How would I run the Feywild? || D&D w/ Dael Kingsmill

This time on MonarchsFactory I'm back from DnD Live 2019 and talking vaguely and evocatively on the subject of the Feywild or Faerie and how to run it - while editing I realised a million ideas to talk about, so maybe look out for more stuff in the future on this wildly broad topic.
Here's that link I mentioned:
DnD Live VOD: • D&D Live 2019: D&D Bey...
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[@LenPopp]

Oh. I thought this was going to be like "If I were Queen of the Feywild, boy there'd be some changes over there."

[@gabbypie64]

i want that video too like this was good lets hear the other video

[@HeavensOfMetal]

“You raise your sword to attack the fairy. Make an intelligence saving throw.” “Uh, 12.” “You swing your baguette at the fairy & the baguette turns to liquid.” “I try to scoop up the liquid” “Make a charisma saving throw” “20!” “You’re holding the liquid in your hands, a great big chunk of it” “I uh, squash the liquid into a ball” “Make an intelligence check” “17” “The bread decides that it was more fond of being a sword than a ball & is upset at you - you notice the fairy is gone at this point” “I chase after my bread & try & find the fairy” “You find a forest of bread, looking around you unsheathe your fairy, worried about what dangers lurk here”

[@flxfaber]

Bugs Bunny energy in that last line.

[@DungeonsandRoses]

Old Spice: D&D Edition

[@PandorasFolly]

Dealing with the fae wild should feel like a dream....or a mushroom trip. Congrats. Fucking nailed it.

[@HeavensOfMetal]

@@PandorasFolly Thanks man. In my imagination, things in the Feywild both shouldn't make sense & at the same time, be whimsically dangerous. No one is going to stab you with a sword, or throw a fireball at you, but they'll turn you into a sheep & make the suggestion that you should pretend to be a cloud - then you end up floating into the sky for an hour until Polymorph wears off.

[@PandorasFolly]

@@HeavensOfMetal exactly. Have you ever read any of the books from the Game "Mage of the Ascension"? You can find the pdfs online and if you haven't read them, they are totally blooming from this kind of trellis. Each book has about a PhDs worth of research in them.

[@nathanaelpoole1369]

For me in the feywild everything is the original version where our world feels like the copy of a copy, a fey tree is just more treeish than a material realm tree.

[@Ramschat]

Cool! The realm where the platonic ideals of objects and concepts actually exist!

[@AndrewWebbGames]

If you had a T-Shirt with "Vague & Evocative" on it, I'd probably buy it. Just saying.

[@Tanglangfa]

Andrew Webb I agree. I’d also wear “Zip-Zap-Boing”.

[@Ian-mx4vp]

honestly i never had a word or phrase for the feeling until i started watching this channel so im obliged to buy one

[@DungeonsandRoses]

I'd wear it.

[@Hydravatar]

Came here to comment this, black shirt, white lettering, maybe pseudo D&D font.

[@sloth7ds]

Vague and Evocative is my jam. It’s delicious on toast.

[@Wimikk]

My favourite succinct depiction of Faerie magic comes from Doctor Who, of all places. “Humans do all sorts of things with numbers - you split the atom! Well, [witches] do that with words.”

[@CodeDoe]

That low-key minion cosplay tho

[@MLeoDaalder]

I also like the twist Terry Pratchett had on the Fae/Elves (on their morality, or lack thereof): Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder. Elves are marvellous. They cause marvels. Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies. Elves are glamorous. They project glamour. Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment. Elves are terrific. They beget terror.

[@Nexusin]

“Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly.”

[@timscarrott8919]

When it comes to getting INTO Faerie, or the Feywilds, I am always reminded of a line from PotC: At World's End - "For certain, you have to be lost to find a place that can't be found, elseways everyone would know where it was." I also like the idea that certain geography has a natural connection to the Feywild, and that the two might bleed together. So a party that is lost in a Forest would more likely find Faerie, as opposed to just being lost on the plains. I might even go so far as to include the idea of twilight, since I have always envisioned it as being constant twilight there. It comes from my love of the Courts - Seelie/Unseelie, Summer/Winter, and the constant balance between light, dark, warm, cold, night, day.

[@Mr_Maiq_The_Liar]

"The nature of Fey is that often what you look at is hard to describe, and the idea is more pervasive than the physical appearance. When a fairy has clothes the color of a mid day storm. How cloudy? How rainy? Lit up by lightning or over the ocean? Snow storm? Blizard? Thunder? These things are answered by the observer because the ideal is more important than the physics of shape light and color, and the constant of its appearance isn’t what it looks like, but what you think when you look at it." My DM describing why Fey are so strange so we stop asking questions about what the color of clouds means

[@Adurnis]

Dael’s book recommendations: - “On Fairy-Stories” by J.R.R. Tolkien - “Surprised by Joy” by C.S. Lewis - “Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrel” by Susanna Clarke - “Irish Faerie and Folktales” by W. B. Yeats - “The Crystal Cave” “The Hollow Hills,” “the Merlin Trilogy” and others by Mary Stewart - “Faeries” by Brian Froud; Allen Lee

[@majesticmundanity]

I’ve only read the first one

[@MrGimond]

Was looking for this, thank you

[@samuelbroad11]

Jack Vance's Lyonesse trilogy. Written at the height of his prowess. Cannot more highly recommend it, great folk and Fae encounters and truly mystical mad magicians, a joy. Dry wit with a light touch.

