Leyline concepts and corresponding fey locations

[Blymurkla]

So, I'm building a world. Or rather, just a large island in the middle of an ocean in an otherwise unknown world. Fairly standard low fantasy. Intended to be used in a grand sandbox campaign.

The island, the size of Ireland or thereabouts, is crossed by a number of leylines. Probably five.

My thought is that each leyline, having two 'directions', shall be tied to two concepts - like 'fire'. Standing on (or sufficiently near) the leyline (slightly) increases the power of spells related to one of the leyline's concepts. In addition, certain ritual magic can be preformed on each leyline, giving limited access to powerful magic effects that are otherwise unavailable in the low magic world.

Finally, I want the leylines to allow inter-planar travel. Walking along a leyline (during the correct time of year, whilst doing the correct chants etc.) results in in the wanderer to end up in a different plane. Initially, I thought I'd have 10 different planes (a plane of fire, etc.), but since the world is supposed to be fairly focused (only consisting of a single island) it felt like a bit much to have 10 whole other worlds.

Since the fey is one of the more prominent groups of creatures on the island and I want a Fey World, I thought each of the leylines can allow travel to a separate location in the Fey World. Probably an island, since I want the Fey World to be an archipelago. The locations are, I imagine, fey 'mirrors' of the leyline concept.

Now, I would be much helped with some ideas of what the ten leyline concepts and their corresponding fey locations. The concepts should be vauge ideas or elements that can be tied to specific spells (but that's probably not that hard). I like a bit of asymmetry where one would expect symmetry. I'm thinking of including a couple of obvious pairs located on the same leyline (like 'life' and 'death') and having 3 of the 4 classical elements. The fey world locations should be tied to the concept, perhaps in a sort of mocking way, and feel like they're large and interesting enough for the PCs to have more than one adventure in.

So far, these are the concepts and fey locations I've come up with:
Life - the Fountain of Youth
Death - a large boneyard, probably with imitated undead
Fire - a volcano island, with fair folk smiths who both needs help and can help the PCs with weapons and armour
Water - a dried out canyon labyrinth emphasizing what lack of water can do (since the Fey World is an archipelago, I thought a big expanse of water doesn't really cut it as an interesting location)
Air - a giant storm ? Don't know that one would do there
Leadership/Kings - an island housing the hall of the Fairy King and his court
Music - an enchanted forest, possibly where those who dances with the fairies end up

I'd love to hear some suggestions for the additional concepts and locations or what-ever else springs to your mind after reading this.

[Evoker]

In most media with Ley Lines or similar, I find that there is almost always a Convergence or Confluence where 2 or more ley lines cross. That seems like an Interesting concept. Perhaps Convergences are more powerful, but the mixed concepts result in some... Interesting results. Leyline of Life and Death Converging with the Leyline of Fire and Water might provide powerful boosts to any of those spells, but all spells cast get "Tied" in some way to one other of these concepts? A healing spell is given more power, but when it's cast, a burst of fire emanates from the caster, damaging anyone nearby. Just an idea.

[aimlessPolymath]

On locations:
Air:A volcanic plain with no shelter to break the endless, deafening wind, strong enough to blow the spirit from the body. A bottled wind, taken into the body, allows you to fly, though repeated use is psychologically addictive. Alternatively, a mountaintop, from which can be seen the whole of Creation.

Water: The voyager arrives without realizing, stepping off the edge into a raging river. Downstream is a waterfall. Upstream is the source of all sea creatures. Quickly bargaining with a nearby fish for safe travel is the easiest way to survive entry, but over the waterfall is All Seas, from where any natural body of water can be reached in a seven day voyage.

Music: This network of sandstone canyons channels the wind into a haunting symphony, ever-changing as the rock is eroded and redeposited. Visitors must take care to avoid becoming hypnotized as they stand in a raging sandstorm. The legendary bard John listened for a year and a day here, and invented the art of Stonesinging (and, later, the earworm).

[Blymurkla]

Thanks for the answers!

