Born from humanity’s collective imagination in the Ethereal realm and supercharged by the Void, these creatures are hunting the cruel and the unwary in the modern world. Discover the truth about the fae in the Ævum Malum modern, dark urban fantasy campaign setting.
About Ævum Malum
Ævum Malum is a modern, urban dark fantasy campaign setting where hidden powers, forbidden knowledge, and living myths collide in a world held together by lies, secret societies, and the desperate effort to delay an inevitable unmaking. It was created by Adam P Campbell in 2025.
Transcript
Cold Open
Centuries of our collective imagination, our cultural anxieties, and our deepest fears of the dark woods built a kingdom in the Ethereal realm—and now, the Void has bled into it, bringing our oldest nightmares straight into the 21st century.
Intro
Welcome to Eviliv3 Play, a celebration of my favorite tabletop role-playing games. This is a sister channel to Eviliv3. Subscribe if you’re new to the channel, because today we’re pulling back the veil on the modern Fae in Ævum Malum, my modern, urban dark fantasy tabletop roleplaying game campaign setting.
Discussion
The Fae in Ævum Malum are not alien invaders; rather, they are a mirror of humanity, warped by Void energy. Existing just beyond the veil, they remain completely hidden from ordinary mortals who routinely explain away their bizarre actions as missing persons cases, freak accidents, or sudden psychological breaks. Driven by Void corruption, these entities are hyper-focused on punishing human cruelty, enforcing ancient boundaries, and executing an alien agenda. For Game Masters running an urban fantasy campaign, navigating this hidden tier of reality requires a specific shift in tone. These entities shouldn’t be handled as standard combat encounters with simple stat blocks; they are intricate puzzle encounters. Players who stumble into their territory must learn the specific, reality-warping rules of the fairy tale they have walked into. If players treat them like standard monsters, the Fae’s glamor and Void-backed malice become terrifyingly lethal.
The core of today’s lore breakdown focuses on four distinct modern Fae threats that roam the concrete jungle, along with the precise rules mortals must follow to survive them.
The first of these threats is the Concrete Spriggan, known as the Twisted Guardian. Once a protector of ancient groves, this entity is now a grotesque fusion of rotted roots, jagged rebar, and cracked asphalt lurking in abandoned construction sites and dying urban parks. It is driven by retribution, fueled by an intense, Void-driven hatred for ecological destruction and human arrogance. The Spriggan explicitly targets those who desecrate the natural world or show cruelty to animals, dragging its victims beneath the earth to feed the soil. Mortals can pacify a Spriggan through deliberate acts of environmental restoration, offering raw, iron-free copper tokens, or planting native flora over the concrete wounds of the city. If caught unawares in their territory, leaving an offering of pure water and showing absolute humility can buy enough time to escape.
Deep within the city underpasses, a different danger waits. The Huldrefolk, or the Siren of the Concrete Jungle, is strikingly beautiful from the front but entirely hollow or bark-skinned from behind. In the modern era, they mimic high-society elites, nocturnal street performers, or mesmerizing digital influencers to draw unsuspecting people into dark alleys and secluded city corners. They crave human obsession and worship to maintain their physical forms. When a mortal stops paying attention, or shows cruelty and indifference, the Huldra’s vanity turns lethal, driving the victim to madness or draining their life force entirely. Survival requires absolute adherence to old-world chivalry, never acknowledging their true nature, and—above all—never looking at their backs. They can be appeased with exquisite, handmade gifts, specifically silver jewelry, milk, or unblemished sweetbreads left on neutral ground.
Further into the residential grid, the threat enters the home. The Void-Weaver Changeling is a malicious, insectoid Fae that slips through the Ethereal veil into suburban homes to swap a human infant with a construct made of glamor, twigs, and Void-matter. Driven by infiltration and emotional harvest, the Fae use the stolen human child to breed specialized agents in the Ethereal realm. Meanwhile, the Changeling left behind feeds on the grief, confusion, and raw terror of the unsuspecting parents as the “baby” begins to subtly warp reality around the house. If a parent suspects a swap, they must never harm the construct, as it mirrors the damage onto the real child. Instead, they must raise the Changeling baby with genuine, unconditional love and protection. The purity of parental care disrupts the Void corruption, forcing the Fae to return the original child out of a sheer inability to process that localized emotional frequency. Placing a pair of iron shears beneath the crib also acts as a powerful ward against them.
Finally, families must look out for the Trench-Coat Boggart, the Domestic Tormentor. These small, hideously misproportioned parasites hitchhike into modern households inside antique furniture, thrift-store mirrors, or the luggage of abusive, cruel individuals. They are attracted to households harboring hidden cruelty, domestic malice, or profound selfishness, seeking torment and chaos. They escalate small misfortunes into catastrophic accidents—spoiling food, breaking family heirlooms, and whispering terrors into the ears of the cruel while they sleep. Fortunately, Boggarts are bound by a twisted sense of hospitality. They can be pacified and reverted into helpful “Brownies” if the malice in the home ceases and they are given daily, quiet offerings of fresh cream, honey, and shoes left by the hearth. However, homeowners must proceed with caution: if you explicitly give them new clothing or try to insult them, they will burn the house down to the foundations.
Fae represent an entirely alien threat in the form of mischief makers, elemental and environmental enforcers, and terrifying supernatural predators. They exist in a realm outside our own corporeal reality fueled by our collective ethereal fears. Using a single or group of fae in your campaign will open up the world to even more nefarious difficulties, forcing the players to research folklore and myths in an effort to try to understand and combat these truly alien beings.
Outro
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Thank you Creator Patrons Aaron Hardy & D. Robert Handy, Producer Patron David Galindo, and Developer Patrons Chris Androu & Sam Ruiz!
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