Step beyond the relative safety of the enclaves and successor states, and you enter a realm of pervasive strangeness: the Weirdlands of the Feengrenze, known by many names – the wilds, the weird, the dream lands, and more. Here, the maddening fey magic leaking through the crust rewrites the world’s rules, and whimwhirls are standard. Ruins from other worlds lay strewn about like the discarded toys of a toddler. Hazardous yet enticing, these strange lands are filled with almost entirely untouched ruins beyond number. Every new discovery sparks countless rumors of mounds of treasure, lost arcane knowledge, and other secrets.

What are the Weirdlands?

Deep within the Feengrenze, Faloan the Mad is imprisoned within a shell of iron-rich earth 80 miles thick. The density of this iron prison varies. Where the veins are thickest, the land above is relatively stable, forming the patches where enclaves and successor states cling to existence. However, in most areas, the iron is sparse, allowing Faloan’s insanity-tinged power to seep through the crust as it instinctively strains against its bonds. This diffused power then warps reality on the surface in strange and unpredictable ways, creating the peculiar, liminal landscapes of the Weirdlands.

While superficially similar to the Feywild in some aspects – with fluid time and distance, dramatic terrain, free-flowing sorcery, and whimsical sights like talking animals – the truth of the Weirdlands is far stranger. Reality here isn’t just flexible; it’s been transformed into something akin to thick, gooey soup.

Dramatic landmarks, resembling the creations of an insane artist on a bad acid trip, slowly float through this soup on lazy currents of Faloan’s reality-warping power. Time itself curdles and uncurdles on wakes left by these islands of semi-stability, warping, stretching, and distorting as they drift.

Arcane magic flows through the lands of the wild, but it is unpredictable, more akin to sorcerer wild magic than anything found in the feywild and tinged with Faolan’s madness. The landscape almost constantly discharges wild magic, producing random spell effects like lightning bolts, fireballs, illusions, and other even stranger phenomena.

When too much of this mad wild magic builds up, often from a major leak of Faloan’s power, it discharges as a whimwhirl. These dangerous, reality-breaking storms are rife in the Weirdlands, bouncing around the landscape like pinballs and leaving trails of awakened plants, animals, objects, transformed creatures, warped landscapes, and twisted ruins. Whimwhirls also dramatically reshape the Weirdlands’ geography. The Feengrenze instinctively attempts to fill the reality crater left by a whimwhirl’s emergence, pulling in whatever iron-rich landscape it can find. This often happens due to confusion about the location’s inhabitants.

Life, surprisingly, thrives in these dangerous regions, adapting to the unusual and hostile environment, often aided by the seeping weird magic. Creatures and plants exhibit strange mutations, innate magical abilities, or symbiotic relationships with the warped landscape itself. Whole awakened forests of trees and shrubs follow the drifting islands of semi-stability on endless migrations or cling to them for dear life. Sentience has developed in almost every animal in the weirdlands, alongside strange mutations or evolutions that help them survive. Even more astounding, small, mostly functional communities cling to whatever stability they can find. Most are fey, less bothered by the Weirdlands’ strange nature, treading lightly and building on relative stability. Less common are mortal communities, living in small enclaves on wandering chunks of stability or sentient geographical features, often strange even by Feengrenze standards.

The Edgelands

The informal term ‘edgelands’ refers to where the Weirdlands meet the stable parts of the world. However, the term is misleading; it suggests broad transition zones, but in truth, these areas are often incredibly narrow, sometimes as little as 50 feet wide, and lack any consistent characteristics. While a general rule suggests edgelands trace the mountain roots facing the weirdlands, there is no predictability beyond that. Crossing into the Weirdlands can be jarringly different depending on location – one might feel a subtle shift into the less real landscape in the Sea of Illusionary Sands, while stepping into the Wyrdback could mean immediately sinking into its soupy reality.

Adventuring in the Weirdlands

Adventuring in the Weirdlands is no easy feat. Everything is in motion, and the landscape oozes with weird magic. Adventuring requires extensive planning, preparation, and luck akin to venturing through the Underdark or one of the inhospitable planes of existence, and even then, there is no guarantee that you will find what you are looking for. Traveling the weirdlands is particularly challenging; there are no roads, and trails and paths evaporate within a few days unless made of iron or steel. Landmarks lazily drift about, rendering maps and directions useless. A common piece of advice, only slightly less common than “Do not travel through the Weirdlands,” is to merely hitch a ride on one of the wandering landmarks and wait until your destination floats into view. Being able to fly is also highly recommended because direct observation is the only surefire way to find your destination.

