That Raven Queen/Prince of Frost detail; in one of the wikis for the Raven Queen, it was stated that during his Sun Prince time, he was courting the RQ and it didn't pan out because she was still then betrothed/married to the OG god of death (sometimes it's Kelemvor sometimes Nerul sometimes a different god of death). So like... that could have been the first step down the path to his heart becoming cooler and frigid.
For Hyrsam specifically, I could see him hating this larger kingdom because it not only took a large chunk of wilderness, but also a region that was thought to be untameable, maybe because there was this powerful artifact or important symbol that made it beautiful and overgrowing, but absolutely unyielding to any outside intervention, and the rulers of this kingdom somehow stole that item and with it either out of play or in their possession, were able to build a civilization. Another facet of that could be that because of it, they're harming the surrounding environment, and for the Feywild being affected by material plane intervention and Hyrsam specifically, I could see that as a huge subplot
There’s absolutely an amazing story of a chaotic court drama around the power vacuum from the missing Oberon and Titania. Each of the children you mentioned today have a claim but also have clear motivations that are good or bad for the Feywild and the material plane. I think it would be fun to have each be open to having the party as their vassals essentially, trying to claim the throne while they also work to uncover what happened and if the proper rulers can be uncovered. What is the lesser evil the party may choose as a temporary benefactor?
I seriously love that idea!! It could be paired up with all of the different archfey motivations to be a great and complex story. My party would pick up at the end of Wild Beyond the Witchlight, and if they succeed, they’ll already have a connection of sorts to the courts lined up!
Varanestra's height might just be a sign that people back then and there were shorter. Where I live, five feet tall is average for women. And I mean adult women.
Regarding the Prince of fools, it's all just a front, he finds it useful when people underestimate him. As for looks. All the Arch Feys can change appearance at will in whatever way they wish. Although it *is* also tied to their emotional state.
Do you think the Ring of Winter (seen in Tomb of Annihilation) was made by Prince of Frost as tool for mortals to freeze their own realm, and that's why it can only be melt by Titania?
I don't see why not! It would make sense to me, if maybe he created it in order to guarantee a powerful, loyal servant. That servant could have been killed and the ring circulated after, which adds some good chaos and maybe an enemy for the party to encounter.
I agree, Varanestra's story/persona could use a bit of revamping/updating and exploring. I too am running a wilds beyond the witchlight that will one day continue on into the wider feywild
I know others have mentioned the Dresden Files - but this series does a good job with "beautiful" characters like Mab, the Queen of Air and Darkness - she's supernaturally beautiful, but also commands the uttermost respect from the other powerful groups like human wizards, vampire courts, and other fey creatures. Major characters show actual fear when Mab arrives. Like if a mobster, warlord, or royal, happens to be handsome. Their appearance is a feature, but it isn't what most folks are thinking about and it's never used to diminish.
My Varanestra actually saved the feywild with her wisdom! She used her beauty to have the party help her when she couldn't stop Titania (lore is that no fae could harm the king and queen, but the archfey could help party be bolstered.)
A deep dive into the topic of 'Key figures' in Feywild. You presented some interesting insights from previous editions of DnD and other sources. Great inspiration for worldbuilding, but I am personally go for myths, tales and stories from folklore of various cultures (a mix of Lathin America and East Europe folk creatures as an example) and adapt them into version of Feywild. It provides the material to weave 'real' folk stories into campaign without additional effort to create them from zero. However, some cultures present fae creatures as 'spirits of the dead and ancestors' so it is crossing territory with the Shadowfell. P.S.: Cat is chilling in the background. Scared me a little when chair started to move withot 'reason' for first time.
I’m definitely wanting to dive into traditional folklore, keeping in mind those key differences! I think I’m going to move in that direction after I talk about the Queen of Air and Darkness. Folklore and how to adapt it to a campaign sounds right up my alley. And that’s not my cat. That’s my poltergeist, Beans.
