Elves

Elves are not native to our world. In fact they are not even native to our plane of existence, but originate from the Feywild, a realm of beauty, unpredictable emotion, and boundless magic. The elves that migrated here came when this plane was still young, not much later then the Old races, and adapted to survive in symbiosis with the untamed nature to the degree that they can no longer live in the Feywild. They are called wood elves, although most people just call them elves, as they are the only type they ever come into contact with.

The elves that remained in the Feywild are called Eladrin and the two types of elves are not very different in appearance, apart from their color, but their outlook and way of life couldn’t be more different. The wood elves live together with nature in harmony, neighboring other intelligent races who are as equals, sometimes friendly, sometimes as enemies. The eladrin on the other hand are the undisputed rulers of the feywild. Their world changes itself at the whim of their rulers, the capricious fey lords.

Graceful beauty

An elf is generally slightly taller than humans, and possess a graceful, fragile physique that is accentuated by their long, pointed ears. The skin coloration of a wood elf is similar to that of fair humans, but with a greenish tint.

Eladrin can instead have a tint of red, yellow or white, while Shadar-kai are greyish in hue. Elven hair can be light or dark, but always with a similar hue as the skin, and their eyes are like pools of liquid gold or silver. An elf has no facial or body hair.

Random height and weight

Base height	Height mod	Base weight	Weight mod
4’8”	+2d8	90 lb.	x1d4 lb.

The elves have no division between male and female as most other races. Eladrin often choose to appear, dress and behave as an archetypical lord or lady, but which of the two changes from time to time. Wood elves on the other hand generally have a more androgynous look, being neither male nor female. In fact this is true in all ways. Eladrin do not reproduce at all, and elves do not reproduce sexually, but both are hermafrodites.

The Eladrin and the Feywild

Eladrin live in the Feywild, a place of beauty, grace, magic, and peril. It is another plane of existence, inhabited mostly by fey creatures and beasts, a mystical place, and things tend to be more glorious and breathtaking in the Feywild than on the material plane, despite the dangers.

This place is ruled by the fey courts. Fey are capricious, mischievous, and often dangerous beings, but despite their chaotic reputations, they do follow a certain set of rules. These rules — widely misunderstood by outsiders — are codified and enforced by lofty fey nobility. Befitting any courtly structure, the fey bow to the Archfey: eldritch creatures of immense power who rule the courts, and the very plane itself, changing it as they please.

The Fey native to the Feywild, including Eladrin, are eternal. They do not age and can live forever. Even if killed, they can be recreated by the Archfey as if nothing happened. This is why fey often do not seem concerned about putting themselves and other in danger, or why they might do seemingly chaotic and seemingly random tings just to relieve their boredom.

The Material Plane

Soon after the Material plane was created, the denizens of the Feywild became curious of this new thing and many visited to explore. After their initial curiosity was sated, this plane was found mundane and colorless by most fey and ignored.

However, one Archfey named Corellon Larethian, was forced to move there together with his whole retinue (see the wood elves). This was not without problems, least of all when they faced their first real deaths. Contrary to the Feywild, the dead stayed dead.

This could have been the end of the fey in the material plane, had they not come to a solution. The Archfey managed to come to an agreement with nature itself. They would bond with the forest, guarding it, and in return the forest would help the fey to continue their legacy, not as the eternal creatures they previously were, but as an amalgation of fey and nature. Thus the wood elves were born.

The Wood Elf Lifecycle

The wood elves are very much a part of nature, as they are part plant. They are born from a tree, in a pod, which when ripe opens to reveal a tiny elf child. The child is taken care of by a village of wood elves, many originating from the same tree. After a time of growth and learning, similar in time to a human child, the elf is considered mature.

A mature wood elf is often encouraged to go out in the world to collect memories, experiences and sensations, as these intangible things are what will be the seed of a new generation of wood elves. After around a century, the elf will feel the call of nature, and the need to root. Most return to their village where they can spend their next phase of life in the safety of their kin, but some are forced to find a different place.

The elf then goes into its final trance, where it over a time of days or even weeks, grow a cocoon. This cocoon grows roots and its outer shell turns to bark, and slowly it turns into a tree. After several decades, this tree starts to grow fruit, which in turn will birth a new elf.

An elf tree can not see or hear, but it is aware of its surroundings. It can not communicate, but its mind and consciousness is still there, and will continue to live on for centuries.

Born from Memories

A new wood elf is very much shaped by the memories of its parent and the soil it grew in. Every time a new elf is born, a part of the parents memories and experiences are transferred to the child. These memories can sometimes come to a wood elf as flashes of clarity, recognizing a person they have not met, understanding a tool they have never seen, or singing a song they have never heard.

The parents memories are slowly portioned out to each of its children, which are birthed around a decade apart, until all the memories and experiences are gone. At that point its consciousness also fades away. An elf can produce over 50 children during it final phase, and it varies depending on the life it has lived and the experiences it has accumulated.

Green Life

Wood elves are partly plants and have a greenish tint in their skin, hair and blood due to the chlorophyll which lets them absorb energy from sunlight. Unfortunately this is not enough to completely sustain them, as they need additional minerals and proteins mostly found in meat.

A wood elf village is usually built around and on their parents. Some elves learn to communicate with the elf trees and can politely ask them to grow in certain shapes, which allow the wood elves to build their dwellings there without hurting the trees. The village would often have many elf trees in it.

Many wood elves choose to stay in the village, at least for a part of their life, where the fiercly protect their ancestors, and live mostly of hunting.

Elven Traits

Your elf character has a variety of natural abilities, the result of thousands of years of elven refinement.

Elven Subtypes

When you choose the subtype of your elf, you can choose Eladrin, Shadar-kai or Wood elf.

Eladrin

Eladrin are native to the Feywild, but sometimes visit the Material plane out or curiosity, a debt that needs settling, a decree by their ruler or because they have been banished. Being on this plane often seems dull for the eladrin, as everything feels muted compared to the Feywild, the colors, the magic and even the joy.

This is sometimes offset by the fact that they can be killed outside of the Feywild, giving them a bit of a rush when in danger. Some eladrin come to the Material plane just too fell that rush, as if addicted.

An eladrin is associated with one of the four seasons and has coloration reminiscent of that season, which can also affect the eladrin’s mood:

In the Feywild the seaons so not change, so they always have the same association, but in the material plane this changes with the season.

The following tables offer personality suggestions for eladrin of each season. You can roll on the tables or use them as inspiration for characteristics of your own.

Eladrin traits

Eladrin have the following traits in common, in addition to the traits they share with other elves.

Shadar-Kai

Sworn to the Raven Queen’s service, the mysterious shadar-kai are eladrin that ventured into the dark Shadowfell from the Feywild. Once they were fey like the rest of their eladrin kin, and now they exist in a strange state between life and death. Eladrin and shadar-kai are like reflections of each other: one bursting with emotion, the other nearly devoid of it.

Shadar-Kai traits

Shadar-kai have the following traits in common, in addition to the traits they share with other elves.

Wood Elf

The wood elf is what people generally mean when they refer to an elves.

As an elf native to the material plane, you have keen senses and intuition, and your fleet feet carry you quickly and stealthily through your native forests.

Elven class options

An elf approaches some classes a bit different compared than other races. When you select one of the classes in this list, it is modified as follows:

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The Wood Elves

Long before elves existed, Corellon was one of the most powerful archfey the Feywild has ever seen, with power rivaling the gods. When his own realm bored him, he travelled to find more interesting things, and he danced from world to world and plane to plane. A being of consummate mutability and infinite grace, Corellon was a power like no other - able to take the form of a chuckling stream, a teasing breeze, an incandescent beam, a cavorting flame, or a crackling bolt of lightning. On nothing more than a whim, Corellon’s body could become a school of fish, a swarm of bees, or a flock of birds. He could confidently consort with other gods, often adopting their appearances - male, female, or something else -but just as often kept their company in the form of a rose blossom or a delicate doe.

