Fay realms

Fay realms are areas where fay people live. Eating or drinking victuals from the realm of the fay cause several physiological effects on the local biosphere, known as the curse of the fay realms. Fay realms are diverse, some are as small as a bush or a tree, to hills, forests and mountains.
== Curse of the Fay realms ==
Consuming food or drinks from the fay realms causes vexotrophagy in organisms, and visiting fay realms causes rapid aging. As such visitors are warned extensively to not visit nor consume food in the realm of the fay.
=== Vexotrophagy ===
The curse of the fay realms takes place when an organism consumes victuals sourced in a fay realm. Eating food from the realm of fay activates vexotrophagy in an organism, effectively creating a new Fay.
=== Aging ===
The perception of time in the fay realm is warped, with people spending far more time than is perceived without aging. Leaving the realm of the fay causes the aging process to catch up, often causing the organism to crumble to dust. Curiously, those that leave on horseback do not crumble to dust, but are cursed to never dismount, lest the mount and rider disintegrate (not to be confused with fairy knights). Leaving the realm also causes rapid aging in faeries, hence why they usually only leave to feed.
== Realm expansion ==
To be considered a fay realm, the land must be claimed by a fay. When this happens all the surrounding plant and animal matter will be altered in order to cause vexotrophagy in those who consume it. The perception of time is also altered due to the fay influence.
Claiming a territory is a specific fay magic ritual. The ritual is usually performed by knights as the other races are quick to notice and eliminate any newcomers unable to defend their lands. Solitary fay also claim land, but usually in small or unusual spaces so as to not attract attention.
Fay influence can be removed, usually via realm alignment or by one of the many rituals meant to keep fay people at bay.
== Organization ==
=== Kingdoms ===
The larger troops organize themselves in kingdoms, where sidhe barrows are connected by fairy paths, protected by raths (forts) and knights, and circles where the fay people gather to revel, rade or go on wild hunts.
===Sidhe===
Most fay live in Sidhe; mounds built to resemble hillsides. Groupings of mounds are called barrows.
===Raths===
Fortified positions the fay use to defend strategic points of their realms. raths are enchanted with illusions to resemble ruins covered in wild and tumultuous vegetation. In reality they are ringforts that serve as stopover points for hunting parties and knights. Raths are manned by knights and their staff, and are multipurpose in design, sometimes serving as granaries or prisons. The fay manning raths typically feed by leading nearby travelers astray.
===Fay Paths===
Fay paths are the road infrastructures of the fairy lands that join their locations together. These paths connect fay realms, allowing the fay to travel without suffering from the rapid aging effects of leaving their realm. Fay paths can be underwater as well. Fairy paths are made by fay kings, to join fay realms together during processions. 
Fay paths are invisible; usually other races engineer their constructions to ensure they do not obstruct fay paths. A technique to see if the planned construction is on a fairy path; builders map out the floor plan in the earth and place a pile of stones at each corner and leave it overnight, if the stones are undisturbed it is safe to build, otherwise the work would not continue. Another detection method is that vegetation cut from a fairy path doesn't burn and releases deadly poisonous fumes. A building placed on a fairy path will be demolished by the fairy folk at least twice, but will remain standing on the third attempt.
Blocking or obstructing fairy paths will cause vexation in fay people, who will try to bring disease and/or sabotage the offender until the pathway is cleared. Generally a wise woman or rovers are consulted on how to unobstruct the path. In some cases, simply keeping doors open will be enough for fay to pass through a dwelling, sometimes they build the doors themselves. One remedy to the obstruction is to build small fires in several places along the fairy path, using fire from blessed fire that is lit every year at sunset.Wise-women and rovers are able to advise home builders of the existence of fairy paths, however wise woman are only consulted after the event and as a result of disturbances, while rovers can be consulted for preventive measures. Fairy paths also exist under water, running from one island to another and are paved with coral, making them and their travelers visible to fishermen in their boats above. The paths are often taken by fay tradespeople such as elf and troll smiths, but also military formations of wild troops, and for religious purposes such as to observe Deicide, where the fay visit the graves of dead gods and relatives.
====Processions====
Processions are ceremonies where the fay king creates a path to a new fay realm, leading its court with it. Using these paths at times when a procession is in effect is dangerous, one can be taken along with the procession into the realm of the fay. 
==== Trods ====
Trods are a straight-line fairy path in the grass of a field with a different shade of green to the rest. People with rheumatism get relief by walking along these tracks, though animals avoid them. 
===Fay circles===
Fay circles are naturally occurring rings or arcs of mushrooms or darkened grass. Entering an fay circle might allow the interloper to see the elves and would also put the intruder in thrall to their illusions. Fairy circles are often guarded by giant bug-eyed toads that curse those who violated the circles. Circles are also sometimes subject to curses such as that entering a fairy ring results in the loss of an eye. Fay circles can be the aftermath of several occurrences, witch dances, milk churns operated by devils, or simply the result of elves or fairies dancing. A common misconception is that the passage of the fiery tails of flying dragons, will cause nothing but toadstools to grow for seven years. The fay actively try to lure mortals into their circles to dance with them.
==== Benefits of fay circles ====
Although they have strong associations with doom, fairy circles can be places of fertility and fortune. Mountain sheep that eat the grass of a fairy ring flourish, and crops sown from such a place prove more bountiful than those from normal land.
==== Escaping a fairy ring ====
Freedom from a fairy ring often requires outside intervention. One tactic is to cast wild marjoram and thyme into the circle and befuddle the fairies, touching the victim with iron, tying a rope around the rescuer and enlisting four people to pull it from the circle as it goes in to save the enthralled. Other methods rely on faith to break the enchantment. A simple prayer or oath is sometimes enough. A common element to these recoveries is that the rescuer must wait a year and a day from when the victim entered the ring in order to retrieve it at the next dance.
==== Aftermath of a rescue from circles ====
Those who have danced with the fairies are rarely safe after being saved from their enthrallment. Often, they find that what seemed to be but a brief foray into the fay realm was indeed much longer in the mortal realm, sometimes weeks or years. The person rescued from the fairy ring may have no memory of their encounter with the sprites. Sometimes they are rescued from a fairy ring only to crumble to dust, other fairy ring survivors molder away when eating a bite of non fay food. Another vulnerability seems to be iron, a touch from the metal can cause a rescue to disappear.
=== Farmlands ===
Farmlands often intersect between fay and non fay, the formers cattle aging rapidly when outside the fay realm and the latter turning blue and becoming fay should they eat the grass in fay realms. Fay cattle is recognizable by its distinct blue shading. However, all harm may be averted if one were to ask a barrow for permission to graze cattle on their mound, suggesting that the cursed grass is a fay spell and not a characteristic of the realm.
Category:Fay realms
Category:Realm
Category:Fay