I've just stumbled upon this channel, and I'm really digging your particular focus on the details because the plane of færie and/or Arborea have always been some of my favorite things in DnD. I don't know much about the lore for anything past 3.5 but I do really like the Raven Queen and thought I'd share my little homebrew involving her and the demiplane of Dread. Two books I highly recommend for a slightly different take on the Fey in DnD are "Van Richtens guide to the Shadow Fey" and also the 2e adventure "The Shadow Rift" for both do an excellent job of presenting the culture and history of these particular fey. Without loresplatting too much, the Shadow Fey in Ravenloft are basically trapped in a place known as the Shadow Rift (after the grand conjunction) and follow the children of one called Arak the Erlking who lead his people out of bondage to a lovecraftian nightmare being called "The Shadow Fiend". They are Queen Mæve and prince Loht. They occupy the typical Seelie Unseelie dynamic, and follow a strict law that no shadow Fey may kill another for any reason. The Shadow Fiend was trapped in a gate which lead from the plane of Shadow to Ravenloft (although at the time they did not know this of course) and in my homebrew I use the history of the Raven Queen where she is involved with the Elven court of deities and winds up on the shadowfell, but after that point she is the force which creates Ravenloft as a prison demiplane, for the purpose of containing the Shadow Fiend and preserving her followers. She might even BE Ravenloft itself, which is more complicated but I digress, this leaves the Shadar Kai behind within her realm of the shadowfell in her absence and they basically try to keep the secret that they don't really know where their goddess is, and perpetuate the notion she can be found within the tower which I forget the name of. I hope this isn't a jumble of gibberish😅 and maybe you can steal a little bit of inspiration from it or the books that I've mentioned.
I referenced Puck in another of your videos, sorry, running a fey campaign and found your videos so binge day, but I'm now debating blending Puck and Hyrsam in some fashion. Great series, by the way, I'm running a similar extension and have been peppering in future stuff throughout with the group nearing the end of Yon. One of them played The Rogue from the Deck of Many and my hastily constructed table drew Oberon, so I'm about to commence the Wild Hunt. Debating Hyrsam polymorphing the players for a few sessions.
I love it!! If you do run the Wild Hunt and/or polymorph the party, I'd love to hear how it goes. That last idea especially sounds like a fun twist/extra little challenge!
I don't really think that the Prince of Frost wanting to hurt the mortal realm really is "evil" as such. Its more that he just feels infinite pain and wants to take revenge for that if you get my meaning. Fey morality is at a different dimension from us to start with so our idea of good or evil doesn't quite apply as such. We choose to *interpret* it as evil as the outcomes are obviously bad for *us*. But it isn't *quite* right either.
I'm building a dryad queen into my fey campaign. I forgot about the one already in D&D lore. I think I need to ignore Verenestra 's story, for the various aspects of it that make you uncomfortable.
Yes, you're reading too much into the height thing. Look at the average height of Elves. Saying a 4ft women is the height of a young girl ignores the fact that we think of Jesus or Buddha as 'human' sized. Average female height in India is about 5 ft, same in Peru and Mozambique.
And it gets even worse when you look at the other fey creatures. Like she mentions Sylph....who are around 4-5 feet tall. a lot of faerie are just small.
You can use the Ring of Winter really well in this story I used a similar setup for my campaign going from Tomb of Annihilation into Icewind dale.. in my head the ring was and engagement ring that froze when the prince did.. hasn't been found since my players let it get away in Chult.
@@feywildfiend I'm using existing lore of Maura Silverhand, Daughter of Laeral Silverhand who doesn't know who the father is and is also the great granddaughter of Mystra. Laeral being a run away bride fits the lore of her being mad and bearing a child while still wearing the Crown of Horns.
Oh... So she's the Oak Princess. If Oberon is her father, it seems to follow that he would be the Oak King. Or, it could be a realm thing, and her father could be the Oak King who is a different entity or a different aspect of the same entity. I'm going to stop babbling now. Oh, and yes, the Lolita vibe seems present, and not unlike Goldberry relative to Tom Bombadil.
I’ve mostly used the Forgotten Realms Wiki. The links in the bio will show you everything I used, plus some! My research so far has pretty much been basic Google searches.
That Raven Queen/Prince of Frost detail; in one of the wikis for the Raven Queen, it was stated that during his Sun Prince time, he was courting the RQ and it didn't pan out because she was still then betrothed/married to the OG god of death (sometimes it's Kelemvor sometimes Nerul sometimes a different god of death).
So like... that could have been the first step down the path to his heart becoming cooler and frigid.
I hadn’t found that! Interesting! It would also add an extra dynamic to his attempts at a future relationship.
