome monsters that could devastate the greatest hobgoblin warrior. The corruption spread and the surviving hobgoblins eventually escaped to Ydmechron, where they were punished by torture by their gods.

Goblin witches, fey goblins that had cunningly learned to use the fey magic bestowed upon them in a way only native fey usually could, quickly took control over their leaderless kin, setting up a decentralized federacy. Since then, Nachtur was known as a powerful goblin kingdom that wasn't hostile but also not friendly to fellow surface fey, but in actuality it was a weak state with a powerful populace that regularly sent small groups through Fey Crossings into the material planes.

For fighting on the plane, the goblins had great many resources available, including themselves, giants, trolls and ogres. They also kept boggles as war-pets because of their interesting strategic potential. Surprisingly, Nachtur was involved in many battles, notably against eladrin hosts that tried to prove their mettle. This was not a good idea, because in their numerous routs they left behind great many magical items and weapons that the goblins wouldn't be able to make on their own. The kingdom could also offer special mercenary units that could be used as auxiliaries, which were often hired by fomorians, hags, and even the Winter Court.