Fey in 5e DnD

[Satyrn]

What about the Grimdark? And the Darkbad?

In my setting, those are the planes where Batdwarf and Supergnome do their thing.

 

[Mouseferatu]

...to the dazzling shining might and transcendent powers of -what are somewhat mistakenly referred to as- the "Gemstone Dragons."

You've actually come up with a story that might incline me to include gemstone dragons in a campaign. Kudos; that is not an easy task, given how I normally feel about them.

 

[mrpopstar]

You've actually come up with a story that might incline me to include gemstone dragons in a campaign. Kudos; that is not an easy task, given how I normally feel about them.

I love to hear things like this!

 

[mrpopstar]

It depends on the cosmology.

I use my own cosmology.

If one is using the 1e Greyhawk cosmology, the positive energy plane is located inside the ethereal plane. So, one can make the faerie and the positivity into the shallow end (bordering the material plane) and the deep end of the positive energy plane.

If one is using the 5e Forgotten Realms cosmology, then understand the positive plane as pervading the multiverse. The positive plane perfuses the astral plane to form and illuminate the celestial upper planes, and likewise perfuses the ethereal plane to form and energize the feywild plane. (If necessary, one can think of the elemental planes as containing both positivity and negativity within matter, thus locking up any positive or negative influences.)

It's your own cosmology I was interested in learning about!

 

[steeldragons]

You've actually come up with a story that might incline me to include gemstone dragons in a campaign. Kudos; that is not an easy task, given how I normally feel about them.

Cool! Happy to..."help?" I'll look forward to hearing what you do with it.

 

[Jester David]

Hey, Feydark is an awesome sounding name!

...and, yeah...Shadowdark sounds like the name of a band I would listen as a teenager

Feydark doesn’t sound too bad. I always preferwd Underfey and Undershadow....

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Feydark doesn’t sound too bad. I always preferwd Underfey and Undershadow....

Good ones, I usually keep Feydark as is, but change Shadowdark to Felldark. The Shadowfell in my campaign is closer to the Twilight World of Legend of Zelda than a world of darkness and shadows; this description fits more my ''Felldark''.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Just had a thought with all this talk of Shadowdark's and Feydark's.

Does anyone actually have their players physically travel from one fey realm to another?

I was thinking on whether or not I felt it neccessary to give special names to these places in my homebrew, when I also realized, I don't think I would ever really bother with having players physically travel through those realms. They are dangerous enough, and sparsely enough populated by the MM and other books, that I wonder if it isn't more useful to have players pop into one section and then head back home, instead of traveling from the Feydark to the Feywild proper via tunnels or what have you.

Both my Feywild and Shadowfell are under lore-renovation right now, but they both feel like planes where you end up in a notable location within them rather than trying to traverse them... and I have to wonder if any denizens really feel that need to travel through them, most Fey seem rather... attached to their chosen dwellings.

Hmmm. I'm going to have to make a note, I've never really thought on the merchants and travelers within the fey realms, but I've got a few ideas sparking now

 

[Hexmage-EN]

Here's both how I use the Feywild and how elves relate to it:
- The Feywild was first inhabited by janni (a kind of genie not tied to any Elemental Plane) immigrants who eventually became bound to the plane's magic and reincarnated as the first Archfey.
- Several of the Archfey, especially the members of the Green Court and the Coral Court, established a partnership with the godlike nature spirits of the Material Plane known as the Great Elders. The fey would take on most of the active role of representing and protecting nature while the spirits conserved their strength in case of greater threats, such as the intrusion of a demon lord.
- The nymphs created many of the various fey races with the cooperation of the Great Elder Spirits, including the satyrs, centaurs, harpies, and dryads. Their final creations were the eladrin.
- Eventually some eladrin would emerge from the Feywild to explore the Material Plane. Those eladrin who had children outside the Feywild were the parents of the first elves.
- Some eladrin and elves also had children with the major inhabitants of the Material Plane at the time: the genasi. Curiously, though, the children of elves and genasi were less attuned to magic than their parents, with the descendants losing even more magical affinity. In this way the half-elves came into existence, as well as the humans.
- The humans quickly became known to the fey as a threat, primarily because of their explosive population growth. The wood elves in particular were harmed by the destruction of their forests in mere centuries by the endlessly multiplying humans. Many of the fey began to war against the humans, led by both a mysterious being called the Spinner of Shadows and a malevolent Great Elder Spirit known as Whisper.
- At present the human civilizations try to be civil with the Archfey in exchange for access to powerful magic. While the eladrin and many other fey thrive in the Feywild, the elves and fey of the Material Plane have been largely overwhelmed. The only remnants of many elven clans are the faint traces of elven blood within the humans who eventually gained control of their territory. Most elven communities in the Material Plane are in remote, heavily-guarded enclaves that ban human visitors.
- The drow, who live in the Underdark and therefore didn't have to compete with humans for territory and resources, have no quarrel with them. The drow are a peaceful folk who revere the Great Elder Spirit known as Fate Weaver. There are more drow than there are all other non-eladrin elves combined, and most half-elves are of drow ancestry.

 

[Irda Ranger]

I absolutely love the Fey, thematically, and would definitely buy a "Volo/Mordekainen" type book that gave them a proper treatment. I'd love ideas like the inability to break promises or wear masks.

In my own cosmosology, Faerie, the Shadowfell, and the Underworld are all separate planes. Faerie and the Shadowfell both mirror the Prime's geography, but with Fey/Undead inhabitants, respectively. The Underworld exists "below" all three planes and is a plane consisting only of endless labyrinths. Sages suspect that it was once a layer of the Elemental Plane of Earth that got corrupted by the energies from the Far Realm. But it's a single plane with connections to each, so you could go down into the Underworld from the Prime and come up through a different exit into the Feywild.