Corellon’s flamboyant, mercurial personality showed through no matter which form the he took. Corellon loved wholeheartedly, broke oaths without reservation, and took pleasure from every encounter with the other beings of the multiverse.

Most of the gods accepted Corellon’s company, even with his mutability and passionate behavior, but these traits infuriated Gruumsh, the greatest of the orc gods. Gruumsh’s wrath was almost universally respected, even among the divine powers, but Corellon blithely took no heed of him. Perhaps it was this seeming hauteur that finally infuriated Gruumsh enough to take action. He struck Corellon down and the archfey’s broken body fell onto the material plane.

Corellon’s faithful retinue flocked were he fell. These primal elves, called the Seldarine, were much akin to Corellon, not nearly as powerful but just as changeable and audacious. Splendid fey creatures, they traveled in Corellon’s shadow, sparkling like the reflections from a finely cut gem. Their intense mourning, together with his innate strength as the most powerful of all archfey, and the scraps of divinity he had accumulated during his close association with gods, allowed his essence to ascend, and rise as a newborn deity.

As a deity in the material plane, Corellon was barred entry into the Feywild. His devoted followers stayed with him, and even when it became clear that they were not immortal on this plane. The elves started to wither and die. Corellon tried to save as many as he could by sharing his newfound divinity with them, but this was just enough to save a few.

Corellon, with the help of his Seldarine, desperately tried to find a solution. Time started to run out, and it seemed impossible, until the soul of this world reached out. The world soul, or Mother Nature as the elves calls it, had been infested with creatures created by different deities, with very few of them caring at all about the world they lived on.

The Seldarine came to an agreement with Mother Nature. The elves would bond with the forest, being its caretakers and guarding it, and in return the forest would help the fey to continue their legacy, not as the eternal creatures they previously were, but as an amalgation of fey and nature. Thus the wood elves were born. Their bodies could no longer live forever, but their memories would live on, and what is a person but the sum of its memories.

The Betrayal

The Seldarine remained with the wood elves. Being deities they were immortal, but even though elves died, their children kept many memories of their ancestors, and thus each generation kept the familiarity of their deities. Even though the Seldarine are long gone from the world now, still many living elves have personal memories of meeting their deities, which makes their relationship closer than many other races have with their gods.

This continued for many generation, until one of the Seldarine, although privileged to be elevated above the rest of the elves, was not satisfied with being one of Corellon’s underlings. She - for she had declared herself thus - saw in the multiverse around them other beings making an impact in various worlds. The entity who called herself Lolth spoke to the other new gods and wove an enticing tale of how the elves could attain superiority if only they could relinquish a bit of their individual freedom. Together, united in purpose, the gods could be the vanguard of this effort. Wasn’t losing freedom to achieve greatness worth the price? Through this argument, Lolth persuaded the primal entities to take static forms, largely resembling what the mortal elves look like, and thereby turn away from the example of Corellon’s wild, ever-shifting ways.

As these primal reflections of Corellon changed their nature and defined themselves, they came to see Lolth, who set them on the path to their destiny, as an equal to Corellon. Each of the Seldarine, started to favor Corellon or Lolth. Corellon was revolted by this perceived betrayal and railed against Lolth’s intrusion. Some of the elves rose to her defense. They argued that no entity who sprang from Corellon, no matter how rebellious, should be attacked. Those who remained advocates of Corellon insisted that their sire also wanted greatness for the elves and that such greatness could be achieved if all the elves followed Corellon’s lead.

The elves gathered in great hosts around Lolth and Corellon as each entity pleaded its case. At a time when Corellon became distracted and lost in thought, Lolth crept up on him and sought to strike a mortal blow. The elves who favored Corellon helped to blunt the attack, but those in Lolth’s camp remained aloof and detached, doing nothing to prevent her onslaught.

This act rent the elves asunder. Lolth and Corellon parted ways. The elf gods who sided with Lolth became the Seldarine’s dark reflection and Lolth eventually become a demon lord in the Abyss. Corellon became the de facto leader of a pantheon and race that he felt he could no longer trust. Feeling betrayed, he left the Material Plane together with just a handful of the Seldarine that he still trusted. The elves were left to fend for themselves, while Corellon created a new home in the Outer Plane, which he called Arvandor.

The elves who most revered Lolth fleed below the surface of the world and became drow, while the others divided themselves into a multitude of surface-dwelling groups, each worshiping some or all of the Seldarine in their respective enclaves.

Living in Reverie

“History, my young friends? Just because your lives are as fleetingly swift as a hummingbird’s flight is no cause to say mine constitutes history. History is the weave of things outside life, not for those still within its loom. Still I shall tell you of my lifetime and my clan’s lifetime, as my clansong has not been sung in over a century. In reverie, the People may learn all that has passed for them and their predecessors. Now, in songs that were once only sung in celebration, I may teach you brief candles of humanity of the People and your own place among us.”

– Cymbiir Haevault, Lorekeeper of Clan Haevault

A memory is a curious thing. One can come into consciousness unbidden, evoked by an unexpected scent or the words spoken by a friend. A memory can also be elusive, foiling all attempts to recall it and sometimes remembered only after the hunt is abandoned, like a word on the tip of one’s tongue. Some memories pull at the heart, weighing it down and holding it there as an anchor moors a ship. Others buoy it up or make it flutter joyously like the wings of a bird. Some memories lie in wait like predators, ready to leap out when the mind or the heart is vulnerable. Some linger like scars, not always visible but ever-present.

Perhaps more so than any other race, elves are familiar with all aspects of memory. From birth, elves don’t sleep but instead enter a trance when they need to rest. In this state, elves remain aware of their surroundings while immersing themselves in memories. What an elf remembers during this reverie depends largely on the experiences the elf has had, and the memories of the lives that has been passed down from their ancestors.

Childhood

An elf considers a large group as its parents, being the ancestors and Mother Nature. Even if some of the ancestors are still living, they are inaccessible, as they have transcended into an elf tree form. Due to this, an elf child is usually raised by their siblings, who are separated in age by decades, or even a century or more.

Even though an elf child has never talked to its parents, it still feels a deeper connection to them than any other race. This is due to the way elves go into trance. While in a trance, an elf meditates and processes its memories and experiences.

During a young elf’s first few years, the memories evoked during trance are drawn not from current life experiences, but from the fantastic past adventures of the elf’s ancestors. The young elves are encouraged to explore these memories and talk about them with one another, but they aren’t to be discussed with adults until a memory of the current life first intrudes upon a youngster’s trance. This experience, called the First Reflection, marks the end of childhood and the start of adolescence.

Adolescence

Most elves experience their First Reflection early in their second decade. It marks the beginning of the period when an elf must focus on acquiring the knowledge and skills needed for the elf’s role as an adult. As a means to this end, elves in adolescence learn how to use trance to evoke memories of their waking lives, giving them opportunities to reflect on the joys of the mortal world and to reinforce the principles of any training or practice undertaken while awake. At the same time, the memories of long ago that came so easily during childhood now arise less and less frequently. The Drawing of the Veil is the name that elves give to the occasion when a young elf no longer experiences primal memories during trance but instead recalls only the events of its current mortal existence.

Adulthood

The Drawing of the Veil marks an elf’s passage into adulthood, which typically occurs during their third decade of life.

Losing access to one’s primal memories can be a traumatic experience. Elder elves look for signs of this change in young elves and try to guide them through it. Most elven cultures mark the Drawing of the Veil with a ceremony of pride or celebration, as a way of offsetting an individual’s melancholy.

