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Every culture has faerie tales—stories that use exaggeration and supernatural elements to warn children of the consequences of bad behavior or to demonstrate the virtues of society. Breland tells tales of the Sleeping Prince, cursed to slumber by a cruel hag until he’s saved by the courage of the Woodcutter’s Daughter. In the Mror Holds, there’s a tale older than Breland itself, in which Lady Narathun curses Doldarun’s son with eternal sleep, until he’s saved by humble Toldorath. And the Dhakaani dar have an ancient story about how Hezhaal—a dirge singer who betrayed the empire and studied sinister magic—cast the marhu’s son into a cursed slumber, until he was saved by a simple golin’dar.

This is just one of many stories that appear over and over in different cultures. The exact details may shift—is the sleeper a prince? The marhu’s son? Doldarun’s heir?—while the thrust of the tale and the lessons it teaches persist. But long before any of these cultures arose, these stories existed somewhere else. In a layer of Thelanis, the Lady in Shadow curses a prince with eternal sleep. She tends a garden full of wonders, and keeps her own daughter hidden in the heart of a labyrinth of thorns. At the deepest level, that is what the fey are: stories. The dryad isn’t a natural spirit; it’s the magic we want in the world when we see a slender tree move in the wind and imagine it as a beautiful person. Thelanis is built on iconic stories, but it’s also the Faerie Court; at its heart, satyrs and nymphs dance in the shadows of the Palace of the Moon, while the archfey engage in immortal intrigues. It’s a fantastic realm essentially built around the idea of adventures, but it’s a deadly place for those who refuse to understand its rules.

Thelanis is one of the easiest planes for mortals to reach. Just walk through a mushroom ring when Rhaan is full in the sky, or follow the sound of distant music in the forest. It’s not always this easy, but it can be. One wrong step and you could find yourself in Thelanis, retracing the steps of storybook heroes and making dangerous bargains with the rulers of the Faerie Court.