[@scienceguy8888]

I would run that if the players go into Faerie with cold iron the world starts to reject them, they don't see anything as the very light shies away from them, they don't hear anything because the sound avoids them, even the very ground crumbles at their feet because it fears the cold iron.

[@nottelling9581]

In many myths, it's cold wrought iron that affects faeries, rather than iron itself. That's iron that has been worked without heat. In DnD terms, cold wrought iron weapons would be rare magical items, specifically made to be effective against faeries.

[@InfiniteProdu]

The thing I'm most excited to do in a Feywild campaign is to put the party against a lich inspired by Koschei the Deathless (who is actually one of the oldest, if not the oldest lich in human folklore history). Koschei hid his death in a needle in an egg in a duck in a rabbit in a chest locked away in a box on a remote island. I think it would be so funny/cool to have a fey lich who has hidden their phylactery so tediously and randomly.

[@tonysladky8925]

I love all of this. Personally, I go the exact opposite with cold iron, largely due to my being a massive Dresden Files fanboy: Any old Iron will do. a steel sword, a lump of iron ore, a handful of nails, you name it, if it's ferrous, fey can't abide it (except ones like Annis Hags and Redcaps who explicitly have iron elements in their lore and statblocks, and that just inspires all sorts of fun questions like how they got their iron immunity and how other fey feel about them), and merely the touch of iron is unpleasant to the fey. But, they're preternaturally good at avoiding contact with the stuff. Good luck sneaking up on a faerie to stab it with a steel dagger or hack it to bits with an iron axe. I don't have explicit rules for any of this, I would probably deal with it on a fey-by-fey basis, but off the top of my head, I would suspect contact with iron would screw up what the fey is best at, so a caster might have difficulty concentrating on spells, while a warrior might become frail and clumsy after touching iron. I also think that glamours are interesting. I love the idea that the beauty of Faerie isn't even skin deep. Like, I love in The Sandman when Nuala comes to stay in Dream's realm and he strips her of her glamours and she's just this frail, plain creature. Or in Terry Pratchett's Lords and Ladies when you get hints (or at least, I did the first time I read it; probably due for a reread) that underneath the sophisticated illusions that the Elves wore into Lancre were just primitive warriors dressed in hides killing their victims with stone weapons. I love the idea of Faerie glamours being like illusions, but better. Like, there's a solidity to them, an appeal to all the senses that eludes even the greatest of mortal illusionists while being like child's play to the fey. Ooh! That's a third thing. I think part of what makes the fey so interesting and alien is the reversal of what comes easily versus what is difficult compared to the experience of humans and other mortals. Like, humans need to go to all this work to use magic, whether it's a lifetime of worship in a temple, or of study in a magic school or bardic college, or of servitude to an otherworldly patron (with sorcerers as the exception), but creatures of Faerie are creatures of magic through and through; they cast complicated spells as easily as a mortal makes a sandwich. On the other hand, things like lying or using iron tools are so easy that any mortal can do it without thinking, but would stymie a faerie creature to no end. These are just my favorite examples, but it's a neat shorthand to illustrate their alienness: What's hard for mortals but easy for the fey, and what's easy for mortals but hard for the fey?

[@mirkopolyak3592]

Anthony Sladky I do something similar with my fey/iron interactions. In my world, all fey are vulnerable to any iron based weapons. Imagine my young fighter’s delight when she discovers that her ordinary rapier is more feared by the Hag than the wizard’s firebolt or the Druid’s wildshaped bear attacks. Specifically addressing the Redcap issue, after they are slain, my players discover that Redcap bodies “revert” to what they actually are rather than what they appear to have been - Like Pinocchio being a puppet that was turned into a real boy by a fairy, Redcaps are “real old men” that were made from straw filled puppets. When they die, they turn back into the marionettes that they were. It turns out that the iron shoes are actually just thin LEAD cups at the ends of their footless legs. No wonder they are so clumsy. Fey will occasionally use other metals, lead and tin, copper, silver, and of course gold. But they will never willingly touch iron. Although some, like the Annis Hags, will create the illusion of iron teeth or nails, partly to hide their dread of the metal, partly just for the thrill of deception.

[@andrewstambaugh8030]

I played a character that looked like a goblin but was actually supposed to be a fey trickster sort of character (along the lines of rumplestiltskin or a bubbayaga, be careful about the specifics of the deal you make). Part of what was fun to play was having rules that the DM and I knew but the other players, didn't. For example, he didn't value most things, but precious metal, especially gold, were of extreme value to him, though not so quantity specific. The actual tangible coin was the valuable thing, not the promise of much wealth. (think paying the ferryman, you need the coin in hand to pay not a future promise) I had chosen a shadow monk class, so his fey aspects were greatly enhanced once he reached the early level where he can shadow teleport. The campaign started with villages having problems with nearby goblins having been attacking travelers and homesteads, so my character sleeping in front of the fire at an in naturally lead to hostility. Ended when a player (not the quest giver) trying to end the fighting by offered him a job helping them - and pulled out a few gold coins to visually communicate during the fighting. A bargain was immediately struck. (being fey, this was a binding agreement, though the terms are particular) At another time, the people we were with refused to give the goblin some of the food they were cooking. Having shown him offense, it would be returned mischievously. Having tracked down some of the enemy goblins, he took part of one and cooked it into jerky (nasty goblin-flesh tasting jerky) and then snuck it into their provisions for a nasty surprise later. (remember he is fey and only appears like a goblin, so this isn't cannibalism for him to give someone goblin flesh) Also, he would listen/obey to the person who payed him, because that was part of the bargain, be he would often ignore the other party members trying to tell him to do something unless they were willing to strike some deal with him.