However, the inherent danger has never dissuaded adventurers from venturing into the deepest parts of the Weirdlands in search of hidden riches and magic. Many of them do return, perhaps a bit less sane and not quite in the same shape, but often with loads of treasure – gold, jewels, strange new magic items, technology, arcane lore, or the pelts of rare beasts.

Weird Magic

The Weirdlands are saturated with the unpredictable magic leaking from Faloan the Mad’s prison. This pervasive energy constantly discharges in bursts of chaotic, often rainbow-colored effects, posing a significant and ever-present hazard to travelers. Encounters with weird magic discharges rarely leave the landscape or witnesses unaffected.

Weird Magic Discharges
Roll (2d20)	Weird Magic Effect
2	Time fractures: Everyone in 100 feet sees a different time of day. Some experience sunrise, others dusk, and one sees a starless night. There is no mechanical effect, but it is extremely disorienting.
3	All water levitates: For 1 hour, water (ponds, flasks, blood) floats 2 feet off the ground, rippling like jelly.
4	Color bleed: Colors melt and run like wet paint across objects within 200 ft, reassigning randomly (a red cloak may become blue, a green frog turns orange).
5	Scentstorm: A burst of powerful smells—lavender, sulfur, burnt sugar, wet stone—blankets the area. Creatures must pass a DC 13 Con save or be overwhelmed with nostalgia.
6	Echoes reverse: Sounds echo backward for 1 hour. Spoken words delay and return as reversed gibberish before fading into whispers.
7	Grass sings: All plants in a 100 ft radius hum unsettling lullabies. Sleep saves at disadvantage.
8	Small objects animate: Rocks, tools, and debris dance and chatter for 1d6 minutes before collapsing into stillness.
9	Moonlight effect: Even underground, moonlight floods the area in silver tones. All shadows vanish.
10	Inverted gravity patch: A 10 ft cube experiences reversed gravity for 1 minute. Creatures entering it fall upwards.
11	Mirrors form in air: 1d6 floating mirrors appear, showing strange reflections—older versions of viewers, events from dreams, or alternate selves.
12	Unseasonal weather: Sudden, intense microclimate shift—snow in summer, heatwave in winter, a monsoon in a canyon—for 10 minutes.
13	Vegetation swaps personalities: For 10 minutes, trees act like cats, ferns behave anxiously, and moss demands compliments.
14	Gravity pulses: Every 6 seconds, gravity fluctuates briefly (lightly pulling sideways, loosening, or tightening). Effects are subtle but noticeable.
15	Invisible rainfall: You hear and feel rain, but nothing can be seen. Clothes become soaked. Invisible puddles form.
16	Light sources shift hue: Fire, sunbeams, and magic glows all radiate strange colors. They are mechanically identical but bizarre in appearance.
17	Swarms of glass butterflies: Harmless and fragile, these swarm through the area for 5 minutes before shattering into fine dust.
18	Floating platforms appear: 1d4 moss-covered, floating stone discs (10 ft diameter) hover 10 ft off the ground for 10 minutes.
19	Sudden silence: For 1 minute, all natural and magical sound within 60 ft is dampened. Communication via sound is impossible.
20	Reality flicker: For one round, everything within a 100-ft radius appears 2D, like a paper diorama. There is no mechanical effect, but it is creepy.
21	Nothing happens: The weird magic fizzles without effect—but there’s a sense of waiting, as if something almost occurred.
22	Softness effect: All non-living matter in 100 ft becomes soft and squishy for 1 minute. Metal bends like rubber, stone warps underfoot. AC penalties may apply.
23	Colorless moment: The world turns grayscale for 1d4 rounds. Magic still works normally, but feels “flatter.”
24	Time hiccup: Everyone replays the last 6 seconds. All movement/actions are repeated, but memories remain.
25	Voices swap: Everyone in the area swaps voices for 10 minutes. Speaking as someone else, it’s hard to keep a straight face.
26	Tethered sky object: A glowing geometric shape (cube, tetrahedron, orb) appears 100 ft up, tethered to the ground by strings of moonlight. Unbreakable. No known function.
27	Shadow puppets become real: Shadows cast by creatures briefly step out and act independently, mimicking movements like eerie twins. Lasts 3 rounds.
28	Plants grow teeth: All flora sprouts harmless but disturbing rows of pearly human teeth. They chatter and hum.
29	Personal gravity: For 1 minute, each creature in the area has its own gravity vector. One may fall sideways, another diagonally.
30	Reflections act out: Mirrors or still water show the viewer doing things they’re not currently doing—screaming, waving, or running.
31	Rain of whispers: A soft drizzle carries thousands of faint whispers. DC 13 Wis save or gain disadvantage on Insight checks for 1 hour.
32	Animal fusion: For 1 minute, nearby small animals merge into strange hybrids. Squirrel-rabbits, bird-fish, cat-snails. They quickly flee.
33	Reverse inertia: Objects thrown or dropped fall upward or backward instead. Projectiles curve unpredictably.
34	Cloud of clockwork pollen: A cloud of golden pollen whirs with gears. It smells metallic and briefly animates objects it touches.
35	Memory fog: Everyone forgets the last 10 minutes. Notes or magic might preserve some details.
36	Bizarre stasis: One object or creature is frozen in a loop of 3 seconds—splashing water, a bird’s wingbeat, a spoken syllable—for 1 minute.
37	Flora-merge: A creature partially merges with nearby vegetation (DC 16 Con save to resist). Partial bark-skin, flowered hair, mossy limbs. Lasts 10 minutes.
38	Architecture surge: A random small building or ruin appears nearby—alien architecture, fairytale house, reversed gravity cottage. May persist.
39	Living landscape: The ground ripples like flesh. Trees bend to look at you. Faces form briefly in stone. Terrain becomes semi-sentient.
40	Unstable rift: A crack in reality appears—5 ft wide—leaking chaotic energy. Things near it may mutate, vanish, or glimpse Faolan’s prison. Lasts 1 minute. Save or suffer a minor transformation.

