Symphony of the Fey

Hyrsam has been corrupted, cursed by the Fomorian King now residing in the Shadowfell following his defeat. This curse has scattered Hyrsam’s power across all worlds, and it is up to you to gather this power back in order to put an end to the Fomorian King’s threat. Align with the Summer or Winter Court, equip one of five special Lutes, discover musical Motes, complete special encounters, and earn cosmetic and musical rewards!

Symphony of the Fey is a Feywild-flavored event introduced in Update 76.

Joining the event

• To join in with the Symphony of the Fey, you will need to head to the Harbor and enter the Hut from Beyond and speak with Hawthorn. After the capricious archfey was cursed by his former ally King Irgroll at the end of The Dryad and the Demigod, Hyrsam has found the corrupting influence of the Shadowfell creeping into his soul - luckily, your allies from the Summer and Winter Court have been recruiting adventurers from across the planes to prevent the Shadowfell from claiming one of the most powerful creatures in the Feywild. Your task: seek out and reclaim the Motes of Music formed from the Archfey's lost musical prowess.
  • New characters starting from Korthos or an Iconic Hero quest zone can find an NPC in their starting area to take them straight to the Hut.
• Once you've spoken with Hyrsam, you can claim a Summer Court Lute from Lord Arden at any time. To claim a Winter Court Lute, you must be playing on a level 1 character with no past lives and less than 1500 total XP. Talk to Baroness Hilda Bitterspine to claim a Winter Lute with a valid character. Note that you must claim all Winter Lutes that you ever intend to use at this point on this character at this point - you cannot start with just one and then go back and claim others later. Once your character gains enough XP to push them over the initial threshold, they can never claim a Winter Lute again.
  • Iconic Heroes are allowed to participate in this challenge even though, on character creation, they receive a burst of XP immediately - you'll need to go to the Hut from Beyond immediately before you do any questing or level your character up any further. Hilda Bitterspine will then be able to reset your character to just below the threshold.
• Lutes are Bound to Character on Acquire and cannot be mailed. Winter Court Lutes also cannot be placed in the bank.
• Once a certain threshold of total progress has been reached on a server, all characters on that server (whether they are participating in the event or not) will gain a special buff from Hyrsam that lasts until the event ends. This buff, Hyrsam's Thanks (first observed in mid-December), grants +20% stacking Sonic Absorption.

The Lutes

The statblock of one of the Lutes, fully repaired and ready to be turned in.

• There are a total of 10 varieties of Lutes: 5 Summer Court Lutes and 5 Winter Court Lutes.

• Item:Lute of the Summer Flight
• Item:Lute of the Summer Horn
• Item:Lute of the Summer Knight
• Item:Lute of the Summer Novice
• Item:Lute of the Summer Sky

• Item:Lute of the Winter Flight
• Item:Lute of the Winter Horn
• Item:Lute of the Winter Knight
• Item:Lute of the Winter Novice
• Item:Lute of the Winter Sky

