#it’s in a pathfinder setting & i found a material-plane court where i think i could make my eladrin fuckgirl work?

[tacticalgrandma]

Online dnd group is talking about starting a new game and I am eager to make progress on my “play every subrace of elf pc” quest. The only issue is the ones I have left are eladrin, sea elf, and astral elf, and all three of those feel like big swings at the scope of whatever plot he’s setting up.

[enddaysengine]

Fey (Planescape)

Apparently, the RPG world has fairies on the brain. Paizo just released a book on the First World. Keith Baker has been Q&Aing about Eberron's fey. I've been building Feywild a place in Planescape. Let's keep that going by discussing what the fey creature type means on the planes.

What do they represent? Fey represent an idealized and magical aspect of nature. It is important to note, though,  that since fey are mortal creatures, their representation of nature is closer to the way that a dwarf represents tradition than the way an archon represents the lawful good alignment. Fairies are born from nature and magic, but they are not incarnations of it. They are capable of growth and change just as much as any other mortal race. They just happen to have a greater physiological and mystical tie to what they represent than most humanoids do.

Where do they fit in the Great Wheel Cosmology?

There are three primary locations for the fey in my version of Planescape. They originate from the First World/Feywild, which is a parallel part of the Prime Material Plane. Within this plane, a multitude of domains can be found, each populated by a wide variety of fey creatures.

On the Outer Planes, there are two additional courts. The Seelie Court wanders between the Beastlands, Arborea, and Ysgard. Goodly fey can found in the Seelie Court, as can other good aligned nature creatures such as unicorns and trents, but don't expect the Court to be kind. The Seelie Court only admit those individuals who meet their exacting ideals of beauty. Good luck to any humanoids who want so much as a glimpse of Queen Titania. Don't eat any food or accept any gifts while you are here, or you may find yourself under an unexpected geas.

The Unseelie Court is the Seelie's darker foil. It is still difficult for non-fey to access the Unseelie Court, not the least because they reside permanently on Pandemonium's third layer of Phlegethon, but anyone with even a drop of fey blood is welcome. The inspiration for this particular interpretation comes from the Fey Feature series of articles that ran way back in the day on the WotC website, but I think it has much more potential and is far more dynamic, the canon Planescape Seelie Court presented in Planes of Chaos. Instantly lethal locals that everyone in their right mind should avoid do note make for great adventure sites. Ambiguous and dangerous location that you should know to avoid but may tempt you in anyhow are plot hook machines.

How are they different from other mortals?

Fey are separated from the other creatures of the Prime planes through their version of immortally. Fey do not age, ever, and if they die in the Feywild, the Seelie Court, or the Unseelie Court, they are eventually reborn with most of their personality and memories intact. I'd also say that a fey who has indeed set down roots in one of the Outer or Inner Planes can also be reborn, similar to an outsider, with two caveats.

1. While the time to rebirth is still random, it is on average slower. 2. The fey will be changed by the resurrection, taking on more and more of the characteristics of the plane with each rebirth.

This means that a dryad who has lived her entire life on the Beastlands is effectively immortal while she remains on the Beastlands. Over time, she may quire more and more animalistic features.  Likewise, if a hellfire ignus claims a patch of land just outside of a town on the Plane of Mineral as its own, if it lives there permanently, and if it's life essence bonds with the land, it is going to be very difficult to evict. Over time, it will likely appear to become molten crystals, and may even pick up a template or unique powers.

How are they different from similar outsiders?

So fey are immortal and have the potential to resurrect, which means they can keep popping up, again and again, bearing a grudge. On top of that, fey represent various themes relating to nature. All of that sounds a lot like an outsider, especially a guardinal or eladrin. How are they fey different?

For one, fey are almost the metaphysical inverse of outsiders. The material body of an outsider is simultaneously its soul, destroy one and you destroy the other. Fey have material forms, but no soul. Spirit, mind, history, and passions, are all things they posess, but these cannot be passed on to an afterlife in the form of a soul. There is no divine judgment for fairies. There is no afterlife, nor reward for the fey. There is either rebirth or cessation of existence upon death. I've honestly never thought of fey joining the Athar or the Bleak Cabal until I wrote that sentence, but both factions are likely to be interested in this aspect of fey life.

More importantly from a plot perspective is that the fey are mercurial and unpredictable. Note that this doesn't mean chaotic, fey absolutely can be lawful, and Pathfinder is doing a good job of showing a full range of fey alignments. Think of all of the classics fables of people winding up in trouble with the Fair Folk because they weren't careful about what they said or a promise they made. Unpredictability means that there are many ways a single fey could react. A lawful fey may make good on their promise, they may go above and beyond what was required,  they may work to get off on a technicality, or they may follow the letter of the agreement so strictly that Asmodeus would be proud. Or they may try to do all four at once. This isn't random, although it may seem like it. Fey are creatures of whims. A dryad may represent the beauty of nature in the meta-narrative of GM and that may be the general theme that their race represent in fey society, but it is just a theme. A dryad cannot be the embodiment of nature's beauty the same way a Firre Eladrin embodies the beauty of a flame. Fey are still mortals, and extraordinarily impulsive ones at that. They do what other mortals do when they get too much time on their hands. They try to stave off boredom.

Further Reading

Fey Feature Archive (WotC)

The First World, Realm of the Fey (Paizo)

Heroes of the Feywild (WotC)

Manual of the Planes [4e] (WotC)

Planes of Chaos (TSR)