Running Adventures in the Weirdlands: A GM’s Guide

The constant weirdness and discovery of the Weirdlands can entice players, but running them might seem like a massive headache for a Game Master. Running in a constantly changing landscape can be challenging, but there are ways to embrace the madness without succumbing to it.

Lean into the randomness.

The Weirdlands lend themselves naturally to procedurally generated play. Randomly generated hexcrawls and depthcrawls work exceptionally well, provided you tweak the formula to allow the landscape to move after generation. For procedural hexcrawls, plenty of online resources offer random hex tables, location generators, and collections of pre-made landmark hexes like Summers End by Ben Milton and the Haunted Hamlet by Lazy Lich, which you can use to populate your map.

If you decide to go the depthcrawl route, check out either the Alexandrians’ two-part article on depthcrawls or the best-selling adventure The Stygian Library by the concept’s creator, Emmy Allen. I will be releasing my own depthcrawl, Into the Scraplands, within the next two weeks.

Skip the exploration aspect.

It’s a perfectly valid strategy to handle the randomness of the Weirdlands by simply not focusing on it. It’s perfectly fine to skip the part where the players wander a wilderness where all the interesting bits are constantly moving and get right to the mind-breaking dungeons and the isolated, slightly unnerving towns. However, I highly recommend giving players the ability to fly or another handy means of getting around to facilitate skipping the wandering bit.

Notable expanse of Weirdlands

The Scraplands

Probably the best explored expanse of Weirdland, the scraplands surround the gnomish republic of Ginkdimblid for dozens of miles on all sides. The scraplands get their name because whimwhirls tend to deposit wrecked machinery of all descriptions, from steam locomotives to space stations, in the general area. The region is filled with every description of scrap-collecting species, stranded travelers from other worlds, and malfunctioning constructs and robots.

The gnomes of Ginkdimblid make regular forays into the scraplands to collect parts for new inventions and find exemplars for their creative process. They have several outposts within the scraplands. The Scraplands are also one of the few parts of the weirdlands where whimwhirls do not originate; they may bounce through the Scraplands, but there has never been a confirmed case of a whimwhirl forming in the Scraplands.