• Lutes are equipped in your cosmetic shield slot and are created with a single point of durability remaining. They have a special clicky effect called Play for the Fey, which has a maximum of three charges and regenerates on rest.
  • As a cosmetic shield, Lutes only have a graphic when used to play music (via Bardic Inspiration or activating the item). You may use any other mainhand weapon cosmetic at the same time, including Two Handed Weapons.
• Claiming Motes (see the next section) adds durability to the Lutes. At certain thresholds, some of the Lutes gain a new effective minimum level - a character under this level can still equip the Lute but cannot gain durability points for it. Once a Lute reaches full durability, it can be turned in for its associated reward at the NPC you claimed it from. (Lutes can gain durability over their maximum value but this does not provide any further benefit.)
  • Turning in a Lute removes it from your inventory and replaces it with the reward you claimed. After the Lute is turned in you can claim the rewards at any time by any character on that account if do not already have the item or certificate in their inventory.
• Lutes, like most cosmetics, cannot take item damage. They also cannot be repaired by NPCs or items or sources outside of their own effect.
• In addition to forcing you to start with a fresh character, Winter Lutes place a special restriction known as a "Vow of Glory" on your character while active. Vow of Glory places a massive debuff on your character if they equip any item that was looted before the release of Update 76, forcing you to use items that have been looted during the event. Valid items will have a special indicator on their statblock (Symphony of the FeySymphony of the Fey: This item dropped during the Symphony of the Fey Event.) that identifies them as an item you can use. Your Vow of Glory will be lost if you die at any point with a Winter Lute in your inventory, preventing you from turning those Lutes in. More details can be seen below, in the Equipment Restrictions section.
  • Winter Lutes may only be claimed if a character is level 1 and has less than 1500 experience points. It is technically possible to die and reclaim your lost Lutes, if the accident happens before you gain any reasonable amount of experience points.
• The Lutes of the Sky only gain durability from Motes claimed on Reaper difficulty.
• Newly for this event, a special Leaderboard is available for total Favor and/or XP earned with an active Vow of Glory. Your place on this leaderboard will be lost if your Vow of Glory is broken by your death.

Motes of Music

A Mote of Music.

Spawning Behavior

• You may encounter a randomly-spawned Mote of Music while in a quest, challenge, or wilderness area (but not a raid), and one of your party members has a Lute equipped.
• You need to kill 10 enemies within a particular habitat to start a internal timer; about 1 to 4 minutes later, a Mote spawns randomly near a randomly selected party member who has a Lute. It is rare for more than one Mote to appear in a particular instance.
• When a Mote spawns, a red dot appears on the map and all nearby players will receive a DM text message. You get another message about 20 seconds before a Mote despawns.
• Whenever you or a member of your party claim a Mote, each character within the quest is placed on a timer which will prevent additional Motes from spawning for you for several minutes, up to an hour. Completing any quest will remove this timer and allow motes to once more spawn for you.
  • Basically, if you recall early after claiming a Mote, don't be surprised if you end up sitting around for quite some time before another spawns for you. Completing quests quickly is the fastest way to spawn lots of motes.
• To activate a Mote, you must play any of the Event Lutes within a few meters of it. Once you activate a Mote, a few enemies from the Shadowfell will spawn nearby and attack! Once you've dispatched all of them, you can play your Lute again near the Mote to harvest its power, adding a few points to its Durability. (This doesn't have to be the same Lute you used to activate the Mote, so you can switch Lutes if you're carrying multiple.)
  • Note that the Mote disappears immediately upon being claimed. If a member claims a Mote while another member of the party is out of range, they will miss getting their reward.
  • If you do not activate a Mote and instead ignore it or let it despawn, you will not receive the secondary timer. For this reason, it isn't worth it to activate motes in Wilderness Areas, as it will lock you out of spawning a Mote in the next quest you run.
  • Unactivated Motes will despawn a few minutes after you encounter them, so while you do have a short time to buff up before taking their guardians on, don't wait too long before getting started. Once a Mote is triggered for the first time, it will stick around until claimed.
• Lutes gain bonus durability points if you have bonuses to XP (such Potions of Learning, the Voice of the Master or the Guild Airship amenity bonus) active when you claim a Mote. It has been experimentally confirmed that VIP-specific XP boosts do not count (neither the default 10% bonus nor the extra 10% bonus occasionally available from Bonus Days.)

