D&D 5E What exactly is Feywild in your campaigns?

[Imaculata]

I use the feywild in a very different way in my campaigns. My feywild is a part of the forest that cannot be found by mere mortals, almost like a pocket dimension, or a part of the forest hidden through magic.

Druids that are able to travel through plants, actually take a short trip through the feywild. Within the feywild, there are areas where druids can meet. The feywild itself however is much larger. It has many different areas, some ruled by their own forest spirit, and not all friendly.

 

[Yaarel]

The original spelling is Old French and tends to be ‘faierie’ (the realm of the faie, variously a place and an activity, whence a noun and adjective meaning ‘magic’), whence Middle English tends to be ‘fairie’. But there are over a hundred possible ways to spell this, including outliers such as ‘fayerye’, ‘fairy’, ‘farye’, ‘feiri’, ‘fyry’, etcetera.

The ‘faie’ is a spirit of fate, possibly a Frankish concept relating to a Norse ‘norn’, but reusing the Latin neuter term Fatum, whence plural Fata, as if feminine singular ‘fata’, whence the French pronunciation, ‘faie’. (Also spelled ‘fae’, ‘fee’, ‘fei’, ‘faye’, ‘fay’, ‘fey’, etcetera.) Morgan La Fay is in some way a ‘faie’ who does ‘fairie’.

 

[MarkB]

On the few occasions it's come up in my campaigns, I run the Feywild and Shadowfell as being overlaid upon the real world, with congruent geography and features, though anything constructed won't necessarily correspond across the boundaries. They represent, respectively, life and growth, and death and decay.

The Shadowfell is very much the Upside Down from Stranger Things, an oppressive, alien realm of decay and darkness. The beings that inhabit it feel a sense of emptiness that manifests as a constant, gnawing hunger - for life, for power, for existence - which drives everything they do.

The Feywild is a realm of primeval wilderness, whose beings have a direct connection to the land around them. For the less-powerful beings that connection is fleeting or limited, but more powerful Fey influence the surrounding landscape, plants and even living beings around them without even consciously trying. It's like they travel with their own personal Lair and Regional effects constantly in effect. One of the main reasons the Summer and Winter courts are divided from each other is that if they even get close to each other their opposing influences will throw the land around them into conflict.

 

[Steampunkette]

In the Ashen Lands setting, the Fae Realms are a step to the left relative to our world.

Easily, and often unintentionally, accessible through natural entries like mushroom circles or leaving trails in Old Growth Forests, the Fae Realms largely mimic the lands of Iobaria in layout, but the inhabitants, and the dangers, are very different.

Currently, the Fae Realms are ruled by the Ash, the leader of the Old Court. But a new and upstart rival faction called the New Court has been trying to overthrow them for a thousand odd years or so. "New and Old" have -very- different definitions for the Fae. Speaking of old, Fae magic is a combination of Primal Power and Occult Magic from the dawn of existence. Representative things can have very real effects.

Want to stop a Fae running away from you but don't have a net? Just drive a Cold Iron nail into his Footprints in the trail and nail him to the ground. But be careful. The same can be done by them with your Shadow, or a doll with your likeness, or simply by asking for your name and taking it for themselves.

Contracts and Promises in the Fae Realms are quite -literally- binding. A Fae who makes a deal is spiritually, emotionally, psychologically, and often -physically- incapable of breaking that deal. But if you travel to those shrouded paths and shimmering meadows you'll find the same restrictions fall upon you. And failure to uphold a bargain can cause its most painful extraction from you and your future.

While the Fae themselves are the true rulers of these realms, much of the populace are animals given awareness by their strange masters. So if you should stumble upon a village of doormice neatly dressed in lovely clothes going about their business, or should hear the whispers of wolves discussing how best to take you down, it may behoove you to retrace your steps and find your way back to the world where you belong.

 

[Yaarel]

Fairyknight, Faerie Knight, etcetera:

Altho a ‘Faerie Knight’ is a knight who comes from Faerie,

the actual meaning of this term according to its usage is,

Faerie Knight − a knight who fights by wielding magic.



In my mind, the term connotes the 4e Swordmage class, a melee fullcaster.

