New Submissions
Because everyone needs a haunted/fey forest… Feel free to add more regions and fey characters. Fantasy-horror feel.
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No one goes to the Western Woods. There are things that come out at night that it would be a very bad idea to meet. The Western Woods have a reputation of being haunted, or rife with wild magic. Or both. Superstition and old legends surround this place.
There are a few different regions of the woods.
The Realm of the Hunt - This is the realm of the Lord of the Hunt, an unreasonably tall, enormously powerful Fey lord. He appears to be constantly shifting, so that you can’t ever see him clearly. The Lord Huntsman rules his territory by the Law of the Wild: the strongest survive. The Hunt goes on nightly, and sometimes into the day, hunting whatever prey has taken the Lord of the Hunt’s fancy. A Hunt is not over until the prey is caught, but the prey will sometimes change. Anyone in the Realm of the Hunt might concievably become prey, although the odds rise substantially if a person or creature begins to damage the forest. Prey is almost always killed, unless the Lord of the Hunt decides otherwise. He does not, however, allow his underlings to kill anyone who is not prey without reason. It is concievable that someone may make it to the Great Hall of the Huntsman and seek an audience with him, but it is generally not thought to be a good idea to bring yourself to his attention.
The Place of Bones - This is geographically the smallest area, but is one of the most frightening. It also holds many powerful sources of magic. The center of the Place of Bones is an ancient graveyard, long ago swallowed up by the forest. This area is ruled by the eternally youthful Lady Joya, a psuedo-Fey vampire nearly as old as the Graveyard. Anything in her territory is legitmate prey as far as she’s concerned, and she will not tolerate anyone who trespasses without legitmate reason. Places of interest include the Graveyard itself, the Grave of Fireflies, and the Fallen Cathedral, a ruin even older than the Graveyard once dedicated to an unknown god. There are many types of undead or spirits in Lady Joya’s territory, wraiths, shades, the occasional walking skeleton, etc. Joya is the only vampire, though, and she maintains a semblance of control due to the fact that most sentient beings fear her. There is a semi-hostile truce between her and the Lord of the Hunt.
The Wilds - This is the oldest, wildest, part of the forest, with the strongest magics. It is said that the True Fey hold court somewhere in this area. Not much is known of it.
Roland Feyfriend - This is a ranger that has lived in the Western Woods for years. He knows the woods far better than any living mortal, thus the origin of his name. However, he is not the friend of the Fey. He is hostile to most of them, and has survived so long mainly by staying out of the territories of the powerful ones, for he is more than a match for the weaker, ordinary Fey. He is also psychotic, driven mad by years in the woods. He and the Lady Joya have come to an agreement, and while she rules the Place of Bones unquestioned by night, he enforces her will there by day. There are some that think that Lady Joya has used her powers to charm and entrance in order to ensure Roland does as she orders.
Regarding Children - Children will sometimes become lost in the Western Woods, either through their own foolish explorations, or something more sisnister. However, the Fey have a peculiar relationship with children, and therefore, children are allowed courtesies not given to adults. The Lord of the Hunt and Lady Joya will not treat them as prey: for the Lord Huntsman, there is no sport in it, for the Lady Joya, there is no point. It is said that sometimes the True Fey allow children into thier court in the Wilds, and sometimes they steal away children. The lesser lords of the Woods, such as Shining Vine or Snirgeleth, will frighten and chase children, but they have never been known to do them harm. This is not to say that children are safe in the Woods, for there are many threats that do not share the Fey outlook. The Place of Bones for example, is still an unhealthy place for anyone to be, at any time of the day or night, and there are other dangers in the forest.
Additional Ideas (4)
Blugora, the Thing in the Swamp - Blugora may have been a mannish being at one time, and certainly, the Fey of the Western Woods afford him more respect than they should to such a foul creature, but time and strange powers have changed Blugora into something unrecognizable. He dwells in a horrible swamp-lake near the Place of Bones, in a tiny stone hut on an sandbar in the center. He will answer any question posed him to the best of his abilities, but he demands a price that most find abominable: They must serve his Faerie will for a year and a day once he has given them his information. When he chooses to drag his loathsome corpus into the sunlight, Blugora appears as a shivering slimy mass of vines, mud, and unidentifiable black slime. A skull that floats atop this mass serves as his member of communication.
Snirgeleth, the Tree-Leaper - Snirgeleth is a bizarre creature who has proclaimed himself the master of the upper reaches of the trees. While this claim, much like Shining Vine's claim on the forest flore, is questionable, Snirgeleth's rule is fact to many of the beings who dwell in the forest, save the Fey. Snirgeleth is exceedingly dull-witted, and the Fey often trick him into aiding them in their labyrinthine power struggles. The Tree-Leaper appears much like one of the apes of the South, however, he is overlarge and bears the head of a wolf instead of the human-like head of an ape. In addition, he has a long tail that ends in a sharp quill, full of poison that could lay any sublunary being low with a single strike.