Level Restrictions

• To score Durability points from a Mote in a Heroic quest, your character must be within three levels of the base level of the quest. As an example, a character of level 15 will be able to score points from a Mote on a base level 12 quest on Casual (effective level 11) but not from a base level 11 quest on Elite (effective level 13.)
  • Epic and Legendary quests are a bit more lenient with level restrictions - you must be within six levels of the quest's base level, rather than three. However, you must be at least level 20 to gain Durability from Motes found in Epic or higher content.
  • Players at level 20 or above must be in an Epic or Legendary quest or area to score Durability points from Motes. (Bug: Due to being coded differently than standard quests, challenges never allow Epic characters to score Durability from Motes, even if played at or above level 20.)
  • After gaining enough durability most lutes get an additional restriction called Musical Motes

Mote Encounters

• A list of Mote-spawned mobs can be found Here (List of Event Enemies).
• Tip: This is a rare case of you knowing exactly where and when enemies will spawn, allowing you to cast Otto's Sphere of Dancing or Wall of Fire on the Mote before triggering it, hitting the enemies it summons immediately. Symbol spells (such as Symbol of Persuasion) can't be used in this way, as the Mote counts as an enemy and will trigger the symbol immediately. As the enemies spawn with a temporary buff that reduces incoming damage by half, applying CC as they spawn can help buy time before you can properly apply damage.
• All mobs spawned by a Mote must be slain for the mote to progress. Motes spawn one or more waves of mobs, before becoming a friendly NPC when all hostile mobs are dead: Use a lute again to 'capture' the mote and add to your progress.
  • In general, Mote-spawned mobs have high HP, saves and defenses, but damage about equivalent to a First Tier Champion equal to the Quest's level. A high amount of bonus Hit might be required to even strike these monsters, something to keep in mind during higher levels. A few additionally are Fey with DR broken by Cold Iron. Mobs initially spawn with a purple 'shadowy' effect called "Shadow Phase" for 2 seconds, which halves incoming damage, but reduces the amount of damage they deal in return.
  • In Epics, many of the Mote-spawned named enemies tend to throw around multiple spells which can apply hard CC. Be wary of fighting them on your own, as said CC can oftentimes last up to eight seconds.
• Once a Mote spawns in a quest or wilderness area you're in, your Lute won't spawn another Mote until you complete a quest or spend a certain amount of time outside of a quest or wilderness area. Motes will despawn if not interacted with for a certain amount of time-Purple Motes appear to have a shorter despawn timer than the others (Potentially due to the increased danger).
• Once a Mote has successfully spawned mobs, it will not despawn for at least ten minutes. You are free to take however long you like to handle the monsters that it spawns, and gather your party to claim your reward afterwards.
• Motes are hostile NPCs that are capable of being attacked, hit, or targeted by spells. Monks may want to build up their Ki by striking the Mote before activating the encounters.

Mote Types

• Motes come in four types:
  • Green Motes (Mote of Music) are the easiest mote type. These motes are relatively low risk, but have the lowest reward for completing them. Green Motes are the most common type of Motes in early Heroic levels but become steadily less common in higher quest levels, eventually becoming rarer than Purple Motes.
    • This Mote consists of a single wave of mobs from the non-boss list. (1-4 non-named monsters, or an orange-named miniboss plus potentially one to three escorts.)
  • Blue Motes (Contested Mote of Music) are a little more challenging, consisting of a fight against a group of mobs from the non-boss list, followed by a group of mobs from the 'regular boss' list (Consisting of orange named and red named mobs). These encounters are roughly on par with a standard quest boss fight. Blue Motes are the most common mote type to spawn (and therefore the "typical" reward) for most quest levels after early Heroics (10ish); during early Heroics, they are fairly rare.
    • This Mote consists of a single wave of mobs from the non-boss list, followed by a wave of mob(s) from the 'easy boss' list. (an orange named miniboss or a red named boss, potentially with one to three escorts.)
  • Purple Motes (Corrupted Mote of Music) are the most difficult of the standard motes. This type of Mote is a serious challenge, particularly during Heroics and with Winter Court characters - Purple Mote encounters are generally harder than typical quest bosses of their level, and should never be activated without alerting your party first (unprepared Winter Court parties might be advised to give them a miss altogether.) In return, the rewards are dramatically higher than any other standard Mote, especially on Elite or Reaper. Purple Motes are very rare in early Heroic content (likely to avoid Scath carving his way through unprepared Winter Mote parties without proper protection) but become more common later on (though never surpassing Blue motes in frequency).
    • This Mote consists of a single wave of mobs from the non-boss list, followed by a wave of mob(s) from the 'hard boss' list. (an orange named miniboss or a red named boss, potentially with one to three escorts. Many red names are replaced with 'stronger' versions. Also includes a rare chance of the purple named Scath, who despite looking threatening, is about as dangerous as the rest of the red names.)
  • There are only five Golden Motes in the game, each hidden in a fixed location. These are detailed in the spoiler box below.

