Heroes of the Feywild: A Lament

I just...

Here we go.

This book has been sitting on my shelf for awhile. I keep meaning to write about it. I would like to say that it was because I'm working on my session posts and Power Rangers posts and whatnot, but the simple fact of the matter is that I've been a bit scared to. I got it for my birthday, looked at it, loved it, and  a second later was heartbroken. And shoved it on a shelf. And tried not to look at it.

Why did I pick it up? And write about it today? I'm honestly not sure. I certainly don't go by that particular bookshelf terribly often. It's in our guest room, so it's not on the bookshelf I go by in our living room. Maybe I picked it up today because 4th is never terribly far from the back of my mind. The DMG2 was the book that led me to want more depth in role-playing, which led me to Burning Wheel, which put me on the path I'm on. So whenever I am playing there is a part of me that is still remembering the fire that book stoked within me. Maybe it's because the Trophy Gold session that we had last night was so freaking amazing and it got me thinking about DnD again. But, for whatever reason, I picked it up today. And thumbed through it. And decided to write something about it.

This book is fantastic.

I've always found 4th's lore to be incredibly interesting. Unlike 3rd, which had a very kitchen sink sorta a feeling, 4th's felt wonderfully specific. It was a lot more mythological, like a modern take on a fairy tale. There was a whimsical, tragic element to 4th's lore that really stuck out at me. The Astral Sea is what remains of heaven, after it was blown apart. The Elemental Chaos didn't have the Abyss in it, until some jerk went and shoved a shard of pure evil in it. Things like that are very simple, but powerful. It doesn't get in the way of gameplay and can be replaced, but I usually liked the lore so much I used it anyway.

Heroes of the Feywild has the best lore of 4e. They really leaned into the whimsically tragic tone of the setting and produced stories that I found so enjoyable that I just read the book straight through. I normally didn't do that for any DnD book outside of 4e. It wasn't really a feature in the rest of 4e, however, more like window dressing. That was a shame and it's one of the chief failings of the system. But Heroes of the Feywild finally leaned all the way into their setting and produced something that was artful, not just functional. Some of the little stories they produced for this book still haunt me. I still think about their little faerie tales and ask if I could have done any better than their protagonists. I still don't have an answer.

The races (hamadryad, pixie, and satyr) are works of frickin' art. They're all interesting, whimsical, and have powers that make me want to try them. The lore on them is wonderful, full of hooks that make my GM brain cackle with glee and excitement. As a player I'd have a great time coming up with stuff in response to the lore in these books. I wanted to play in the feywild after reading these races, something that I hadn't really encountered in the rest of 4e.

The classes are easily the best design in all of 4e. Yeah, I said it. Yeah, I mean it. There's more innovation in this little volume than in the entirety of 4e combined, which is really saying something. From shifting class roles to finding different ways for class powers to attach to the existing mechanics while not doing away with the core power structure of the game (Essentials damned itself in my eyes for that), to granting alternative class features for the already existing structures, I just look at these classes in awe. There's a subtlety to the class design in these books that speaks of a mature knowledge of the 4e system. I mean, tell me Berserker Barbarian, which switches from defender to striker, isn't some of the most innovative class design you've ever seen. Go ahead. I mean, I don't believe you, but go ahead. The depth of tactical decisions for that class is just incredible. And they could have kept going. It could have gotten deeper. The objective quality of these class designs puts everything before or after it to shame.

Yeah, I know that's one hell of a hot take. I'm going to stick with it. May as well own it, right?

RIGHT.

And then there's the Themes and Feats and Magical Items. I don't like this chapter as much, but it's still good! There's a lot of things to like in here, particularly the Themes, which produce more opportunities for storytelling and give you some neat mechanical hooks to hang stuff on. Same thing goes for the magical items, especially the Fey Magical Gifts. I feel like a lot of the foundations for these items came from before, and they just took the art form they had made and got it as close to perfect as they could.

But the thing that really stopped me was their lifepath chapter.

This deserved to be core material. This deserved to be part of a Player's Handbook. Choose or roll an upbringing, and from there navigate the different sites you can go to. Each time you go to a site you roll the key ability score, and see what happens. There are usually three options: doing extremely well, average, and screwed. Regardless of what you roll you get to choose from a few skills and you move onto the next one. Each place has its own personality, its own choices, and its results can produce wildly different characters because of how this system works. You get characters that feel lived in, alive.

