The Fey

Beyond the material plane and Hel lies a chaotic realm of terrible beauty and enchanting peril. The Fey is often associated with the Valamari goddess Sunura, along with druidic traditions of Gwynwra and Cydbwysedd originating from elvish folklore.

The world of the Fey is unreachable by all except those who have mastered the arcane, those chosen by the faeries, or those who are just incredibly lucky (or unlucky). This plane of unchecked magic without law or reason is almost completely beyond the understanding of any mortal. Laws of physics are written by the world's own whims only to be broken and discarded the next second. Up and down are alien concepts, life and death are more like guidelines and it is often true that if one believes one thing is true, the opposite will become true out of pure spite. Perhaps the only way to attain even a brief moment of sanity in the Fey is by consuming the enchanted Fey Caps that grow in the ground. Doing so makes one enter a trance where one's mind becomes as chaotic and unruly as the Fey itself, so much so that some level of understanding may be found with it. The Eladrin, natives of the Fey, believe this is how they can become one with Gwynwra, a network of magical energy that permeates the Fey.

No reliable guide may be written for one planning to enter the Fey, as each traveler's journey will be very different to any that came before. The best advice is to simply let go of all preconceptions of the world and just experience. Only the faeries seem totally capable of this, however, as they have existed in the Fey for their entire lives.

## Faeries

   The various peoples of the Fey are collectively referred to as the faeries. There are many forms of faerie, all of them incarnations of unchecked magic. As a people, they love laughter and music, but also trickery and chaos. Mortals are often confused by faerie logic as they cannot place any one fey being as good or evil; this is because morality does not exist to faerie-kind. There is only what exists, and what doesn't exist yet.

Sometimes, by whim or by some unknowable purpose, a group of faeries will gather to form a Faerie Circle. This is a circle of dancing fey folk accompanied by music and singing. When a circle is formed, a circle of mushrooms will grow somewhere in the mortal plane. A mortal who enters this circle is transported to the Fey in the middle of the dancing faeries. What happens next can vary from the summoned mortal being eaten, to the faeries enchanting them with magical powers, to the faeries slaughtering each other for the summoned mortal's entertainment.

There are a few categories of faerie that have been discerned by Wishmoreen scholars and early Valamari wizards by collaboration with the elves.

### Eladrin

   Ancient ancestors of the elves, the Eladrin are the oldest race known to exist besides the gods themselves. These majestic, shining beings have an incredible affinity for magic and serve as strong conduits of the arcane energies. Eladrin can stand up to 8 feet tall and have glowing hair and eyes. They are mostly unconcerned with the affairs of the other planes, usually just tending to their own shifting cities and alien customs. Perhaps the most orderly of the faeries, the eladrin actually have kings, queens, lords and ladies.

They believe in the goddess Gwynwra who sacrificed her own life to become the fey, which they were given the task of guardianship over. They serve as a check to the Fey's chaos, so that it never gets too out of hand and the balance between order and chaos is maintained. Eladrin society is matriarchal, as their women tend to hold the most arcane capability due to the connection of the feminine and Gwynwra. However, gender is a shifting force to the eladrin, so one who is a man one day may not necessarily be a man the next. There are even those who can exist as neither, or both at one time.

As they believe themselves to be the guardians of order in the Fey, eladrin can often find themselves fighting in wars against some of the more chaotic forces of that world. Some of these most major wars have been fought between the eladrin themselves or against Faerie Queens striving to overturn the natural balance. In particular, the eladrin despise anything that tries to meddle in the mortal plane which they believe should be left to its own devices. Very rarely will an eladrin leave the Fey.

The greatest instance in history of eladrin leaving the Fey was the Elvish Exodus. An eladrin queen called Queen Quessira sought to bring absolute order to the Fey by controlling its nature with her own magical will, effectively inventing physics through arcane magic. While the eladrin are the only force of order in the Fey, they must also maintain the chaos of Gwynwra, so many eladrin stood against Quessira. Those who followed her in the ensuing war were called the Tel’Quessir, and they were exiled after their defeat into the mortal plane. They received their wish of order, but by leaving the Fey they lost their incredible power and immortality. The Tel’Quessir are known by man as the elves, which have since split into the races of Wood Elf, High Elf and Dark Elf.

### Gnomes

Gnomes are small, mischievous faeries that enjoy confusing and inconveniencing mortals. They find the mortal insistence on things making sense hilarious, and so they constantly find new ways to toy with their minds. The gnomes in the fey are the most tricky and have the most magical capabilities. However, many gnomes followed the Tel’Quessir into Norospire out of curiosity and found themselves in the same trap as the elves. The gnomish exiles were humbled by the loss of their mortality and power, but many continued in their trickster ways. There are three types of gnomes in Norospire: The Forest Gnomes of Glimmerglade who weave illusions to throw unwary travelers off the road, the Rock Gnomes of Runeholme who put their creative abilities to work as tinkerers and inventors with the Mountain Dwarves, and finally Deep Gnomes who sided with the Dark Elves in the Schism and disappeared into the Everdeep with their faerie allies.

### Sprites

The many unique beings of the Fey who best manifest its unknowable nature are collectively referred to as the sprites. Constantly shifting and morphing, no sprite is like another. Their forms and powers can be beautiful or frightening or confusing, sometimes all at once. Nothing about a sprite is ever as it seems, unless you think it isn't, in which case it very well might be. Their sporadic action and insane tendencies hold much peril for mortals.

It is not unheard of for sprites to manifest in Norospire where arcane or primal power is at its most powerful. Some may even summon them as servants, but beware they may not always behave as they are told. Ancient Middle Empire scholars and Ettarian druids put sprites into two categories: The Seelie (good) and the Unseelie (evil). However this idea was rejected by the elves, Wishmoreen and later the Valamari under Emperor Ailnothus the Wise as it was observed that a sprite may be seelie one instant and unseelie the next. The conclusion was then that sprites are beyond mortal concepts of good and evil, as no system of morality can govern them. They simply act, and it is not certain if even they know why they behave the way they do.

### Greater Faeries

Great forces of cosmic power, the greater faeries are beings of such immense, uncontrollable magic that they have earned a category above sprites. Sometimes called Faerie Queens/Kings or Fey Gods, these creatures are often revered and feared by druids. All Fey Gods have a singular goal they are obsessed with, although this is not always entirely clear. The most constant of these is Cydbwysedd, the chief of the druid spirits. This faerie strives to preserve the balance of nature, much like the eladrin except that Cydbwysedd's sights are set beyond the Fey.

Greater Faeries have been cast as demonic entities by confused clerics (as have many faeries) resulting in druids being seen as warlocks. There are some Fey Gods, however, who will sign warlock pacts of power with mortals to achieve their nefarious plans.

### Hags

When an eladrin loses sight of Gwynwra, they transform into a hideous hag. There are almost as many types of hag as there are hags, but no matter what foul abilities they've come into it was at the price of their sanity. Many hags are in service to a Greater Faerie, but some serve their own dark purposes. As they are cut off from the energy that makes them eladrin, there is no order left in these monstrous faeries. It is agreed that while some faeries have committed evil acts, the hags are the only faeries that can be considered truly evil.