CRITICAL HIT: Season 4 Primer (Part 2 of 3)

Critical Hit Season 4 Premieres this saturday. Click here if you missed yesterday’s primer. Take the jump to see today’s primer

The Greater Fae

The greater fae are very powerful entities that inhabit the Feywild. Although many of them choose to appear as humanoids they are in no way human or human-like. The best way to think of the greater fae, often called the “True Fae” is as actors who are playing a part they enjoy. If ever that part loses its luster they change themselves entirely, becoming another entity altogether, at least from the standpoint of solid folk. The Greater Fae are very fond of interacting with other races, especially humans who don’t usually know how to deal with them. Most of the more malevolent ones tend to avoid eladrin and gnomes, who usually are expecting trouble, and prefer to deal with Natural humanoids who may not see the fact that a truly nasty surprise awaits them. The true fae are, by far the most dangerous denizens of the Feywild, although they are quite scarce.
The Sovereigns of each of the Seasonal Forests are Greater Fae, in fact, they are widely thought to be the greatest among the great.

The Summer Canopy

Ruled by the Summer King, The Canopy is composed of every variety of tall, broad-trunk tree in existence, although the great majority of it are tropical trees. It is said that the trees here have no top and no bottom, one could climb up or down forever and never find anything except branches and leaves. Needless to say an endless forest modeled on massively bio-diverse tropical forests is bound to be extremely dangerous.
Cities: The largest Eladrin city in the Summer Canopy is Amber Township, a city built right into four giant trees, each connected by many pathways both mechanical and mystical. Amber Township is home to the House of Glaives and the House of Ewers, according to the locals, the most puissant schools of war tactics and arcane magic in all of the Feywild. Gnomes are rare in the Wood of Summer, so there are no major settlements.

The Fields of Autumn

Like the Spring Wood, the Fields of Autumn are often mistakenly regarded as safe. The mistake is understandable when one enters the rows and rows of apple trees or walks through a field of sorghum that was clearly planted in neat little lines. The uninitiated may think that the entire ‘forest’ has been settled and tamed, but they would be wrong. In fact the Autumn Forest’s natural state is one of rampant order. Trees grow in rows, flower bushes line all paths and trees grow into topiary shapes. Although one is unlikely to meet a predator in the Fields of Autumn (it happens, just not often) an uninitiated traveler is likely to wander the lovely orchards and vineyards forever, caught in an orderly repetition of action. After all, how can you follow the path when everything looks like a path?
Cities: Applehome is the largest gnome settlement in the Fields of Autumn and the Feywild, here the gnomes have cornered the brewing market. The Autumnwood is home to thousands of varieties of fruit, some quite mundane, some right down miraculous and the gnomes of Applehome know how to turn it all into magic beer. The twin Cities of El-dre-han and El-dre-naz compose the primary Eladrin urban area. At the nexus of these cities is the famed University of Pattern, widely considered by the locals to be the greatest school of arcane magic in all of the Feywild.

Critical Hit Season 4 Premieres Saturday April 21

Art by Adriana Ferguson