The Fey

Shadows of the Silver Night

Overview

The Fey are not a myth in Leilon — though most folk know them only as whispers, superstitions, or strange echoes in the feystone mines. The Vexmoor family insists that the Fey are little more than a historical curiosity, best left in dusty tales. But the truth runs deeper: House Vexmoor once held a sacred bond with the Seelie Court of the Silver Night, and the breaking of that bond still haunts the land.

The Silver Night and House Vexmoor

For two centuries, House Vexmoor prospered by trading feystones not to mortal kings, but to the Seelie Court of the Silver Night. Their wagons crossed planar thresholds like clockwork, delivering offerings that nourished the Feywild and secured harmony between realms. In return, the Vexmoors’ mines never ran dry, and their name carried weight in both Neverwinter and beyond.

But the chain was broken. One shipment of Feystone , meant for the Duke of Moonlight, was stolen before it reached the Court. Without the offering, the child-duke perished in his cradle — and with him, the Court of the Silver Night collapsed.

What followed was carnage. Displaced Fey, stripped of a home court, turned on their former patrons. House Vexmoor’s holdings in Neverwinter were burned, its caravans ravaged, its coffers emptied. The once-proud family fled to Fort Leilon, clutching what wealth they could carry and defending only a single lifeline: the feystone mine.

The Vexmoor Position Now

Today, House Vexmoor sells feystones to whomever will buy — wizarding guilds in Waterdeep, emissaries of shadowy Thay, or even rival Fey courts sniffing for weakness. Their future teeters on the edge of a vein: if the mine runs dry or the Fey turn openly hostile, the house may be finished.

To the miners, this reality is hidden behind polite decrees and strict rules. To the family, it is a daily fear. For the Fey, it is unfinished business.

The Miners’ Beliefs

Most Leilon miners know nothing of courts and dukes. To them, the Fey are mischievous spirits who stalk the tunnels:

• Bread & Milk left at doorsteps keep them from tangling hair or stealing tools.
• Cold Iron Nails hammered into beams protect against “ghost hands.”
• Silver Bells are rung once in each new shaft to warn the Fey of mortal intrusion.
• Whistling Underground is forbidden — said to invite a trickster’s voice that leads men astray.

They speak of misplaced lanterns and lucky escapes as the work of “tunnel sprites.” They do not know that the Seelie scouts who once tended their mine still pass unseen, watching as a farmer watches crops.

Elia’s Story

Among those touched by the fall of the Court of the Silver Night is Eliasyra, once a courtier sworn to guard the Duke of Moonlight. When the offering failed and the child perished, her oath shattered. In grief, she struck a bargain she cannot recall, waking changed — no longer Seelie, not fully Unseelie.

Her shadowed wings and moonlit hair mark her as a survivor of that sundered Court, a living reminder that the Fey are not simply mischievous spirits — they are powers, courts, and destinies bound to mortal choices.

A Word of Warning

The Fey remember. Do not think because their court lies broken that they are gone. Every stone we pull from the mine hums with memory, and every bell we ring in the shafts is a warning — not to them, but to us. It is we who trespass. It is we who owe a debt.

— Cassian Al'bright

The Seelie Court

The Seelie are often remembered in song and superstition as radiant, noble, and beautiful — though any miner will tell you beauty is not the same as kindness. Seelie courts thrive by cultivating purpose and harmony: they bless harvests, weave music into festivals, and demand offerings that keep mortal and Fey worlds aligned.

House Vexmoor’s contract with the Court of the Silver Night was one such pact — a steady flow of feystone offerings that sustained both Fey nobles and mortal fortune. When the offerings ceased, the Court fractured. Among sages, there are whispers that the Seelie cannot exist without such cultivation of light and order — that without a steady rhythm of offerings, their courts wither, and even their immortal children can die.

The Unseelie Court

If the Seelie are gardeners of harmony, the Unseelie are scavengers of endings. They feed not by building, but by unraveling. Crops that rot, oaths that fail, dreams that sour — these are the currents that nourish the Unseelie. To the people of Leilon, this distinction is mostly lost: “Unseelie” simply means the bad ones. But in truth, they are a reflection of the same Fey truth: survival requires energy.

Where the Seelie bind energy into creation, the Unseelie draw strength by pulling it apart. Some whisper that the balance between them is what keeps the Feywild alive. Others fear that the fall of the Silver Night has given the Unseelie freer reign, tugging at the seams of the world while no court of harmony is strong enough to resist.