After the Drawing of the Veil, an elf enters the prime of life, a span of centuries during which most elves strive to engage with the world. An adult elf learns how to control the memories that bubble up during trance, choosing to recall experiences from its waking life that enhance its training or give it solace in bad times.

This is the stage of elven life that others are most familiar with because it’s the age when elves move outside their reclusive communities and interact with the larger world. They strive to have a permanent effect on the world, to change things for the better (as they see it), as well as to experience as much as possible in order to pass those experience on to their children.

Over time, an adult elf can become accomplished in many endeavors while pursuing its destiny. It isn’t unusual among elves to meet someone who is expert in disparate disciplines, such as a battle wizard who also is a settlement’s best vintner and famous for creating delicate wood carvings. This versatility speaks to every adult elf’s eagerness for new experiences, because memories of adventures, escapades, and accomplishments will fuel the next and possibly longest phase of one’s life.

Elder elves

At some point during adulthood, the reverie of an elf’s trance is first interrupted by a new form of unbidden thought. This seemingly errant memory arises not from the elf’s personal experience, nor from the memories of the elf’s ancestors, but comes from another life and another time. An elf’s first experience of this sort is often referred to as the Remembrance and attributed to the influence of Labelas Enoreth. Or it is called the Revelation, and Araleth Letheranil is honored for its occurrence. Regardless of its label, this event marks the start of a new phase in an elf’s life.

An elf who begins to experience these other-life memories might live on as normal for decades, but as the intrusions become more frequent, they take their toll on the individual’s outlook. Eventually, an elders thoughts start drifting away from worldly accomplishments and turning more and more inward. This change is gradual at first, but it becomes more and more severe until it can’t be ignored. When that happens, an elf loses interest in the outside world and wants nothing more than to return home, to be surrounded by others of their own kind, to explore the memories they’ve accumulated in this life and keep them separate from the ever-increasing number of other-life memories that are resurfacing.

Most elves undergo this experience at the end of their second century. Elves who led extremely active and dangerous lives, such as adventurers, seem to be affected earlier than those who pursue more sedate occupations. Notably, elves who have been revived from death by magical means seem to experience their first other-life memory earlier than they otherwise might.

Regardless of how soon or how often elves experience such memories, most consider them a blessing from the gods.

Transcendence

Most elves don’t age outwardly as other humanoids do. The skin of adults remains smooth, their hair docs not gray, and their bones do not ache. Even the oldest elves look similar in age to a human of perhaps 30 years. Yet there is one sure sign that an elf is nearing the end of life: cataracts in the shape of crescents, points down, that appear over the pupils of both eyes when the elf is in trance. This change, commonly known as Transcendence, is evidence that the elf is ready to become one with Mother Nature.

When this happens, the elf will feel the call of nature, and the need to root. How much time an elf’s body has left is never certain. Whether weeks or months, the period is marked by both intense joy and great sadness. Most elves accept their upcoming fate with optimism or resignation, and try to return to their birth village where they can spend their next phase of life in the safety of their kin.

The elf then goes into its final trance, where it over a time of days or even weeks, grow a cocoon. This cocoon grows roots and its outer shell turns to bark, and slowly it turns into a tree. After several decades, this tree starts to grow fruit, which in turn will birth a new elf. An elf tree can not see or hear, but it is aware of its surroundings. It can not communicate, but its mind and consciousness is still there, and will continue to live on for centuries.

The Elven Outlook

The elves of the material plane have a unique perspective on the workings of the world and their place in it that is a mixture of all the factors that shape their nature on the material plane, as well as the memories of being fey creatures in the Feywild in the time before time.

Cultural melancholy

The reason that elves are seldom frivolous and carefree is rooted in an inborn malaise or sorrow that infused the original wood elves when Corellon left them. These feelings of sadness grip all elves at various times in their lives and impact every aspect of their society.

Priests among the elves typically believe that the broken link can never be healed unless Corellon has a change of heart. And as changeable as Corellon is, the god has been adamant on one point: as long as Lolth remains in existence, the responsibility for her betrayal falls on all elves. When the elves cast aside formlessness and impermanence for the promise of greatness, they forsook the part of their nature that Corellon most cherished - and, worse still, by doing so they somehow compromised Corellon’s mutability as well.

Whether or not Lolth tricked the first elves, to Corellon’s mind, is beside the point. They chose to follow her lead, which precipitated the schism between Corellon and Lolth, even if many of them ultimately remained loyal to Corellon. Now the elves of the world must forever suffer the consequences of their ancestors’ poor judgment. In this one regard, Corellon is as inflexible and unchanging as the foundation of the world. And all elves grieve over the memories of the irreparably broken bond between themselves and their creator.

The long view

Elves have a natural life span of centuries. In addition, the ancestors’ memories that are a constant companion to an elf gives them the feeling of having lived far longer than their own life. Not surprisingly, these traits affects their attitude and outlook toward every aspect of mortal life. Events from centuries ago that are distant or even ancient history to humans might have been experienced firsthand by an elf’s ancestor, and the memory might be as clear as if the elf was there himself. An elf’s memory of such events is likely more accurate than a well-researched historian’s account, because the elf can revisit the memory over and over during trance, fixing it more firmly in mind each time.

In keeping with their seeming aloofness, elves can appear cold and emotionless in the face of tragedy. They do feel the same pain that others feel, and they do mourn their losses. But if an elf becomes too emotionally invested in a loss, the experience might be relived during trance for generations to come. Keeping some distance between themselves and the concerns of others serves elves best.

The quality of patience, as other races define it, is so ingrained in elves that it goes beyond second nature. When enemies threaten to invade their domain, elves are just as often satisfied to wait out the danger in their concealed strongholds as to come forth and fight. Remaining out of harm’s way for a year or even a decade is a small price to pay to avoid bloodshed - because elves, after all, have all the time in the world.

Passion vs. restraint

The elven personality is a mixture of two opposing forces, which vie for dominance throughout an elf’s life. How an elf handles the tension between passion and restraint colors their life experiences.

When they’re young, elves approach life with great enthusiasm. Their joy is as intense as roaring flame, their sadness as deep as the sea. They dive into endeavors with seemingly inexhaustible energy, yet they typically do so without much display of emotion.

The reserve and patience of elves is well known among other races, but what a dwarf or a human doesn’t see is the conflict taking place inside an elf’s mind. Elves keep their passion internalized because they learn at a young age that such feelings can become destructive when they are allowed to take control. Elves who let passion overtake their behavior can be consumed by it, and these passions might not only affect themselves, but elves in many generations to come.

This passion wanes as an elf ages, but it never disappears entirely. One of the most important responsibilities of elder elves is teaching youngsters the danger of letting their passions loose and showing them how to develop a long-lasting self-discipline.

Primeval hatred

One of the most fervent passions in an elf is the animosity that surface elves and drow hold for one another. This hatred dates back to when the primal elves surrendered their mutable forms in response to Lolth’s promises. They split into two factions: the drow, who believed that Corellon had held them back and that Lolth’s betrayal was justified, and al other elves, who felt bereft of Corellon’s presence and believed Lolth had manipulated them from the very beginning. To the drow, every elf who basks in Corellon’s light is a weakling and a fool. To most other elves, every drow is a traitor.

Despite the rift between them, drow and other elves can deal with each other when necessary, avoiding violence for the sake of a common cause. They won’t like it- they might even hate themselves for a time afterward- but they’ll do what must be done according to the circumstances of the situation.

Elf adventurers

Most surface elves embark on a period of adventuring during their early adulthood. An adventure to an elf, however, isn’t always the same as what humans mean when they think of adventure. Humans tend to equate adventurers with people who battle monsters, explore dangerous ruins, delve into deep caverns, and generally stir up trouble, usually in pursuit of gold and glory. Elves have been known to do all those things, but more typical elf adventurers are simple travelers.