[@Apollo9898LP]

On the nature of fairies: There was a great reddit post that I have since lost on the morality of fairies. It took the approach of creating an axis (similar to our good/evil x lawful/chaotic axis we use for character creation) and came to the conclusion, based off various stories mentioning fairies, that fairy society would value the natural over the constructed and the spontaneous over the methodical. Essentially it was that a fairy believes it is virtuous to keep with ones place in nature. This doesn't mean that like civilization is evil, but more of a "don't rock the boat" mentality. If you're a beggar or a king, be content with your place in the food chain. And then on the other hand, they would also believe that it is virtuous to be spontaneous. The fairy who seeks to control the future through careful planning is foolish. To do what is dramatic in the moment, what is interesting and *fun,* is most noble. Sticking to plans that have since become dull is nonsense. Anyway, it was an interesting thought and has definitely influenced how i view Fairy behavior. If i ever find that post again I will link it here.

[@FlyingAxblade_D20]

Lawful Grumpy during Winter & Chaotic Merry during Spring & during Summer the courts are divided by Lawful Merry & Chaotic Grumpy during Autumn?

[@Zoidberg023]

As a gameplay mechanic and a bit of fun narratively - what if the creatures in the Feywild are resistant or immune to magic weapons but non-magic weapons do damage to them? Should this happen after 8th level or so it could become a neat challenge

[@umbrawatch4973]

I'm not sure were it originated from but cold-forged Iron is typically seen as a weakness of Fey-Creatures in pop culture. It makes sense in a way, especially if you use a DND-twist to make it where you're literally forging the iron with ice rather than fire.

[@mirkopolyak3592]

Bailey Higdon This is a common misunderstanding. In real life, iron is never “forged” cold. But in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s, the term “cold iron” was used poetically, in literature, to mean a weapon made of steel - such as a sword. Much like we might say “Her words cut him deeper than any cold, hard steel ever could.” Some fantasy rpg’s have taken this misunderstanding and built it into their lore. For example, the Forgotten Realms wiki says “Cold iron was a type of iron. It was forged at a lower temperature than normal iron or steel, in order to preserve its properties. It was mined deep underground and famed for its efficacy against fey creatures.” So in the Forgotten Realms, “cold iron” weapons were specially made for that purpose. But in my homebrew, I just make all fey vulnerable to any iron based weapons. Imagine my young fighter’s delight when she discovers that her ordinary rapier is more feared by the Hag than the wizard’s firebolt or the Druid’s wildshaped bear attacks.

[@robouteguilliman6662]

Mirko Polyak On top of this. Make only pure Iron affect them to add an extra sense of uncertainty.

[@shybard]

"Earthy and alien" seems like an apt description for the Feywild.

[@CptnHammer1]

sail into a mist, wait untill the food runs out and the players are giving up or going to panic and want to go back. then their boat will hit a shore in the mist with a high white cliffside and a path up it.

[@MathasiaJ]

That reminds me of a description from The History Of The Peopling Of Ireland

[@JohnHegner]

A thought I had, watching your always excellent videos, was to utilize PCs Behaviors, Ideals, Bonds, and/or Flaws as things that manifest in people/places/things in the Feywild. Do not, as a DM, inform the players of this, but rather introduce it on the sly and wait to see when players start to resonate with these aspects that they themselves chose for their characters, but often get overlooked (such is the nature of the game). Example: Flaw - I'm a sucker for a pretty face. As the players enter the Feywild they continuously encounter (and accrue) fey that are simply infatuated by the PC with this trait. It matters not what this PC's charisma score is, or how attractive they have described themselves, what matters is that this is a manifestation of their reality in a way that is almost like a mirror. Alternatively, the same flaw could manifest as a nymph who consistently appears for everyone but the PC with this flaw, or perhaps only for them, and threatens to lure them away. The ultimate goal of such is to give the players some soul searching to chew on as they see their own aspects reflected as if in fun house mirrors. Warped, but still identifiable, and perhaps not to their liking. The only other thing I wanted to mention was that the endeavor to describe Faerie was highly entertaining and eye-opening. I came to realize that Faerie is the embodiment of that inability to explain Faerie with our limited human terms. It is the feeling, plain and simple. The state of recognizing something as more natural than ourselves and the painful longing to abandon that which is human in us so that we can be a part of it. Like abandoning your day job to live in the woods and build a cabin with nothing but a stone axe. The need to forget language so that you can accurately describe a sunrise, and yet the frustration of having forgot the very means by which you can share it to another. Ultimately, the need to bear witness to nature personally, and not through the limited shared consciousness that language affords us mortals. Thanks, Dael!

[@WandersNowherre]

The PC personality traits idea is genius. It would also serve well in a Lower Planes setting for tormenting PCs in true Dante fashion.

