Name:

The Feyground Militia

Motto:

‘Freedom through Superior Aggression’

The Feyground Militia was never meant to become a unified culture and formed almost by accident around the actions and preaching of the crazed half-gnome Gril Palestone. Banished to the Fey Realm in a case of mistaken identity, Gril managed to survive on the edge of the feywilds with a mix of sheer stubbornness and not a little crazy engineering. Over the next few decades, other weak fey and half fey wandered across Gril and his survivors and joined in the goal of simply seeing another day in the FeyWild without something dangerous happening to them.

Over time, what formed was a small, hardcore group of people who are either survivors of the wilder parts of the Feywild borders or descended from those selfsame survivors. While Gril died almost forty years ago, a collection of his sayings, advice, and designs is now carried forward like some kind of holy bible.

The nature of the FeyWild is that groups from the militia often find themselves bordering the real world from time to time, as well as various more populated fey realms. Those neighbors are often surprised to find a tight-knit and paranoid neighbor who simply wasn’t there the night before. For their part, the militia trust nothing and, even with the opportunity to leave the Feywild, will refuse on the grounds that the fort-camps are all the home they need.

Organizations within the tribes are based on Gril’s terrible notions of military ranks. Most tribesmen are privates, with elders called Sargents. Those with an office within the hierarchy are called ‘captains’, and the head of the tribe is called ‘General’. Technically, there is a ‘Brigadier General’ in charge of everyone, but no one outside the tribe has been able to verify if this person exists or is some kind of mythical reference to the original Girl.

The camps themselves are heavily fortified, usually with a long trench dug to denote the boundaries and a wood palisade of at least four feet in height behind that. The Feywild is in a constant state of change and regrowth, so simply maintaining this defense consumes a lot of the tribe’s workforce. The rest is devoted to watching for threats, scouting for food, and creating additional defenses inside the barrier. Living in the fort is often cramped, as the tribe is only able to maintain so much space cut off from the greater wilds.

Members of the militia often adopt military-style uniforms with brown vests meant to hold talismans and marks of rank. The marks are complicated bits of ribbon and stone, whose actual meaning is only known to the militia themselves. Officers often favor cloaks, but it seems to be a recent innovation that more traditional members scoff at as ‘tomfoolery’.

As a culture, the militia is incredibly tight-knit and very mistrusting of outsiders. Trade and diplomacy are usually conducted outside the trench except in emergencies, and many Militia children won’t see an outsider until they are adults. This has made them incredibly insular. As an additional consequence of both this isolation and the racial makeup of the militia, there has been a mix of shorthand slang and military-like words added to their language that is largely unintelligible to outsiders. Tribesmen may adapt by speaking slower, but understanding that ‘There be AlphBet Nort of heras, two mil.” can require its own efforts at understanding.

The militia does keep in constant communication between its various Fort-Camps, however, largely through the use of magical message sending spells between designated talk-captains. The talk-captains have several sergeants assigned to them, so the communication flow is not only business, but often messages between families and friends as well. While the militia may seem fanatical and cold to outsiders, they seem to relate to each other rather warmly.

The one exception is for rulebreakers. Life in the FeyWild is harsh, and punishments administered by the justice-captain can be brutal. Small issues like talking to outsiders or failing to show deference to rank might only net some extra trench-digging shifts, but failure to work or any action endangering the fort-camp may result in physical punishment or even executions in extreme circumstances.

In addition to message magic, the fort-camps share a wide catalog of spells taught to those sargents who show magical aptitude. This includes scrying, mage hand, and other useful spells to have around the camp. Nearly everyone is taught at least the basics of spellcraft, so that they can be aware of the nature of the magical land they inhabit.

Relationship with other groups:

The borders of the Feywild are constantly shifting, so encounters with the Militia are often temporary. Non-fey sources seem to have regarded the militia as insular, but not awful to deal with. The Fey report a far darker experience, with Fey patrols and scouts often ambushed outright under the general assumption that they were seeking to bring harm to the fort-camp. Some people have refused to deal with the militia, the group’s standoffishness mistaken for cult or diabolical motives.

Major Locations:

Each of the fort-camps is named after the founding General. Fort Campbell and Fort Guk are common references, although it is believed that the Militia sometimes lie about which Fort Camp they come from to protect their families. Fort Covel achieved some small notoriety after briefly taking over a royal wood and pushing both the king and his woodsmen out for the six months the camp was there.

Recommended Classes:

Wizard, Fighter, Ranger