Why Does MtG Use "Faerie" and "Fae" when D&D Uses "Fairy" and "Fey?"
General forum
Posted on Feb. 13, 2026, 9:27 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
I find it to be very interesting that Magic: the Gathering spells the words "faerie" and "fae" in that way, when most people who speak English, today, use the more common spellings of "fairy" and "fey," including Dungeons & Dragons, which is published by the same company as M:tG, so I would like to ask, about that.
What does everyone else say about this? Do you know why M:tG uses the spellings of "faerie" and "fae" when D&D uses "fairy" and "fey?" I certainly am interested to hear your thoughts, on this matter.
DemonDragonJ says... #3
Caerwyn, that makes sense, to me, so I thank you, for the explanation.
February 13, 2026 11:11 p.m.
Last_Laugh says... #4
MtG started in 1993 owned by WotC. WotC bought D&D (which had been around since 1974) from TSR in 1997. There was no reason they would match up unless WotC (or Hasbro post-1999) retroactively made that change.
Caerwyn says... #2
D&D started using “Fey” as a term in 1983 in Monster Manual II. Faerie was first used as a creature type in Alpha in 1993. When Wizards purchased D&D in 1997, Fey had already been the established norm in that game for 14 years, and Fae was the established norm in Magic for 4 years.
Rather than disrupt either game, they kept the terminology the same.
February 13, 2026 9:58 p.m.