[@anthonynorman7545]

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[@44tuck3r]

In my game, creatures of the feywild dont die. So eating another creature in the feywild is a decision made with that creature - an elk or fish of the feywild would be entirely aware of the whole process of its being eaten, and you wouldn’t cook meats in the feywild. One of my players was taken into the feywild during a one shot by a beautiful white bull that carried him through a wall. He lied to a few pixies that he was the god Dionysus, resulting in him being brought to a party in the court of an ancient fairie dragon. The dragon aided him in supplying the feast and performance that would be expected should Dionysus/Bacchus arrive as a guest, thereby cementing his pact - and continuing what he then learned was a longstanding family tradition. At some point he will return there to seek out his parents who have been elsewhere in the feywild for a long time. To me the fey crossings are - like you were saying about getting lost - places where the quality of the environment feels beautiful, serene, calm and safe. Disturbingly undisturbed. They are palces where you could not tell which side you were on at the time you cross. I think that reinforces the idea of having designated crossing times. A party decides to take a long rest there, and come morning you tell them the sun is just peaking over the horizon. But as the day goes on it never seems to advance so you never really know if it is night or day.

[@crowhaveninc.2103]

That sounds awesome. I especially like the idea of eating creatures you came up with. I might steal that at some point ;) I love the Feywild. It's such a unique setting

[@anthonynorman7545]

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[@farmerboy916]

You got the overalls as a gift for being a guest? ... You're not making Holland sound _less_ fae, you know

[@kenhuff404]

They gifted her with Clothing so she could be free and leave?

[@farmerboy916]

Ken Huff Dael is a free elf?

[@DaBezzzz]

As a Hollander, I can confirm

[@lechauvesouris2969]

I really like the "getting out" part. " - Oh sure, you can go home easy, just dive into this pond. As long you didn't eat anything or said "thank you" to a fairy or bow to anybody here, you'll be perfectly fine. - huuuuuu... about that..." And the classic "I'll take you to a gate. But it's dangerous. And you have to take me with you to the mortal real." With all the troubles that keeping (or breaking) the promise might create. The concept of finding a friendly/dangerous/trickster/oblivious/whatthehellareyou "guide" in the fey land is a classic, always nice.

[@richardcampbell4506]

Hurrah! Another Dale vid. How do we convince WOC to hire you as a creativity advisor. You bring a level of insight and originality wound through with mythology and mystery that would greatly benefit D&D products. Thanks as always 👍

[@fhuber7507]

Dael video Drop everything and watch.

[@kotsue123]

When I DMed a campaign that had a section on the fey I took a lot of inspiration from Algernon Blackwoods 'The Willows' and a number of modern forest centered creepypastas. Like, the the creepypastas about forest rangers and finding pristine staircases in the middle of the forest. Stuff like Slenderman and the Rake, all which are basically modern fairy tales. Those were some of my best moments as a DM where logic and mechanics no longer held meaning to the player and watching them figure out that you need to THINK differently, and that you actually need to FAIL a survival check from getting lost to succeed. If done right Fey scenarios can be the most memorable in my opinion.

[@Armaggedon185]

Coming back to this a year later, I get struck by this thought: when describing Faerie, you can't say what it is, but what it means. A necklace of broken promises and regrets. A lonely mountain. A palace made of light and music.

[@MrFoxBait]

This video makes me think you'd really enjoy parts of The Kingkiller Chronicles and how Rothfuss implies way more often than he explicitly tells in his storytelling.

[@Aster-mu3kh]

That is what I love about how Tolkins describes magic. he really makes it feel like something mystical and out of this world

[@ethanbarker9811]

No one gets it like Dael does. I'm currently writing a play about two people who get lost in Faerie, and I honestly learned so much from this video. It felt like a lot of things that lots of us might on some level inherently know and use in our stories or campaigns without understanding the factors influencing it - but this video puts them into words so well. Also, "Use the language of ideas to put non-pictures in people's heads." is possibly some of the best writing advice I've ever heard. It's that idea of the non-picture. Prompting someone's imagination to conjure something up that they can't possibly conjure up, and so they conjure up the absence of it, the shape of it, the outline; or in place of it, they imagine something completely different, completely unexpected even by the author. It's like directly triggering the part of the brain that contains and responds to the Uncanny.

[@WASD20]

Great video! Love hearing Lewis and Tolkien’s thoughts on this. And I love your description of your setting as pervasive magic. It’s deeper and more primal.

[@claranyman5708]

An idea that has proven to be really popular among my players is to fuck around with direction and time. Moving in a specific direction doesn't really change your physical position but it does change the time of day. North => night, south => day. You can play further with this by adding: West => summer, East => winter. This can be really fun, especially if you use the Seasonal Fey Courts.

[@TheKazragore]

Carapace Tomahawk is one of the best names ever. Also I would agree that trying to _definitively_ quantify the Feywild kinda misses the point of the Feywild. Sounds like your world's magic is very Narnian. I like it.

[@brandonengmark15]

This is fantastic. The only games I've played where the feywild comes up, have been run really well. I think the love of what Fairie is, only appeals to people who already get it, even if they can't understand why they like it. Their fascination with the feywild is as abstract and emotional as the feywild itself. Thank you for bringing up Jonathan Strange. It's my second favorite modern Fairie story after King of Elfland's Daughter.

[@brandonengmark15]

Also, Ian McDonald's "King of Morning, Queen of Day" always sticks in my head as a way to discuss how the fey can passingly interact with multiple generations, with a history of Irish struggles.

[@magecraft2]

My players are used to me calling it the "Nevernever" due to Jim Butcher :) and this has been a definition for my Faerie.

[@superspiffychef1923]

Dael starts by quoting the Prophecy of the Raven King and I immediately start screaming.

[@OrderingBagel]

I'm running a game with an Archfey Warlock set at sea, and your discussion of liminal spaces and the blurring of thresholds reminded me of that shot in Pirates of the Caribbean where the perfectly still ocean reflects the stars, obscuring the ocean surface entirely. And then I thought about the surface again, as Jack Sparrow essentially shows us how to travel between the two planes when he inverts the ship and sails on the other side of the ocean's surface! I wouldn't have made all those connections if I hadn't seen you break the ideas down in this video first so thanks for the inspiration!

