There has been a flurry of threads (ranging from calls for a WotC Fey Book to homebrew fluff and crunch on Fey) on these boards recently about the Fey. Despite all this, I am not totally sure how does one define a fey creature. Well, in D&D a fey creature obviously is one that has the fey type, but what is it that makes these creatures fey - what unites them - what do they have in common - what are the historical/mythical/legenday/folklore ideas about the fey - how are fey defined? What is/are the Fey?
Fey
- Thread starter Roman
- Start date
Nifft
Penguin Herder
Trixie spirits that work via stealth. Natural in flavor -- wait, that's not quite right. They're natural in the sense that they're spontaneously generated by their environment. Gremlins are machine-fey just as naiads are river-fey (and "bugs" are computer-fey).
Ancient, but not wise.
-- N
Ancient, but not wise.
-- N
trancejeremy
Adventurer
Well, really, just about every supernatural (but living) creature that is intelligent and comes from real world mythology could be considered "Fey"...
Storyteller01
First Post
I love Goodman Games take on them...
They are similar to undead, in that they are souls from previous lives given a last chance at life (hence the love for life itself; oblivion is the only thing left for them). They live outside the natural cycle of life, but have to abide by it's rules. This tends to leads to wierd methods of spell casting to keep the Cycle from crushing them.
Of course, they also introduced fey magic
It's ot arcane or divine; it's its own class. It can counter arcane magic, but not divine. It can be countered be divine magic, but not arcane. Rather interesting stuff.
MTC...
They are similar to undead, in that they are souls from previous lives given a last chance at life (hence the love for life itself; oblivion is the only thing left for them). They live outside the natural cycle of life, but have to abide by it's rules. This tends to leads to wierd methods of spell casting to keep the Cycle from crushing them.
Of course, they also introduced fey magic
It's ot arcane or divine; it's its own class. It can counter arcane magic, but not divine. It can be countered be divine magic, but not arcane. Rather interesting stuff.MTC...
Hmm, so difficult to define... though Nifft's idea is pretty good I think.
What creatures would you associate with being Fey?
As for myself:
Fey/Fairies/Fae
Elves/Elfs
Gnomes
Leprechuans
Goblins
Kobolds
Sprites/Pixies/Nixies/Grigs
Nymphs
Sidhe
Dryads
Vila(s) (Specific type of fey [or so I think] from my culture - they are supposed to be very beautiful and dance in forests at night - can dance people to death - I am not sure, but this word might actually translate to simply 'fairy' or 'fey' in English)
Rusalka(s) (Another type of fey [or so I think] from my culture - live in lakes - female)
Vodnik(s) (Another type of fey from my culture - live in water - male)
Domovoj(s) (Yet another type of fey [or so I think] from my culture - live in homes of people)
Poludnica(s) (Noon fey from my culture)
Vecernica(s) (Evening fey from my culture)
Nocnica(s) (Night fey from my culture)
Morena(s) (Malevolent winter fey from my culture)
Skriatok(s)/Piadimuzik(s) (Miniature fey [or so I think] from my culture - some can be pranksters and others can be wise and helpful, but most are rather malevolent - almost always live underground and some rule underground kingdoms)
Bieda(s)/Chudoba(s) (Malevolent fey [on this one I am not so sure they are fey anymore though] from my culture that move into a house and cause poverty and destitution)
Trolls (Scandinavian type rather than D&D type)
Dwarves/Dwarfs - I know that dwarfes would have been considered fey, but to me this just does not feel so right - perhaps because the stereotype I am used to is from D&D and D&D dwarves are too 'serious' to be fey - that said I do know of stories in my culture of dwarfs that are closer to what I would consider to be fey and they are fey in Scandinavian/Germanic mythology
I guess this seems to make all Fey at least vaguely humanoid in shape - a head with two eyes, one nose in the center and one mouth below situated on a neck connecting to a torso with two arms and two legs attached. Hands have digits capable of manipulating material. Of course, my knowledge of Fey is very limited, so there may well be some not so humanoid creatures that would fall under this category. In fact, I might be tempted to include Sirens, Satyrs and the various Seafolk as Fey, which are less humanoid than the above list. There are probably many if not all cultures that have some fey creatures.
What creatures would you associate with being Fey?
As for myself:
Fey/Fairies/Fae
Elves/Elfs
Gnomes
Leprechuans
Goblins
Kobolds
Sprites/Pixies/Nixies/Grigs
Nymphs
Sidhe
Dryads
Vila(s) (Specific type of fey [or so I think] from my culture - they are supposed to be very beautiful and dance in forests at night - can dance people to death - I am not sure, but this word might actually translate to simply 'fairy' or 'fey' in English)
Rusalka(s) (Another type of fey [or so I think] from my culture - live in lakes - female)
Vodnik(s) (Another type of fey from my culture - live in water - male)
Domovoj(s) (Yet another type of fey [or so I think] from my culture - live in homes of people)
Poludnica(s) (Noon fey from my culture)
Vecernica(s) (Evening fey from my culture)
Nocnica(s) (Night fey from my culture)
Morena(s) (Malevolent winter fey from my culture)
Skriatok(s)/Piadimuzik(s) (Miniature fey [or so I think] from my culture - some can be pranksters and others can be wise and helpful, but most are rather malevolent - almost always live underground and some rule underground kingdoms)
Bieda(s)/Chudoba(s) (Malevolent fey [on this one I am not so sure they are fey anymore though] from my culture that move into a house and cause poverty and destitution)
Trolls (Scandinavian type rather than D&D type)
Dwarves/Dwarfs - I know that dwarfes would have been considered fey, but to me this just does not feel so right - perhaps because the stereotype I am used to is from D&D and D&D dwarves are too 'serious' to be fey - that said I do know of stories in my culture of dwarfs that are closer to what I would consider to be fey and they are fey in Scandinavian/Germanic mythology
I guess this seems to make all Fey at least vaguely humanoid in shape - a head with two eyes, one nose in the center and one mouth below situated on a neck connecting to a torso with two arms and two legs attached. Hands have digits capable of manipulating material. Of course, my knowledge of Fey is very limited, so there may well be some not so humanoid creatures that would fall under this category. In fact, I might be tempted to include Sirens, Satyrs and the various Seafolk as Fey, which are less humanoid than the above list. There are probably many if not all cultures that have some fey creatures.
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Rystil Arden
First Post
All those fey from your culture are definitely fey. In fact, Rusalka was done in dragon magazine and Domovoi is in Frostburn. As for the Vilas, I think they might be in Harry Potter, but that's the most I can say for them 
Rystil Arden said:All those fey from your culture are definitely fey. In fact, Rusalka was done in dragon magazine and Domovoi is in Frostburn. As for the Vilas, I think they might be in Harry Potter, but that's the most I can say for them
Vilas are actually the most common types of fey in my culture.
There are several types of them too [I guess the term is somewhat less than strictly defined, as some of these types differ substantially] and they are always female. BTW: As one of the board's resident fey experts - how would you define fey and what creatures would you list as fey?
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