Fey Realm

Post/Author/DateTimePost
#1

zombiegleemax

Jul 06, 2004 23:38:04
I have noticed many references to the fey and even a little expansion on annwyn, but have wondered why no one has really taken off with this. The Creature Crucible went in to some detail of the court but failed to really flesh it out.

I have run a fey campaign. Although it was never completed, The base story and some background had to be in place. The following is, basically, some of the stuff I came up with. I cannot claim much originality on this as most everything is based from celtic lore, Irish history, Changeling by White Wolf, and a set of books by Terry Brooks. All I did was chop this up and make it all fit.

Background: The first thing i did was to create a mystical realm. This statistically is a pocket of prime material in the ethereal realm. If anyone has read Magic Kingdom for Sale: Sold by Terry Brooks, you will have a real good idea what i was going for here. For you that didnt it is a relatively small small chunk of land (maybe 800 miles across either way) surrounded by a continuous wall of mists. Unlike the mists of the Nightmare Realm these mists will not pick up people from other places. Those who enter find themselves forever lost in a world of grey mists. Only the most powerful of magical creatures have any hope of making it through on a regular basis, and even then is difficult and not assured of survival.

The only safe way from here to the prime and back is through one of the numerous portals located all over the realm. These portals lead to places all over Mystara. These could be located just about anywhere but are usually some kind of doorway, even if this is little more than a hole in the wall covered by heaps of detritus. These occur randomly and most are stable. I did give access to a spell that created these but limited it to npcs in dire emergencies.

Time and space in this realm is not relevant in the same sense as the prime material. Any time spent here is not neccessarily the same as in the prime. Space is distorted. Travel around from place to place is normal and takes only about a month to cross the whole plane riding. Once off the main paths the rider could find themselves in realms that would take months to cross. This is a magical realm so it is really up to the DM to manage this as they see fit.

There are 3 levels to this plane. Loosely, the underworld, midworld, and overworld. The underworld is basically Annwyn. The overworld is the "empire of the faeries" from the crucible. And the last, midworld, I named Avalon. Use whatever name you like. Oberon is High King ofAvalon. This includes 7 realms in which a king or queen is ruler. I used Irish county names plus wales and britanny. Each of these realms are divided into smaller protectorates and dominions, that are not always neccessarily on good terms with the regions ruler. IMC Gwyn has pledged allegience to the Ard Ri mainly because he is Seelie despite having a court that is largely Unseelie.

However over the last few decades the mists have been creeping across the country side, dividing the regions up smaller. These mists have been slowly engulfing the magical realm. This has forced the sidhe to abandon alot of the ancestral lands and gather at Oberon's court in Tirnanogh. This has also had the secondary oeffect of limiting travel through Avalon. Some places can only be reached via the permanent portal for the regions castle. That could entail travelling thousands of miles across Mystara to reach a realm 200 miles away.

Oberon is also the High King of the Seelie court. IMC the difference wasnt good or evil. If you follow the book it goes through the story of how the fey are immortals reborn on the prime plane. They went on to say that some dont like the fact that they were denied that full immortal state. That explains alot but i added that since mortals were the ones affected most by entropy and chaos, I made a link to mortals being responsible for the schizm. IMC this started a civil war. This would explain why Useelie are of a more dangerous and deadly nature in their pranks. They also believe that the mortals should worship them as they do immortals. This superiority is all the conflict we need to seperate them. This doesnt make them evil, just hostile. Many Unseelie over time do go mad which eventually makes them evil but many are rational, intelligent, cunning individuals who believe they are gods. I dredged up a name from lore. Queen Madb has declared herself High Queen of the Unseelie court. I also made her rise to #1 enemy on OBs list. Titania is still at it though she has let up a little since she is Seelie and wouldnt want a power flip to occur right at her inauguration.

Ok now knowing all that. the Campaign hook is Queen Madb has recently declared herself High Queen. She has for decades been using an artifact call The Brass Cauldron to increase the mists and divide Avalon up to breaK up OB's grip on the other nobles. This Artifact was crafted by one of the first generation sidhe while they were still immortals. IMC it has the stats according to what powers i could associate through celtic lore. The power to feed an army, the power to raise the dead and make them fight for you, use in divination, use in brewing and making potions, and i added the ability to create fog or mists. This was largely for hook.

well this is much longer than i ever intended. If anyone is interested in more feel free to ask quetions. I tried cramming way too much here and hope i didnt just bore everyone )