Tybalt, Lord of the Cat-Faeries - The Cat-Fearies are a small group of Fey who dwell near the territory of Shining Vine. Their region is known as the City of Cats and their master is the Fey lord, Tybalt. Tybalt is an ancient being, and it is said that he may be one of the True Fey. He is very wise, and for centuries, he and his brood have managed to hide themselves from the rest of the Western Woods. He has much knowledge, and it can be bought with offerings of myrrh, cinnamon, and a burned effigy of a mouse. Tybalt can take any form he chooses, but generally takes the image of a huge black cat with ice-blue eyes.
Jewel of Vazon - A black diamond as old as the temple of Vazon intself, and has long become nothing more than a myth. But the Jewel legend's is still passed down some tribes of the Fey. It is rumored to be the only thing that will unlock the temple and reward the proper apprentice with the power of the dark wizerd Tzar Vazon himself. But no one of Fey orgin is able to touch the crystal themselves without becoming an amazing life like stature made of pure black diamond, this is said to be Vazon's curse to ward any unclean followers of his. Only wizerds of great strength would ever be able to hold the Jewel of Vazon, but the Jewel itself is siad to be bewitched itself to test the its holder to see if the potential apprentice is the type of person worthy of being the heir of Vazon's power. The Jewel was casted to the far reachs of the West Woods during the Great Wizerd War. Some explorers have claimed to have seen it in The Place of Bones in an old crypt but many fear the legend too much to try to wield it.
This strange creature was once a human being, but for some ancient long-ago crime, it was cursed into the form of a wretched half-moth being. It's great feathery antennae and floppy, papery wings are useless, and it's great red compound eyes flash in a way which cannot seem quite menacing. It is often found sobbing in the dark sections of the wood, bemoaning it's accursed life.
Amid the courtesans and warriors, among the dealers in stolen dreams and the willow daughters of the trees moved Vasu, named the Wily One, the Snake Friend, and the Troll Brother. Moving from court to court, barrow to fen, Vasu was at home in almost any setting. In a humanoid form he is tall and lithe with double jointed limbs and fingers that can close across the top of his hand as well as the bottom. His voice is soft, yet carries the hint on ancient wisdom as he cavorts with fauns, and lays with the dryads and wooes nymphs from their grottoes.
The Fae was a trickster of the first magnitude, and was able to hide by shedding his mortal seeming and adopting the visage of an emerald scaled serpent with eyes of chalcedony and a tongue of red jade. In this form he could shrink to tiny size to slither into a sleeping man's nose and enter his brain to plant seeds of madness and bedlam. He could also use this power on lesser fae, sometimes to change them, or to ride them like puppets before consuming them from the inside out.
Laughing madly, his final form is a great ogre with six arms. His skin glitters green while his teeth are great rubies. His eyes glow like bonfires and his breath is the wind of change. In this form he lashes out with eldritch arts that sunder souls from bodies, turn water into bone, and cause the flowers to sing his name as he passes.
in the Western Wood, Vasu is a subdued creature, calm and coy, quick with a laugh and generous with his flask of Moonflower wine.
The nine are the last surviving members of what was once a large chapter of the Knights of Rightious Victory.After pillaging the local human villages along the borders of the Western Woods, they came into conflict with the Knights of the Shroud, having unknowingly raped and killed the wife and children of one of them.
The latter knights, although outnumbered three to one, were far better fighters and routed the Knights of Rightous Victory, killing all bar ten who fled into the Forest and blundered into Lady Joya's territory.When she confronted them one tried to fight and was slain on the spot by her undead servants, the others surrendered and swore to serve her in return for their lives.
She accepted, but changed them. Their iron weapons and armour were changed to copper, silver, brass and bronze, and they were given the ability to go etherial for a few seconds at a time, enough to make a sword blade pass harmlessly through. They were also enchanted so they could not leave the woods,and were warned to stay out of the Lord of the Hunt's territory unless ordered into battle.
The other Fae have varying thoughts towards them-some get on well with them, some tolarate them and some have made it clear that as servants of Lady Joya they are not welcome in their sectors of the wood.
They take pleasure in maiming and killing those who the Lady considers trespassers.
Suggested Submissions
- Lady Joya NPCs By: Ria Hawk
- Roland Feyfriend NPCs By: Ria Hawk
June 12, 2006, 2:43
Good work. I hope we will see additions to it.
June 12, 2006, 8:27
June 12, 2006, 11:30
June 12, 2006, 15:40
June 14, 2006, 11:13
October 6, 2007, 20:09
(and i dont even like fey :P)
April 21, 2008, 20:48
January 10, 2011, 18:37
Unlike you, Muro, I do like the fae. They are a large part of my campaign, and it is *nice* to have this forest to drop into my world. Thanks, Ria!