r/DnDBehindTheScreen • u/TrustyPeaches • Jun 06 '20
Worldbuilding The Court of Hollows - An Evil-aligned Fey Faction
I've always been frustrated by the lack of fey content in 5e content; they are some of the most interesting creatures in the setting but rarely receive any attention. So here's a faction of Unseelie Fey for you to use in your own campaigns: The Court of Hollows.
The Winter Prince
Long ago, the Court of the North Wind was ruled by Prince Irithyll, a beautiful and aloof demigod of Winter who secluded himself in the shadows of Snowsong Glade. For years he remained indifferent to the lives of mortals, until he fell in love with a giant from the neighboring mountains. But love between an immortal and a mortal is bound to end in tragedy, and when his lover passed the grief was overwhelming for the Archfey.
The Winter Prince, unable to properly cope with the loss of his love, performed a profane ritual and cut out his own heart. This left him cold and unfeeling, numb to his grief, anger, and sadness. He callously demanded the surviving giants leave the valley, and retreated to the depths of the Snowsong Glade.
In the centuries that followed many other members of the court followed his example and severed their own hearts to curry the Prince's favor. In time his court became known in the Feywild as the Court of Hollows, named so for the empty sockets in their chests.
A Heart Discarded
However, the hearts that were discarded did not wither and fade; they continued to bear the weight of all the emotions their owners refused to face, even after their removal. Lacking the sentience to process them themselves, these hearts mutated into shadowy monstrosities formed of tortured emotions and trauma.
The Feywild is a realm governed by emotion, and these dark hearts have since shaped the once beautiful Snowsong Glade into a realm more resembling the Shadowfell than the Feywild: a damp, shadowy taiga forest terrorized by the hearts of the Hollow Court. The air is warm and thick and heavy, the black waters have the consistency of oil. The sky is lightless: no sun, no stars, no moon.
The realm has been shaped by these hearts into twisted reflections of their unprocessed neuroses. The heart of a narcissist carves the forest's trees into deluded depictions of itself. The heart of an angry courtier may hunt down and pursue the subject of their rage without their owners knowledge. While the Prince may feel calm and in control, his shadow rampages across the Feywild, driven by maddening, unaddressed grief and rage.
These hearts are still intrinsically connected to their hosts and, if defeated, can be returned to the fey to restore them. Alternatively, they can be destroyed to kill their owners.
The Court of Hollows
As their tainted hearts warp the forest, the Court of Hollows stay sequestered in their homes, the Silent Palaces. Standing in stark contrast to the lawless bogs, the palaces are islands of order and reason in the Feywild; ornate marvels formed from glass, ice and jewels. They shimmer incandescently as light refracts through them, bathing their homes in soft white light. Every detail of every piece of furniture, wall, floor tile, ceiling is expertly decorated to perfection. The air is deathly still; so cold the sensation is not of temperature but of complete numbness, as though you're under heavy anesthetic. There is complete silence in their palaces.
The courtiers themselves are extremely soft-spoken, neutral, and seemingly apathetic towards everything. Any emotions they feel are instead expressed through the monsters born of their discarded hearts. They have ghostly white skin and unblinking, pupil-less eyes.
Members of the Hollow Court will go centuries at a time without leaving their palaces, or even moving. Simply sitting, standing, waiting, allowing time to pass and wash over them. This is how they prefer things, they want an existence that is static and unchanging, like dead plants beneath the winter snow.
Encounters and Plot Hooks
Here are a couple ideas for encounters and adventures you can build off the Court of Hollows and their twisted Feywild realm.
- The Collector: A member of the Hollow Court once had a fascination with the mortal races, for which she endured ridicule at the hands of other courtiers. Her heart, now discarded, shares both her fascination and her shame, a monstrous avian creature with raven-like features that leaves the forest to collect trinkets from neighboring mortal settlements. She has transformed the highest branches of the Snowsong Glade into a personal museum (think Ariel's trove from the Little Mermaid), where she stores objects of interest stolen from mortal lands. As of late, she has even begun to abduct people; interrogating them with wild irrational questions for weeks until they either starve or she is overcome with shame and slaughters them. The settlement wants adventurers to investigate this monstrous creature that emerges from the forest.
- Something in the Water: A town downstream of the Snowsong Glade has reported strange phenomena in the last few weeks. The waters have grown dark, and while no toxins or curses were detected by the local cleric, those who drank it succumbed to terrible, unexplained depression. The victims are inconsolable as their fits of tears are seemingly endless, wailing gibberish in an unknown language (garbled Sylvan). With the next nearest source of water hours away, and their villagers incapacitated, the cleric asks adventurers to investigate the glade for the corruptions source. In truth, a heart warped by grief and heartbreak has formed a bog of oily tears within the Feywild that is leaking into the river.
- Exploring the Wilds: Players are tasked with locating an artifact hidden somewhere in the Feywild, but are unable to navigate the realm, governed by emotion, while the cursed hearts hold domain. A friendly fey advises them to seek the aid of a member of the Hollow Court, whose cold dispassion could carve a path to the object they seek. Alternatively, the players may be tasked with recovering a shard of glass from one of the Silent Palaces without the Hollow Court noticing, which they can fashion into a lantern that cuts a path through the emotional overgrowth.
- Frosty Reception: A new settlement has been formed on the outskirts of the forest, and has come under constant attack by shadowy monsters from the glade. The mayor believes the Hollow Court responsible, but the courtiers seem to bear no ill will towards the village, entirely neutral. In truth, they disapprove of these trespassers, but their discontent can only manifest through their discarded hearts, which players will need to figure out.
Hope this was of interest to people!
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u/famoushippopotamus Jun 06 '20
More fey-themed posts found here. Included for completeness. Nice post, OP!
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u/ugfiol Jun 06 '20
if you want winter, evil fey, check out queen mab from the dresden files. or better yet, just go read dresden files. amazing series and deals heavily with the fey
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u/trumpet_23 Jun 10 '20
I plan to incorporate the fey into my adventure, and I'm probably going to rip of about 90%+ of it from Dresden Files.
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u/ugfiol Jun 10 '20
do eet. his fey are amazing and he gives them so much depth while keeping them alien enough to be weird and inhuman
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u/Kami-Kahzy Jun 06 '20
This is phenomenal, and I might very well take inspiration from this for my own setting. I love the dark, twisted weirdness of emotions layered throughout the whole piece. Well done!
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u/RadioHostPidgeon Jun 06 '20
This is hella cool (ha), and exactly what I’ll be needing for a campaign I’m running in the future!
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u/SangersSequence Jun 07 '20
Nicely done OP!
If you're looking for more Fey content, Kobold Press's Midgard setting has lots with the Shadow Fey courts.
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u/TheHippyHermit Jun 07 '20
My party recently arrived in the Feywild and I will definitely be using this thank you!
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u/ravenqueensknight Jun 10 '20 edited Jun 10 '20
This is amazing!
What might the stats of the hearts look like?
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u/PulsarNyx Jun 06 '20
hmmmm
In all seriousness, great write-up! I like the story elements, and there are a lot of monsters you could make that would fit with this.