@Evoker Absolutly, convergences are a big thing! I've got (counting them now) seven places where two leylines converge marked on my map. Each of these, I've thought, should be a special magical place (in the otherwise mundane world, no extra-planer travel here necessarily). However, I've not given that much thought on how each of the concepts (is there a better term?) of the leylines interact at these locations - probably because I haven't pinned down what the concepts are.

For example, on one of the convergences lies a peculiar rock formation whose stone was crucial in an ancient civilisation's magical and spiritual life - among other things, the stone was used to make monoliths that marks the leylines and aids in the use of the lines for ritual magic and interplanetary travel. The old quarry is, obviously, a prime location for a dungeon. Magic should be weird here, but I don't really know how (one of the two leylines is either life-death or fire-water, but I haven't decided on the second).

@aimlessPolymath Thanks! Great inspiration. I particularly like the windswept plains. The haunting musical canyons is a classic I think, but one that hadn't pop into my memory. It shall definitely be included (as one place in the larger location of Music, I have other ideas that should fit there as well). Perhaps you've got some suggestions for additional concepts?

[aimlessPolymath]

Let's see...

Fire: This volcanic mountain continually erupts with slowly-flowing lava, which cools and builds on itself to form endlessly growing rock. Simultaneously, the mountain sinks over time, leaving it mostly level overall. As a result, life for most on the mountain is a continuous process of deconstructing or abandoning old buildings, to create homes anew. One settlement can be seen from afar, sitting on the top of a long adamantine pole extending hundreds of meters into the air. At the top, fey smiths eternally forge new segments, affix them to the pole, and haul their home further up.

Kings: The Grand Parade. An endless festival that winds throughout the archipelago, this parade is always surrounded by adoring, cheering crowds. Circus acts, magic shows, and murder trials can all be seen on the magnificent wagons that travel through every part of the Fey World. Each week, a new King and Queen of the Parade is chosen at random, to choose where the Parade will travel next. To partygoers, each of the King's orders are obeyed absolutely, no matter how foolish, and the Queen's words are taken as Truth, no matter how nonsensical, until the end of the week- when the members of the Parade revolt against them, kill them, and selects new rulers.

Life and Death I need to think about. Given their level of opposition, I'm currently thinking that they lead to the same location- but in the direction of Life, you arrive in the day, and in the direction of Death, you arrive in the night, no matter when you leave on your journey.

For concepts... You need 3 more, right?
Flora/Fauna, maybe- would be fairly easy to throw together.
The Grand Parade could be reinterpreted into Hedonism, or maybe Illusion.

Ideally something to correspond to Air, without being Earth...
Metal is a bit too close, we have the non-solid states of matter covered...
Really, the question is "Why is Earth excluded" from a fluff-perspective, and I think the answer is that fey don't like the stability and limits associated with being "down-to-Earth".
What do they have instead? Fey are often associated with being limited by rules and artificial constructs, which would make Kingship an appropriate pairing with Air (metaphorically, Limits and Laws incarnate, contrasted with the utterly free nature of Air).

So our pairs are
Life/Death
Air/Kings(or Laws)
Fire/Water
Music/?

Maybe Flora/Fauna? The first being a region overgrown with choking roots, pollen, and pod people/animals, and the second being an island on the back of a turtle, filled with a food chain containing no herbivores whatsoever?

[Blymurkla]

Let's see...

Fire: This volcanic mountain continually erupts with slowly-flowing lava, which cools and builds on itself to form endlessly growing rock. Simultaneously, the mountain sinks over time, leaving it mostly level overall. As a result, life for most on the mountain is a continuous process of deconstructing or abandoning old buildings, to create homes anew. One settlement can be seen from afar, sitting on the top of a long adamantine pole extending hundreds of meters into the air. At the top, fey smiths eternally forge new segments, affix them to the pole, and haul their home further up.

Your description of a volcanism is spot on, very close to what I had in mind (though no adamantine pole, see below).

