Fey as powers that be

[Aloïsius]

In most settings, the powers that be are outsiders (demon, devil, celestials), dragons, powerful aberations (mindflayers, beholder), undead (vampire, lich lords...) and humanoid spellcasters (clerics, wizards mostly). They are the big shakers and movers of most high level adventures, and the most frequent BBEG the PC must fight (and their most frequent mentors/protectors).

Strangely, two multisecular figures of Fantasy are not commonly used this way : Giants and Fey. I won't speak about giants this time, even if a world dominated by Giant kingdoms, where the small humanoid would have a secondary role could be interresting. But what could be a world where the great surnatural powers are the Fey ?

We could imagine a world divided between seelies and unseelies, where the humanoids races are the pawns and toys of a ritual war they don't understand. Clerics would gain their spells from Oberron, Titania and the Queen of Air and darkness (or whatever you choose to rule over the Fey). Sorcerers would trace their lineage to Fey creatures rather than Dragons. Wizards could be some sort of heretics, people using magic outside of the path defined bu Fey powers. The astral plane could be sealed, blocking passage to and from the outer planes, explaining the absence of both fiendish and celestial interferences. Fey could be to this world what dragons are to Dragonlance.
What kind of adventures/plots could be designed with such a setting ? What would be the pro and con of such a world ? Why aren't fey more used in most campaigns ?

 

[Gez]

The "giants as lords" aspect has been used by Monte Cook in his Diamond Throne setting (Arcana Unearthed/Evolved), and to a lesser extent in the continent of Xen'drik, before the cataclysm that destroyed the Giantish civilization.

As for a world dominated by the Fey, you'll be able to find it out by yourself once Siawen finds out the secret way to sail the ethereal sea and reach Red Peline!

 

[Tonguez]

That kind of depends on 'your' conception of the Fey

I've used two Fey-based settings

1. Whilst playing GURPS I ran a Pseudo-17th Century Earth (loosely based on Solomon Kane with a lot of temporal and cultural anomalies). Anyway the PCs included a Rogue who was half human, half 'Green Man' whos mother had been run out of 'Alban' after the Highland Clearances, a former Toothfairy* turned Midwife, a Brick Troll and a Human Wit**
The adventure involved an attempt by Lord Autumn (an Erl-King* in the Unseelie Court) to take over the Dreams of Mortals and thus control the World. The game included Mothergoose (the first Toothfairy) and her steward Peta Pumpkineater, the Bogeyman, an NPC Ghoul 'informer' and goblin gangs in the sewers
Anyway the game involved a lot of illusion and misdirection, things were not as they seemed and the surreal became the expected and the mundane could not be trusted.

*Toothfairy was a class in this setting
** Sometimes mortals are 'touched' by the Fey. A Wit is a talented human (often a Bard) who has been given a Fey Gift. Some are also Clods who see the Fey and Mortal realms simultaneously and this usually drives them insane (and makes what the see and say incoherent)

For a good take on this version of Fey-ness have a look at Terry Pratchetts 'The Wee Free Men'

2. In my Hawaiki setting one of the Themes is that humans are newly arrived and are gradually starting to tresspass on the 'Wild places' where fey powers hold sway. Thes places are dangerous and unpredictable. The Gnomes (who are mortal fey) are Wise ones and currently have the role of maintaining the balance between the expansion of Mortals and the sanctity of the Wild Places of course sometimes mortals tresspass and then all the horror of Fey magic is brought to bear.

 

[Rl'Halsinor]

I think the best description of Fey as powers that be - extremey dangerous powers with a truly other/alien worldliness - is found in Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files series. He really explores this in the 4th book Summer Knight.

There is great material for a DM's inspiration and I haven't looked at the Fey the same way ever since I read this book.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

For this kind of campaign, GURPS Faeries is absolutely essential.

I've always thought that faeries get too little attention these days, and if they do get attention they are shown as Disneyfied little pixies who grant wishes and need rescuing out of big bottles, instead of the bloodthirsty, cannibalistic, child-stealing axe murderers they really were...

 

[countgray]

Faeries by Bryon Wischstadt

The very best sourcebook on Fey is Bryon Wischstadt's Faeries from Bastion Press:

http://dragonwing.net/Faeries.htm

This book is so fantastic. Highly worth your money if you want to use fey in your game. It is chock full of lore about the fey folk, it's got cool fey feats, prestige classes, spells and rituals and vibrant NPC's. It has new fey races and monsters. It's got a beautiful map of the world of Faerie. It has wonderful material about fey politics, fey gods, fey language and history. It is setting neutral so you can drop it into any campaign. It was edited by famed Forgotten Realms editor/author/designer Steven Schend and Ed Greenwood even consulted on the project.

I just love this book so much I can't recommend it highly enough!

There are two free pdf's you can download if you want to get a sense of what is in the book.

There is a free preview (14 pages of excerpts) of the book here: http://dragonwing.net/downloads/e-faeries.zip

And there is a web supplement that has some errata and extra material, including maps and charts and a FAQ: http://dragonwing.net/downloads/Faeries_errata.pdf

This is the best Faerie sourcebook bar none. I have mined it for lots of stuff to use in my own campaigns. Check it out, and I think you will like it too!

 

[WmRAllen67]

I think the best description of Fey as powers that be - extremey dangerous powers with a truly other/alien worldliness - is found in Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files series. He really explores this in the 4th book Summer Knight.

There is great material for a DM's inspiration and I haven't looked at the Fey the same way ever since I read this book.

I'll second that, and add Feist's Faerie Tale to the mix... and Lisa Goldstein's Strange Devices of the Sun and Moon, if you can find it... for a literary analysis of how the cultural conception of faeries has changed over history, I'd recommend Diane Purkiss' At the Bottom of the Garden...

Historically, the popular conception of the world was just what you describe-- though God and the Devil contended for human souls, in the day-to-day (especially in the country) luck, good or bad, and odd occurrences would be attributed to the work of spirits and fey, both good and bad...

One way to develop a world in this fashion is to drop the "Tolkien-esque" elements of demi-human and humanoid races as "natural" beings, with cities, societies and a physical presence in the world, and move them back into the "strange and mysterious" category. You'll never adventure through an abandoned dwarven mine, but you might run across a small, bearded smith in a clearing in the woods next to a small hill-- but if he offers to repair your gear, the price may not be worth it...

And if you look for him again, he won't be there...

Elves living in tree-villages in the wood? Nope... but if you encounter a "faery rade", RUN!

A lot of the standard D&D monsters have RW fey antecedents-- trolls, for instance, are in some stories dwarf-like instead of "big green and regenerating cannibals" and are capable of incredible transformation magics, stealing children and leaving a polymorphed log in their place...

There's always the old stories and folksongs. I have a mental list of adventure ideas that I got from listening to this band (http://stout.hampshire.edu/~jcr00/span/index.html)... "The Elf Knight", "Thomas the Rhymer", "Tam Lin" and "Alison Gross" are good to start with...

 

[VirgilCaine]

I have a world that is almost totally cut off from divine influence-the three major PHB are Boccob, Nerull and Pelor--and their faith is not terribly popular in some areas.
A pantheon of eight different elemental deities (two for each element, one productive, one destructive) are the main deities worshipped by demihumans.

Instead of summoning celestial/fiendish whatevers, Summon Monster would summon Air/Fire/Water/Earth (Or Wood/Cold) Element creatures. There's more fey and elementals and "element based" outsiders summoned than "alignment based" outsiders.

 

[BOZ]

if they haven't been mentioned already, there are always the eladrin lords from book of exalted deeds...

 

[Aloïsius]

Thank for the inputs !