Traversing the Feywild

The Plane of Fairie

Sometimes referred to as just 'The Wilds,' this realm is a beautiful but dangerous one! The following is a list of some prudent precautions to follow when traversing this magical realm:

• Don’t thank them, nor ‘give’ them your name, lest you owe them a favor. The fey operate on the principles of the 'old ways' from where notions of 'giving thanks' come from. For example, someone giving their name to a fey wouldn't mean giving the name they go by, but their identity, sense of self. A fey taking your name might be able to take who you are, some of your power, or even your life. Someone weak-willed will possibly even obey any command given to them. Giving thanks would be a literal gesture, you would give something tangible as a demonstration of said thanks. To give thanks without something tangible would be akin to giving a debt, a blank cheque. A fey might come and collect their 'thanks' at any time and in any form. Giving a fey your gratitude would be even more dangerous, for that has roots in servitude and fealty, a character giving their gratitude to an archfey might lead to them calling on them to perform a task as their vassal or envoy. There is a flip side to it; fey hate being indebted, especially to mortals. So if you gave a fey your hospitality, well they'd be furious until the scales were balanced because until then, you would command power over them. The same goes for someone who knows a fey's true name. That said fey are extremely literal and can often find a way around the command.
• Fey cannot lie, but they are extremely good at misleading people without technically lying.
• Don’t accept gifts, offers of hospitality, or eat foods fairies have grown/made. Nothing is free. If you acknowledge that a fey has done something good for you, then you must return the favor in a way the fey sees fit, so never say thank you, and don't accept gifts. Buying from fey is safe because you pay your debt, but don't accept any free extras. If a fey saves your life, they have the ability to ask one favor, and you must fulfill it (again, literally, not as intended).
• Try not to dance with them, or have a buddy to pull you out of it. Otherwise you will happily dance yourself to death.
• Be very careful of your wording and try not to make any deals with them. If you have to, proceed with the utmost caution. Promises made by or to Fey are magically binding. If you break them, great misfortune will be upon you. The difference between, “can I ask your name?” and, “can I have your name?” might just save your life.
• Fey creatures love shiny trinkets. To offer them some helps you stay on their good side.
• If all else fails, fey are weak to iron.

 

Fey Crossings:

Twin places are nigh identical in both realms, the feywild one always an exaggeration of the mortal one. Fey crossings are places of mystery and beauty on the Material Plane that have a near-perfect mirror in the Feywild, creating a portal where the two planes touch. A traveler can pass through a fey crossing by entering a clearing, wading into a pool, stepping into a circle of mushrooms, or crawling under the trunk of a tree. To the traveler, it seems like he or she has simply walked into the Feywild with a step. To an observer, the traveler is there one moment and gone the next. Like other portals between planes, most fey crossings open infrequently. A crossing might open only during a full moon, on the dawn of a particular day, or for someone carrying a certain type of item. A fey crossing can be closed permanently if the land on either side is dramatically altered - for example, if a castle is built over the clearing on the Material Plane.  

The Feylost and Being Spirited Away:

Tales speak of children kidnapped by fey creatures and spirited away to the Feywild, only to return to their parents years later without having aged a day, and with no memories of their captors or the realm they came from. Likewise, adventurers who return from an excursion to the Feywild are often alarmed to discover upon their return that time flows differently on the Plane of Faerie, and that the memories of their visit are hazy.  

Memory Loss:

A creature that leaves the Feywild must make a DC 10 Wisdom saving throw. Fey creatures automatically succeed on the saving throw, as do any creatures, like elves, that have the Fey Ancestry trait. A creature that fails the saving throw remembers nothing from its time spent in the Feywild. On a successful save, the creature's memories remain intact but are a little hazy. Any spell that can end a curse can restore the creature's lost memories.  

Time Warp:

While time seems to pass normally in the Feywild, characters might spend a day there and realize, upon leaving the plane, that less or more time has elapsed everywhere else in the multiverse. Some powerful fey have the ability to grant a wish to return at a specific time and might do so if the beneficiaries agree to a contract of some sort.  

General Info:

The Feywild, also called the Plane of Faerie, exists in parallel to the Material Plane, an alternate dimension that occupies the same cosmological space. The landscape of the Feywild mirrors the natural world but turns its features into spectacular forms. Where a volcano stands on the Material Plane, a mountain topped with skyscraper-sized crystals that glow with internal fire towers in the Feywild. A wide and muddy river on the Material Plane might be echoed as a clear and winding brook of great beauty. A marsh could be reflected as a vast black bog of sinister character. And moving to the Feywild from old ruins on the Material Plane might put a traveler at the door of an archfey's castle. The Feywild is inhabited by sylvan creatures, such as elves, darklings, fey’ri, dryads, arborials, satyrs, boggles, pixies, and sprites, as well as centaurs and magical creatures such as displacer beasts, blink dogs, phase spiders, faerie dragons, treants, and unicorns. The darker regions of the plane are home to such malevolent creatures as hags, banshees, blights, goblins, ogres, and giants.   A name… you can make all manner of things from a name. People give up their names to the Fae for myriad reasons, and the Fae create their greatest wonders from these foolishly traded treasures. A font of youth from a child’s innocent confession. A palanquin of comfort and excess from a brothel owner’s desperate, unpaid debt. A soldier of shadow from an assassin’s terrified plea. Names are their most precious commodity, and they are always searching for ways to acquire more.   The majority of this plane shifts, never standing still, except for a few notable locations that do not shift. You know of the four major Kingdoms.