Kings: The Grand Parade. An endless festival that winds throughout the archipelago, this parade is always surrounded by adoring, cheering crowds. Circus acts, magic shows, and murder trials can all be seen on the magnificent wagons that travel through every part of the Fey World. Each week, a new King and Queen of the Parade is chosen at random, to choose where the Parade will travel next. To partygoers, each of the King's orders are obeyed absolutely, no matter how foolish, and the Queen's words are taken as Truth, no matter how nonsensical, until the end of the week- when the members of the Parade revolt against them, kill them, and selects new rulers.

Really cool, but I don't think it'll work for Kings. That there is a single, ancient fairy king is fairly (pun intended) set in stone by now, I'm reluctant to change that. Perhaps, as you suggest, the parade can be re-purposed to a different concept.

Ideally something to correspond to Air, without being Earth...
Metal is a bit too close, we have the non-solid states of matter covered...
Really, the question is "Why is Earth excluded" from a fluff-perspective, and I think the answer is that fey don't like the stability and limits associated with being "down-to-Earth".
What do they have instead? Fey are often associated with being limited by rules and artificial constructs, which would make Kingship an appropriate pairing with Air (metaphorically, Limits and Laws incarnate, contrasted with the utterly free nature of Air).

I didn't intent to have every leyline having two related concept. I'm inspired by the eight winds of magic in Warhammer Fantasy, where there's obvious pairs (Life/Death, Light/Shadow), one who is missing its pair (there's Fire, which lead to me expecting Water) and three who are just unrelated to every other. So while Life and Death are on the same leyline, whatever's paired with Air doesn't have to be related.

I asked the opposite question to "why is Earth excluced" - "what does it mean that Earth is excluded". And the answer was - ore and metal is rare in the world of fey, which sort of hints to an explanation of their weakness against (cold) iron. (I know I said there was smiths at the fire volcano, I imagined them continually reforging metal that was brought to the fey world in ancient times).

I don't know what came first - the leylines, or the corresponding places in the fey world. Did the fey construct the leylines? Are there other leylines in the (implicitly existing) world, connected to other fey world?

For concepts... You need 3 more, right?
Flora/Fauna, maybe- would be fairly easy to throw together.
The Grand Parade could be reinterpreted into Hedonism, or maybe Illusion.

So our pairs are
Life/Death
Air/Kings(or Laws)
Fire/Water
Music/?

Maybe Flora/Fauna? The first being a region overgrown with choking roots, pollen, and pod people/animals, and the second being an island on the back of a turtle, filled with a food chain containing no herbivores whatsoever?

Assuming I'm settled on the concepts I listed above, then yes, I'm missing 3.

Hedonism is interesting. I'd expect you'd find Satyrs and similar creatures there. And, as you suggest, The Grand Parade.

I'm unsure about Flora and/or Fauna. The concept-related locations aren't the only places in the Fey World, there's 'normal' places too. And fey worlds have a tendency to have a bit of focus on weird nature already. Plus, the material plane is mostly nature too, and I'm going to make use of it. So maybe it's over the top with Flora and Fauna as concepts too. My prospective players might tire ... On the other hand, I could go into Wonderland weirdness, with forests of talking fungi (though, is that in the Flora or Fauna concept?) and stuff. Hm.

I've considered Lore as a concept. I'm imagining a giant library at its fey location. But somehow scholarly fey feels off.

[Blymurkla]

I've considered Transmutation as a concept. There's plenty of transmutation-magic, pretty much regardless on what game system I settle on, so that bit's okay. For the corresponding fey location, I’m obviously imagining some sort of ever-changing landscape, with shape shifting inhabitants.

Perhaps Transmutation could pair with Illusion. Illusion is likewise a common feature in a good number of spells, and the two are sort-of opposites. But a fey location where everything changes, and one where nothing is what it seems? Maybe that's a bit two much. I don't know.

[aimlessPolymath]

Transmutation and Illusion are pretty easy, though it's harder to avoid overly magical effects.