The Wyrdback

When people in the enclaves and the successor kingdoms are asked to describe the weirdlands, their descriptions follow a similar pattern: vast expanses of wandering, ancient and bewildering forests filled with danger, lazily drifting mountain ranges, isolated communities of podunk mortals with strange customs, and hidden kingdoms of the fey. While these do not universally apply to every section of Weirdlands, they describe Tir Na Calite’s Wyrdback to a tee.

The Wyrdback occupies most of the center of Tir Na Caltie from the Silver Highlands along the FeyGlimmer Sea to the enclaves on the western coast and the borders of Rosenberg to the northern icecap. It is the largest of the terrestrial Weirdlands, covering around a hundred thousand square miles of land in the continent’s center.

As mentioned previously, the Wyrdback is the iconic image of the Weirdlands. Mountain ranges drift on currents of reality with ancient forests of awakened trees trailing after them like dolphins riding the wake of a cargo ship. Awakened hills, ridges, and valleys, often sporting a backwoods enclave or two on their back, swim through the soupy reality. The aquatic metaphors are apt because of all the weirdlands, the Wyrdback has the highest saturation of Faolan power, rendering reality so thin in places that soil runs like thick soup.

However, the ever-present magical radiation, so to speak, has had strange effects on the life of the Wyrdback. One can find creatures with pretty wild mutations wandering the weirdlands, aberrations, and sapients with wild magic powers and terrifying mutations are common. More alarmingly, reality gets progressively thinner the farther from the shores of the Wyrdlands one gets, leading to rampant speculation about what it is like at the center.

The Xibalba Jungle

Travel east from Aztlán’s sphere of influence, and one quickly finds oneself in the Xibalba jungle. Covering about 65% of Dunklemere, it is by far the most dangerous jungle in existence. The magic leaking from Falaon’s cell has mutated every beast and plant in the region and endowed most with wicked sentience. While it is true that the trees of the jungle do not move about like in the Wyrdback, they object to the sort of rough handling human explorers provide, and many are carnivorous to boot. The fauna is no better, having evolved various magical abilities from the constant magical radiation leaking through the soil. Such creatures include the grinning warp cat, a tiger-like creature that uses its teleporting ability to grin its enemies to death, and the invisible tyrant lizard.

It is known that there are small enclaves out in the jungle, mostly Mayan or other pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations. Contact between these enclaves is sporadic, and most still use the same stone tools their ancestors used. Rumors persist that ancient Mesoamerican ruins filled with gold are out in the jungles, and a steady stream of treasure hunters leads to their doom yearly.

The White Crown

The white crown refers to a massive low plateau surrounded by mountains that form a kind of bowl, taking up the southern part of Dunklmere. The White Crown represents one of, if not the most dramatic, climate anomalies in the Feengrenze. The whole region is stuck in a perpetual cyclonic blizzard (What we in the northeast refer to as a nor’easter) that constantly drowns the bowl in snow despite the temperature never dropping below 50 degrees F. Hardier explorers reported that ruined structures could be made out in the blinding snow, but nobody had ever mounted a successful exploration into the bowl itself. A few scattered jarldoms of frost giants are known to inhabit the wastes, but there is no indication of mortal or fey inhabitants.

The Sea of Illusionary Sands

Lysandor’s heart is a massive, weird land that takes the form of a gigantic, bone-dry desert. The Sea of Illusionary Sands gets its name from the sheer number of illusions the leaking magic from Faloan’s prison creates. Reports of those who traveled into the desert have cited massive lakes with abundant greenery, huge cities, giant beasts, and stranger things that appear in the wasteland only to disappear once one gets close enough.

The Sea of Illusionary Sands is also the only stretch of Weirdlands with no documented enclaves of fey or mortals. However, this is largely the result of almost nobody who travels more than a hundred miles into the sea returning. Some scattered reports of settlements of intelligent elementals like Azer, Salamanders, and genies are out in the sea, but nothing is confirmed. Legends about the ruins buried in that desert and a legendary inland sea of fresh water drive many foolish adventurers out into those barren dunes.