Golden Motes

Unlike regular Motes, Golden Motes are set in fixed, unique locations. Each Lute has exactly one corresponding Golden Mote, and they may claim this mote only once per item. Considering how both increased Difficulty and Experience Potions are confirmed to be boosting the amount of progress you get from absorbing a Mote (it's worth 20 times as much as a Blue Mote on Elite!), it may be a good idea to maximize the potential payout of your one and only chance.

To reach each golden Mote you must find a special interactable object within an existing quest that, when used, sends you to a brand new sub-area. You must be in an appropriate level range to enter the new sub-area — usually within 4 levels of the quest's base level. From there, you must complete a brand new optional to reach the Mote. The Mote is not claimed via using your Lute's ability; instead you must interact with it as an NPC, then choose the option that only appears when you have the proper Lute equipped.

Upon successfully absorbing a Golden Mote, your current, matching Lute will be flagged with the unique effect Golden MoteGolden Mote: This Lute has acquired a golden mote!, permanently preventing it from absorbing that mote again. This effect only shows up while the Lute itself is equipped - it'll disappear when you unequip the Lute, but the effect will remain.

You also will receive a piece of Sheet Music which may be used to begin a long animation. While the animation continues, your background music will be replaced with a special track unique to your activated Sheet Music. This animation (and its accompanying music) will be ended early if you take action or receive damage. With the exception of Ring of Fire, the appearance of the instrument used to play sheet music will change depending on what instrument you have equipped.

Each piece of music is Bound to Character on Acquire, and Golden Motes give the same Sheet Music to both Summer and Winter Lutes of the same type.

Golden Motes can be redeemed while outside the normal level range for doing so. You are still restricted from entering the Golden Mote area if outside that range so it is only 1 more level of leniency. However, as every quest with a Golden Mote possesses a Legendary version, there's nothing stopping you from grabbing your Golden Mote at cap, if you miss it during heroic.

Symphony of the Fey and Winter Court equipment restrictions

While doing a Winter (Hardcore) run of the event, equipping a magical item not obtained during the season (including crafted items using blanks obtained outside of season) bestows a debuff named "Out of Season". Items with this trait will have a little musical note border around them: This overrides existing special borders: Be careful to not overlook potentially rare items usually differentiated by their borders!

Out of Season: Your character is using an event mechanic that requires you to only equip gear that is dropped during that event or season. One or more item you have equipped is not part of this event and you will be debuffed until you remove that equipment.

Out of Season punishes you with -75% movement speed, -100 PRR, and -100 MRR. The debuff does not appear to become worse upon equipping more than one 'out of season' item. If you believe you can handle the penalty, then there's no reason not to go all out. Notably there are no offensive penalties associated with this debuff, allowing particularly daring adventurers to find a safe location and temporarily equip their items.

Any item which drops or is created during this event, regardless of the character's hardcore status, is marked as 'in season'. This includes named items, random drops, and things of that nature. This effect appears as an additional affix, "Symphony of the Fey".