Transmutation: In this region, wounds regenerate unnaturally fast, but at a cost: what was lost will not be regained anew. A healed cut is healed as a patch of fur or scales; a scraped elbow develops an unblinking eye; a lost finger becomes a snake's head. Beasts native to this land often unnerve outsiders with the way that they bite and scratch themselves in the hope of developing new and more lethal adaptations. The fey traders who travel this land are perfectly willing to trade for an arm and a leg.

Environment: Any, really

Illusion: Every plant and animal in this region carries the bright coloration of a poisonous being. Survival here is a matter of gambling that a given source is relatively nontoxic, as it's impossible to distinguish safety from death. Furthermore, not only does the garish, headache-inducing coloration make for ideal, camouflage for natives, but outsiders easily stand out due to their relatively drab colors. At night, fluorescent flowers, leaves, and creatures leave the area nearly as bright as day, making sleep difficult if not impossible. One of this land's many identical-seeming rivers allows the drinker to See What Is; the rest allow the drinker various versions of Seeing What Isn't.

Spoiler: What Isn't

Show

See What Almost Is: As See Invisibility, including viewing adjoining planes.
See What Was/Will Be: Past and Future divinations
See What Could Be: As Foresight
See What Might Be: Take a peek at the encounter and loot tables.
See What Is Somewhere Else: Divination
See What Would/Won't Be: Reroll-type ability.
See What Isn't, But Looks Like It Is: Temporarily incapable of seeing anything but illusions and disguises; this helpfully includes almost everything native to the region.
See What's Thereabouts: Blindsight
See What's Evil/Good/Lawful/Magic/Chaotic/Undead/Poisoned: Detect X
See What Isn't: Hallucinations giving the impression of a different drink

Environment: Lush Jungle.

Lore is harder, and I'd need to sleep on it.

Lore: Trees of Knowledge sprout from this hillside. Each Tree contains with it all knowledge of a single subject, living or recorded, and its leaves each contain a songle fact. Were one to pluck a leaf from the tree, or to cut off a bough, the relevant knowledge would be erased from the world; fortunately, the forest is thick and wide, and finding the tree pertaining to a given subject is almost impossible, even for its mysterious and elusive gardeners. The fruit of these trees is scholarship. As a scholar learns, their fruit grows; when they die, the fruit falls off the tree, and vice versa. On the forest floor, beasts and madmen fight for the forest fruit, for consuming it grants all the knowledge the scholar had in life.

Environment: Hilly forest.

[Blymurkla]

Great tips, aimlessPolymath! Thanks!

I'm pretty convinced Transmutation and Illusion makes workable fey locations. They lend them self to be overtly magical, I agree, but I don't think I'll find it impossible to tone it down just a bit. The transmutation healing-effect, perhaps, might be vexing and waning either with area or time (like, moon cycles) and only rarely yield drastic effects - a cut off finger might heal regularly or into a small claw and just once in a while into a snakes head. Self-injuring beasts (a really cool idea) isn't commonplace, but rather a fairly unique experience occurring where the transmutation effects are particularly strong.

Lore is still tricky. Trees of knowledge might be hard to play - what if the players decide it's worth roaming around the forest to learn everything they can? It's a hell of a thing to prep for, even if I'd use some sort of auto-generation of leaf facts and scholarly fruits.

[aimlessPolymath]

I hoped making the knowledge addictive (hence the "madmen") would be enough to prevent that, but yeah, probably too much.

As an alternative, we could just steal the Well of Udyr wholesale.

[DMwithoutPC's]

Hey! I really like this concept, of the ley lines and giving the direction a concept.

However, I would suggest tying the two directions together (like the life/death pair) just because that feels right for people. But since these are fey, the pairs might not be as logical to our mortal minds as to theres.

maybe life and death are paired, or two few concepts that we interpret as such. But an otherline might be Kingship vs Wind. Wind is flighty, free and immeterial, where kingship is set in stone and something of flesh and blood folk. I would start by deciding on these pairs and how they relate to eachother, and then think of thel locations they lead to, and what kind of effect there convergences have.

