Fey

Fey were creatures from the Feywild, a parallel plane to the Prime. Many were typified as having supernatural abilities and a connection to nature or to some other force or place. The language of the fey was called Sylvan. Fae, or faeries, as many liked to be called, were creatures of any size, shape, texture, or smell, that exemplified and inhabited natural wonder. They went by many names, like "Green Folk", "Fair Folk", "People of Peace", sometimes "Wee folk". They were ruled by noble eladrins and other archfey.

Fey in Tiriande

Given the Dungeonscape's (supposed) position in the World Axis cosmology, one would expect fey to be uncommon if not entirely absent, as the plane should not overlap with the Feywild at all. The fact that they still appear is an enduring frustration to cosmologists.
Indeed, fey aren't even particularly rare - while the majority of them remain aloof and live in the wilds, true to their feywild counterparts, it is not unheard of for the odd fey creature to wander the streets or even take up residence in the Imprisoned City. The Spirewardens in particular have counted a few fey among their number.
Notable faerie in the Dungeonscape include Mithrinde, the Witch of the Woods, as well as Ethrenna, patron god of the plane, who some believe was once an archfey.
The rest of this article details faerie as they are seen on Toril and other spaces of the Prime Material plane.

Legends

There were many unsubstantiated legends about fey on Toril, especially in the forested areas of the Dalelands, and the like. Faeries, in good and friendly lands, with warm lush forests and babbling brooks, were said to be short friendly folk, with a twinkle in their eye, pronouncing wealth and good luck on those deserving, who often happened to be the mortals who found them. In other places, blasted lands and choking swamps, fey were seen to be mad redcaps, devouring infants, corrupting youth, and bringing bad luck to any in whom they happened to take interest. The truly uninformed would see the elves, dwarves, gnomes, and even goblins as a form of fey. It was said that to protect oneself from fey one should carry iron, wear the color red, turn their clothing inside out, or be near running water. Iron was said to be detrimental to the skin of faeries, the color red and inside-out clothing a sort of camouflage because the Fair folk couldn't see it, and running water a source for disrupting magic spells or bad luck.[citation needed]

Species of Fey

There were many different species of fey, and connections between them could be hard to identify, other than being natives of the Feywild. A few common threads could be drawn between certain smaller groups, however, while some were simply impossible to classify. Some fey were strongly bound or associated with specific natural locations such as water bodies, landmarks, or other geographical features. These included dryads, hamadryads, nymphs, naiads, nereids, oreads, and fossergrim. Other fey were reported as being born from emotions felt while in the Feywild, manifested due to that plane's strange energy. Redcaps, meenlocks, and boggles were all included in this group. Another group that was easily identified were the hags: sea hags, green hags, annises and bheur hags were all fey; the night hag, although related, was actually a fiend. One group of fey was confusingly called sprites despite this being a specific name- for one of its included members. All of the "sprites" were small, mostly humanoid fey, most with a few insect-like attributes (such as wings). Besides the classical sprite for which the group was named, there were the pixies, grigs, atomies, and nixies. The winterling, despite also being small and winged, was not included. Yet another group was the gremlins, including the fremlin, galltrit, jermlaine, mite, plainsjan, and snyad.

Basic Information

Biological Traits

Infinitely varied

Lifespan

Varies between days to centuries to immortal

Average Height

Varies between inches tall to towering over twenty meters