I present to you the tale of Xenith the human paladin of Corellon Lathelan. Born to fomorian slaves, Xenith was left to die from exposure by his despairing parents. The world was awful; why did they think they could bring a child up in it? And thus they passed.  Another couple, however, was more hopeful, and when they found the tiny babe they could not just leave him to die. So they raised him as their own, in the claustrophobic darkness, giving him as much kindness as they could, until they died from the brutality of the fomorians. Hearbroken, Xenith escaped through one of the myriad tunnels in the Feydark, eventually getting captured by the fomorians of Mag Tureah, who used him as a magical test subject. Despite his own innate bull-headedness, Xenith one day took advantage of a portal that had been left open before him, and escaped to Astrazalian and became a member of the Sword Guard, ever watchful against the Formorians. While he was there he married a kind eladrin lady, who shone like the stars, and settled down. But he wasn't a very good guard, despite his potential. This was not what he was meant to do. Xenith knew it, but did nothing about it. He waned in mediocrity.

Until one fateful day when, due to his own negligence at guard duty, the fomorians broke into Astrazalian and killed a number of eladrin, including his own wife. 

Heartbroken, Xenith ran. And ran. And ran. He didn't stop until he found himself deep in a mysterious forest, where sorrow seemed to hang in the air, a tangible essence. Deep, deep within this place of sorrow he found the White Well, where the Lady dwelt. It was there that Xenith's sorrow was turned from bane to salve, to the strength that all sorrow ultimately is meant to be. Xenith found rest. But he could not stay. The Lady told Xenith about Shinaelestra, a city in constant war with the fomorians. She would give him a token of her favor, one single strand of her white-gold hair, and send him there to help as he could in their war. Some are meant to guard.

Others, to protect and avenge.

And so Xenith went to Shinaelestra, holding the strand of white-gold to his bosom. He presented it to the king, begging for a chance to help defend his city against the wretched fomorians of Vor Thomil. His wish was granted. And Xenith prospered. Some can sit on their hindquarters and prosper. But some need a sword in their hand, armor on their back, and the screams of their dying foes in their ears, to find meaning in life. Xenith was such a man. He excelled in his work so well that the king gifted him with a special task.

I did that in ten minutes. If that doesn't convince you of the merits of the book I've got nothing else for you.

As I look at this book I can't help but feel a bit of bitterness about it all. I left this edition, right before this book was created. And don't get me wrong, I love Burning Wheel and all the other games I've found since then,  but this was something special. Maybe I'm seeing something that's not there! Maybe I'm looking back at the most controversial edition of Dungeons and Dragons, a game usually so flawed I can barely speak a kind word about it, and am being a contrarian. I am certainly that person who puts his feet down in contested territory and shouts "No further!" and causes a ruckus. That is something I'm very good at doing.

But, even as I write these words, Xenith's story burns within me. How could it not? That's a beautiful story, and all it took was about ten minutes of dice rolls to produce something that I would be proud to have any player bring to my table.

No, there is value here.

And we lost it.

If you're having fun with 5e, good for you. Genuinely, I mean it! That's really the point: to have fun. If that's happening then 5e has accomplished its mission and I'm glad for that. And maybe I don't have much of a leg to stand on, given that I had left 4e before this point. I can certainly cop to and accept that criticism.

But if you want my take? 4e was the best edition of DnD since Basic. Flat. And this book was the beginning of something new and incredible. And we lost it. 4e haters may say good riddance and may it never be remembered and all that. I won't pretend that the game didn't have its flaws. It certainly needed another edition to iron out some of the kinks. But the potential of the system to grow and evolve was shown very clearly in Heroes of the Feywild.

And I, for one, am sad it didn't get to further develop.

Maybe someday someone will revive this game and further its evolution. I know I'm not the person to do it, but I'd be lying if I said that I don't sometimes wish, wistfully, that would be today. So, until that day, I guess I'll sit on the shore and wait for it to come in with whatever tide deigns to provide it. I may wait awhile.

And that's OK. Sometimes waiting is worth it. Even if that thing never comes, the act of waiting can be enough.

Even if that day never comes.