Elves know that once they experience Transcendence, the memories they have accumulated will contribute to their children’s lives. So they seek out experiences that will produce exciting, beautiful, or satisfying memories. A few battles against monsters certainly could qualify, but such activities aren’t usually the focus of an elf’s endeavors. Much preferred are memories of faraway places, excellent meals, and fascinating people. As such, most elf “adventurers” are primarily sightseers, not valiant crusaders or heroes for hire.

This aspect of elven life isn’t as well known among other races as it might be, because elves spend much of their “adventuring” years in places far away from other societies. They’re more interested in remote forests, lonely valleys, high mountains, and other natural places than in cities.

A tiny percentage of elves develop an irrational fear of the serene, contemplative life that awaits them in their later years when they grow into a tree. Even if such a future life seems tepid and unbearably dull during an elf’s prime, the psychological changes that come with age make this peaceful period of existence the most satisfying experience possible for an elf’s later years. Nevertheless, this fear is immune to logic when it arises in adult elves. To avoid the fate they dread, consciously or subconsciously, they throw themselves into dangerous situations, not caring whether they survive or perhaps even hoping they don’t.

Elves and Magic

Magic infuses the elves’ world. Even so, they aren’t born with an innate understanding of magic. To master spellcasting, an elf must devote years of study and practice to it, the same as most folk. But from the moment they’re born, elves are surrounded by memories of a time as magical fey that subtly reveals the mysteries of magic to someone who is receptive to the message- which elves certainly are.

Wizardry

There’s a reason most powerful wizards are old. The special formulas of action, item, and sound that produce wizardly magic require precision, and such precision comes only from long practice. More than that, each spell a wizard might cast requires a portion of one’s powerful intellect to be dedicated to the task, with the necessary patterns of thought and proper mindset kept in stasis, ready to be unleashed.

Even after these concepts are mastered, new knowledge of magic remains elusive, and a wizard must progress steadily through deeper levels of understanding, breaking through mental barriers in order to achieve ever greater mastery.

Of all peoples, elves are perhaps best suited to wizardry. They have access to centuries worth of memories, and their trance effectively gives them extra time to practice, as lessons learned during study can be reinforced by recalling them during resting periods. The patience and restraint for which elves are well known serves them well in this pursuit.

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The Seldarine

The pantheon of elven deities, called the Seldarine, includes Corellon and the group of primal elves whom he graced with divinity. These gods were the ones who brought word to Corellon of Lolth’s radical ideas, and their creator rewarded them by bringing them with him when he withdraw to Arvandor. When Lolth lured some of the primal elves away from Corellon with her promises, this high-ranking core of divine entities remained loyal. Because they rejected Lolth’s treacherous ways, they retained their primal power and their immortality.

Surface elves, and other elves who dwell in the light,revere these entities for remaining true to Corellon. In practice, this reverence is expressed more as the honoring of an ancestor or relative than the worshiping of a god, for all the elves still remain some memories of the Seldarine.

The Elf Deities table enumerates the members of the Seldarine. For each god, the table notes alignment, province (the god’s main areas of interest and responsibility), suggested domains for clerics who serve the god, and a common symbol of the god. Several of the gods in the table are described in this section.

Corellon Larathien

The grandfather of all elves is both chaos and beauty personified. Corellon is as fluid and changeable as a breeze or a brook- quick to anger, but equally quick to forgive and forget. The god loves magic, artistry, nature, and freedom. Anyone who has felt the mystical presence of Corellon describes it as a joy like no other, followed by a deep melancholy when his presence is no longer felt. Corellon doesn’t expect much from followers - no complex rituals or frequent ceremonies or even regular prayer. Corellon wants them to enjoy life, to try new things, to imagine what they desire and then pursue it, and to be kind to others. In return for this freedom from the usual requirements of religion, Corellon expects them to address their own problems and not pray for aid in every crisis.

These precepts are instilled within every elf, since all elves are ultimately descended from fragments of Corellon. When elves ask their priests how one might become able to sense Corellon’s presence, the priests often say, “First, truly know yourself. Only then can you feel our creator near.”

Services in Corellon’s honor are typically conducted in natural stone amphitheaters or bowl-shaped forest clearings. In keeping with Corellon’s chief commandment for everyone to be free, all who attend are allowed to show their obeisance however they choose, as long as their way of contributing combines with the others to form a grand display of reverence. Such a gathering has the atmosphere of a festival rather than of an organized worship service.

Many elf wizards honor Corellon and adorn their spellbooks and towers with the god’s symbols. Some of them speculate that Corellon is the personification of raw magic itself, the primal force that underlies the multiverse. Corellon is not magic tamed or shaped, but magic in its original form: a well of endless, splendid possibilities.

Hanali Celanil

Hanali is the elven god of beauty and love. Usually depicted as a beautiful androgynous elf, Hanali’s gender in a story seldom matters, for no matter how much heartache and confusion the stories contain, they end with affairs of the heart properly sorted out and everyone in love with the person, or persons, they were fated to be with. Stories of Hanali’s romantic adventures among elves and other mortals are perennial favorites when sung by elf bards and poets.

In Arvandor, Hanali maintains a hidden pool called Evergold. She bathes in it at least once a day. It’s said that the water of Evergold keeps her young and breathtakingly beautiful, but this is certainly a poetic myth, since all the Seldarine appear young and beautiful, with or without having bathed in this fountain. Mortal elves who are invited to join Hanali in the pool are said to retain their youthfulness and to delay the onset of Transcendence by at least a century. More than a few elves claim to have experienced this benefit, and the truth of it is attested by many bards - sometimes in all earnestness, sometimes with a knowing wink.

Priests of Hanali preside over most family-related ceremonies. Other than name-giving ceremonies and a spate of spring celebrations, the priests conduct few observances.

Pools of Beauty. Those who worship Hanali Celanil build shrines in her honor around natural pools of clear spring water- a representation of the purity and power of Evergold. Her priests often surround such an area with flowers or arrange stones in a way that accentuates the natural beauty of the place. In a shrine dedicated to the worship of several elven deities, an alabaster bowl of water, usually with yellow flowers or petals floating in it, is left in reverence to Hanali.

Devotees of Hanali Celanil are known for taking the initiative in beautifying their surroundings without asking or expecting others to follow suit. If a shrine to the gods is beginning to look somewhat untidy, her followers will straighten things up, bring fresh flowers, and refresh offerings of food, water, and wine. Especially vigilant individuals might even decide to clean up after others who carelessly spill a drink in a tavern or leave their dinner table in a slovenly condition, all in humble service to their god.

Labelas Enoreth

Even though elves live far longer than most other humanoids, they show few physical signs of aging until they become very old. By the time an elf show any signs of age, the elf has already lived for centuries For this longevity and long-lasting vitality, they thank and revere Labelas Enoreth.

Labelas is portrayed as an elderly elf with silver hair, still-active eyes that once were bright blue but now are clouded and gray, fine wrinkles around the eyes and mouth. and a right hand slightly impaired by the effects of age. If anything, these symptoms of mortality make the god even more handsome and stately in the eyes of his followers than he was in his youth.

Elves tend to give Labelas little regard until they experience Remembrance. Like Corellon and Hanali, Labelas makes few demands on his followers. A few minutes each day spent thanking him for his gift of long life and good health, and occasionally placing a fresh flower in one of his shrines, is generally all that’s expected. When an elf develops unusual ailments in old age and appears headed for decrepitude, other elves might wonder if these are the repercussions for not paying Labelas his due.

Most settlements have only one or two priests of Labelas. These individuals are elves well past their prime but who have not yet begun to withdraw into themselves. Their duties involve guiding elves who have recently experienced Remembrance, and are thus beginning the journey into introversion in the waning days of one’s mortal life. The priests also preside over funeral celebrations, since Labelas is also honored for his role in seeing that elves experience beneficial reincarnations.

