Editing The Cult of the Under Rabbit

There are some particularly unsavory pockets of the Feywild. Though the tangled, pearlescent thicket—the Cressida Weald—where the Moon Court dwells is beautiful, planar visitors should avoid it, lest they find themselves the subject of an experiment. Though the Fey are known to be divided between the Seelie and Unseelie, the Moon Court is what can be called independent. The Archfey who leads them, Lady Luanach, is a satyr and a practicing bard: to any outsider, she would appear as a lovely songstress happy to share tales of past travelers and their exploits. Unfortunately, as someone finds themselves enraptured by their music, they also fall under a geas that makes them far more pliant. Luanach then leads any stupefied visitors she collects to the Selenic Oak—a hollowed out oak tree beneath which the Moon Court conducts magical experimentation. The tree is a massive conduit for arcane energy that derives its power from the moon. Since the amount of power it can channel waxes and wanes with the phases of the moon, someone determined to see the Cressida Weld for themselves might be lucky enough to catch an uninterrupted glimpse during the new moon.  

For all their love of pushing arcane boundaries, there is one experiment that stands out above others. When they first became independent, they needed underlings. At first, Fey who were considered lesser such as fairies became the lowest rung on the ladder and fodder for experimentation. Then, the Moon Court turned to animals: not Blink Dogs and Displacer Beasts, but mundane creatures pilfered from the Material Plane. They took birds, cats, and rabbits and pumped them full of enchantments. At first, they just wanted servants. Then, their curiosity got the better of them and they decided to see just how far they could push the souls of these animals. The surviving creatures acquired heightened intelligence and wisdom as well as the ability to speak and read Sylvan and Common; this was all in exchange for being subjected to painful and constant soul manipulation while watching those they came to view as friends die. Eventually, the Fey grew bored and turned their attention to other pursuits.  

Most of the animals they’d captured were either dead or used as minor entertainment, but one small runt of a bunny mustered the strength to find her way out of the Feywild. Upon finding her way out, she found herself isolated from the rest of the world: none of her intelligent friends were with her and she could no longer fit in with her own kind. No one knows exactly how it happened, but the hatred she held for the Moon Court combined with the magic they had fed her soul and festered, slowly transforming her from a rabbit into a vengeful spirit. As a spirit with Fey magic at her disposal, she took to formulating a revenge plan. The first thing she did was bestow intelligence and power on other animals. She then preached to them about her understanding of the world and the tyranny of Fey. Those who became her followers went on to call her the Under Rabbit.