What would the Feywild of a Desert look like?

Ambershanks · Oct 27, 2009

So my campaign runs in an Egyptian-like world and is one great expanse of desert. My players have been asked to head to the Feywild, and luckily for me, we called game just before they crossed over.
So, I've been racking my brain and am really struggling to come up with what the Feywild of a desert would look like.
Any ideas?

Pbartender · Oct 27, 2009

Ambershanks said:
So my campaign runs in an Egyptian-like world and is one great expanse of desert. My players have been asked to head to the Feywild, and luckily for me, we called game just before they crossed over.
So, I've been racking my brain and am really struggling to come up with what the Feywild of a desert would look like.
Any ideas?

The sands flow and undulate like the currents and waves of a ocean, while islands of rock support hidden and lush oasis. Ancient ruins periodically appear and vanish as the tides of the sands ebb and flow.

This version would be the embodiment of change and destruction by slow erosion (or cleansing by scouring to look at it in a more positive light), with the "points of light" being the occasional burst of life centered around a water hole on a stable rocky outcropping.

Klaus · Oct 27, 2009

Ambershanks said:
So my campaign runs in an Egyptian-like world and is one great expanse of desert. My players have been asked to head to the Feywild, and luckily for me, we called game just before they crossed over.
So, I've been racking my brain and am really struggling to come up with what the Feywild of a desert would look like.
Any ideas?

Find the animated movie Sinbad, Legend of the Seven Seas. Near the end of it he heads into Tarterus, which fits the bill. Sands rise and fall, revealing and concealing remnants of old ages.

Plus, the Feywild is very magical, so make the desert something out of the 1001 tales, with sands of actual gold, mirages, genies, etc.

Pbartender · Oct 27, 2009

Klaus said:
Find the animated movie Sinbad, Legend of the Seven Seas. Near the end of it he heads into Tarterus, which fits the bill. Sands rise and fall, revealing and concealing remnants of old ages.

Pretty much what I'd been thinking as well.

Klaus said:
Plus, the Feywild is very magical, so make the desert something out of the 1001 tales, with sands of actual gold, mirages, genies, etc.

Just make certain that the gold sand (or whatever you use) turns back into sand and dust once they leave the Feywild.

Ktulu · Oct 27, 2009

I'd make the sand residuum; sparkling and changing color in a very iridescent pattern.

avin · Oct 27, 2009

Ktulu said:
I'd make the sand residuum; sparkling and changing color in a very iridescent pattern.

So they get free rituals?

I would say it depends: from what has been described here to a desert like Little Prince's to a jungle or a sea.

Bold or Stupid · Oct 27, 2009

Populated by swirling robed fey, renowned for their arcane might and swordsmanship. Some say they can become one with the sands and move with out being noticed.

The land is almost all mirage, constantly shifting never as it seems.

Quickleaf · Oct 27, 2009

Well, you could reskin the eladrin as Persian "peris" or as suggested above (or use deva) and have them locked in a struggle with "deevs" (rakshasas).

I'd have the crossing over moment be dramatic (a sandstorm drives them to seek cover in ancient ruins, being lost in the desert and dying of thirst, etc), but don't make it obvious they've entered the Feywild at first.

I'd envision a land of shimmering landscapes, half of them phantasmal. So you have dark creepers and shadar kai masquerading as lords of a city that doesn't exist. Emphasize unusual customs among the nomadic fey they encounter, such as insisting on "baptising" guests in a magic spring...but what if to drink faerie water means to become a slave of the fey and be unable to leave? You could complicate that encounter with naiad/selkie type creatures under the water frightening or trying to hurt the PCs to get them to drink water while their heads are under.