Additionally, a few unique behaviors exist:

• Cosmetic Items are always considered 'in season', and may be used without penalty.
• Items from The Grotto are considered Nonmagical, despite having magical effects. They aren't marked as being In Season, but they don't punish you for equipping them.
• Nonmagical items, such as items disjuncted through Cannith Crafting or purchased from shops are always usable, regardless of seasonal restriction.
  • Nonmagical items purchased from stores and then used to craft an item are considered out of season magical items, and thus penalize with Out of Season.
  • Magical items purchased from stores do start with Symphony of the Fey, allowing them to be used for crafting.
• Disjuncting an item with Symphony of the Fey will not remove Symphony of the Fey, allowing you to craft on top of it.
• Consumables, Ammunition, Platinum, Augments, Filigrees, and Sentient Gems may be freely traded and used during the event, regardless of restriction. Empty out those stockpiles!
• Items crafted from ingredients during the event (EG: created from scratch) are created with Symphony of the Fey, regardless of when the ingredients were obtained. This includes barter windows.
  • As long as the equippable item itself did not exist prior to the event's beginning, it will be treated as a new item. Examples: Green Steel blanks, Viktranium crafting.

Numerical data on Lutes and Motes

The minimum level requirement for a Lute to progress appears as an effect on the equipped item called "Musical Motes". The tier of this effect increases at certain durability thresholds, progressing as follows:

Musical Motes Thresholds

Musical Motes Level	Level Restriction	Durability Thresholds (Horn Lutes)	Durability Thresholds (Knight Lutes)	Durability Thresholds (Sky Lutes)	Durability Thresholds (Flight Lutes)
N/A	No Restriction	1-438	1-438	1-299	1-399
I	Level 5+	439-813	439-813	300-599	400-799
II	Level 10+	814-1124	814-1124	600-899	800-1199
III	Level 15+	1125-1250	1125-1250	900-1199	1200-1599
IV	Level 20+	N/A	N/A	1200-1424	1600-1899
V	Level 25+	N/A	N/A	1425-1500	1900-2000

The durability and minimum character level to fill each Lute are as follows:

Lute Durability Requirements

Lute	Required Durability	Minimum Level Required for Completion	Summer Reward	Winter Reward
Lute of the Novice	500	N/A (ML does not increase)	Fey Vine Half Cloak	Fey Icy Vine Half Cloak
Lute of the Horn	1250	15	Horns of the Satyr King	Hardened Horns of the Satyr King
Lute of the Knight	1250	15	Fey Mount of the Summer Muse	Fey Mount of the Winter Muse
Lute of the Sky	15001	25	Fey Moon Song Cloak	Fey Winter Moon Song Cloak
Lute of the Flight	2000	25	Summer Court Fae Wings	Winter Court Fae Wings

¹: Can only gain durability on Reaper mode

Note: Some Lutes can technically be completed up to five levels early by pausing just under the final threshold and going for a Golden Mote.

Meanwhile, each encounter gives a fixed amount of "base" points (discounting XP boosts) based on quest difficulty and Mote color, as defined above:

Mote Durability Rewards

Mote Color	Casual / Normal / Wilderness Reward	Hard Reward	Elite Reward	Reaper Reward
Green Mote	3	4	5	6
Blue Mote	7	8	10	12
Purple Mote	10	20	30	50
Golden Mote	80	140	200	225

Notable Event Bugs

• Bug: Some early quests with randomly-generated end bosses may mistakenly count that boss as killed if a red-named boss from a Mote encounter is defeated; this may result in the quest unexpectedly finishing early (Invaders! is particularly prone to this.)
• Bug: Motes are somewhat prone to spawning in positions where they cannot be activated properly or do not spawn monsters when activated. This is particularly common if a mote spawns off the ground or inside a semi-tangible terrain feature. This was originally common but was largely fixed in Update 77 but may still occur is some instances.
• Bug: Bosses from Motes sometimes go "missing", disappearing without warning when damaged. The Mote still counts as completed if this occurs.

Iterations

• The first Symphony of the Fey ran from November 19, 2025 to February 11, 2026. It is at this time unclear if the event is intended to return in future.

External links

DDO Forums