For Hyrsam specifically, I could see him hating this larger kingdom because it not only took a large chunk of wilderness, but also a region that was thought to be untameable, maybe because there was this powerful artifact or important symbol that made it beautiful and overgrowing, but absolutely unyielding to any outside intervention, and the rulers of this kingdom somehow stole that item and with it either out of play or in their possession, were able to build a civilization. Another facet of that could be that because of it, they're harming the surrounding environment, and for the Feywild being affected by material plane intervention and Hyrsam specifically, I could see that as a huge subplot
There’s absolutely an amazing story of a chaotic court drama around the power vacuum from the missing Oberon and Titania. Each of the children you mentioned today have a claim but also have clear motivations that are good or bad for the Feywild and the material plane. I think it would be fun to have each be open to having the party as their vassals essentially, trying to claim the throne while they also work to uncover what happened and if the proper rulers can be uncovered. What is the lesser evil the party may choose as a temporary benefactor?
I seriously love that idea!! It could be paired up with all of the different archfey motivations to be a great and complex story. My party would pick up at the end of Wild Beyond the Witchlight, and if they succeed, they’ll already have a connection of sorts to the courts lined up!
Varanestra's height might just be a sign that people back then and there were shorter. Where I live, five feet tall is average for women. And I mean adult women.
Regarding the Prince of fools, it's all just a front, he finds it useful when people underestimate him.
As for looks.
All the Arch Feys can change appearance at will in whatever way they wish.
Although it *is* also tied to their emotional state.
Do you think the Ring of Winter (seen in Tomb of Annihilation) was made by Prince of Frost as tool for mortals to freeze their own realm, and that's why it can only be melt by Titania?
I don't see why not! It would make sense to me, if maybe he created it in order to guarantee a powerful, loyal servant. That servant could have been killed and the ring circulated after, which adds some good chaos and maybe an enemy for the party to encounter.
I agree, Varanestra's story/persona could use a bit of revamping/updating and exploring. I too am running a wilds beyond the witchlight that will one day continue on into the wider feywild
Loved this, thanks for sharing! I needed ideas for an archfey and I really like what you've described about Hyrsam. Cheers! :)
Awesome, thank you!
I know others have mentioned the Dresden Files - but this series does a good job with "beautiful" characters like Mab, the Queen of Air and Darkness - she's supernaturally beautiful, but also commands the uttermost respect from the other powerful groups like human wizards, vampire courts, and other fey creatures. Major characters show actual fear when Mab arrives. Like if a mobster, warlord, or royal, happens to be handsome. Their appearance is a feature, but it isn't what most folks are thinking about and it's never used to diminish.
My Varanestra actually saved the feywild with her wisdom! She used her beauty to have the party help her when she couldn't stop Titania (lore is that no fae could harm the king and queen, but the archfey could help party be bolstered.)
A deep dive into the topic of 'Key figures' in Feywild. You presented some interesting insights from previous editions of DnD and other sources. Great inspiration for worldbuilding, but I am personally go for myths, tales and stories from folklore of various cultures (a mix of Lathin America and East Europe folk creatures as an example) and adapt them into version of Feywild. It provides the material to weave 'real' folk stories into campaign without additional effort to create them from zero. However, some cultures present fae creatures as 'spirits of the dead and ancestors' so it is crossing territory with the Shadowfell.
P.S.: Cat is chilling in the background. Scared me a little when chair started to move withot 'reason' for first time.
I’m definitely wanting to dive into traditional folklore, keeping in mind those key differences! I think I’m going to move in that direction after I talk about the Queen of Air and Darkness. Folklore and how to adapt it to a campaign sounds right up my alley.
And that’s not my cat. That’s my poltergeist, Beans.
2:10 Man, I just had a burried memory where a D&D camp i was in had her as an ancient 14 year old. Im going to go back to never thinking about that.