I am kinda imagineing these leylines leading to poles of the concept. Like your world has a magnetical North and South pole, but also a set of 5 metaphoical poles. Those area's are probably not relevant for your, assuming they are not on the island, but something itneresting for your larger world. Might be the place where the magical spot in the fairy world is located? "the pole" is basicly what you travel to.

These might actually be the directions your world, or the fey world uses! "The castle is two days travel Deathwards"


Another question:

Do you want to include Fairy Courts? and are they directly related to the 5 leylines, or is there just the almost classical Seelie/ Unseelie courts?

A set of 5 pairs:

Life/Death: Growth, life, day and energy vs stillness, death, night and rest. More a Yin/Yang then a good/evil division.

Fire/Water: Fire stands for creation and forging, earth and the material world. Since htey fey world does not have much metals, the materials forged here have to be stolen or mined in the mortal realm, making these fey the ones that deal the most with mortals, and in the most straightforward manner. Water on the other hand is the material of the Fairy World. you said it was an archipelago, and this is a group of mist and boats, commerce and travel. These fey are aloof and strange, and prefer to only deal with there own kind.

Stars/Kings: Stars leads to prophecy and possibility, where the king is stability and history. The Fairy King is set in stone, but even from his stony tomb her rules the archipelago and all the courts unoposed. around the king stands a grand castle and a fair city, with the bustle of the city and the messy politics of a court. The stars place empty and barren, and a place of quiet contemplation.

Music/Law: Music is madness, wildness, creativity, beaty. It is a wild and enchanted growth of continual party and celebration. people who travel to long over the leyline, even without intention of traveling to the fairy world often accidentally here anyway, Something these are in a shadow world in between, where they hear the music but can never find the source, doomed to forever travel between the trees in search of the source. Fairy Law is notorically strange and inscrutable, and one must always take care making deals with the fay, and treat there promises with suspicion. All of these deals and laws however are recorded here, in the Mountain City. A hive of activity, a huge bureaucratic organ that is part Judge, part accountant and part governing agent. They themselves claim that they keep the universe running as it should, but to mortal outsiders it looks more like children playing games with made up rules.

Wind/Blood: With is freedom and movement, travel, aspirations, hope and action. It leads to the plains underneath the Cloudcities of Titania. even glancing upon the city from the distance below is said to be good luck, and the queen is said to grand any witsh to those able to reach her chariot throne, racing between the clouds in the sky. This may just be a myth, but even those that try return from the Plains changed, ambitious and inspired. Blood deals with the physical and the savage, the gargantuan and the visceral. It is realm is a dense jungle filled with Wild Beasts and Monstrous Hunters. From here comes the Wilde Hunt that terrorizes the mortal plane, the wild Korneous that rides accross the land with his pack of wolves, and those that it catches get added to its ranks. This land is closely associated with the Moon, and Lycanthropy, the fey curse that binds a mortal to the Laws of the Wilde Hunt, even if he is not in the Fairy World.

[Blymurkla]

I am kinda imagineing these leylines leading to poles of the concept. Like your world has a magnetical North and South pole, but also a set of 5 metaphoical poles. Those area's are probably not relevant for your, assuming they are not on the island, but something itneresting for your larger world. Might be the place where the magical spot in the fairy world is located? "the pole" is basicly what you travel to.

I'm not interested in the larger world off the island - it's sort of a feature that I can insert the island in an already existing setting without that much fuss. Maybe. I'm not sure exactly how this stuff ends up at the game table, where it should be. Anyway ...

I could, of course, place the end of a leyline on the island. A lot of the geography is rather set, but the extents of the lines aren't. But I don't want to. I've always imagined my leylines to be like the equator (or latitude & longitude lines) - they don't begin and end anywhere.

However, the fey world change that. The leylines go all across the world (yeah, I know I said I didn't care about the rest of the world. What ever), but travel along them and you finally reach their »end«. The fey location, the pole (I actually like that term, it's better than »fey location corresponding to a leyline concept«), just sits beyond or behind the real material world. Fey are strange. Perhaps it's a bit like the old saying, »every road goes to Rome«. The leyline, no matter where you are, always goes to the pole(s). And it's never that far away, if you just know what you're doing.

