It’s getting close to the Fall season again, and once again I find myself intrigued about the fey and the Feywild. Probably because during the Autumn and harvest seasons, the notion of mischief and weakened spiritual barriers remind me of the fey the most. Plus, I asked the community, and they felt that I should return with another Feywild detailed guide, so I felt that this time around, we cover more about the individual seasons (or courts). So, let’s start with the Spring Court within the Feywild.

Before I start, I should point out, that if you have read my previous articles on the Feywild, covering from how to roleplaying fey (click here), to a general guide to the Feywild itself (click here), a lot of this will make more sense. Also, I should point out, that this guide is using the premise that there are courts for every season (Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter). Under the current 5th Edition lore, it’s treated as having only two courts being the Summer Court (Seelie) and the Gloaming Court (Unseelie). This dichotomy will still be respected as Spring & Summer are traditionally aligned together and Autumn and Winter respectively.

Links to all articles for the Feywild:
Realms to the Feywild | Roleplaying Fey & Archfey | Summer Court | Autumn Court | Winter Court | Courtless, Other Courts, & the Feydark

A mushroom home in the Fields of Spring. Image by Philip Straub

The Fields of Spring

The Fields of Spring is one aspect of the Feywild governing the Spring Court, wherein an endless meadow of tall grass, flowers, and many hedges roam. Imagine a vibrant, verdant grassland with the occasional spot of trees. The grasses are tall and often taller than most humanoids, making it a hazard and great hiding place. It has rolling hills that stretch for countless miles, crystal clear lakes overlooking serene indigo mountains.

Now mind you, there are still woods within the Fields of Spring, small forests to be sure. Within these woods, often resides the sovereign of the Spring Court. In classic literature, Prince Oberon lies within this domain. Oberon is commonly referred to as the King of the Faeries and written by Willaim Shakespeare as consort to Queen Titania, the Summer Queen, and often depicted as the leader of the Seelie Court.

In older planar supplements, the Seelie Court has often represented good-aligned fey and even associated with other planar realms like the Beastlands, Ysgard, and Arborea.  But in most of those supplements, the Feywild did not exist, but you can include these Outer Planes having Fey Crossings to and from the Feywild in your setting.

The meaning of Spring

Spring represents new beginnings, rebirth from the harshness of the cold winter season, fertility and youthfulness. Keep this in mind when considering how to roleplay your Spring court faerie folk. In the Spring Court of the Feywild, you can have satyrs, centaurs, and even unicorns. Notably, young nymphs and treants can easily be found within this portion of the Feywild. Pixies are also frequently familiar within the Spring Court, usually as couriers, tricksters, and sentries.

Now understand, certain fey and forest entities are standard across all the courts. So to make the distinction between the courts, you should visually and thematically have these creatures look and behave according to their affiliation. So you can have things like sun tattoos, fluffy golden manes, soft yellows and green motifs on clothing and paints. Dryads may even have fresh fruits and flowers in their leafy shawls.

With new life and youth, often this portrays the aspect of beauty as well. Many such faeries can be narcissistic, egotistical, sexually driven, or can be a dilettante.

Faerie Nobles of Spring

In most of the D&D lore, they typically do not separate the fey between the four seasons and instead separate them by the simpler dichotomy of good (Seelie) and evil (Unseelie) courts. But if a DM wanted four courts, they would need to make distinctions to separate the respective seasons, the locales in the Feywild can be easily amended, but the harder task is filling such a world with entities to best appropriate represent the Spring season and its court.

Some notable Fey deities/entities for the Spring Court:

  • Damh, the patron fey/god of satyrs. Likes to sing, dance, and have parties.
  • Nathair Sgiathach is the patron deity of mischief and pranks, along with faerie dragons.
  • Squelaiche is a leprechaun deity, and that probably graces the spring court often
  • Verenestra is a fey of beauty and charm, revered by nymphs and dryads
  • Fionnghuala is a patron of swan-mays, swans, and communication.

You can easily have other fey, such as a fey that embodies daisies or roses. A fey that represents the spring lakes, ponds, and waterfalls (I mean there’s a deity in the Forgotten Realms, why not a faerie?). The principal idea is to think about some core symbol or aspect of springtime and grant it an embodiment or patron. In the Player’s Handbook for 5th Edition, there is a reference to the Green Lord (though he’s more for Summer than Spring) and Hyrsam, the Prince of Fools (definitely more than likely a Spring Court fey). You can even do something about springtime festivities that might be akin to real-world holidays and festivals like Easter (like the Easter Bunny being a fey lord) and even a fey that represents the dawn and good crops (similar to Ishtar).

Note: Something to keep in mind, while the current D&D lore sets a good/evil axis with the fey courts, understand that the fey does not share conventional viewpoints on morality like those in the Material Plane. Good & evil is subjective, you can easily have evil fey in the Spring Court if you so want. Like a deadly fey that lures their victims by being beautiful only to be an elaborate trap. Spring faeries deal with desires and more likely to act on those impulses.

Click here for a General Guide about the layout of the Feywild.
Click here for tips on how to roleplay fey and archfey in the Feywild.
Click here for the Wererabbit article for Easter/spring related shenanigans.
Click here for a rose inspired archfey, Lady of the Black Rose.

Summer Court | Autumn Court | Winter Court | Courtless, Other Courts, & the Feydark

Look forward to our Summer Court guide, along with the other courts.

Update: Added links to guides to the Summer Court, Autumn Court, Winter Court, and Courtless articles.

You can find similar discussion and details more in the “Journey into the Feywild” supplement. Now available on the DMs Guild. 

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