D&D 5E Who are the current Archfey?

[Kobold Avenger]

The Wild Beyond the Witchlight might be changing a few things already written about Feywild, since Domains of Delight might be a sort of new concept (though I think there certainly were Fey realms mentioned somewhere).

But who currently are the Archfey?

PHB gives the names: Prince of Frost, Queen of Air and Darkness, Titania, Oberon and Hyrsam as examples. Prince of Frost I think was first mentioned in 4e, while Queen of Air and Darkness, Titania and Oberon were at least since in 2e's Monster Mythology, and Titania and Oberon are best as known coming from William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

It's been suggested that the Beast Lords (despite originally being placed in the Beastlands) are also Archfey. Powerful Hags including Baba Yaga from Slavonic Mythology might qualify as Archfey.

All things considered, I doubt any of these names are the type of Archfey to be confined to a Domain of Delight, though it might be such domains are less a prison, or there's effectively two different tiers of Archfey, and those big names are like the Dark Powers of Feywild.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

If we're limiting it to 5E era mentions that narrows things quite a bit from 4E. I'll try to list what I know of:

• Curse of Strahd mentions an evil archfey called Ceithlenn of the Crooked Teeth. A hag coven in Barovia venerates her.
• The hag entry in Volo's Guide to Monsters describes "grandmother hags" who are said to rival the archfey in power (I assume this means they aren't archfey themselves?).
• The background for the darklings in Volo's Guide to Monsters describes how the Summer Queen cursed an archfey and his entire court for betraying her. The true name of the offended archfey was stricken from history, but he is now known as Dubh Catha (or "Dark Crow" in Common).
• The adventure "The Scrivener's Tale" in Candlekeep Mysteries features a new archfey named Nintra Siotta, Princess of Shadow Glass (I just now learned of her existence, honestly). She apparently was exiled for arguing with the Queen of Air and Darkness. Interestingly, if the Forgotten Realms wiki entry for her is accurate, both the Queen of Air and Darkness and the Princess of Shadow Glass are said to be part of the Gloaming Court, a concept from 4E that I had assumed was replaced by the Unseelie Court in 5E (now I'm curious if the Summer, Coral, and Green Courts are still in existence in 5E).
• For what it's worth, DDO: Fables of the Feywild (released in November 2020) prominently features both the Prince of Frost and Hyrsam the Satyr Prince, with one adventure taking place in Hyrsam's castle.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

I suspect a bunch of the 4e ones will eventually end up in 5e, and that a bunch of the deities of various Fey creatures in 2e's Monster Mythology are also going to end up as Archfey.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

I suspect a bunch of the 4e ones will eventually end up in 5e, and that a bunch of the deities of various Fey creatures in 2e's Monster Mythology are also going to end up as Archfey.

5E definitely needs more high CR fey. It's slim pickings as of now.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

I'll add, it's not entirely clear if the rulers of Domains of Delight are Archfey; the writers keep saying this, but it might be a Red Herring as it appears Zybilna is actually just Tasha, who as far as I know is not an Archfey at all.

 

[ersatzphil]

Curse of Strahd mentions an evil archfey called Ceithlenn of the Crooked Teeth. A hag coven in Barovia venerates her.

It might be worth pointing out that she's poached from Irish mythology - she's Balor's wife, and one of the Fomorians.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Gloaming Court, a concept from 4E that I had assumed was replaced by the Unseelie Court in 5E (now I'm curious if the Summer, Coral, and Green Courts are still in existence in 5E).

Gloaming Court is simply another (less Irish) name for the Unseelie court. The Summer Court certainly still exists (the Seelie in Irish) , and if D&D Beyond is to be trusted so does the Green. Feywild 101: Read About Key NPCs in the Plane of Faeries

If D&D Beyond is to be trusted, just because something was from 4e doesn't mean it never happened.

 

[Weiley31]

Honestly, the best answer to that question is looking back at 4E and just import all its Feywild knowledge/Archfey into that. Those are the current Archfey that exist within non-homebrew DND.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Archfey

Archfey were fey beings who gained nearly god-like powers and established a position of preeminence among fey-kind. Each archfey had a unique appearance and set of abilities, most controlled a portion of the Feywild and had self-proclaimed titles. Some of them were powerful fey of many races...

forgottenrealms.fandom.com

A starting point.

 

[The Glen]

Mystara has Oberon as the Ard-ri, followed by Titania, Puck, Ariel, Maab, Bregbeddle, Creddyledd, Gwen-Ap-Nudd, Malt-Y-Nos and Ghillie Dhu among others. It took a lot from Shakespeare and traditional Welsh/Irish/Arthurian folklore.