Besides, between the already pretty magical leylines and much more magical leyline convergences, plus the normal fantasy magical places I've got in mind, I don't think I need more magical geography

These might actually be the directions your world, or the fey world uses! "The castle is two days travel Deathwards"

That is absolutely brilliant! I am definitely going to use that.

With the way leylines work, these would work in the material world. They would be used by people in the know, which there aren't many of left, but the PCs could find notes from old wizards and loremasters who uses the leylines for geographical reference. It's perfect, since I want a big part of the game to be about exploring the island.

Another question:

Do you want to include Fairy Courts? and are they directly related to the 5 leylines, or is there just the almost classical Seelie/ Unseelie courts?

I don't know. So far, my thoughts has included only a fairy king.

I know there won't be 5 or 10 courts, tied to each leyline. The poles are locations in the fey world, but together they don't make up the entire world. There are other places, islands, in the fey archipelago too. Every bit of focus shouldn't go into the poles.

I'm not really sold on the classic seelie/unseelie pair. But that's partly because I don't know enough about it. I haven't got any Anglo-Saxon roots, so these kinds of faeries aren't in my native folklore. I've set my self up on reading a bit more, including the old World of Darkness game Dark Ages: Fae. But I feel the seelie/unseelie courts feel a bit like good vs. evil, which I don't like. I'm not imagining this game to be riddled with deep moral conundrums, it's sandboxing goblin-killing. The heroes and good guys are easy to spot, there's no qualms about killing enemies. But I still intended to avoid alignments and making that black-and-white morality an absolute truth. And, maybe, the classical fey courts does that?

What I do know is that I need a bit of conflict in the fey world. I want adventure there, and not all of them should be small in scale. The fey world needs one or more pretty big villains for the PCs to go after. And probably some good guys to serve as allies and patrons, suggesting/assigning the villain-killing quests to the PCs.

A set of 5 pairs:

Man, thanks! A lot to think about. Suddenly, Law is a concept? Up above, aimlessPolymath used it as an alternative or other name for Kings, but sure. Ideas are good. And you make something interesting with Stars and come with Blood! I suddenly have more plausible concepts that I need. Huh.

[DMwithoutPC's]

Glad you liked some of my ideas! making the area's you can move to the poles is a great idea, and then moving towards those poles is a direction in the Fairyworld.


I really like unconventional cosmologies and fairies, so I find your world interesting! If you decide on a set of concepts for your leyline directions, I'd love to offer more thoughts on what those locations could be like, and what the conversions could be.

I think Law and King could merge into one concept/location too. I just let my inspiration flow to try and get to 10 concepts :P.

Later I was thinking that one element i missed in my build up is the helpfull fairies. The house spirits, that live in houses and on barns and help lazy shoe makers with there work. Maybe those belong with the King. him representing society as well> Or maybe they are just very different because they live in the prime material. or maybe you do not want to include them at all!

Looking forward to whatever decissions you make :)

[aimlessPolymath]

DMswithoutPCs:
I really like Blood (Homestuck, is that you? ) and the Wild Hunt associated with it. I'm less sold on Law, or at least the location associated with it, because it feels very civilized, and civilization isn't something I normally associate with fey.

Stars seems like an excellent fey location, but somewhat incomplete. My current checklist for locations is:
-A natural hazard that players will have to deal with while there. This should ideally emphasize the alien nature of the region.
-A reason for going there-perhaps a special resource that can only be gathered from there
-Some kind of NPC to interact with.

For Stars, perhaps the constellations themselves come down from the sky to fight each dawn. By subduing one of the major constellations, a warrior may be assured of their fortune for the next year (playing off the idea of the horoscope- lesser constellations provide commensurately smaller durations and powers of fortune). Sages watch these battles from a distance, hoping to interpret what these duels mean for the coming day.

[DMwithoutPC's]

DMswithoutPCs:
I really like Blood (Homestuck, is that you? ) and the Wild Hunt associated with it. I'm less sold on Law, or at least the location associated with it, because it feels very civilized, and civilization isn't something I normally associate with fey.

