Do you like the idea or nah? How would you make them into an interesting and unique faction?
>>85009723Would that not be something along the lines of the winter court? Or would this be a dark reflection of the fey as a whole. The 'summer court' is a place of joyous celebration "or else", and the winter court may as well be the cenobites?
>>85009723Focus on all the stuff which make your normal high/wood elves unique and make it creepier. These are decadent, long lived nobles that hide out in the woods, indulging bizarre and eaoteric whims, using regular folk as pawns in their delights, mixing whimsy and cruelty in equal measure.
>>85009723Ive explored this aesthetic for a setting im brainstorming. Focus on the almost Celtic, almost druidic aspects of the elves, make them creepy. These are giys who wear necklaces of starlight, kidnap children to play with like living dolls, steal someone's voice to listen to its sounds, trap a person in a painting so they can admire their beauty forever, but these flights of fancy never last. They are mercurial, their moods and tastes shifting like the seasons or the winds, first elevating an interest before growing bored with it and then callously casting it aside, severe damage done for this fey being's momentary pleasures.
>>85009723Why would it be "instead" of? If the setting in question goes for elves = fey, then the distinction is entirely aesthetic in that you'd fey-ifize the dark elves/drow in question, and if you *don't* go for a type of elves = fey, then there's no reason to replace dark elves/drow with dark fey/winter court, because they are all their own thing anyway, so why would they?Personally, I like the general dark fey aesthetic and enjoy tying my elves down to being influenced by fey aesthetic, whether they're actually fey or not (they're not, in my setting, but they like to think they are), and subsequently the dark elves have dark fey/winter court influences as well, with a lot of horns and black feathers in intricate patterns.
>>85013387No such thing as celtic
You should get some inspiration from watching folk horror movies and reading folk and fairy tales
>>85013802Are you going to elaborate on that or do you just like to make bold statements?
>>85009723Fey are more interesting with themes of corruption than extremism
>>85009723>Dark FeySo basically regular Fey, except you paint them black because you're a 14 year old edgelord?
>>85015769No dark fey as in regular fey but evil
>>85017087fey morality is generally already entirely perpendicular to human understandingthey don't have a human understanding of good to evil so making them evil is actually making them more boring and generic
>>85018044>Fey morality is generally already entirely perpendicular to human understandingSource trust me bro. Honestly this is just wrong. Folkloric fae tend to work on the human morality spetrum since those stories are often told to human children in order to give a lesson on morality. They are either good and fulfill wishes or straight up evil and spiteful like in Sleeping Beauty for example
>>85018370While it's true that the outcome of any individual story can usually be divided into Good or Evil, northern/Germanic väsen/fae are traditionally described as capricious, fickle, defying understanding, having nonsensical rules, etc., etc., which is where that whole idea of fantasy fey as random or "perpendicular to human understanding" even comes from.Nevermind that >>85018044 was likely referencing the latter rather than the former to begin with.
>>85019422that is indeed what I was talking about, fey as in the older folklore rather than fairy storiesI guess it's understandable for someone to conflate the two since you'd expect fairy stories to be about fey
>>85015769seelie and unseelie isn't a new thing.
>>85019676>seelie and unseeliemight be a stupid question but what does this mean?
>>85022074Shakespearean division between day fairies and night fairies.
>>85015155Yes.
>>85022160oh thanks!
>>85019676>>85022160didn't knew about that but did a little reading and found it to be quite inspirational. thanks for introducing me to the subject!
>>85009723It could work, but I'd imagine that Dark Fey would be even more unpredictable and unknowable than drow. You can at least understand drow morality and society well enough to navigate around it. Fey are often a step further in how strange and "un-human" they are.
>>85009723I like them. I think they'd work best as minor demons looking to ascend in the infernal hierarchy. To do so, they use humans as pawns in an alien game in a bid to become more demonic. You could even include drow as the offspring of a dark fey and a human from this druid cult or that druid cult that worship the dark fey in question.
