The Feywild, also called the Plane of Faerie, is a land of soft lights and wonder, a place of music and magic. The plane responds to unfettered emotion: flowers turn and tremble in the presence of a heated argument, grass withers under the feet of one who seethes with malice, and birds chip merrily in the presence of those who are joyous and squawk angrily at those who are dour.
Time and distance in the Feywild are mutable, as is the plane’s geography. Roads are uncommon, and the ones that exist change as frequently as the land around themselves. Feywild natives are accustomed to the plane’s mutability, but it can be terribly disorienting to visitors.
The Feywild exists in parallel to the Material Plane as an alternate dimension that occupies the same cosmological space. When moving from the Material Plane to the Feywild, travelers usually find themselves in a location similar to the one they left, but more marvelous and magical—and often more vibrant and colorful, too. Adventurers climbing a volcano on the Material Plane might suddenly find themselves scaling a Feywild mountain topped with skyscraper-sized crystals that glow with internal fire. Leaving behind a wide and muddy river on the Material Plane, characters might appear beside a clear and winding brook whose waters glitter like diamonds in the Feywild. In the heart of a dismal marsh might lie a portal leading to a vast bog filled with eerie lights and sinister shapes twisting in the water. And moving to the Feywild from old ruins on the Material Plane might put a traveler at the door of an archfey’s castle.
Much of the Feywild is governed by powerful Fey called archfey. The area under a particular archfey’s command—called a Domain of Delight—reflects the character and desires of its ruler. Some domains are bright and cheery, bathed in perpetual sunlight and awash in colorful wildflowers, while others are gloomy and drab, cast in unending twilight. Most of them change with the emotional state of their rulers.
The following sections describe a handful of the best-known Domains of Delight.
Fablerise. The domain of a story-spinning spider archfey named Yarnspinner, Fablerise is a rambling thicket of twisted roots, thorny vines, and sinuous creepers. This vegetation weaves together to form long tunnels, grand hallways, and enormous domes. Yarnspinner loves reading stories to the animals that occupy his domain.
Gloaming Court. The Queen of Air and Darkness rules the Gloaming Court, a realm of twilight, fireflies, cobwebs, and autumn leaves accompanied by the music of hooting owls and croaking frogs. The Fey of the Gloaming Court shun the formalized etiquette and rituals of the Summer Court (see below), instead prizing behavior that is intuitive and instinctual.
Prismeer. Prismeer is a large domain belonging to the archfey Zybilna. It encompasses a vast swamp called Hither; an ancient forest named Thither; and a stormy, mountainous landscape called Yon. Zybilna resides in the Palace of Heart’s Desire, situated where the three portions of her realm meet. As its name suggests, the palace is fabled as a destination for anyone seeking their heart’s desire. On some worlds, Zybilna is regarded as a fairy godmother of sorts, granting wishes for the lost, the forsaken, or the betrayed. Sometimes her wishes bring happiness, other times despair. (Prismeer is detailed in The Wild Beyond the Witchlight.)
Summer Court. Ruled by the archfey Queen Titania, the Summer Court is the most settled and pastoral domain in the Feywild. Wrapped in the warmth of a perpetual summer day, with fluttering butterflies and a riot of colorful flowers, the lands of the Summer Court mimic the trappings of courtly life in some realms of the Material Plane. The residents of this court wear elegant clothing and value elaborate ceremony and ritualized etiquette, and the Fey are quick to shun those who flout the Summer Court’s baroque rules.
Fey crossings are places of mystery and beauty on the Material Plane that have a near-perfect mirror in the Feywild, creating a portal where the two planes touch. A traveler passes through a fey crossing by entering a clearing, wading into a pool, passing into a circle of mushrooms, or crawling under the trunk of a tree. To the traveler, it seems like simply moving into the Feywild. To an observer, the traveler is there one moment and gone the next.
Like other portals between planes, most fey crossings open infrequently. A crossing might open only during a full moon, on the dawn of a particular day, or for someone carrying a certain type of item. A fey crossing can be closed permanently if the land on either side is dramatically altered—for example, if a castle is built over the clearing on the Material Plane.
Tales speak of children kidnapped by Fey creatures and spirited away to the Feywild, only to return to their parents years later without having aged a day and with no memories of their captors or the realm they came from. Likewise, adventurers who return from an excursion to the Feywild are often alarmed to discover upon their return that time flows differently on the Plane of Faerie and that the memories of their visit are hazy. You can use these optional rules to reflect the strange magic that suffuses the plane.
Memory Loss. A creature that leaves the Feywild makes a DC 10 Wisdom saving throw. Fey creatures automatically succeed on the saving throw, as do creatures that have the Fey Ancestry trait, such as elves. On a failed save, the creature remembers nothing from its time spent in the Feywild. On a successful save, the creature’s memories remain intact but are a little hazy. Any spell that can end a curse can restore the creature’s lost memories.
Time Warp. While time seems to pass normally in the Feywild, characters might spend a day there and realize, upon leaving the plane, that less or more time has elapsed everywhere else in the multiverse.
Whenever a creature or group of creatures leaves the Feywild after spending at least 1 day on that plane, you can choose a time change that works best for your campaign, if any, or roll on the Feywild Time Warp table. A Wish spell can be used to remove the effect on up to ten creatures. Some powerful Fey have the ability to grant such wishes and might do so if the beneficiaries agree to subject themselves to a Geas spell and complete a quest after the Wish spell is cast.
| 1d20 | Result |
|---|---|
| 1–2 | Days become minutes |
| 3–6 | Days become hours |
| 7–13 | No change |
| 14–17 | Days become weeks |
| 18–19 | Days become months |
| 20 | Days become years |
The Feywild gives physical expression to powerful emotion and excels at metaphor. When characters venture into the Feywild, they might find themselves robbed of a cherished memory or deep regret, then later find the stolen memories embodied in little figurines or lockets. A mischievous sprite might sneak up behind a character who is laughing loudly and steal their laughter, robbing the character of the ability to laugh until the sprite is found and the laughter—perhaps taking physical form as a bouquet of lovely flowers—reclaimed.
Fey revel in the Gloaming Court under the watchful eye of the Queen of Air and Darkness.