Rillifane Rallathil

Like the other elven deities, Rillifane Rallathil was once a primal elf sprung from of Corellon’s divinity. The original primal elves - and indeed, Corellon himself - have no “true form.” Their common, elf-like portrayals are a convenience adopted after the elves took on permanent humanoid form.

When the other elven deities decided on humanoid forms, Rillifane took a different approach. He took as his principal form that of an enormous oak tree, taller and wider than any other. Its roots are so deep and far-reaching that they touch the roots of every other plant in the world, or so it’s said. Through this network of tendrils, Rillifane remains aware of everything that happens in the forest.

When he chooses to travel to other planes and worlds, Rillifane takes the appearance of an uncommonly tall and strong wood elf with dark skin, handsome features, and twigs and leaves protruding from his hair. In either guise, his main concerns are the welfare of forests and prairies, the passing of the seasons, and the lives of beasts. Most of his followers and priests are elf druids. They’re just as insular and secretive as any other druids, which means their motives are often not clear to those around them.

Energetic debates have been held over whether Rillifane’s oak tree exists only on Arvandor; has roots that extend to all worlds; is duplicated fully on every world that has plant life; or is only a metaphor for Rillifane’s deep connection to nature. A growing sentiment among Rillifane’s druids holds that the correct answer is “All of the above or none of the above, depending on Rillifane’s mood.”

Rillifane is also the patron of the trees which are the final from of an elf. In an elf community, the druids of Rillifane take care of these trees, and communicate with them. In this commonucation they gently ask the elder tree elves to grow in forms where their descendands can live. As elves live in the branches of their ancestors, one can understand why they are so protective of their homes.

Sehanine Moonbow

Sehanine is Corellon’s beloved; Corellon is Sehanine’s creator. Sehanine is Corellon’s shadow; Corellon is Sehanine’s reflection. Sehanine is the moon; Corellon is the moon’s crescent. Sehanine is the night sky; Corellon is the sun and all the stars.

No god of the Seldarine is as intertwined with Corellon or presents so many paradoxes for worshipers to unravel, but this role befits Sehanine, for she is a god of mysteries as much as anything else. Many non-elves find it easiest to think of Sehanine as the companion of Corellon and the god of the moon, but to elves she is much more than that. The moon passes from one phase to the next, and Sehanine watches over all such cycles, be it from season to season or cradle to grave. She is midwife to elf mothers, ushering souls into the world. She is also thought to stand beside dying elves, to greet their departing spirits and set them on the path to Arvandor.

Sehanine serves as patron of the lost and any who travel, as well as those who seek meaning. Elves beseech her to provide relief from madness, and they mark her symbol on graves and tombs to invoke her protection of the dead.In these comforting aspects, Sehanine is often imagined as a willowy, gentle male elf with shining eyes that reveal both melancholy and tenderness in their gaze when depicted alongside his beloved Corellon.

In stories of the Seldarine, Sehanine is Corellon’s steadfast companion, the one being who can persuade Corellon to pause and reflect rather than allow his emotions to rule him. Corellon can be resplendent with joy or shaking with anger, but a word or a look from Sehanine is enough to check or subtly alter Corellon’s mood and behavior, redirecting the god to a less extreme course of action. Some elven legends treat Sehanine as Corellon’s spouse or as a favored child, but other stories hint at a deeper truth. They say Sehanine was formed from the first drop of blood spilled from Corellon’s body, and so she reminds Corellon that even as a divine being, he can be harmed.

Lunar Worship. Temples to Sehanine Moonbow are almost always aligned with the heavens to enable the priests to track the motion and phases of the moon. The sleeping quarters of the priests are positioned such that a shaft of light from the full moon falls on them while they are sleeping, and this silver light of Sehanine can influence their dreams and impart messages to them. Instead of going into trance, Sehanine’s priests often seek her guidance by entering into a state of true sleep and sifting through their dreams for signs.

Offerings to Sehanine are mostly made from silver, often shaped in a way that is reminiscent of the full moon. Cups, bowls, cloak pins, and plates of silver are found at her shrines, as well as those dedicated to the Seldarine collectively. The weapons and gear used by her followers, such as silver arrowheads, knife blades, and wooden shields, are often decorated with a stylized image of Sehanine’s eye with rays coming out of it - a warning to the elves’ enemies that Sehanine’s gaze has fallen upon them.

Deep Sashelas

Deep Sashelas, sometimes known just as Sashelas, is the elven deity of the sea, seafaring, and knowledge. Sashelas is called the Knowledgeable One. His awareness of all lore, not only that about the sea, is seemingly limitless. He is especially beloved by sea elves, dolphins, and elf sages.

Many elven seafarers toss offerings of gold and jewels overboard, beseeching Sashelas to calm storms or provide favorable winds, and he is inclined to aid them even if they aren’t fully dedicated to his worship. Ceremonies honoring Sashelas are held underwater at times of uncommonly high tides or during electrical storms, when flashes of lightning above the waves provide illumination to the calmer realm below the surface.

Sea of Knowledge. Over time, much of the world sinks to the depths of the oceans and is thought to be lost forever, but it isn’t lost to everyone. Sashelas gleans much about the world above the waves from that which sinks beneath them: every shipwreck, every offering, and the wealth and knowledge of every seaside city swallowed by a giant wave are added to Sashelas’s ever-expanding library of lore. Knowledge that has disappeared from the surface world might still be known to the priests of Sashelas, gained through communion with their god. Messengers who never reached their destination, ships filled with scrolls from an ancient library, scholars whose works were lost at sea - all of these add to Sashelas’s storehouse.

Away from the open sea, many lagoons, reefs, and grottoes have shrines devoted to Sashelas. Many come in reverence to bathe in the waters in the hope of receiving visions from the god, since it is known that Sashelas is fond of sharing knowledge with those who are true seekers. Scholars, monks, and clerics visit these elaborately decorated seaside temples, immersing themselves in the blessed waters and looking for enlightenment. Because the god also dispenses lore through dreams and reveries of memory, many artists and poets worship Sashelas. They seek his creative insight by spending time floating on the waves, then return to shore to write down or sketch out the gifts bequeathed to them.

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Eladrin and the Feywild

Nearly everyone has heard of the Fey in one form or another. Fairies such as pixies and sprites take on a major role in children’s tales as magical woodland tricksters and guardians. Fey monsters, like hags and trolls, haunt our nightmares. And the graceful sidhe, the fey lords and ladies, are famous throughout the planes for their immeasurable beauty. Despite the stories, these creatures are rare. They are often seen only in fleeting glimpses, or in the wild, untamed lands of the world. Few, if any, doubt their existence, since just about everyone has met an elf or perhaps even a gnome, but next to no one has met a fey creature, and even fewer have lived to tell about it. Why is that?

The answer is that the fey live separately from the material plane, or the “real world”, on a plane of existence known as the Feywild. Known to some as the Twilight Kingdom, the Eternal Glade, the Wicked Garden, or the Nevernever, the Feywild is a place of beauty, grace, magic, and peril. Lanterns seem to float in the air, which is alive with butterflies and other insects. It is eternally twilight here, and the sun rests low in the sky, never rising or setting. Creatures that are harmed by the sun are safe here, and creatures that cannot see in the dark still retain their vision.

It’s a realm of nature run amok, and a place where the unfettered passions of fey run free. Joy, lust, rage, contentment, jealousy, and love in all their extremes are on spectacular display there. Lifelong friends might share a laugh over food and wine, cross blades over a mutual lover, and write songs celebrating each other’s courage and integrity, all in a single evening.

The natives are boisterous, tempestuous, and ready to draw blood over the slightest insult or lapse of tradition. The plane’s beauty is both overpowering and bewildering. Fey spirits lurk everywhere, and they’re even more unpredictable and more easily provoked than the elves.