I needed a pair for wind and i looked for inspiration close to home. If OP needs 6 pairs of concepts there is allready a good set out there :P

I'm less sold on Law, or at least the location associated with it, because it feels very civilized, and civilization isn't something I normally associate with fey.

This location is indeed more civilised, What i was pulling from here was the misunderstanding between fairies and humans. Its like a funhouse mirror of society. Tehy Fey as twisted representations of humans.

Stars seems like an excellent fey location, but somewhat incomplete. My current checklist for locations is:
-A natural hazard that players will have to deal with while there. This should ideally emphasize the alien nature of the region.
-A reason for going there-perhaps a special resource that can only be gathered from there
-Some kind of NPC to interact with.
For Stars, perhaps the constellations themselves come down from the sky to fight each dawn. By subduing one of the major constellations, a warrior may be assured of their fortune for the next year (playing off the idea of the horoscope- lesser constellations provide commensurately smaller durations and powers of fortune). Sages watch these battles from a distance, hoping to interpret what these duels mean for the coming day.

Yes, this definitely was incomplete. Some of them were more concepts then fully fleshed out locations allready.

[Blymurkla]

Another batch of awesome answers. Many thanks. Just wish I could be more active in the thread myself ...

I'm ditching Transmutation and Illusion. They were nice, but just swiping two D&D schools of magic didn't feel entirely right. I'm really sold on Blood as a concept and I'm thinking some of the ideas aired here about transmutation, like the weird magical healing, works for Blood too.

While the suggestion to have 6 leylines and a total of 12 concepts is tempting, I'm settling with 5. They have a pretty good geographical spread on my map as it is. There need to be regions where the nearest leyline is fairly far away, too.

My current set up is this:

Fire-Water
This leyline is the longest across the island. It is one of two leylines, the other being King-Music, that goes through the more civilised south region of the island. That makes it a 'beginners leyline' of sorts, easily accessible. Which is why I placed it there - the smith-fey of the Firey mountain constitutes one of very few 'magical shops' available..

Kings-Music
Like the leyline above, this is leyline is easily accessible.

Life-Death
The leyline is comparatively short on the island but goes right through the central plains of the island - once the homeland to three of the four successive city-building cultures that have main their mark on the land. It occupies a middle ground in remoteness from the 'starting area' of the campaign.

Blood-Lore
This is like two opposites at once - it can either be Brawn vs. Brain or Heart vs. Brain. Which is neat. The leyline is rather remote, a strectch of it touches the outskirts of the central plains before going into the mountains.

Air-Stars
This leyline goes almost exclusively across the large mountain range on the island. That makes it remote, so only fairly experienced characters will make their way here. The elves would have been the only civilisation to have had anything major to do with this leyline.

[aimlessPolymath]

Lemme tweak the Transmutation bit then- I think that making it key off drinking the blood/eating the flesh of creatures while in the region would make it a bit more thematic, and then the body parts you get would be based on the thing you consume. This also fits the Wild Hunt a little better.

[Blymurkla]

My current checklist for locations is:
-A natural hazard that players will have to deal with while there. This should ideally emphasize the alien nature of the region.
-A reason for going there-perhaps a special resource that can only be gathered from there
-Some kind of NPC to interact with.

This is a neat checklist. I'll adopted it.

Later I was thinking that one element i missed in my build up is the helpfull fairies. The house spirits, that live in houses and on barns and help lazy shoe makers with there work. Maybe those belong with the King. him representing society as well> Or maybe they are just very different because they live in the prime material. or maybe you do not want to include them at all!

House spirits and other helpful faeries will be included on the island. They're some of my favorites.

But the fairies spending their time on the material plane, whether they're helpful or not, aren't hammered out yet.

I imagine every fey, in the fey world and the ordinary one, to be at least somewhat connected to the fey king. Don't really know what that entails, though.

I like 'pocket worlds' or demi-planes, you know the classical village that lies in a tree. I've got at least two adventures in mind for such magical, fey-associated locations. But I don't know the relationship between those pocket-worlds and the fey archipelago.

