D&D General Faerie Blue / Orange Morality Systems

[JConstantine]

Fae and contracts have a long and storied history together, so I’m onboard with them being very important. And I see what you’re going for when separating them from devils by making them not necessarily misleading, but I do think misunderstanding the terms of an agreement with the fae is an iconic trope one wouldn’t want to lose. Where I would differentiate it is that a devil’s contract is misleading because the devil is so intimately familiar with the conventions of contracts that they can cleverly hide loopholes and exploit technicalities. Whereas I feel like the misleading nature of a fae contract is more likely to arise out of naivety than out of intentional deception. Where the devil tricks you into agreeing to terms you didn’t fully understand, it never even occurred to the faerie queen that you wouldn’t know what she meant when she asked if she could “have your name.”

The thread is focused on fey, so I don't want to get too off-topic, but I agree with distinguishing between the agreements made with fey vs devils. I'd throw in djinn wishes here too.

I prefer to have written contracts be specific to devils, highlighting their Lawful nature, while fey are verbal. I like to play a bit with the trope of devils being liars, by having it that they will lie and cheat and deceive as much as they can during negotiations in order to get favourable terms for their self, but once the contract is signed, their Lawful nature supernaturally compels them to follow it to the letter. Which is why the contract and its wording is so important.

For djinn, I like to emphasis their capricious nature by having them twist a wish however they can, because they're as mercurial as the elements and how arrogant are you to think you can control the elements?

For fey, your word is your bond.