2D8HP
2019-04-03, 01:29 PM
I'm a big fan of "Portal-Fantasy (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TrappedInAnotherWorld?from=Main.PortalFantasy) Such as Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions (which was a big influence on early D&D), and Neil Gaiman's Stardust, and Faerie/the Feywild intrigues me:
"The Feywild, also called the Plane of Faerie, is a land of soft lights and wonder, a country of little people with great desires, a place of music and death. It is a realm of eternal twilight, with slow lanterns bobbing in the gentle breeze and huge fireflies buzzing through groves and fields. The sky is alight with the faded colors of the setting, or perhaps rising, sun. But, in fact, the sun never truly sets or rises; it remains stationary, dusky and low in the sky. Away from the settled areas ruled by the Seelie Court, the land is a tangle of sharp-toothed brambles and syrupy fensperfect territory for the Unseelie to hunt their prey. Fey creatures, such as those brought to the world by conjure woodland beings and similar spells, dwell in the Feywild. The Feywild exists in parallel to the Material Plane, an alternate dimension that occupies the same cosmological space. The landscape of the Feywild mirrors the natural world but turns its features into spectacular forms. Where a volcano stands on the Material Plane, a mountain topped with skyscrapersized crystals that glow with internal fire towers in the Feywild. A wide and muddy river on the Material Plane might be echoed as a clear and winding brook of great beauty. A marsh could be reflected as a vast black bog of sinister character. And moving to the Feywild from old ruins on the Material Plane might put a traveler at the door of an arch fey's castle. The Feywild is inhabited by sylvan creatures, such as elves, dryads, satyrs, pixies, and sprites, as well as centaurs and magical creatures such as blink dogs, faerie dragons, treants, and unicorns. The darker regions of the plane are home to such malevolent creatures as hags, blights, goblins, ogres, and giants.
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, stepping into a circle of mushrooms, or crawling under the trunk of a tree. To the traveler, it seems like he or she has simply walked into the Feywild with a step. 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...
...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..."
The thing is in a game such as Pendragon, or Mythic Iceland I may imagine a contrast between a more mundane historical-ish setting and a more magical realm, but the default setting of 5e is already pretty damn magical.
From the DMG we get that the Feywild has:
Perpetual twilight,
and
time passes differently
but what other changes may be made to distinguish between the realms?
Off the top of my head, borrowing from Moorcock's "Mittlemarch" we have the seasons be opposite (if it's summer in the Prime Material Plane it's winter in the Feywild, and vice versa), and we may have animals talking as in Land of Unreason and countless folktales.
What else?
"The Feywild, also called the Plane of Faerie, is a land of soft lights and wonder, a country of little people with great desires, a place of music and death. It is a realm of eternal twilight, with slow lanterns bobbing in the gentle breeze and huge fireflies buzzing through groves and fields. The sky is alight with the faded colors of the setting, or perhaps rising, sun. But, in fact, the sun never truly sets or rises; it remains stationary, dusky and low in the sky. Away from the settled areas ruled by the Seelie Court, the land is a tangle of sharp-toothed brambles and syrupy fensperfect territory for the Unseelie to hunt their prey. Fey creatures, such as those brought to the world by conjure woodland beings and similar spells, dwell in the Feywild. The Feywild exists in parallel to the Material Plane, an alternate dimension that occupies the same cosmological space. The landscape of the Feywild mirrors the natural world but turns its features into spectacular forms. Where a volcano stands on the Material Plane, a mountain topped with skyscrapersized crystals that glow with internal fire towers in the Feywild. A wide and muddy river on the Material Plane might be echoed as a clear and winding brook of great beauty. A marsh could be reflected as a vast black bog of sinister character. And moving to the Feywild from old ruins on the Material Plane might put a traveler at the door of an arch fey's castle. The Feywild is inhabited by sylvan creatures, such as elves, dryads, satyrs, pixies, and sprites, as well as centaurs and magical creatures such as blink dogs, faerie dragons, treants, and unicorns. The darker regions of the plane are home to such malevolent creatures as hags, blights, goblins, ogres, and giants.
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, stepping into a circle of mushrooms, or crawling under the trunk of a tree. To the traveler, it seems like he or she has simply walked into the Feywild with a step. 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...
...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..."
The thing is in a game such as Pendragon, or Mythic Iceland I may imagine a contrast between a more mundane historical-ish setting and a more magical realm, but the default setting of 5e is already pretty damn magical.
From the DMG we get that the Feywild has:
Perpetual twilight,
and
time passes differently
but what other changes may be made to distinguish between the realms?
Off the top of my head, borrowing from Moorcock's "Mittlemarch" we have the seasons be opposite (if it's summer in the Prime Material Plane it's winter in the Feywild, and vice versa), and we may have animals talking as in Land of Unreason and countless folktales.
What else?