An overview of the four Fey Courts -- Summer, Winter, Spring, and Autumn -- their rulers, their relationship with mortals, and the fragments of history connecting them to the peoples of Kyrell.
What the Fey Are
The Fey Courts exist in a realm that overlaps with Kyrell without quite being Kyrell -- a place where the rules are the same in structure but different in weight. Emotions carry physical consequence. Time moves at the speed of attention. A fey who finds something interesting may study it for what feels like an afternoon and emerge into the mortal world a generation later, genuinely surprised.
Fey are not gods, though mortals have occasionally made that mistake. They are something older than the gods in some respects and younger in others, and they are deeply uninterested in helping mortals understand the distinction. The four courts are organized around seasonal themes not because the Fey Courts govern seasons -- they do not -- but because the ancient elves who first described them found seasonal metaphors adequate, and the categories have since become real through long use.
The Courts and Their Rulers
The Summer Court is ruled by Aurath the Ever-Burning, and is defined by passion carried to its full expression. Summer fey want mortals to feel things more completely, and their assistance is delivered with this goal in mind regardless of whether the mortal requested it.
The Winter Court is ruled by Thessavaine the Pale, and is defined by precision and the absolute absence of sentiment. Winter fey honor their agreements to the letter. The horror is that this is worse than treachery.
The Spring Court is ruled by Erevain of the New Thing, and is defined by genuine good intentions applied without adequate planning. Spring fey are the most likely to be encountered in or near mortal settlements and the most likely to leave a mortal better off than they found them, net of complications.
The Autumn Court is ruled by Mordavael the Turning, and is defined by observation without intervention. Autumn fey attend endings. They do not cause them. They do not prevent them. They watch, and they remember.
Fey and Mortals
The Halvaen -- the High Elves of the Elysor Reaches -- have a history with the Fey Courts that is not discussed in public. The oldest elves remember parts of it. The Winter Court remembers all of it. Whatever happened, the relationship between Elysor and the Fey Courts is now defined by careful mutual avoidance, which is a significant change from whatever came before.
Wild Elves have a more active relationship with the Spring and Summer Courts -- less formal, more territorial. They are not worshippers. They are neighbors who have learned where the borders are.
Human contact with the Fey Courts is largely accidental and mostly the result of wandering into the wrong part of a forest. The Orders of Wizardry maintain a classification of fey as 'unregulated magical entities,' which is their way of admitting they do not know how to regulate them.
Fey Warlocks
Mortals who seek Archfey patrons are making contact with one of the four courts, whether they know it or not. The specific court shapes the nature of the pact, the kind of power granted, and the category of thing the patron asks in return. Warlocks who bind themselves to an Archfey patron without knowing which court they are dealing with are not considered especially wise even by the standards of a profession that regularly makes deals with unknowable powers.