Those are the obvious dangers. The subtle danger of the Feywild is that it can act like an addictive drug on visitors: the longer they remain, the more likely they will never want to leave. Anyone who stays more than a month might need to be dragged back to their home plane by well-meaning friends, then guarded or confined until the realm’s pull on the person wanes.

Time in the Feywild is a tricky subject as well. Days spent in the Feywild might turn out to be seconds on the material plane, or they might turn out to be centuries. Two creatures that both exit the Feywild at the same time might end up being split up vastly by the passage of time, never to see each other again. Although this is an extremely rare occurrence, it is vital to take precautions against this time-warping effect when entering or exiting this echo plane. Wearing or holding iron or steel materials appears to stop time from distorting itself, although it is rather difficult to bring these metals into the Feywild in the first place. The archfey seem to have some sort of control over this effect, and simply traveling with a fey creature seems to stop this effect from happening altogether, which suggests that it is some sort of defense mechanism meant to stop mortals from interfering with the dealings of the fey.

The Courts

The land is ruled by two fey Courts, the Summer, or Seelie, and Winter, or Unseelie, Courts. Each Court has a stronghold, which is located in the same place in the Feywild as a castle on the material plane.

Titania, the Summer Queen, rules her land from Chateau Faria, an awe-inspiring palace of emeralds and other gemstones that teems with life. The lands surrounding Chateau Faria are too beautiful for mortal eyes to comprehend. Flowers bloom eternally in the Summer Kingdom, where lakes sparkle as though made of sapphires. The air is always hot in the lands of Summer, and despite the constant twilight of the Feywild, it is much brighter here.

Mab, the Winter Queen, rules from Arctis Tor, an imposing castle of ice and black stone. The lands surrounding Arctis Tor are as harsh as winter itself. Icy cold and windswept mountains and dead forests. Only the strong survive in this land, where deadly predators hunt each other in the snows and struggle, both for survival and for the favor of their cold Queen. It is much darker here than in the rest of Feywild.

The lands outside the direct influence of either court are varied, ranging from copies of either Court to combinations of the two, to completely individual areas. Most lands of the Feywild are subject to the changing of the seasons, unlike the lands of Summer and Winter. Majestic castles and sunken mires dot the landscape, which is inhabited by representatives of both Courts, and by the Wyldfae, which belong to neither. Strange music can often be heard in the wild lands of the Feywild, as can the laughter of the land’s inhabitants. The wild lands are just as perilous as either Court, but out here, it is much harder to let down your guard.

The Fey

The Feywild is, as the name implies, inhabited by the fey. These creatures, who live practically limitless lifespans, have an incredible variety. For the most part, the fey can be divided into several broad categories, with each species being able to fit into one Court. However, there are some exceptions. Hags, for example, nearly always avoid the Courts, who hate them for their blind cruelty and hideous appearance. However, some hags are willing to work with the Courts, either through being powerful enough to be seen as an invaluable asset, or by putting on a guise to appear less ugly to the fey that they work with. Other fey, such as eladrin or the sidhe can belong to either court or none at all, but are still not considered wyldfae.

Archfey

Archfey are the most powerful creatures of the feywild. The fey Queens are the most famous and powerful archfey, but they are not the only ones. Most of the archfey, such as Oberon and Selephra, are sidhe who have amassed great power through loyalty to their Queens. Others, such as Baba Yaga, the Erlking, and Hysram, are other fey creatures who have existed since ancient times and have gained their powers through other means.

The archfey are immortal, and on as powerful in the Feywild as gods are in other realms. Iron is still painful to the archfey, and their bodies can still be destroyed by it, but if an archfey is destroyed, it will eventually reform. Archfey that have been granted their power can have it removed by the Queen who gave it to them, but for the others, this power is permanent. Archfey are capable of granting powers to mortals who make deals with them, creating warlocks who can do their bidding without being bound to the Laws of the Fey.

Sidhe

Sidhe are the lords and ladies of the Courts. They are nearly incapable of existing outside of a fey Court, and to them, death is preferable to banishment from their Court. The sidhe appear as humanoids more graceful and beautiful than any mortal, and they are deeply in tune with magic. Sidhe cast magic as easily and as innately as they breathe.

All sidhe have abilities drawn from their Court, but each one also has unique talents. They love to play tricks on mortals, drawing them with charms or illusions and making deals with enchanted mortals that will give momentary pleasure, but will also give something much more valuable to the sidhe, usually the mortal’s life or free will, which can then be used as a bargaining chip for more power or political standing in their Court. The sidhe are very competitive, and all seek to both serve their Queen to the best of their ability, and to prove themselves worthy of being granted the powers of an archfey.

Sidhe that are banished from their Court survive in other inhabited areas, joining the Wild Hunt or other wyldfae, or else traveling to the material plane. They sometimes create lands for themselves as well. When they are forced to take a side, few chose the one that banished them, with most of the banished sidhe working for the other side as revenge for being cast out.

Eladrin

Eladrin are elf-like fey that live in the Feywild. They are very similar to elves from the material plane, but they are more in-tune with the magic of the fey. Even without training, an eladrin is capable of manipulating the magic of the plane to teleport short distances. Most eladrin live in the lands of Summer and the wild lands, but many serve the Winter Court as well. Unlike other fey, eladrin are capable of going against the Laws of the Fey. However, it physically pains them to do so, so it is still rare for an eladrin to lie or to break a debt, and iron and steel are still very painful for them to touch.

Eladrin are essentially immortal in the Feywild. If they are killed, they can be recreated by their archfey liege, and continue with their lives. They believe that an eladrin who excels in life throughout a series of incarnations can eventually come back as a member of the Seelie or Unseelie court or, in extreme cases, even as an archfey.

Some eladrin could pass for wood elves, but most are distinctly eladrin in appearance: very slender, with hair and skin color determined by the season, and their eyes often glimmer with fey magic.

Eladrin tend to be haughty around mortals. They’re proud of their heritage and equally proud of their ability to thrive in the Feywild, a land full of threats that would overwhelm and destroy weaker creatures. Some eladrin trade haughtiness for a tender kindness or pity toward their mortals that are stuck on the material planeand has never felt the glory of the Feywild. These kinder eladrin take a special pleasure in introducing their realm to others.

Eladrin culture is older than most other civilizations in the multiverse, and it’s also the most decadent. Most elves are impetuous to some extent, but eladrin are known for their fickleness. Many of them change their minds on the spur of the moment without giving reasons. Their system of justice vacillates between capriciously harsh and whimsically mild, depending on the mood of the eladrin passing judgment, and eladrin are more susceptible to flattery than other almost any other creature.

Scholars who have researched eladrin culture blame these traits on the influence of the Feywild. As part of their argument, they point out that eladrin who spend a significant amount of time on the Material Plane - adventurers and scholars, primarily still demonstrate these attitudes, but to a lesser degree.

The Laws of the Fey

Nearly all fey are bound to a specific set of rules. Some fey can break some of these Laws, but for the most part, they can be seen as a static code among fairies. Fey are physically unable to break these laws. Moreso, they do not see these laws as boundaries, but simply as the way things are. A fey creature cannot comprehend the idea of telling a lie, for example, although they know that mortals are able to, and are always on their guard. The rules of the fey are known as the Laws, and are worded in three simple commandments.

Speak No False Words

A fairy cannot knowingly tell a lie. This does not mean that a fairy cannot spread deceit, or trick an adversary into believing a falsehood. It simply means that a fairy cannot speak false words. By nature, fairies never tell the full truth, weaving their words in such a way as to avoid lying while at the same time leaving an impression of something false or incomplete in the mind of the one they are talking to.

