D&D 5E How exactly does the Feywild time warp work? (Can it be used for going back in time?)

[Umbran]

If it's not a paradox you're not doing the Feywild right.

I think you may be confusing the Feywild with Limbo. And maybe it depends on the person, but when I think about the Fae, I think Thomas the Rhymer and the Wild Hunt, not temporal paradox.

The line of reasoning assumes that the die roll determines the time step. That can't be measured directly and may not be true. Alice can do experiments like these:

Um... is it appropriate to have the lands of the fae subject to the strict logic of the scientific method?

She can't prove that the global function is not consistent...

Yes. Remember that Oberon and Titania would laugh in Einstein and Hawking's faces, right? And Tinkerbell giggles every time someone says "mono-tonic" because that's a kind of medicine you give to the Darling children before Peter Pan gets to them.

If you are thinking about the Feywild, should you be thinking "monotonic functions" or "*MAGIC*"? It is, ultimately, a question of genre you want to play in.

 

[GothicEmperor]

I think you may be confusing the Feywild with Limbo. And maybe it depends on the person, but when I think about the Fae, I think Thomas the Rhymer and the Wild Hunt, not temporal paradox.

What I mean is that it shouldn't obey ordinary laws of logic, especially when it comes to magical effects (fey magic should be weird and counter-untuitive; cruel and capricious but not random for the sake of it, as Limbo is). Oisín returning from Tír na nÓg and instantly aging as time catches up to him when he sets foot upon the ground is exactly the sort of combination of wonder and danger that makes fey stories so interesting.

 

[clearstream]

Um... is it appropriate to have the lands of the fae subject to the strict logic of the scientific method?

Yes, I think it is appropriate and fun!

People wonder about all kinds of things in D&D. They ask whether bows should use Strength, how far one can jump, the flight speed of a swallow laden or unladen, the weight of gold pieces? D&D is a fusion of light-simulation (a typically mythic-medieval world somewhat similar to our own) and ludic mechanisms.

This particular mystery - time in the Feywild - is magical.

Yes. Remember that Oberon and Titania would laugh in Einstein and Hawking's faces, right? And Tinkerbell giggles every time someone says "mono-tonic" because that's a kind of medicine you give to the Darling children before Peter Pan gets to them.

The discoveries of those scientists, and others like Planck and Dirac, were more magical than the author of such stories could previously have imagined.

Notwithstanding the rather funny pun on "monotonic"

If you are thinking about the Feywild, should you be thinking "monotonic functions" or "*MAGIC*"? It is, ultimately, a question of genre you want to play in.

If it's a genre where wind can fill the sails of sailing ships and carry them across the seas, and fire can burn things, where up is usually up and down is usually down... then it's a genre whose inhabitants can wonder how Feywild time distortion works.

Without breaking anything.

 

[Umbran]

If it's a genre where wind can fill the sails of sailing ships and carry them across the seas, and fire can burn things, where up is usually up and down is usually down... then it's a genre whose inhabitants can wonder how Feywild time distortion works.

Without breaking anything.

Wonder how it works? Of course.

Actually work out how it works like a logic puzzle? Well, that's a genre-setting decision. Can you reduce the action of the Feywild to a logic puzzle? Do you *want* to?

 

[akr71]

I tend to not look at travel to and from the Feywild as a mathematical function. If portal A brings you back to a point nearly relative to your departure, the next time it is used could be entirely different. That is to say, if there is a mathematical relation between Material Plane Time and Feywild Time, the function applied to the travelers is completely random and unpredictable with each and every use.

The Archfey have designed it thus, and one must be of a similar power as the Archfey to comprehend and control it. However, that's just my 2 CP, things may work differently in your multiverse.

 

[clearstream]

Wonder how it works? Of course.

Actually work out how it works like a logic puzzle? Well, that's a genre-setting decision. Can you reduce the action of the Feywild to a logic puzzle? Do you *want* to?

To be reduced sounds like a bad thing. There is a mystery or puzzle. I'm suggesting that although it can be studied and predictions made about it, the underlying mechanism remains obscure. An obscure mystery: that's a magical thing!

Digressing, I'd frame my approach as reasoning, rather than logic. I do want to reason about things in our imaginary reality. For me, the OP's question is a fun one. Whimsical, even.

 

[Charlaquin]

The beauty of the scientific method is that it’s not something that phenomena “obey” or are “subject to.” Its a process of making and testing predictions about phenomena to form a better understanding of them. The Feywild doesn’t have to follow the same physical laws as the material plane to be understood scientifically. Granted, its alien physics might lead to outcomes that would be impossible under normal physics, but as long as they follow some set of rules, even if those rules are not objective, it can be understood.

And yes, whether or not the fae realm has its own alien laws or is indeed pure chaos is a matter of genere conventions, but personally I prefer faerie to operate by strict rules (albeit ones that we material beings would find totally alien and illogical) than for it to be true calvinball. And I think that is more closely aligned with fairy tale tropes. So many fairy stories revolve around an innocent mortal being punished for unwittingly transgressing against some obscure faerie law - eating the wrong food, stepping on the wrong blade of grass, giving the right answer to the right riddle but on the wrong day, etc.