Actually, the 5e Bladesinger Wizard works pretty well for a Faerie Knight, both for the Fey Elf flavor and for the fullcaster mechanics.

 

[Stormonu]

I use neither the Feywild nor Shadowfell, and tend to stick to the older cosmology of 2E/Planescape. I do use a Plane of Dreams/Nightmares on the Ethereal, which is where the elves and goblinoids of my homebrew come from, respectively.

 

[Charlaquin]

My Faewild, known in-universe as the Otherworld, is the border between the material plane and the five elemental planes (fire, earth, water, air, and aether). In the Otherworld, proximity works by way of sympathy rather than physical distance - the more metaphysically attuned you are to water, for example, the closer you are to the plane of water. In this sense, you could think of the elemental planes as different “frequencies” of the Otherworld. Fans of Chronicles of Darkness might recognize a lot of Werewolf: the Forsaken influence in my take on the Faewild - it’s basically Pangea. The Undrworld basically combines the Shadowfell and the Underdark into one plane, which may or may not just be another “frequency” of the Otherworld.

 

[Oofta]

My campaign is based loosely on Norse with a dash of Celtic mythology so the feywild becomes Alfheim (home of the Sidhe) and the shadowfell becomes Nifleheim.

Both the feywild and shadowfell broadly copy Midgard (the prime material) but I always explain it as the feywild being the top of the leaf, bathed in sun and light and life. The feywild is the home of the sidhe with the seelie and unseelie courts. Goblinoids originate from the unseelie courts, in the feywild they are more pranksters and servants, not nearly as spiteful and dark hearted as most goblins. Ogres and trolls also originate from the unseelie courts, as do a handful of other creatures. Elves are related to the Sidhe, a Sidhe that is forced to flee the feywild and live in Midgard will eventually become an eladrin elf if they don't go insane first.

The sidhe rulers of the feywild are not really good nor evil for the most part, but they have motivations and reasons that often escape mortals. While you can always trust a sidhe to tell the truth, what they don't tell you can be life threatening. They don't always understand mortals, their perspective is just too different.

The shadowfell is the bottom of the leaf, literally in the shadow and lacking the light of life. Much like the down under in Stranger Things, it is frequently a representation of Midgard that is decayed, abandoned and old. There is little color in these areas, most things are washed out, practically black and white. However, the shadowfell is also the land of dreams and mist and can be quite malleable. At times when people's dreams are particularly vivid (especially nightmares) theirs spirit can actually enter the shadowfell temporarily. In some rare cases people can manipulate and transform the land, shaping it into either a place of beauty or horror.

In addition, when people die their souls travel through the shadowfell temporarily until they go to their final destination. Those that refuse to move on and instead cling to this mirror of their old lives eventually become ghosts or potentially other undead as their original personality fades away. Raising the dead requires people travelling to the shadowfell to retrieve the souls.

Last, but not least, there are times when the shadowfell stores "echoes" of important historical events or particularly traumatic moments. Great wars, critical and emotionally damaging times in people's lives can create small pocket dimensions where the events repeat themselves. Powerful magic can also carve out pocket dimensions where people can sometimes be trapped.

 

[Yaarel]

The shadowfell becomes Nifleheim.

Technically, Niflheim is the arctic region, not to be confused with Niflhel.

Hel is the underworld, resembling Shadowfell. It is directly below Midgard. The entrance to Hel, is in the far north, in Niflheim. This entrance is a tunnel winding downward to Hel. The place in Hel where the criminals are punished is called Niflhel.

Alfheimr is one of a number of places in the sky.

 

[Oofta]

Technically, Niflheim is the arctic region, not to be confused with Niflhel.

Hel is the underworld, resembling Shadowfell. It is directly below Midgard. The entrance to Hel, is in the far north, in Niflheim. This entrance is a tunnel winding downward to Hel. The place in Hel where the criminals are punished is called Niflhel.

Alfheimr is one of a number of places in the sky.

I said loosely based, didn't I?

Hel is the realm of the dead and once you pass through Hel's gates even Balder could not return. That doesn't really correspond to my view of the shadowfell.