>>85009723Their eventual goal is to peel the world like an orange and make their underground realm into the new surface. They go through legions of slaves making the continent-spanning tunnels needed, raiding the surface for more in the wake of the many earthquakes they cause.Naturally, Dwarves tend to take the blame for the earthquakes.
>>85009723I love fey, and don't just limit yourself to one culture. The Winter Lady,The Horned One, the wild Hunt, The WildMan/Wooseman/sasquatchs ,Huldras/Driads, Nucklavees, Djinni... All of those can be given a darker spin. Fey don't follow Human concepts but they own, in my setting given than they are "Encarnated Spirits" they Word Is Law, tough like with Devil pacts, they will stick to the letter and normally bite the ass of the sucker making a pact. This tale could go dark very fast with the Lamiaks making the town honor the bridge construction be some bloody way for example.
>>85024561>Their eventual goal is to peel the world like an orangeHow would that work?
>>85009723>fey look like elveswasted opportunity
>>85013387I've done this as well. You need to make them alien. Don't describe their culture to your players - let them discover how it works instead. Make their sense of morality utterly foreign. Make their language a different elven so your players can't understand them immediately. Use the celtic legends as inspiration. I also used weather as a scene setting to a strong effect as well. The players had fun.
>>85030076more art like this please
>>85032925From the Lorwyn/Shadowmoor set of MTG
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>>85032976
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>>85033008
>>85033022
>>85033036
>>85033091
>>85033102
>>85033147
>>85033161
>>85033174That's all I got
>>85032963>>85032976>>85032995>>85033008>>85033022>>85033036>>85033091>>85033102>>85033147>>85033161>>85033174>>85033182sick thanks for the art dump!
>>85013387>I’ve explored this aestheticShut up fag.
>>85022074Comes from the old english sælig meaning blessed or fortunate and Unsælig meaning wicked or unfortunate.So the seelie are the " good or blessed" faeries who are generally benevolent; as compared to the unseelie, who are actively malevolent.
>>85036624interesting im german but I can understand these words
>>85013788Because having a quadrillion elf races is one of the most terminal cancers of the modern rpg landscape.
>>85035757why so hostile?
>>85040654Are changeling only a celtic thing? I wanted to adapt that myth to a more middle eastern/turkish setting but those are extremely short on mischievous fairies and such
>>85041862stupid people take it as an insult when someone uses "big" words>>85042987variously european I think rather than purely celtic, but there's a degree of cultural overlap that makes it hard to say what's originally what except in broad terms
>>85043019>"big" words>shut up fagyeah I don't think so
>>85043255>>85043019I just realized I've probably gotten that wrong sorry
>>85022074Original spelling of "silly", which back then meant "joyous/careless".Seelie are fey that will gruesomely kill you because they genuinely think taking your liver out and making a nice plushie with it would be a nice surprise gift.Unseelie are fey that will gruesomely kill you because they genuinely hate your guts - they will still make a plushie out of your liver tho.It's basically good fey vs bad fey, although with the connotation that both can fuck up your day - there is just one group that does it on purpose, the other by accident.
>>85046281'Seelie' also means blessed or holy, and Unseelie therefore the opposite. Compare with people referring to those with mental disorders as 'blessed'.That said, it's a categorisation that derives solely from Scottish fairy folklore and like most traditions, is probably largely a 19th century invention or popularisation.
>>85029066>You need to make them alien.I'm always thinking of fey as the human equivalent of a wild wolf meeting a house dog.
>>85013277Only fags go shirtless.
>>85046813So too do chads who want bitches.
>>85042987Nah, In spain they are called cambiones, they are a very common myth, even in ibero america.
>>85009723>Do you like the ideayes
>>85047667cringe
>>85046369best take in this thread
>>85056234What are some interesting or unconventional ideas for Fey portals?
>>85009723Elves and Fae have pretty much always been different names for the same thing.
>>85064031mushroom circles
>>85019676this
>>85064031Everything is a portal, it's only a matter of convincing yourself you can see the Fey Lands on the other side.That's why kids so often wander on the other side.
