Cormyr and the Dalelands

With the official ruling of accepted source materials I believe that the server should use the actual Forgotten Realms fey lore instead of the Dresden Files inspired homebrew version used now. There has always been a heavy emphasis on using source material for things, up to 3.5, with 3e/3.5e overriding earlier material if there's a conflict.


I understand that there isn't much fey lore in FR, but there is a good chunk after researching it extensively that can be used or even added onto:

Monster Mythology is a 2e dungeon master's guide and the information on fey contained within does not have contradictions on fey lore in later editions or in FR. Beginning on page 177, it begins to talk about the fey gods and we get a look at their lore. Led by Queen Titania, the Seelie court moves among the outer planes and is composed of two courts, the Inner Court, who pays homage to Titania, and the Outer Court, which consists of fey gods who do not pay homage to Titania or who's concerns cause them to spend time away from the court.

The courts have strong leanings towards chaos and are good inclined. Despite their nature, they follow Titania's orders and have a strong affiliation with the Seldarine, the elven pantheon. They have a strong sense of fellowship and, despite their chaotic nature, work well together.


It goes on to mention the mechanical side of the fey, weaknesses they have, and how they view death as well as fey reincarnation. Considering this is a 1e supplement, some information, such as Dreamland, is overrode by later editions. Their lifestyle is hedonistic, however they work to take care of nature much like druids.

The lore surrounding changelings, second sight, pixie-rings, and innate invisibility is also listed, as well as faerie spells/charms up to the seventh level. There are even new fairy spells, that have their own descriptions and go up to 6th level. They fey have skills and resources described, such as equipment.

The book details, and gives advice, on how to DM the npc woodland creatures/fey. There is also a glossary of terms, usually fey related, at the end which is handy.

Seelie and Unseelie Courts is a 3.5e article written by Gwendolyn Kestrelis, an editor for Wizards of the Coast. Along with information on the courts, it talks about the two thrones of each queen, and its powers. While in Monster Manuel, the fey are more divided by physical corruption and the natural state of things, this article takes on a more philosophical approach to it, but one that is reflected physically as well. Inner court dealings are more detailed here, adding finesse.


Now, given that the server has been using the homebrew fey lore, I understand a transition to the canon lore would be a bit abrupt and concerns of retconned characters/plots might arise. While that would be better for the canon lore, there is a way to incorporate both for a smooth transition.


There are a few similarities already with the two canon courts, so that will help the transition. What you could do, is...

--Have all of the fey everyone has interacted with be the Wild Court playing a massive game/lying to everyone before dying off so the two canon courts are there once more.
--Have their interactions be from the malicious unseelie so the lore they think they know is incorrect and the door opens to this entire new world.
--Have some sort of weird, magical effect that was placed on the fey, or a curse or something, where they acted oddly.
--Have a battle between Oberon/Titania and the Queen of Air and Darkness where the fey went haywire and developed their own courts before everything went back to normal.
--Have the rules be false and the Queens, that were kidnapped/disappeared make a return and the courts go back to normal
--Have the interactions with fey be a dream and not the reality that occurred, which they can slowly remember the truth of over time.
--Have the memories of every interaction be the victim of tailor memories.

These are but a few examples and the transition doesn't have to happen over night, it could happen over time via DM events if needed, as well as talking to the players who have current fey/fey blooded characters (also if needed).

While this is a lore dump, I wouldn't expect the average player to know all of it, or read the source books, unless it was something they're extremely interested in. I believe DMs wanting to run events, however, should be informed on what they're running it for and these sources are very helpful in that regard. Fey lore can be dispensed over the course of DM events icly, and through story telling. It can easily be found organically, which is fun! Every source I've linked leads to the actual source where you can read it online. There's other descriptive lore on fey, however it comes from later editions, such as the Fey Compendium I, which is 5e and also something that would have to be purchased.

You're certainly welcome to that opinion. Unfortunately even if we wanted to change to use more basic lore with regard to Faeries/Fae in CD, we've been using custom lore for such a long time that it would be massively disruptive to a number of players and DMs, and require retconning a number of things. We don't feel that the tradeoffs are worth it, not to mention that we tend to think the default FR lore for Fae is rather bland and uninspiring, falling way too heavily on the good/evil axis, when more traditional interpretations of Fae do not follow that sort of "Seelie good, Unseelie bad".

While CD does tend to hew to the 3rd Edition/3.5 Forgotten Realms setting, there are things we deviate from. We don't do it often, but we do have our reasons when we do. The fact that we don't use the 3rd Edition FR cosmology, in favor of the "Great Wheel" Planescape model of the Outer Planes, is just one example. Fae are another. That said, we do understand that this is not always transparent, and we want to provide sufficient information on that to players, so we're redrafting a writeup specifically on the topic of Fae in CD.

Ultimately this may not be to everyone's liking, and in the end we can't please everyone. I would hope that this isn't a "deal breaker" for you, but at this point we don't intend to change it, for reasons outlined above.

I was hoping the list I made for a transition would answer that, but I understand your reasoning. I know there's a write up being done, but I would suggest at least putting in the thread that details what sources you use that the fey lore is homebrew so new people know. Thank you for responding.