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Reading D&D4E Player's Options: Heroes of the Feywild with Mystara glasses

by Håvard

Player's Options: Heroes of the Feywild for D&D 4th Edition is in my opinion one of the more interesting books to have come out of the D&D4E era. For one thing it has more setting information and less rules crunchy things than many other books of that era. It is obviously not a Mystara book.

However, reading it and pretending that it was written with Mystara in mind did spark quite a few ideas in my brain.

I'm going to be using the following assumptions when going through this book:

1) The Feywild as presented in this book can serve as a source of inspiration for further developing the Plane of Fairy or the Feywood as it is called in PC1. I will however not import it wholesale. IMO the plane of Fairy is constantly shifting and I also like the idea that it will be a reflection of whatever world travellers visit from. So the Feywild as presented in 4E material will have certain features that tie it to the Nentir Vale. Similarly, the map will be changed to the one I have presented here in the past.

2) My assumption for this thread is that Rowena as presented in this book is in fact the same Rowena as the one from B3 Palace of the Silver Princess and a native of Mystara who frequents the Fairy World, and who may also have visited Greyhawk as well as the demiplane of the Isle of the Ape as discussed in more detail here.

3) The Isle of Dread as described in 4E sources and 5E sources is not the actual Isle of Dread from Mystara, but rather a reflection of it. Mystara's Isle of Dread is the real Isle of Dread, but because it is a strong nexus point for ley lines or similar magic, it casts a reflection across multiple planes and dimensions as does also other locations. That means however, that some features detailed in 4E and 5E material for the Isle of Dread, could be a result of those or similar things taking place on Mystara's Isle of Dread. So making use of these sources can be useful for a Mystara reading. I will again stress that this is just an assumption for this thread. I am not trying to force this idea onto other fans or their campaigns.

3) The Eladrin will be replaced by Sidhe (from PC1) and possibly other Fey creatures as well such as the Eldar (from the Dragonlord trilogy), Protectors (from B3), Faedorne (from AC9) etc. Liosalfar and Svartalfar (Dark Elves from Gaz7) will replace the Celestial Eladrin. I will however be looking to borrow ideas from this book and other sources on the Eladrin to expand and modify those Mystara races. I am also not above making a few changes to PC1's Sidhe while remaining true to what I see as the core nature of that race.

Chapter 1.

One of the premises of the book is that there is only one Feywild, no matter if you access it from the Forgotten Realms, the Nentir Vale , Dark Sun, Eberron or another campaign world. Mystara was rarely referenced during the 4E era, and is not mentioned here. I am not going to suggest that this book is canonical Mystara information, but I am reading through it looking for ideas to use in a Mystara campaign.

Chapter one lays out many of the basics of the setting. We are given an introduction both from an outsider's perspective and from a native's perspective.

This chapter also introduces the concept of the Feydark as well as many locations and regions of the surface world of the Feywild. The Feydark is of course the Underdark of the Feywild. This reminds me of Gwynn Ap Nudd's Annwn from Mystara's PC1, but I am not sure if the Feydark is associated with the Unseelie Court or not.

The book divides the other regions/locations of the Feywild into the following groups:
The Cities of the Eladrin
the Demesnes of the Archfey
Borderlands and Wilderness

 

CITIES OF THE ELADRIN
The cities of the Eladrin are:

Comments: I am tempted not to use these cities in my campaign. In the OP, I talk a bit about how I see Eladrin as basically something that can be replaced by Sidhe and a few other races. I do however like the idea of Sidhe Cities.

DEMESMES OF THE ARCHFEY
Senaliesse - Demesme of the Summer Queen
Vale of the Long Night - Demesme of the Prince of Frost

Comments:We have a separate thread about the Archfey here, so it makes sense that the unquiely Mystaran Archfey will have their own Strongholds in Mystara's version of the Feywild. The Summer Queen corresponds to Titania (she isn't called that in 4E, but they changed it back in 5E), but I am not sure if we have an equivalent of the Prince of Frost yet?

BORDERLANDS/WILDERNESS
Brokenstone Vale - haven for werebeasts
Cerdriane - abandoned city surrounded by a forest of monsters
The Isle of Dread
The Fomorian Cities
The Maze of Fathaghn - forest maze home of dryads, treants etc
The Murkendaw - muddy home of the Baba Yaga and other hags
Nachtur - The Goblin Kingdom

Comments: I have not previous considered werebeasts to be found in Mystara's fairie realm. Perhaps some connection to PC4 and the Valle du Loupe in Glantri could be appropriate? For Fomorians, I like Ripvanwormer's idea that Athachs could be a BECMI precursor to that race and still associated with Mystara. I also like woodland mazes and having a land of Hags and even the Baba Yaga. Goblins are clearly not fey creatures on Mystara, although this could be used to explain Alfheim's Goblin Park?

The stand out location here is of course the Isle of Dread. As mentioned in the OP, I think the Isle of Dread could have a "shadow" verison on the realm of Feywood. Perhaps this also explains why Lost World regions exist on Mystara. I am less keen on Dinosaurs elsewhere in the Feywood.

 
FACTIONS
On p 12 there is also an outline of factions for the Feywild:
Court of Stars
Court of Coral
Goaming Fey
Green Fey
Summer Fey
Winter Fey
Unseelie Fey

This is a bit more complex than Mystara's Seelie and Unseelie Fey, with the Court of Stars being an overarching equivalent of the Seelie Fey, but with each of the subfactions being associated with one of the Archfey. I do like the Court of Coral being included here, as I think Nixies and other aquatic fey could deserve a bit more attention for Mystara's Feywood Plane.

I am interested in hearing what you guys think about all of this and how we can use ideas from this book to expand on Mystara's lore