[@AndyReichert0]

15:09 "remember how dreams work?" a truly dystopian question

[@shybard]

As an addendum: When I first read "The Cats of Ulthar" by H. P. Lovecraft, I thought that it very much sounded like a faerie tale. Granted, it's in a Lovecraftian mode and has a horror styling to it, but it still seems very much a cousin or acquaintance of faerie tales. I just thought it was worth mentioning if people want someone a bit nonstandard for ideas or inspiration. Or if they want their version of the Feywild to be a bit spooky.

[@Stray7]

Lots of Lovecraft actually works for faerie stories...there's a sense of ineffability about most faerie stories that work well with the unknowable monsters and strange rules of creatures from the Mythos.

[@vincenthickey2966]

Spot on, in your conceptual personal interpretation of faywild. Your were articulate and clearly welspoken too. You eloquently, hit the nail on it's head, you have amazing understanding of the material and I wish I had, had a DM with your perfect sense of meaning of the land of the fay and faeries.

[@abigaillachney9734]

This is such a good video to re-watch for ideas for my archfey warlock I'm planning. I love the idea of a human who somehow gets wrapped up in all of the high magic, low logic strangeness of a fae.

[@phoenixking62]

You should really read "The Name of The Wind" and "The Wise Man's Fear" by Patrick Rothfuss. The version of the "Feywild" in those books is called the "The Fae" or "The Faen Realm". My favorite part of the main character's experience there is when he eventually weaves a cloak out of shadow and moonlight, and has to think like a Fae to do so.

[@bobbyellis5006]

What about the super cringy, creepy fairy sex?

[@Oldkingcole1125]

Everything you said about C.S.Lewis on faerie reminded me of the Horse and his Boy. One theme of the book is “Northernness”. Shasta lives in the mundane desert land and wants to live in the faerie North where exist the talking animals, fauns, and dwarves. He longs to escape his dull life of abuse in the desert and live free in the cool northern vistas.

[@MonarchsFactory]

I adore that book

[@bigfatopinions1338]

Love the deep dive into Fearie. Johnathon Strange and Mr. Norell is a great place to start. Have you ever read The Dresden Files? Jim Butcher has one of my favorite and well fleshed out descriptions of the Never Never(Fearie)

[@TheAchilles26]

Faerie is just one small part of the NeverNever

[@optimus2200]

I would like to see a video of you delving into dragons the same way dragons mentality and .... that

[@Lenny-ue8hk]

Had a campaign idea in my head for ages of a continent being taken over by the feywild as it bled through into the material plane. After abandoning the continent, a number of factions have joined forces to reclaim it, have established a fortress/town that expands as the campaign progresses, and are slowly exploring the area, discovering ruins, and trying to beat back the feywild.

[@brianponline]

Bearing cold iron (or just baring if one encounters some generosity) in the Fey realm might be considered... quite impolite. Evocative enough for a variety of thematic uses, vague enough to fit on the edges of most anywhere the magic resides. Plus sources for further info. Well done, will reference again.

[@jordanrogers6972]

This for me was the most helpful video I’ve found on the Feywild thus far

[@Met54321]

Just ordered Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Been needing some truly out there fancy so hurray for your timings and suggestions.

[@ooccttoo]

I like the idea that cold iron is effective against Fey creatures if they leave the Feywild, but when you're in there there's no chance you'll really be able to fight back against them in that way.

[@astrogirl687]

I just stumbled upon this... love that you pulled Tolkien and C.S. Lewis's dense, flavorful text to describe what this world of otherness might feel like. Also... Alan Lee! (did the artwork for LOTR, and was brought on as a consultant for the movies)

[@tedgalacci8428]

Love this video precisely because it's about the desired affect, not the steps to take. The Feywild isn't just another place. It's a whole different way of thinking.

[@blueskiesabove2641]

your video made me realize that the faewild, sylvan, faerie, whatever you want to call it is basically romanticism incarnate

[@Taurusus]

The Feywild is definitely something I struggle with. I put a frankly unnecessary amount of time and effort into making sure my puzzles, critters and encounters "make sense" in the environment they're found in as much as possible, and letting logic go for the sake of the Fair Folk is more of a challenge for me than anything I could put in front of a party. So, this was delightfully helpful for me. But dangit Dael, you left me hangin' like everyone else I've seen touching on The Fae and their... Waes. The apocryphal Everyone knows that you don't take the food, you acknowledge the rites of hospitality and etiquette, you stay out of the ring of mushrooms, but no one ever seems to get to *why*? What happens if you find yourself owing a favour to a Court? Accept an invitation to dance? So many of the tales tend to describe the near misses, the narrow escapes of such encounters. What does a cranky pixie do (that's more interesting than "roll for initiative")? What does a right and proper Fae retribution look like? Do fairies hold grudges?

