The Feywild
The Feywild is a Plane from which fey originate, suffused with potent magic, and unrestrained emotions.
The Plane is a place of awe-inspiring natural beauty, always bathed in the twilight of the setting or rising sun, with lanterns and fireflies providing additional, and sometimes haunting lights. Visitors to the Plane tend to find that all sensations, both sensory and emotional, are heightened. Smells are stronger, colours are more vivid, and sound are clearer, but at the same time, the shadows are darker and impulses are harder to control. Strong emotions even altered the landscape of the Feywild itself, wilting flowers trailed the despondent or furious and carefree animals travelled alongside chipper and cheerful individuals.
Further complicating and confounding any visit to the Plane is that time does not flow the same way in the Feywild as it does on the Material Plane. While many visitors may experience time flowing as normal, it is often the cast that more time is passing in the Material Plane, sometimes these differences in time could vary from weeks to months to years. Although, at the same time it is entirely possible for little to no time to have passed. When leaving the Feywild, it is not uncommon though still concerning, that lost time can catch up to a mortal, triggering episodes of exhaustion or hunger, while at the same time leading to those who have no fey ancestry, to have the memories of their trip to become hazy or vanish entirely.
The Feywild is divided into different regions, the Fields of Spring which is ruled over by the Spring Court; the Emerald Forest which is ruled by the Summer Court; the Pastures of Autumn which is ruled by the Empty Throne of the Autumn Court; the Wastes of Winter/Frozen Lands which is the dominion of the Winter Court; and the The Inbetween where Wild Fey roam free from political sway.
In the background, Fey politics is always as potent as the magic suffused with the realm, and the people are often seen to be divided between loyalty to the Seelie Court, ruled by Queen Titania, or the Unseelie Court, ruled by the Queen of Air and Darkness. The two peoples clash often, but are currently in a period of uncomfortable peace.
History
The Cataclysm War:
There have been many Fey civil wars since the inception of the Seelie and Unseelie Court, with hostilities ever present between Queen Titania and the Queen of Air and Darkness. Many disputes have been settled with relative quickness and treaties of peace, bargaining to maintain balance and order, and compromise on both sides, however this was not always the case. The last great civil war, referred to as the Cataclysm, due to its length; severity and its effects not only upon the mortal plane of the Feywild but also the semi-divine plane where the deity level Archfey of The Fey Courts reside. The damage inflicted to the land was long lasting, still visible and present centuries later, a permanent scar upon the beauty of the Wilds which will never heal. No one is sure how the Cataclysm was triggered, it could be that tensions simply grew too great to ignore, or underhand dealings were exposed by the opposing side, or perhaps one of the Queens simply felt overconfident in their ability to eliminate the other and gain true control over all Feyfolk. Regardless of what started it, or how it began, once it did it was a chaotic scourge of the Feywild's history; while most conflicts were usually ended swiftly by the Seelie Court being able to crush the opposing military force, or being able to use silver tongues to sweet talk the competition, the Cataclysm was different. No one had expected the Queen of Air and Darkness to use the previous stretch of peace to acutely gather her most loyal subjects and grow her military forces far beyond what she had managed for previous skirmishes, both by enchanting her subjects and conjuring soldiers made of magic. This time, the Unseelie Court was ready for a full scale war, and they were prepared to burn the Feywild to achieve their goals. The Queen of Air and Darkness' military force was bolstered significantly by one of her generals in particular, a powerful; skilled and ruthless leader, Mordred, the Prince of Air and Darkness. With all of his mother's magical talents, he made for a terrifying warrior to face on the field, and his tactical mind seemed always one step ahead of the Seelie's forces. It wasn't until nearly a century or more had passed, when the Seelie were finally able to remove the Prince from the field of battle and went missing or was believed dead, that the Unseelie forces began to crumble, and the longest period of peace in the history of the Feywild was achieved purely due to the Queen of Air and Darkness befalling a grief from which she stated she would not return. Sealing herself within the walls of the Winter Court, and her personal domains, she swore to only leave if her son was returned to her.
Alternative Name(s)
Fae Plane, The Wilds, Faerie Plane
Type
Plane of Existence
Included Locations
Included Organizations
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