Copyright 2011 Wizards of the Coast.

Okay, so back in Olden Times there was an elven empire named Illefarn that reached as far as the North. Over the course of history this empire broke up into three successor states. The one that covered our current region of interest was named Iliyanbruen. This is important because if you get the two confused the surviving eladrin of Iliyanbruen will tut-tut at you.

You see, when Netheril’s magic winked out, one of their floating islands fell on the Neverwinter Wood. This was a disaster for both the humans living on the island and the nation of Iliyanbruen that happened to be beneath it. Many of its inhabitants decided to call it quits and move to Evermeet, which means more or less leaving the world behind for good. Others decided to try and preserve their culture, and enacted a ritual to move their capital city of Shandarar to the Feywild.

Their new home was anything but safe, though, as a lot of the same beings who had driven the original elves away from the Feywild at the dawn of time were still there and they didn’t like the arrival of these invaders one bit. After a period of strife, though, the elves managed to re-establish their nation there.

Iliyanbruen still exists in the modern day, its borders a ways away from the place where Shandarar used to be. With the coming of the Spellplague, the world and the Feywild began to enter in conjunction, which made the crossing once again possible. After a lengthy battle to drive a covey of hags away from Shandarar, the eladrin managed to send scouts and explorers though to the world.

As a side note, I don’t know if the people of Iliyanbruen became eladrin after millennia of living in the Feywild or if they were already a type of elf that got recast as eladrin when the editions changed. We’ll be looking into some of those later.

Anyway, upon arriving at the world, the eladrin of Iliyanbruen were horrified to learn the old ruins of their empire were not only in a state of disrepair but had also been looted and plundered. They were quite mad about it. You leave your stuff lying around for a mere three thousand years and these uppity mortals think they can come and take it. What an outrage!

The eladrin of New Shandarar began debating what to do and soon fell into two distinct camps. One faction wants to invade the world in force and rain vengeance upon anyone who lingers near the ruins of Iliyanbruen (i.e, everyone in our regional map). The other also wants to restore the old cities to their glory, but only wants to take revenge on the people directly responsible for the thefts. This does require learning who these people are.

The PC is one of the investigators responsible for finding this out. They helped retake Sharandar from the hags, were among the first to arrive on the world, and decided to make it their home as they try to reconstruct the history of the ruins and find the thieves. They belong to the moderate faction, and as the campaign starts they’re getting desperate for results because the firebrands back home are about to win the debate. They need concrete results, and fast, if the world is to avoid an eladrin invasion.

Even worse, the main obstacle to their investigation isn’t the ludicrously large time scale. No, it seems there’s someone out there actively trying to prevent eladrin investigators from finding anything out, usually by murdering them. It’s dangerous to go alone.

This theme is open to eladrin PCs of any class. Not all inhabitants of modern Iliyanbruen are eladrin, but all of the features and powers here are aimed at powering up their Fey Step.

Features

At level 1, PC can take one adjacent ally with them when they use Fey Step. The ally also appears adjacent to the PC.

At level 5, they gain a +2 power bonus to History and Nature checks.

At level 10, they can use Fey Step as a minor action instead of a move action.

Optional Powers

Most of these are yet more teleport-related power-ups.

Blink Away is a level 2 encounter power that lets the PC teleport 2 squares as a reaction to an enemy ending their turn adjacent to the PC.

Evasive Step is a level 6 daily power that lets then use Fey Step as an interrupt if an enemy attacks them while Fey Step is unexpended.

Feywild Will is a level 10 daily power that gives the PC a +2 power bonus to Will and to saving throws until the end of the encounter. Whenever the PC succeeds at a save while this is active, they gain 5 + WIS Modifier temporary HP.

Impressions

Peeking ahead a bit I see Forgotten Realms’ Moon and Sun elves are eladrin variants in 4e. I remember they were both huge assholes, so it’s not a surprise the eladrin of Iliyanbruen are just as unpleasant even if they’re only their distant relatives.

Most other PCs would be very interested in preventing an invasion from Iliyanbruen from adding to their troubles, so they’re natural allies of the moderate Guardian. And this is another one of those themes that easily supports multiple PCs, or even a whole mono-theme party (it’s a team of investigators). Such a party would be mostly uninterested in Neverwinter’s political woes, except where they intersect with their quest.

If you want to optimize for the ability to do Teleport Shenanigans, this is the theme for you. Little could stop a whole party of them from getting to where they want to go. For other campaigns, it would also be relatively easy to strip the standard Iliyanbruen backstory and just say a PC with this theme is a native of the Feywild who moved to the world.