[@MonarchsFactory]

"One legend tells of a young man called Shon ap Shenkin who was captivated by the sound of a faerie melody. He sat down beneath a tree to listen. When the last strains of music died away he stood up and returned home. He found the house looked strangely older and covered in ivy. There was an old man in the doorway, a stranger, who greeted Shon and asked him what he wanted. Shon, surprised, replied that he had left his mother and father in that house not an hour before. The old man asked his name. 'Shon ap Shenkin', replied the boy. The old man became deathly pale and replied, 'I often heard my grandfather, your father, speak of your disappearance.' Upon hearing this Shon ap Shenkin crumbled to ash on the doorstep." -- Faeries, Froud & Lee (2002) "Do you not remember Jeanie, How she met them in the moonlight, Took their gifts both choice and many, Ate their fruits and wore their flowers Pluck’d from bowers Where summer ripens at all hours? But ever in the noonlight She pined and pined away; Sought them by night and day, Found them no more, but dwindled and grew grey; Then fell with the first snow, While to this day no grass will grow Where she lies low: I planted daisies there a year ago That never blow." -- Goblin Market, Christina Rossetti (1862) She danced, and was obliged to dance, far out into the dark wood. Suddenly something shone up among the trees, and she believed it was the moon, for it was a face. But it was the old soldier with the red beard; he sat there nodding his head and said: “Dear me, what pretty dancing shoes!” She was frightened, and wanted to throw the red shoes away; but they stuck fast. She tore off her stockings, but the shoes had grown fast to her feet. She danced and was obliged to go on dancing over field and meadow, in rain and sunshine, by night and by day-but by night it was most horrible. She danced out into the open churchyard; but the dead there did not dance. They had something better to do than that. She wanted to sit down on the pauper’s grave where the bitter fern grows; but for her there was neither peace nor rest. “Dance you shall,” said he, “dance in your red shoes till you are pale and cold, till your skin shrivels up and you are a skeleton! Dance you shall, from door to door, and where proud and wicked children live you shall knock, so that they may hear you and fear you! Dance you shall, dance-!” The shoes carried her into the fields, along highways and byways, and unceasingly she had to dance." -- The Red Shoes, Hans Christian Andersen (1845) "Between the trees and the brook was a pale young man. His eyes were empty and there was a slight dew upon his brow. His uniform was, thought Lascelles, that of the 11th Light Dragoons. In a dead voice he said 'I am the Champion of the Castle of the Plucked Eye and Heart. I offer challenges to...' 'Yes, yes!' cried Lascelles, impatiently. 'I do not care about that. I have come here to fight.' The pale young man said nothing. 'Pistols?' The pale young man shrugged. They had taken their positions and we're about to fire, when something occurred to Lascelles. 'Wait!' he cried. 'What is your name?' The young man stared dully at him. 'I do not remember,' he said. They both fire their pistols at the same time. Lascelles had the impression that, at the last moment, the young man turned his pistol and deliberately fired wide. Lascelles did not care: if the young man was a coward then so much the worse for him. His own ball flew with pleasing exactitude to pierce the young man's breast. He hung the body on the nearest thorn tree. Then he amused himself by taking shots at the other decaying bodies. He had not been engaged in this pleasant occupation for more than an hour when he heard the sounds of hooves upon the woodland path. A dark figure upon a horse was approaching. Lascelles spun round. 'I am the Champion of the Castle of the Plucked Eye and Heart,' he began..." -- Jonathan Strange & Mr Morrell, Susanna Clarke (2004) There are many, many stories about what happens to the people who don't get away. Predominantly the mortal in question will either physically waste away from an unearthly desire so strong they could never hope to live with it, or they will be cursed with an immortality they were never born to endure. It's important to note, too, that many of these stories aren't necessarily about crossing fae. You can remain perfectly polite and play by their rules of conduct but become ensnared forever if you don't consider the full consequences of the social contract into which you've entered.

[@Taurusus]

Oh man, I remember that Andersen one from many, many moons ago! Appreciate the comprehensive reply. Appears I need to broaden my literal horizons somewhat! It's interesting, though, the rather Sisyphean trend there. Not terribly gamifiable for an average session, but good story hooks for a party to stumble across.

[@MonarchsFactory]

Haha, guess it depends how Colville you want to get with it -- having an insta condemned character would certainly make an impression

[@altromonte15]

One interesting source of inspiration for fairies is the Lorwyn setting in magic the gathering: in it, fairies are mischievous insect-like creatures that go around in groups of 3, collecting informations and stealing dreams from all other races for pure curiosity, and then share them with their queen/mother Oona, that is a sort of giant flower-person that creates all fairies, and also the main villain of the story, but also one of the main heroes. At the same time. Without entirely knowing it.

[@athena1491]

This video inspired me to make a faewild faun melee class, this video and fearne calloway of course. Here is a bit about her. Shes been back and forth between the fae wild and the mortal plane quite a few times, dozens even, but because of the oddity of time, what was for her days between visits, could be anywhere from weeks to years to a lifetime, and, she doesnt quite get that the villagers were for the most part afraid of her, and she became a cryptid like figure for the small village, the sort of scary stories they'd tell their children to keep them out of the woods. "Hello, My name is Floralynn... Floralynn De LaFontaine. But when I visit my mortal friends, they call me Pale Oak Wendy, or Hanged Wendy when they are rushing... I'm not sure why, but they did always sound so excited when they said it, so I didn't want to ruin their fun... They hadn't ever asked me my name though... maybe someday they will?.... What is your name, and what do your mortal friends call you?" I want otherness to exude from every fiber of her being. The focused point between peace and chaos. A clash of a terrifying presence, tall, armoured, strong, with her mannerisms all slightly off, And, beautiful, calming, carefree, slightly whimsical

[@stickblade]

I've been fleshing out my version of the Feywild for my homebrew world, and this video was excellent! The use of fantasy authors and scholars really shows the care and research you do for your own storytelling, and I can't help but admire that!