How fey themselves travel between the fey world and the material plane is another unknown right now.

[aimlessPolymath]

Another batch of awesome answers. Many thanks. Just wish I could be more active in the thread myself ...

I'm ditching Transmutation and Illusion. They were nice, but just swiping two D&D schools of magic didn't feel entirely right. I'm really sold on Blood as a concept and I'm thinking some of the ideas aired here about transmutation, like the weird magical healing, works for Blood too.

While the suggestion to have 6 leylines and a total of 12 concepts is tempting, I'm settling with 5. They have a pretty good geographical spread on my map as it is. There need to be regions where the nearest leyline is fairly far away, too.

My current set up is this:

Fire-Water
This leyline is the longest across the island. It is one of two leylines, the other being King-Music, that goes through the more civilised south region of the island. That makes it a 'beginners leyline' of sorts, easily accessible. Which is why I placed it there - the smith-fey of the Firey mountain constitutes one of very few 'magical shops' available..

Kings-Music
Like the leyline above, this is leyline is easily accessible.

Life-Death
The leyline is comparatively short on the island but goes right through the central plains of the island - once the homeland to three of the four successive city-building cultures that have main their mark on the land. It occupies a middle ground in remoteness from the 'starting area' of the campaign.

Blood-Lore
This is like two opposites at once - it can either be Brawn vs. Brain or Heart vs. Brain. Which is neat. The leyline is rather remote, a strectch of it touches the outskirts of the central plains before going into the mountains.

Air-Stars
This leyline goes almost exclusively across the large mountain range on the island. That makes it remote, so only fairly experienced characters will make their way here. The elves would have been the only civilisation to have had anything major to do with this leyline.

The more specific questions you ask, the better we can do!
Looking at the "order" of these, I think that Fire and my early Water work fine as-is, one providing fast-ish travel and the other providing items.

Kings and Music: Kings I'm leaving generally alone due to not being certain about fey court structure(Why is the king obeyed? It feels as though this ties into a fundamental part of fey- are they bound by contract or oath, by familial ties, or whatever). Music needs a few tweaks-it's inhospitable, with no payoff.

Life/Death: This is probably going to be some form of resurrection stand-in, like the equivalent of having access to raise dead. It should probably be about as difficult to access as having access to that kind of healing ability.
I arbitrarily assign this capability to Death, making it the land of the dead: bringing someone's body into the land and seeking out their ghost allows one to bring a friend back to life- but you must take care, for resurrection is first-come-first-served, and many hateful ghosts are quite willing to accept an ill-fitting body. Fighting here is a losing prospect, for the dead cannot die again. The only safe time to rest is the day, when the shades are driven below ground by the sun.

Life: Soulstuff springs from the ground of this primordial bog, endlessly invigorating the inhabitants of this land. While here, nobody grows sick or old, though death through violence still applies, and many a warrior or sage have made their retirement here. The most profound danger of this land is also its danger: life is so abundant here that almost anything can become alive without warning, up to and including the ground beneath your feet. Bizarre and exotic creatures continually sprout from the ground before lumbering off to find their fortunes elsewhere.
Inspired by ravids.

Rez capability and the ability to create exotic pets via taxidermy-what's not to love?

Blood and Lore work well as we've set up, I think.

Stars isn't an amazing location (more a single set-piece) , but I do like the payoff of controlling destiny. My Air needs an overhaul, though- gaseous form/flight isn't impressive at high levels. Perhaps the wind gathers all words spoken throughout the world, letting people hear any conversation ever spoken? A volcanic plain is also a bit mundane- I'm currently thinking of a rock spire stretching almost infinitely high into the sky, surrounded by winds that grow to hurricane force as you climb higher and higher. The only inhabitants are genies, elementals, and Dr Hannibal McKenzie, the greatest explorer in the world(currently 2/3 of the way to the peak, slightly trailed by Roy, his long-suffering assistant/comic relief).

Re: music: A family member suggested sirens- perhaps a reef of some kind?