Great video
I've just stumbled upon this channel, and I'm really digging your particular focus on the details because the plane of færie and/or Arborea have always been some of my favorite things in DnD. I don't know much about the lore for anything past 3.5 but I do really like the Raven Queen and thought I'd share my little homebrew involving her and the demiplane of Dread. Two books I highly recommend for a slightly different take on the Fey in DnD are "Van Richtens guide to the Shadow Fey" and also the 2e adventure "The Shadow Rift" for both do an excellent job of presenting the culture and history of these particular fey. Without loresplatting too much, the Shadow Fey in Ravenloft are basically trapped in a place known as the Shadow Rift (after the grand conjunction) and follow the children of one called Arak the Erlking who lead his people out of bondage to a lovecraftian nightmare being called "The Shadow Fiend". They are Queen Mæve and prince Loht. They occupy the typical Seelie Unseelie dynamic, and follow a strict law that no shadow Fey may kill another for any reason. The Shadow Fiend was trapped in a gate which lead from the plane of Shadow to Ravenloft (although at the time they did not know this of course) and in my homebrew I use the history of the Raven Queen where she is involved with the Elven court of deities and winds up on the shadowfell, but after that point she is the force which creates Ravenloft as a prison demiplane, for the purpose of containing the Shadow Fiend and preserving her followers. She might even BE Ravenloft itself, which is more complicated but I digress, this leaves the Shadar Kai behind within her realm of the shadowfell in her absence and they basically try to keep the secret that they don't really know where their goddess is, and perpetuate the notion she can be found within the tower which I forget the name of. I hope this isn't a jumble of gibberish😅 and maybe you can steal a little bit of inspiration from it or the books that I've mentioned.
A good website called fraternity of shadows has all of this info in an encyclopedia format as well
I referenced Puck in another of your videos, sorry, running a fey campaign and found your videos so binge day, but I'm now debating blending Puck and Hyrsam in some fashion. Great series, by the way, I'm running a similar extension and have been peppering in future stuff throughout with the group nearing the end of Yon. One of them played The Rogue from the Deck of Many and my hastily constructed table drew Oberon, so I'm about to commence the Wild Hunt. Debating Hyrsam polymorphing the players for a few sessions.
I love it!! If you do run the Wild Hunt and/or polymorph the party, I'd love to hear how it goes. That last idea especially sounds like a fun twist/extra little challenge!
I don't really think that the Prince of Frost wanting to hurt the mortal realm really is "evil" as such.
Its more that he just feels infinite pain and wants to take revenge for that if you get my meaning.
Fey morality is at a different dimension from us to start with so our idea of good or evil doesn't quite apply as such.
We choose to *interpret* it as evil as the outcomes are obviously bad for *us*.
But it isn't *quite* right either.
one of my players wants to make a deal with hyrsam and im so scared LMAO
Lmaoo let ‘em
@@feywildfiend they are making a giant party to be able to summon him and it's gonna be amazing
I'm building a dryad queen into my fey campaign. I forgot about the one already in D&D lore. I think I need to ignore Verenestra 's story, for the various aspects of it that make you uncomfortable.
Yes, you're reading too much into the height thing. Look at the average height of Elves. Saying a 4ft women is the height of a young girl ignores the fact that we think of Jesus or Buddha as 'human' sized. Average female height in India is about 5 ft, same in Peru and Mozambique.
And it gets even worse when you look at the other fey creatures. Like she mentions Sylph....who are around 4-5 feet tall. a lot of faerie are just small.
100%.. plus it's Fey...pretty much evey creature is naked.... INCLUDING THE MALES. Totally got some 'victim' vibes here.
Yup...skipped a few minutes and she's still banging on about it. Good series up until then.
You can use the Ring of Winter really well in this story I used a similar setup for my campaign going from Tomb of Annihilation into Icewind dale.. in my head the ring was and engagement ring that froze when the prince did.. hasn't been found since my players let it get away in Chult.
A frozen engagement ring would be perfect! The party just gave away a frozen heart, too, I bet I could connect them somehow. Thanks!
@@feywildfiend I'm using existing lore of Maura Silverhand, Daughter of Laeral Silverhand who doesn't know who the father is and is also the great granddaughter of Mystra. Laeral being a run away bride fits the lore of her being mad and bearing a child while still wearing the Crown of Horns.
Hyrsam is my guy!
He’s the best lol!
Oh... So she's the Oak Princess. If Oberon is her father, it seems to follow that he would be the Oak King. Or, it could be a realm thing, and her father could be the Oak King who is a different entity or a different aspect of the same entity. I'm going to stop babbling now.
Oh, and yes, the Lolita vibe seems present, and not unlike Goldberry relative to Tom Bombadil.
The average Roman soldier was 5'7" tall, and women were 5'2" tall. Modern Americans are much taller than Europeans from the Iron and Dark Ages.
Where did you find your sources im interested in these kind of things?
I’ve mostly used the Forgotten Realms Wiki. The links in the bio will show you everything I used, plus some! My research so far has pretty much been basic Google searches.