[@edwardgurney1694]

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is one of the few books I've read that really nails Fairies as "not good or evil just really alien". Its one of my favourite books.

[@alanschaub147]

Edward Gurney: Have you seen the mini series based on these books?

[@edwardgurney1694]

@@alanschaub147 I have not, actually, despite reading the book after seeing the publicity for the tv series.

[@lindsaycastle3735]

Something I always put into the fae wild is a river of autumn leaves. Great to hide traps or creatures under, great when your monk decides to jump in expecting the leaves to stop their fall like water would.

[@micahgaley1831]

Tolkein and Lewis are the Kings of Elves and Fey. I would also posit this quote from Terry Pratchett. Always makes me think of the Feywild. "Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder. Elves are marvelous. They cause marvels. Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies. Elves are glamorous. They project glamour. Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment. Elves are terrific. They beget terror. The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning. No one ever said elves are nice. Elves are bad.”

[@drfoxcourt]

I had adopted the rise of a cult of an Old One hiding at a paranormal gate between the Material Plane and the Feywild. The Feybound Warlock must tear down the hard to find gateway to preserve both the Archfey's desmesne and the nearby Material areas. Other party members have other reasons for this quest, but it plays well into my concept of D&D planes, magic, and cultures.

[@juiceweezle]

This is really fantastic and my highlights are the monkey comment and the trip recovery! Thank you. You crack me up, and I really love your take/approach in your videos.

[@rooabe533]

Yes, this was vague, but as someone who is far more concerned with story progression and intrigue than with rules and dynamics; this was extremely helpful, gave me lots of ideas and I agreed with a lot of points, lore-based especially. To me, this is one of your best videos because it didn't focus to heavily on dynamics but also respected to another degree, the lore and feel that any DM wants to eminate. And that is to me, the hardest part to get USEFUL tips on. 20/10 one of my favorite videos thus far!

[@wesleygaines9809]

I fell in love with your channel the moment you quoted Surprised by Joy, On Faerie Stories, and especially Strange and Norrel! This video is the main reason I became a DM. I had been frustrated with the existing D&D lore for the fey for years, and wanted to play in a feywild campaign that made the fey powerful and alien and scary, like Susana Clarke did! And your video gave me the tools and vision to make it happen, so I built my own setting and have since run 3 full length campaigns for my lovely and wonderful players. I'm now planning a 4th. Every time, I come back to this video to find my aesthetic bearings again. I owe you so much Dael, keep being you!

[@Heathersama]

Literally how you see the fae is how I see it. I love your dialogue on it. I wish I knew people like you in person !

[@vell0cet517]

This is incredible.Your ideas are so well researched and articulated in a way that could be practically implemented. I'm going to have to check out more of your stuff. Also, I get the sense that any players in your games get to enjoy an extremely vivid setting.

[@bsuppe]

This is so good, you killed it. If you ever want to make a follow-up, delving deeper into how to really get into the mindset of the fey would be like a gift of a kumquat from the Lady of Hopeless Wishes. It’s one thing to talk about having worldview and frame of values that’s totally alien, but getting into that headspace and doing a great job RPing it is another kettle of stolen children altogether.

[@foxross]

My favourite attempt to reach faerie is from Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrel in which Strange takes Mercury and various other dangerous curatives in order to induce madness. The faerie that he had been attempting to contact had been successfully summoned but didn’t wish to speak to him and was surprised at Strange’s success.

[@arsenyprokhorenko8649]

Thanks for some profound thoughts! I feel like Forgotten Realms kinda lost this pervasiveness and freshness of Faerie world. Glad to find it again in your approach!

[@brandonskoubo5176]

This is a great video for inspiration, from somebody who is putting together a Fey heavy campaign and finding the handbook and monster manual cookie-cutters to feel rather flat. I think it is interesting that faerie is, and fairies are, so alien to our way of being that there isn't even an effective way to use our language to describe their nature, perspective, and environment. I hope to capture that liminal mirror world feeling when the party falls through the map and proceeds to negligently break a grievous rule. Thank you for the further reading recommendations!

[@alexandersvideopicks8735]

Good stuff Dael, thanks for posting.

[@Paddocast]

Was great meeting you at D&D Live, you rock! Happy to see more content from you!

[@nickjeffery536]

Missed you, Dael - always fun to see your vids.

[@ollie__reid]

this video caters directly to me and is also fantastic thank you for the book recs ahhhhhh

[@bjornseine2342]

Those are definetly some good things to think about! Thank you!

[@charlesciaffone6133]

This is so amazing and refreshing. Thank you.

[@sailor-hg]

Speaking of place names that reek of fae, there's a US town of "Peculiar" near Kansas City.

[@KamiRecca]

Swedish town names Tystnaden (The Silence) and Tomheten (The Emptiness)

[@5-Volt]

> Goes to Peculiar "I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore!" Actually, you are.

[@tiernantowey1394]

gosh dang it I just love each and every one of her videos!!

[@Skiamakhos]

Welcome back, Dael - sounds like you had quite the adventure!

[@king_hawthorne]

Yay! I've been watching your dnd vids literally all day and I'm so excited to watch this

[@animistchannel2983]

Check out her video series "Wolfgang" too. It's awesome commentary on relations among strange creatures who are just trying to be real. It has some utterly hilarious bits and some poignant moments that make you think and remember. Short, punchy episodes and a good thruline story.