The Ocean of Veils

The largest of the wildlands, the Ocean of Veils surrounds the tight cluster of continents that make up the Feengrenze primary landmass. It gets its name from the persistent fog hanging over the ocean. As such, not much is known about the ocean, as most ships will not travel into the fog banks for fear of hitting a floating island. There might be enclaves or ruins in that briny expanse that people do not know about. The few islands that have been discovered are filled with strange, dreamlike geography and strangely void of animal life.

The Plains of Dead Cities.

On Glindarmat, between the zone of influence of the Netheril, Lyonesse, Cyrian, and THule successor states, is the Plains of Dead Cities. The region gets its name from the staggering number of abandoned, undead, and construct-haunted cities that float through those endless fields of dead grass. There are 20 such cities from dozens of unknown civilizations throughout the plains in various states of decay. Residents of Netheril, Lyonesse, Cyrian, and Thule rarely venture out into the plains, even on military marches, due to the fear of the things lurking in the cities.

Landmarks in the Weirdlands

Due to the maddening effect the Weirdland has on explorers and cartographers alike, there is no definitive catalog of landmarks in the Feengrenze. However, there are a few that are particularly well known.

Big Rock Candy Mountain

The legendary location from the American folk song first recorded by Harry McClintock can be found in the Wyrdback of Tir Na Calite. The song accurately describes the mountain’s features, down to the lemonade springs and the free food growing on the bushes. Supposedly, the mountain is home to a community of bums and hobos who are content to spend the day camping out and doing nothing.

Cheshire

Cheshire is one of the best-known fey enclaves in the Wyrdback. It is a town of Cait-sidth built on the ruins of an old castle on a small hill. The community comprises about 400 individuals ruled by Princess Lilly Whitecat and her handful of musketeers. The community is known to be friendly to adventurers, but they are notoriously tight-lipped about Cheshire’s history.

The Kan River

The only feature in any Weirdlands to stay relatively still, and only due to its head and mouth being affixed in reality, the Kan River is the only relatively safe way to travel through the Xibalba jungle. Still, it is not much safer than the jungle. While the head is affixed to the Roaring Falls and the mouth flows through the city of Aztlán, the bulk of the river itself wriggles all over the Xibalba jungle like a snake, leading to wildly variable travel times between Aztlán and El Derado and the Roaring Falls. Strangely, at least one of the deep jungle enclaves of Dunklemere is along the banks of the Kan at any given time. Trade and travel along the river are sporadic due to the many dangerous beasts living in the river.

Dwarf King’s Mountain

The tallest of all the mountains in the Feengrenze was once the home to a mighty dwarf kingdom before it was used to fill the reality crater formed by a whimwhirl in the middle of the ocean of veils. Nobody is quite sure what happened to the residents, but in all likelihood, they drowned. The mountain is known to wander all over the Feengrenze, vanishing from one Weirdlands and appearing in another by unknown mechanisms. It is rumored that it shows up in the White Crown more often than anywhere else and that the treasure of the dwarf kingdom lies unclaimed within its halls.

Bliss

Bliss is a sapient and sentient tiefling village in the Glindarmat Weirdlands, known to travel the Wyrdmarches and sometimes across the FeyGlimmer Sea. It trades with outsiders and is noted for its unique, lively culture.

The Algamtation Spire

In the dead center of the Plains of Dead Cities is the Algamtation Spire, a colossal tower forged from countless fused buildings. Unlike the rest of the Plain of Dead City, it does not move; it is permanently affixed to the center of the plains like a giant upside-down spike. No one who has traveled to the spire has ever returned, so no one knows what is inside the spire.

The Inverted Necropolis

One of the most famous odd sights in the Sea of Illusionary sands is this strange complex of gold and white upside-down pyramids that hover just off the ground, tip first. A flock of mortuary temples, obelisks, and other structures orbits the pyramids. All the buildings glow with faint green and gold symbols. Nobody knows if the pyramids are real or illusions because nobody has gotten close enough to find out. Whenever anyone gets within half a mile of the Necropolis, it floats away faster than legs can carry the observer.

Mount Qaf

The mysterious mountain of emerald is the home of the city of the djinni and is said to float around the Sea of Illusionary Sands. Not much is known about the mountain because it has been glimpsed only from afar amidst the illusory haze of the desert. However, it is said that Shah Kalim of Iram had visited the city, and one of his two red dragons makes regular journeys out into the desert with a large bag of holding that returns full of emeralds.