Archfey
The Archfey associated most with Aeinia came to power after Titania’s disappearance and after the fall of the kingdom of Ladinion, which existed in both the Astral Plane and the Feywild at the same time. When the Queen of Air and Darkness (Gatropsis’s fey aspect) trapped Titania in the River Styx and corrupted her realm, she began to sow the seeds of evil amongst all the children of Faerie. She found greater success amongst a group of lesser nobles of the Faerie Court. After nurturing their capricious, dark sides, the archfey rebelled against the Queen and sought influence among mortals for themselves. When the Forces lost interest in Aeinia and their eternal laws began to unravel, it was The Sylvan Six who exerted their power over nature to keep that world from completely unraveling. Over time, the archfey were slowly bringing the world into the Feywild itself. Their machinations were utterly thwarted by the First Sister of that era, who banished them and all trace of their influence from the mortal world.
Phitostra, the Crystal Countess
Influence: Crystals, gems, light, foresight
Servitors: Fey’ri, pixies, sprites
Realm: The Crystal Hills—near Arcantor is Irish nation off coast of Adari Republic
Role: When Aeinia began to move out of its orbit around the sun, the Crystal Queen bent the light of sun and moon to continue the night and day.
Acceptable Offering: Crystals, gems, runed bones
History: Phitostra was one of the first daughters of Titania and the chosen champion of the Faerie Queen to battle the blood primordial Namithet and his vampiric children. As such, Phitostra was the first of the Sylvan Six to become archfey, and she remains the most powerful. The Crystal Countess is vain and selfish but dislikes cruelty and barbarism, which often prompt her to altruistic action. Of all the archfey, she is the one best remembered on Aeinia and remains a popular figure of local legend in Arcantor.
Mother Crae, the Wood Witch
Influence: Wood, birth, poison, monsters
Servitors: Haglings, spriggans, fomorians
Realm: The Briar Mere
Role: Mother Crae engendered fertility among the population when the gift of life had all but begun to die out. Due to her intervention, entire nations were spared from entropic demise.
Acceptable Offering: blood of children (willing), a child’s favored toy, monster hearts
History: Mother Crae takes great delight in the birth and rearing of small children, but her darker nature compels her to twist their innocence to mayhem and sadism. Legends say she was once a nymph or dryad who became pregnant by a human lover and had her children torn from her very womb by violence. Maddened with grief, she sought to replace her children by kidnapping the offspring of others and leaving her mark upon them. Mother Crae’s swamp is populated with hundreds of such creatures and she delights in setting them against one another. Her realm is ruled over by 6 dark wombs that constantly jockey for position with their “mother”.
The Piper, the Duke of Dismay
Influence: Music, revelry, tides, death
Servitors: Satyrs, korreds, sirens
Realm: The Mournful Coasts
Role: With birth and death rates totally chaotic, the Piper exerted his power over death to both stem the tide of overpopulation in some areas and halt the premature aging in others.
Acceptable Offering: Tears, songs of death and suffering, fine wines
History: The cloven footed Piper was originally a charming fey musician whose song incited a spirit of joviality and passion, but when his immortal love was slain that music turned dark and macabre. After a failed journey to the Shadowfell to save his love from fate’s clutches, the Piper returned and boarded his Revelry Barge, which sails the coasts of the Feywild even now. During the day, the Piper’s barge is an endless revel the likes of which mortals cannot imagine, but at night the Piper emerges from his tent and his song causes death and tidal waves.
Marthamane, the Gilded Lord
Influence: Metals, trickery, greed
Servitors: Gnomes, leprechauns
Realm: The Golden Mountains
Role: The Gilded Lord stirred the covetous feelings with mortals that helped them to resume their industries again after civilization began to collapse. Were it not for the seeds of envy he planted within the hearts of the people, many would not have risen from their hovels.
Acceptable Offering: Effigy of solid gold
History: The Gilded Lord has forbidden all living creatures to speak his name, which is a symptom of his miserly self-loathing. Scattered legends (intentionally obscured by the archfey) tell that the Gilded One was once a guardian over a captured facet of the Black Diamond, the evil artifact that corrupted the Queen of Air and Darkness. Marthamane the Golden was a being of such unquestionable virtue that when he yielded his charge for a magical golden treasure, he was cursed by Titania to forevermore lust after precious things but to take no joy in them. Since that time, he has hungered for the golden treasure that was taken from him by the Faerie Queen, but he cannot remember what it is.
The Jester, the Baron of Mirth
Influence: Chance, darkness, humor
Servitors: Quicklings, dark harlequins, faerie dragons
Realm: Jovialus (City)
Role: The Baron of Mirth used his power over humor and moods to prevent the races of Aeinia from falling into despondency and hopelessness. It is largely due to his efforts that innovation and invention continued during this era, both magical and mundane.
Acceptable Offering: Silver coins, intentional acts of self-humiliation
History: Originally a widely popular jester of the Court of Stars, the Baron of Mirth was forced to flee into the fringes of the Feywild and the Natural World when he took his satire of Lord Oran and the Prince of Frost a step too far. His journeys brought him to the world Aeinia in the throes of the Shattering Era and, unable to ignore the suffering and gloom around him, he chose to stay and bring humor both light and dark to the races. The Jester takes great pleasure in inspiring foolish youth and elderly to risk their lives in pursuit of vain ambitions, but he rewards them greatly when they succeed.
The Severed Sisters, the Handmaids of the Seasons
Influence: Change of seasons, the hidden, birds
Servitors: Dryads, nymphs, sylphs
Realm: Equinox Woods: Near Aeinia—overlapping the Elven wood and Middlewood
Role: The Severed Sisters and her servitors kept the seasons in order during the Shattering Era, changing all of nature by deliberate act in order to preserve spring and the eventual summer harvests that eventually ended the widespread starvation.
Acceptable Offering: The sacrifice of any creature of dual nature (tortoise, flying squirrel)
History: Much like Demogorgon, the Severed Sisters were once a single being, already an Archfey who contested with a powerful Darklord of the Shadowfell for the survival of her kingdom in the Feywild. Although her name has long since ceased to exist, the archfey won that battle, but at a terrible cost. The Severed Sisters are benevolent entities, but elusive as they struggle with their very nature. The Sisters must stay within close proximity to one another and always appear together. They share thoughts and maintain separate identities at the same time. Each sister contains her own memories as well as some of the memories of their former incarnation. Within the Equinox woods they have found a measure of peace, but the wood has come to reflect there very disparate nature and at times appears more akin to the Elemental Chaos than the Feywild.