[@PierceArner]

This is everything that I was trying to coalesce in my brain for the center of my new campaign setting so endless thanks for the points and especially the focus on the specifically unquantifiable nature of the place, and the additional reading materials. Brilliant stuff as always!

[@samuelbroad11]

Jack Vance's Lyonesse trilogy. Written at the height of his prowess. Cannot more highly recommend it, great folk and Fae encounters and truly mystical mad magicians, a joy. Dry wit with a light touch.

[@jcadence4761]

First vid of yours I've seen - your mind is the greatest thing I've experienced in months. Thank you!

[@YMasterS]

This is great and EXACTLY what I've been needing for the game I'm planning.

[@thewoflpack5305]

Something I'm doing currently is there's a place called faerie lake and the bottom of that lake is actually the top of a lake in the fey wild. And the shadowfell is a seemingly endless shadowed land

[@UncleTroll85]

You are a spectacular human being. Thank you for giving us so much to think on for our own worlds.

[@Vogelkinder]

Hrm. 5th Edition cosmology has converted the "Positive" and "Negative" planes of previous editions to closely equate to the "Feywild" and the "Shadowfell". This is why both are effectively reflections in a positive and negative aspect, of the existence most creatures in the D&D universe might view the world they know and understand.

[@arekschneyer3802]

AHH! Just subscribed recently, clicked on a random video, and I hear you quoting from my favorite book! So excited!

[@bergiuscharlotta]

This is exactly the type of video I was looking for to help me plan a one shot soon. Thank youuu

[@nottelling9581]

A while back I ran a campaign with a lot of faerie creatures in it. I had iron weapons do double damage to fully faerie creatures (eg pixies, driads and unicorns, but not elves or centaurs). But iron weapons were only easily available to dwarves. Most other creatures used bronze weapons, though elves sometimes used titanium. Elves weren't available as a player race, as I was keeping them sinister, powerful and manipulative. In this campaign, I was using metallurgy of weapons and equipment as a large part of the culture for various races and also part of what made some weapons magical. Smiths were redsmiths (bronze) or whitesmiths (tin), only dwarves had blacksmiths (iron). If you look into it, there are a lot of interesting modern and historical alloys of copper or other metals. Some of which (e.g. spring copper: copper/beryllium) would make very effective weapons or armour. Another example: Tungsten has the same density as gold (about 4x iron). The dwarf fighter in the party had a tungsten battleaxe, as he had the strength to wield it. If anyone had got hold of a cold wrought iron weapon, it would have been especially deadly vs faerie creatures. Though it would have taken a great deal of effort by a very talented blacksmith to work iron without using heat.

[@MagusAgrippa8]

Oh hey, that Merlin story you mentioned. I had this really cool English class at my university where we studied a variety of ancient and modern takes on Arthurian lore and that series was one of the books we read. Ended up writing this huge paper taking in all the aspects of Merlin displayed in early legends and seeing which modern takes most accurately adapted him. It was a fun paper to write. Even if I hated having to watch Disney’s The Sword and the Stone.

[@aspenryder5091]

I always thought of the "cold iron" thing as meaning only pure iron, no steel, as well perhaps (in certain cases) as iron that has never been forged (and is thus "cold"). And of course, the more powerful a particular denizen of faerie, the less effective iron would be; for tiny, weak faeries, perhaps the effect is that it instantly incinerates them to ash, but for a cold warrior of the winter court, wrapped in faerie armor of their own, it may glow red as if hot, but it will only feel as a pinch to the creature, or less. Oh, yes, and it is important to mention that cold iron BURNS them; it does not ignore their otherworldliness.

[@mattalford3862]

New subscriber here! So glad I found this. I’ve been searching for anything I could find to help me capture the essence of fey and the feywyld and this really did it for me. Great job!

[@jamestemple3269]

"use the language of ideas to put non-pictures in people's heads" - This is a hot bowl of genius soup.

[@aodhfyn2429]

I love this. Faerie is one of my favorite... everything.

[@jadxq]

Great video! You've given me new ways to think about the Feywild, and I will certainly be checking out your book recommendations.

[@michalgalvanek7895]

What a well executed video, helped me a ton with my campaign in the Feywild. Love it!

[@LunaWolfSaphira]

I LOVE U I JUST HAD A SPLENDID IDEA FOR PACT OF THE ARCHFEY WARLOCKS. Thought that it would be interesting to have Titania's outsider name to be Fairy God Mother (instead of godmother since she is a godlike fey and mother because the fairy mother or because of stealing children) and take Once Uppon A Time's approach that fairy godmothers take children to raise heroes and with the pass of the years people misunderstood it for godmother. The roleplay potential.

[@yugiohsc]

It is interesting how faerie and the cthulhu mythos are similar. One is just the wonderous version of the other. Both are sorta incomprehensible

[@likeafoxDM]

Dael ran through them kinda fast so here are the books she mentioned, as well as a few of my own. C.S. Lewis, "Surprised by Joy" Tolkein, "On Fairy-stories" Susan Collins, "Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norrell" (also "The Ladies of Grace Adieu") W.B. Yeats, "Irish Fairies and Folk Tales" Mary Stewart, The Merlin Trilogy Brian Froud & Alan Lee, "Faeries" and a few of my own: Naomi Novic, "Spinning Silver" Niel Gaiman, "Stardust" and "Neverwhere" Richard Sugg, "Faeries: A Dangerous History"

[@Tovish1988]

Scp 4000 is an evocative distillation of the classic elements, good for getting the essence of it.