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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Yaarel" data-source="post: 9358282" data-attributes="member: 58172">Most D&D human-like creatures have little or no resemblance to their medieval inspirations.Figures such as Elves, Gnomes, Fairies, Trolls, and so on, are animistic beings of specific features of nature and relating to fate (whence magic).The representations of them in D&D and Tolkien euhemerize these folkbeliefs to be as if a kind of historical human ethnicity. Thus the fantasy resembles more the early modern period where increasing access to travel and communication allowed encounters with the diverse human cultures coexisting together.D&D 4e and 5e help return to the earlier the medieval sensibility with the Feywild and the Shadaowfell, by presenting a spirit world that distinguishes from the mundane Material Plane. But then these planes are often too divorced from the natural features of the Material Plane. Also the 5e distinction between Ether, Positive Fey, and Negative Shadow, might prove useful but currently remains awkward. The useful aspect is a distinction between the Fey forces of life, nature, and wellbeing, versus the Shadow forces of death, cataclysm, and entropy. For example, in a Norse context, one might associate Aesir and Alfar with Fey forces, versus Jǫtnar and Dvergar with Shadow forces. But individual beings are diverse and can be part of unexpected forces.The most important medieval aspect is to reconnect to nature, so that the Border Ether includes a Border Fey and a Border Shadow. Then natural places in the Material might be vibrant attuning the Fey Positivity or desolate attuning the Shadow Negativity, or some ordinary mix attuning Ethereal admixture.The Norse Troll is the mind of a specific mountain, or a specific waterfall, or a specific forest, or so on. These are animistic beings. Sotospeak the soul of the mountain could project itself outward to influence its environs. The soul can even take a humanlike form (such as a human or giant or ogre) or an animallike form (such as a wolf or monstrous wolf, or snake or serpent) while the soul roams the world, and sometimes even materializes physically in a ghostlike way. Often Troll are very beautiful (such as Risi, Hulder, Fossegrim, etcetera), even if dangerous. They are the minds of natural phenomena that are both majestically lovely but deadly.Animism is about mindful influences. In D&D this correlates with the Psionic power source. It might make sense to say Psionic and Primal are the same thing. The power of a soul. Including the mind of a mountain, plain, river, or weather pattern.</blockquote>

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