The closest thing a fairy will give to an absolute truth a fairy will give, outside of certain circumstances, is their answer to a question asked three times in succession. If asked in such a way, a fairy is bound to give some sort of answer or promise that is true and not misleading. In such a scenario, a malevolent fairy will often do everything in their power to warp the truth after the fact, making the situation seem much more confusing than it really is, or vice versa.

Break No Oaths

A deal made by a fairy is absolute, and a fairy cannot willingly break a deal. Fairies, by nature, try to make deals with other creatures that they want power over, often with the payment owed to them seeming much smaller or easier to pay than it truly is, or else not mentioning a return payment until after the deal has been accepted. Failure to pay within the given time results in the fairy having power over the dealbreaker, which was the original goal.

A deal a fairy offers will always be equal, and anything offered by a mortal, should it be anything other than equal payment, will be seen as either an opportunity or an insult. Fairies hate to be in debt, and cannot give or take anything for free. Accepting a gift from a fairy is the same as accepting an open-ended deal, and the fairy can extract payment as they see necessary. At the same time, giving a gift to the fey puts them in debt, which they hate. While they are forced to repay their debt, they will also look for an opportunity to harm the gift-giver, except for very special circumstances.

Similarly, promises made to or by the fey are binding, and must be fulfilled. An oath of fealty can only be broken through an agreement on both parties. Additionally, a vassal must fulfill all of the orders of their master, and their master cannot order them to break any previous oaths, and can only inflict harm on them if they fail to complete their orders to the master’s satisfaction. Prisoners are automatically considered vassals.

Harm No Outsiders

A fairy belonging to a Court, even temporarily, cannot directly harm a fairy or mortal that does not belong to the same court, or is not ranked lower than themselves, unless if they are slighted by the individual beforehand. Duels are accepted, and open combat between the two Courts is also allowed. Because of the specifics of this rule, predators who wish to hunt prey that does not belong to them try to enter a deal with their prey or cause their prey to slight them, allowing them to hunt to their heart’s content.

Different types of fey have different definitions of a slight, and these definitions are absolute. If a creature intrudes on a malk or kumonga colony’s territory without offering something to the resident fey or proving their strength in some other way, it is considered fair game, and is hunted down mercilessly, for example.

Fey Weaknesses

As varied as they all are, most fey species share a variety of weaknesses. These weaknesses can be used as proof that a creature is of fey origin, and they can be used as a weapon or as protection against fey assailants. There are some fey, like eladrin and changelings, that are not affected by some, or even most, of these weaknesses, however.

Iron

For reasons still unknown, nearly all fey are burned by iron. A fey creature that comes in contact with iron or anything containing iron, such as steel or rust, is greeted with pain and fire. A fairy’s blood burns on contact with this metal, and the “iron death” is one of the most painful ways for a fairy to die. It is difficult to bring iron into the Feywild, and most natural ways will close up around creatures carrying it, although hags and some spellcasters know ways to avoid this. Being transported into the Feywild through magical means while holding iron can lead to mishaps, such as being transported to the wrong area or being left behind.

Attacking a fairy with iron is a perfect way to gain the ire of other fey, and should only be used as a last resort. No sidhe, including the archfey or even the Queens, has any sort of immunity to iron. Even though iron will not kill the archfey, it is very painful for them to handle, and prolonged exposure can diminish their powers.

Thresholds

A threshold is the barrier between an intelligent creature’s home and the outside world. To mortals, a threshold is a loose term used to describe an entrance into someone’s house, but to the fey, thresholds are very real and very powerful barriers. Thresholds do not appear on every building, or even every house, and those that do vary greatly in their strength. A threshold is formed from the energy of the life that is lived inside a building. Happy homes and the homes of large or devout families tend to have strong thresholds, while the homes of lonely people or temporary dwellings have little to no threshold. Churches and temples that see many different people every day might have a threshold if the clergy live there, but only those that serve a truly devout congregation have thresholds of the same power as a home.

Fey creatures cannot cross a threshold without leaving a fraction of their power behind them. This power is restored when they leave. Only the most powerful archfey can cross a threshold without becoming powerless while inside, and even then, they are often reduced to the strength of lower sidhe. Because only mortals can create a threshold, they are very rare in the Feywild, and fey creatures are often surprised when they are stopped by one.

Fey creatures can cross a threshold if they are invited across, in which case they do not lose their powers. If one wishes to enter a dwelling, but finds itself unable to, it will often use trickery, threats, and coercion to lure its victims outside or have them invite it in. Other, more crafty fey, most famously hags and oni, will gain entrance by befriending children under a disguise, revealing their true form when they are brought inside the house.

The Nature of the Fey

Although they fey are capable of making choices, feeling emotion, and acting in surprising ways, the key difference between mortals and the fey is that the fey do not have free will. Mortals can change drastically over the course of years, turning a new leaf, so to speak, but the fey are unchanging in nature. Queen Mab will always be a ruthless predator, for example. She would never even consider the possibility of acting against this nature. Such an act is as impossible as a human sprouting wings and flying to a different plane of existence without any magical involvement.

The fey deal in half-truths and lying by omission. Except for very specific circumstances, fey will not be straightforward. They will tell only what they have to, and twist their words in such a way that, while they did not tell a lie, their information is often confusing, muddled, or subject to interpretation, with all of the more likely ways of seeing it actually being false. The fey do not ponder their words before speaking. Such things come naturally to them. Many who deal commonly with the fey believe that, even if they wanted to, which they most certainly do not, the fey cannot give the straight truth.

The fey try to trap mortals in their promises. Even to a close ally, the fey are dangerous for this. In general, it is a bad idea to accept anything offered by the fey, including food, drink, and other pleasures, unless you know exactly what the price is. If a mortal enters a deal with a fairy, they all-too-often are made into eternal servants. This can have a variety of meanings. Some fey consider their servants prey, and hunt them down and devour them, some use them as playthings, and others (mostly the Summer Court) actually have them return to the material plane and simply return to the Feywild on occasion to give information or work.

Similarly, fey hate being given gifts, because this puts them in debt with the giver. Someone who is owed by the fey can expect a favor or gift to be given quickly, but this is often a double-edged sword, especially if the gift was not expected. The fey often give items that, while they may help in some way, often leave a way for manipulation in the future, or else cause danger to follow the owner. The only time it is safe to accept something from the fey is if you are greeted as a guest in their dwelling and accept the status. Even then, you are only protected from the owner of the dwelling. Other fey might cause harm in some ways, although the host cannot order this, and is sworn to punish those who attempt it.

Despite what many think, the fey are neither good nor evil, at least not in the mortal sense. While many actions of the Winter Court seem evil, and many of the Summer seem good, the fey care little about morality. On the alignment scale, they are neutral at best. They do what they do because they have to, not quite because they want to. Their nature strives them to be power-hungry, predatory, or deceitful, and they are incapable of resisting or changing their nature. A fairy that appears to be going against its nature is almost certainly under the influence of some other creature.

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The Raven queen and the Shadar-kai

“The Raven queen is trapped by her fascination with the past. She sits in her fortress, amidst all the memories of the world, looking at the ones that please her most as though they were glittering jewels. Many great wizards have attempted to understand her motives, but like a raven she has always remained cryptic, keeping her cache of secrets just out of their reach.”

– High Lady Alustriel Silverhand

The Raven Queen is a being of dark mystery. Accomplished wizards talk about her in hushed tones, and with no small amount of fear, for even they can’t say what power she wields in her realms, too subtle for mortal minds to sense. Rumors abound as to her current form, most coming from claims made by lunatics who have described an array of disturbing images: a terrible shadow that clawed at their innermost thoughts, a pale and regal elf who exploded into an untold number of ravens or an unknown presence that pulled them screaming blindly into the gloom.

