Seelie and Unseelie courts in D&D?

jasin

Explorer
The Unseelie Court has been suggested multiple times as a source of villains for a fourth adventure path in that thread, which got me thinking...

Is there officially such a thing as the Seelie or Unseelie Court in D&D? Meaning: are there collections of fey in any TSR/WotC D&D setting that calls themselves the Seelie and Unseelie courts? And if there are, where could one learn more about them?
 

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There's a PrC that deals with Seelie/Unseelie in the Complete Mage, along with some fluff, as far as I know (my copy will hopefully arive within a hour). I think that's the only mention of Seelie/Unseelie in all of the 3.X wotc material.
 

The AD&D 2E Accessory, Monster Mythology detailed, among other pantheons, the pantheon of the Sylvan creatures. It specifically references the Seelie and Unseelie Courts there.

It says that the Seelie Court moves among the Outer Planes of Arvandor, the Beastlands, and Gladsheim at the will of Titania, Queen of the Seelie Court.

The Unseelie Court, ruled over by the Queen of Air and Darkness, is, well I'll let the text speak for itself, because it is pretty juicy:

"Deep in the lower reaches of Pandemonium, this bitter and sadistic goddess sits among a gibbering, drooling parody of Titania's realm, in her Unseelie Court..."

The gods listed as being among the Seelie Court are:

Titania: CG(NG) Greater Goddess, the Faerie Queen
Oberon: NG(N) Lesser God, Lord of Beasts, Titania's husband
Caoimhin: N(CG) Demigod, God of the Killmoulis
Damh: CN Lesser God, patron God of the Satyrs, Korreds, and Atomies
Eachthighern: CG Lesser God, Lord of Unicorns and Pegasi
Emmantiensien: CG Intermediate God, God of Treants
Fionnghuala: NG Demigoddess, Goddess of Swanmays
Nathair Sgiathach: CG Intermediate God, Patron of Faerie Dragons, Psuedodragons, Pixies, Sprites, Grigs
Skerrit: N(CN) Lesser God, God of Centaurs
Squelaiche: CN(CG) Demigod, Patron of Leprechauns
Verenestra: N(CG) Lesser Goddess, Patron of Dryads, Nymphs, and Sylphs

Then there's the Unseelie Court, with its sole representative:

Queen of Air and Darkness: CE Intermediate Goddess, Patron of evil Elves and Faeries (She's the one who is responsible for the creation of the Quicklings.)

There is more detail given about the nature of the Seelie and Unseelie Courts (mostly the Seelie), and I'm not sure if this info was made up out of whole cloth for the Monster Mythology book, or if bits and pieces of it (such as gods/goddesses) had already existed and were just expanded upon.

I know there was a Dragon issue that dealt a lot with the Faerie races (and which, IIRC, had a different origin for the Quicklings). I'd have to dig it out to say exactly what else it expanded/changed/explained.

To my knowledge, there really hasn't been anything done with Seelie/Unseelie Courts in 3rd Edition as yet, aside from a couple of articles on the Wizards site from way back when 3E first came out.

Here are those Wizards' articles:

The Unseelie Nymph by Robert Wiese
The Fey Feature archive by various authors (mostly Gwendolyn Kestrel, I believe)
The Haunted Glen by Robert Wiese

Some of these articles are in 3.0 format for mechanics, but most of them are largely fluff, so should be fine.
 
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Dragon Compendium Vol. 1 also includes templates that can be applied to any Fey for Seelie and Unseelie creatures/characters.

Additionaly a dragon magazine from the last year or two (dont remember the exact issue) had the sidhe druid variant that dealt with the Unseelie (if in passing) if I remember the article correctly.
 


It's touched on in Manual of the Planes. There is a Faerie realm discussed. The Seelie faeries are fey with the celestial template, and the Unseelie have the fiendish template.
 

I always felt D&D did a poor job wit the fey. Fey really don't fit well in the alignment system, and they are rarely creatures that need to be killed. They have a sense of childhood mischief that D&D just doesn't seem to acknowledge.
 

A lot of consumers have been wanting and waiting for WotC to do a Fey book ala "Draconomicon/Libris Mortis/Lords of Madness" style. Why they haven't done so till this day is still a great wonder to me. :confused:
 

2e Ravenloft Shadowrift has its own seelie and unseelie court of fey IIRC, updated in 3e by the licensed 3e ravenloft Van Richten's Guide to Shadowfey (or something close to that).
 

Razz said:
A lot of consumers have been wanting and waiting for WotC to do a Fey book ala "Draconomicon/Libris Mortis/Lords of Madness" style. Why they haven't done so till this day is still a great wonder to me. :confused:
I keep hearing hints though, via what posters are saying WotC is printing now.

It'll be interesting to see where this all leads :)
 

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