Eladrin Cities...

[Obryn]

The flavor of their teleportation is that they step into the Feywild.

Personally, I don't think an Eladrin city would be built upon principles of frequent teleportation. I would, however, expect Eladrin cities to be built on both planes, overlapping.

On the Prime plane or whatever you'd like to call it, the Eladrin have a somewhat normal city. This is for the benefit mostly of outsiders; it would be primarily a trade hub, with some inns, stores, merchants, and craftsman. It could be small, in fact, since it wouldn't need room for local residents.

An eladrin invoking their Fey Step ability wouldn't so much teleport, as step into the Feywild portions of their grand cities - the secret parts, hidden from outsiders' eyes.

Just a thought.

-O

 

[f33b]

I think a lot of the posts assume the Eladrin have a relatively "Western" (by which I mean western Europe/north American) of time or timeliness. Per the PHB (pg 39) Eladrin live ~300 years, and barely age (lack of old age related infirmity). Why shouldn't they have a more leisurely view on time? This would support a lack of stairs, or more efficient means of "manual" transportation.

I don't think Eladrin teleportation needs to be about efficiency, especially as the Eladrin are a "fey" race. I see it more as a tool to take a non-linear, perhaps even paradoxical path. The Eladrin are not necessarily bound by human concepts of time or space. I'm reminded of the famous quote from Wagner's Parsifal, "Here, time becomes space."

In contrast, according to the PHB elves mature at the same rate as humans, and do not live nearly as long as their Eladrin cousins, and thus may be more firmly rooted, or at least tied to, a "mortal" concept of space and time.

Going back to Eladrin cities for a bit, if we do the math on Fey Step, it works out that over an 18 hour period, and Eladrin can teleport a total of ~5400 feet, or little over a mile. Imagine an Eladrin citadel, atop a mountain nearly a mile high, with sheer cliff faces and only a few narrow ledges every 20 or so feet. There need not be one path to the summit either, and perhaps some ledges are trapped.

This would make a nearly unassailable stronghold. Consider the real world examples, such as the Meteora Monasteries of Greece. From fantasy; the Eyrie in the Song of Fire and Ice.

 

[Lurks-no-More]

On the subject of how Fey Step works, I don't think it's stated that they pass into the Feywild (or into normal world, if using it in Feywild).

Personally, I think it's "pushing" against the planar border, not a crossing. An analogue: humans and other races are bound to ground (the world), and while they can move around, they must walk to get somewhere. Creatures with true interplanar movement can fly, taking off entirely. Eladrin can jump; they can't reach the extraplanar tree boughs or cloud castles, but they can "hop over" some of the barricades stopping worldbound people.

 

[Gregor]

Personally and IMC, I like the idea that Eladrin build their cities in the Feywild in places where the Material Plane and the Feywild overlap. Due to this close connection between the planes, Eladrin cities fade in and out of existence on the Material Plane at certain points in the day when the overlap is strongest - say sunrise and susnset. An additional affect of the overlap is that it causes areas of the material plane to flourish with flora and fauna, thereby assuring that Eladrin cities appear in Material Plane forests, oases, underground mushroom patches, etc.