Thelanis - The Feywild
Thelanis the Faerie Court or the Feywild bears untamed expanses of rugged forests and crystal-clear waters dotted with small settlements. In Thelanis and time differently. Thelanis is home to the fey, most notably the eladrin and their feyspires.
Geography
The Feywild and Shadowfell are called echoes of the Material Plane, reflections of that plane, but with their respective properties carried to the extreme. Nature and magic are two governing properties of the Feywild, and are evident in the geography, flora, and fauna of the entire plane.
“Where a volcano stands on the Material Plane, a mountain topped with skyscraper-sized crystals that glow with internal fire towers in the Feywild.”
Ecosystem
There are three distinctions that should be made clear:
Archfey/Greater Fey – a powerful fey that often has a place either within the faerie courts or distinctly unique and owns a dominion of the Feywild outside the influence of others
Fey/Fae/Faerie – a generic term for any creature from the Feywild, traditionally reserved for common fey creatures without a title or nobility
Gods & Goddesses – entities infused with the divine energy that represents an abstract concept or ideal there are currently two entities considered Gods. Titania the Summer Queen and the Queen of Air and Darkness.
Localized Phenomena
Music has a profound resonance with the multiverse, while magic is prevalent within the Feywild, there is a synergy with music and magic within this realm. Music has a purposeful application as well as a recreational one, acting as a medium for connecting the spirit with nature. There are many Fey that plays musical instruments or sing, some even dance to showcase their expression of their true essence and natures. Bards are often regarded well by the Fey with their musical aptitudes, even their oratory skills are often hailed as remarkable bypassing Fey.
Bards also serve as storytellers and keepers of lore, which adds to the mystique and allure by fey and the class often is the mainstay choice of fey creatures. It is not uncommon to find a Satyr Bard around or even a gnome bard for that matter. Many fey appreciate beauty and music is another personification of that idea, striking up a bargain for exchange of a musical favor is a seldom but appreciated choice. Especially if the bargainer is exceptionally gifted as a musician or performer, but not too good to draw the ire of a passing Archfey that may perhaps whisk them away to keep them until they bore of them. That is known to happen to a passing bard once and while to a bard who stumbles into the Feywild after being near a Fey crossing.
Fauna & Flora
Inhabitants of the Feywild are commonly known as fey creatures and include fair sylvan beings such as Nymphs (Nala), Satyrs (Garmeely), and Eladrin. Darker Feywild creatures include goblins, giants, ogres, and hags.
The fey Eladrin had the closest thing to 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.
Hag are 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 heart of the creature.
Pixies are similar to sprites but passive by nature and excellent spies and scouts.
Satyrs are raucous fey that looked like a man from the waist up and a goat from the waist down.
Goblinoids, ogres, giants, and blights can be found in the more sinister regions of the plane.
Dryads were female fey tied to the trees of the wood.
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.
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.
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 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 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. Both the Seelie and Unseelie Court have members from all 4 of the Seasonal Courts although Summer and Spring seem to favor the Seelie court and Autumn and Winter favor the Unseelie Court.
History
Thelanis Feywild citizens are grouped into only two factions, the Seelie Fey and the Unseelie Fey. Both courts are interested in abducting mortals from the Material Plane, though the Seelie Court is interested in amusement while the Unseelie Court is interested in slaves and meals.
There are also four courts the Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. Each court has there own members and agendas. Members of each are part of the Seelie or Unseelie court but bicker amongst themselves for power and prestige.
FEYWILD – MEMORY LOSS
Due to pervasive and powerful Feywild magic, non-fey creatures who leave the Feywild are subject to immediate memory loss, and may not remember any of their time spent in the Feywild.
FEYWILD – TIME WARP
Creatures who spend more than a day within the Feywild may experience a Time Warp when they leave the plane. Time moves quite differently in the Feywild, and a day there could equal anything from minutes to years of time on the Material Plane.
PROMISES AND BOUNDARIES
While the Fey are focused on the individual self and freedom, they still hold boundaries and promises. Fey that make pacts and bargains become magically bound to their promises and breaking an oath places them under the power of another creature. To swear an oath or promise favors to another is reserved for times of desperation or maybe for a desire for extreme fun.
Furthermore, the fey respect traditional laws like how cold iron can stop them from entering, these boundaries act as walls and are as binding as shackles. When a fey makes a promise, they must deliver or face the wrath of those they have wronged. Likewise, visitors are placed under the same expectations when it comes to making pacts, even if the visitor has no idea of the consequences.
The Fey will also not accept money that has been touched by iron. This makes most money found on the material plane useless in the Feywild.
Tourism
All attempts to properly map the Feywild end in failure, as it is inconsistent in its appearance. It is said that there are many worlds in the Material Plane, but only one Feywild reflecting them all at once. This causes the occupants of the Feywild to treat distances and time with little thought, and to mimic the Feywild’s seemingly erratic behavior.
The Feywild is filled with enchanting forests and enchanting people, and many who return from the Feywild to the Material Plane find themselves ill-adjusting to the boring qualities of nature and the plane. This plane instills a longing for adventure and new experiences, the desire to experience the fantastic and truly strange.
The land is filled with powerful fey lords who use mortals to entertain them, either by gifting strange magics or by sending them out on quests. When they make these deals, it can be dangerous for outsiders who may not realize that the plane itself will enforce the deal. If you make a deal for power or favor, you better hold up your end or find yourself in a far worse position. Vowing to sing of the beauty of a Nymph for a fortnight and failing that, you may find your voice stolen and that you can never speak again.
Journeying through the land, it isn’t all dangerous for an outsider. Rather it is a beautiful experience where you can see Pixies dance in the night sky, an emerald ocean of grass, or witness true beauty in the court of some fey lord. The Feywild is a land like no other and leaves an impression on anyone, typically that of yearning to return.
The material plane’s progression of time does not apply within the Feywild, not only is it fluid but removed from the traditional conventions of linear time. The cycle of seasons in the Material Plane is an example of a sort of trustee or agreement with the other Fey seasonal courts to reign over nature for a short time. Things like solstices and equinoxes are actually the periods when the Fey courts exchange control. Most mortals who venture into the Feywild have to process this alien world, and as a result, their interpretations may be skewed based on their own limited comprehension.
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Dimensional plane
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