Despite all attempts to demystify her, the Raven Queen has remained enigmatic and aloof, immersed in a sea of questions. She rules from her Raven Throne within the Fortress of Memories, a mazelike castle deep within the bleakness of the Shadowfell. From there she sends out her ravens to find interesting souls she can pluck from various planes of existence. Once they are in the Shadowfell, she watches as these souls attempt to unravel the mystery of their being - and ultimately go mad in the process.

Origin of the Raven Queen

For those who seek to unravel the enigma of the Raven Queen, the story of her origin comes from the ancient history of the elves. It is said that she was once an elf queen, whose people loved her more than they loved the gods.

From the fragments that have been found of her history, when Corellon and Lolth were locked in conflict, she tried to use the souls and magic of her people to elevate herself to godly status and to save the fractured pantheon of the elves.

Descent into shadow

As the queen rose in power, many elves became inspired by her, freely offering their souls and their magical abilities to help her achieve her goal. This group of devoted followers called themselves the shadar-kai, and they gathered others like themselves around their queen in hopes that, once she achieved divinity, she would unify all the elves.

As the numbers of shadar-kai grew, a consortium of evil wizards among her followers saw an opportunity to siphon off the energy of the shadar-kai for themselves by performing their own self-serving ritual, which would impart to them magical powers beyond those of the greatest wizards of legend. But as the queen approached the entrance to Arvandor, she realized what the wizards were doing and brought all her wrath down upon them as the ritual was under way. Because she was by now a quasi-divine entity, her supernatural rage corrupted the ritual into a phenomenon that took on a terrible strength of its own.

By the time the queen realized her error, she could feel the now-twisted magical energy grabbing hold of her, and she was powerless to stop it. In a panic, she reached out to the souls of the shadar-kai for more power, hoping to save herself, but the gravity of the spell had become irresistible. It pulled the queen, and all who were under her sway, into the Shadowfell, where she was instantly killed. From her ruined mind and body, the Raven Queen was born.

After the Fall

The souls of the shadar-kai watched as the Raven Queen fell deeper and deeper into a divine madness. Her pain and turmoil over the betrayal of her wizards, the destruction of her kingdom, and her failure at attaining godhood all contributed to her descent into an unquenchable sorrow. At the same time, the energy of the corrupted ritual was still transforming her, breaking down her form from a physical one into an entity composed of symbols, images, and perceptions. To keep herself from dissipating entirely into nothingness, the queen used the last vestiges of her personal power to pull dead memories from the Shadowfell about her, creating a cloak of identities that sustained her. Over centuries, those dark memories accumulated and coalesced to give shape to the entity now known as the Raven Queen.

The fortress of memories

Since achieving divinity, the Raven Queen has filled her realm with shadows and memories, obsessively collecting such essences from remnants of dead gods and mortals that were strewn throughout the Shadowfell. From these metaphysical fragments she formed her new home, a twisted castle that the shadar-kai call the Fortress of Memories. The fortress is a mournful place, filled with incessant echoes of the past. Flocks of ravens that act as her eyes and ears darken the skies around it when they emerge from within, bearing her cryptic messages and omens far and wide across the multiverse.

Bizarre Menagerie. Within the Fortress of Memories are trinkets and items that the Raven Queen finds irresistible, memories plucked from people’s pasts that have been invested with deep feelings of pain, sorrow, longing, guilt, or remorse. These items are brought to her as gifts from the shadar-kai. These trinkets can include furniture, clocks, mirrors, jewels, and toys. Also appearing in the fortress are ghostly visions of people, places, and pets. Any of these things can spontaneously appear about her lair, every object and apparition being a metaphoric representation of some story- great or small- that was saturated with raw emotion.

Method or Madness?

Some wizards and other scholars have speculated that the Raven Queen is simply insane, that there is no method to her madness other than a nervous pecking apart of a psyche with no more motive than a curious child pulling the legs off an ant. Others have speculated that the Raven Queen needs the gravity of emotions to hold her eternally decaying identity together. But a few sages have postulated that the Raven Queen’s purpose is of greater importance, that she serves as a filter of sorts, cleansing souls that cling to fear and pain, forcing them to confront their unfinished business so that they are freed of their mortal baggage and can rise to explore higher planes of existence.

The Raven Queen’s influence

The Raven Queen’s desire to interfere with the affairs of the gods and her subsequent failure was taken as nothing less than treason by both Corellon and Lolth. As a result, the physical reality of her kingdom was shifted to the Shadowfell, and the memory of her existence was wiped from the minds of elves. Initially, no mortals knew of her, but over the centuries, those who have journeyed to the Shadowfell and those who have encountered shadar-kai in the world have seen, or heard tales of, a dark fortress, a mysterious figure surrounded by gaunt servants, and scores of seemingly sentient ravens.

Most folk who have heard of the Raven Queen view her through a lens of superstitious fear, attributing to her all kinds of strange occurrences, mishaps, and coincidences. But those who seriously study the arcane- warlocks, wizards, sorcerers, and the like- know that her effect on the world is farther-reaching than that.

Audience after Death. Some adventurers claim to have been visited by the Raven Queen after their deaths- before their stalwart friends paid to have them resurrected. While they were in the afterlife, the Raven Queen enlisted them for a quest to complete a task, acquire a particular item, or perhaps to travel to a location and simply wait. Most of those who have talked about these visitations say they felt compelled to do her bidding, because the visions imparted by the Raven Queen made it apparent that the quest was in some way part of their greater purpose.

The Raven Queen’s reason for communing in this way is a matter of some dispute. Some sages suggests that she is using people as pawns in an inscrutable game, the rules of which are known only to her and the Lady of Pain. Others suggest that she is balancing the multiverse by having mortals complete various tasks, and some say that it is in these moments of obeisance to her that the Raven Queen recalls a fragment of her former self.

Servants of the Queen

The shadar-kai are bound to the Raven Queen, cursed to forever serve her in the Shadowfell. They dwell in places outside the Fortress of Memories, usually too terrified of the place to enter it willingly. In their communities they reenact their old rituals and ceremonies, in a pale imitation of the days when they dwelled in the life and light of their now-lost kingdom.

When shadar-kai are in the Shadowfell, their bodies and faces are old and withered, displaying the full effects of the terrible magic that stripped them of their former elven beauty. To hide their visages, they often wear masks made of metal or wood, but even these coverings are melancholic in appearance. When shadar-kai are sent away from the Shadowfell to do the Raven Queen’s bidding, they take on youthful features similar to those of other elves, although their skin remains deathly pale.

Immortal Servants. The shadar-kai know that when they die, the Raven Queen captures their souls and returns them to the Shadowfell, where they are resurrected to serve her yet again. Thus, they consider death to be a temporary condition, and many shadar-kai care little for the physical shell they currently inhabit.

Shadar-kai know that those who come willingly to the Raven Queen’s tower are there to beseech her for something, and thus they try to prepare such visitors for what they will face. The queen’s servants talk to any inquiring adventurer about the gravity of emotion, how sorrow weighs on the soul as it travels through the Shadowfell, and how best to persevere in the Raven Queen’s test.

Follow the Ravens. When the Raven Queen sees a soul or a piece of information she wants, she sends her ravens to alert the shadar-kai. Her minions then put their trust in these cryptic, cawing guides to lead them to where the barriers are weakest so they can then slip across planes to their destination. Once at their destination, the shadar-kai watch and wait, looking for the tragedies their queen wishes them to collect. Sometimes they are small: a spurned lover, a lost item, a betrayal. But some tragedies are much graver: a murder, a war, a diabolical bargain. To bring back a trinket for their queen, the shadar-kai use their shadow magic. If a target is living, they magically infiltrate the person’s mind and excise the desired bits of emotion, or if the target is close to death, the shadar-kai capture the whole soul to bring back to the Raven Queen.