Fantasy Setting Proposal

1. Core Ethos Sentence.

The world of Cairvonn is defined by its relationship to the Plane of Faerie and its inhabitants, for both good and ill.

2. Who are the heroes?

The heroes of Cairvonn are many and varied. There is Alain, a young shepherd who disappeared into a fey mound a century ago then returned in armor on a faerie steed, driven to hunt evil sidhe wherever he might find them. Then there's Cathryn O'Lainge, who bore a selkie's son and left her parents to fight beside her faerie husband in an unknown war. There's the mysterious woodsman known as Wayfinder, who is said to be at least half fey, and who has rescued more than one witless traveler from the snares of the Red Sidhe. And there's Baenirrha, the sword-witch of the north who fought in the Dwarf Wars and staved off a giant single-handedly.
Often grim and determined, almost always touched in some way by the Faerie world, the heroes of Cairvonn are implacable enemies of evil. Their origins may be humble, but their experiences and deeds lift them far above the realm of the ordinary.

3. What do they do?

The examples of Alain, Cathryn, Wayfinder, and Baenirrha show heroes in action—defending their homes, their people, and helpless strangers from the evil forces that seek to destroy Cairvonn. They dine with sidhe princes and carry the banner of mortal kings. They carry swords to battle against the northern barbarian hordes and work their spells at standing stones. They fight the Red Sidhe, destroy the Bane Wraith's undead servants, and drive off giants and gnolls.

4. Threats, Conflicts, Villains

Cairvonn is besieged by many foes, hence its need for many heroes. The Bane Wraith, an undead sidhe of fearsome power, holds nothing but hatred for mortals, despises those sidhe who consort with mortals, and leads a fell horde of fey wraiths and barrow-wights to bring doom to her enemies. The Red Sidhe are a knightly order of evil fey who share the Bane Wraith's hatred of mortal life, and often fight alongside her undead minions. Other evil fey, owing no allegiance to the Bane Wraith or the Red Sidhe, are no less dangerous to unwary mortals.
In the mortal realm, savage barbarians—humans, dwarves, goblinoids, gnolls, and giants—raid northern villages every winter. Wizards driven to corruption by their lust for magic can topple kingdoms and waste the earth.

5. Nature of magic

Faerie is magical by its nature, and its influence extends throughout the world of Cairvonn. Mist-shrouded islands hold magical secrets, standing stones and burial mounds mark locations of power, and twilight thins the borders between worlds. Magic in Cairvonn is derived from Faerie and is thus diminished with increasing distance from its source. Fey wizards and sorcerers are mighty enough to compare to their standard high-fantasy counterparts, but no mere mortal can hope to attain such power. Mortal clerics are similarly hindered.

6. What's new? What's different?

The Faerie realm, the Seelie and Unseelie Courts, have always been like extra appendages in D&D-related fantasy, despite their prominent place in fantasy literature and folklore. Cairvonn constructs the world around them, rather than attempting to graft them into a different cosmology and setting. In the process, some of the fundamental assumptions of high fantasy, particularly the role of magic, are turned on their head, but not eliminated.