Fae

## **History**

Throughout the world, Fae (or fairies, faeries, fays, fae folk, faerie folk, fair folk, and all manner of other derivations) are known for their timeless beauty, powerful magical gifts, mischief, and love of stories. The Fae come from the deepest and most remote parts of the Void, known as the Fair Lands born from raw essence (also called wild essence or Sidhean magic). They belong to four major courts, the Seelie Court, the Unseelie Court, and the Sheeda Court; and in addition to those courts of which they dedicate their political allegiance, there are six major classes of Fae: the Summer Folk, the Autumn Folk, the Winter Folk, the Vernal Folk, the Noble Folk, and the Common Folk. Fae come in many shapes and some scholars believe they are so diverse that they may not even be a related species, only a collection of different beings who conform to a different cultural identity. Not all Fae are allowed in the Fair Lands, some of them were exiled due to corruption of the Bleed. These are the Sheeda, a rogue faction that invades various dimensions.

## **Culture**

### **Customs**

**Fae Food:** If humans eat Fae food they become ‘fae marked.' Faeries can sense a person who has eaten faerie food for several months after the consuming of faerie food and such mortals are more inclined to be chosen for abductions to the Fair Lands. If a person eats Fae food in Faerie lands, the effect is stronger and they may become addicted to the glamour-enriched food. Glamour addicts are usually unable to stomach normal food ever again and often, as a result, become trapped in the Fair Lands.

**The Sight:** Humans capable of seeing Fae in the mortal realm due to having supernatural sight are often regarded as higher class visitors in the Fair Lands. They are given most of the same rights as Fae citizens, especially by the Seelie Court, but are likewise treated more harshly for violations of Fae law.

### **The Fae Courts**

**The Seelie**, while more benevolent by their nature, one should not interpret to mean the same as "good," because they're not good. They may be kind, but they are the more manipulative of the Courts. The Seelie are ruled by King Auberon and Queen Titania.

**The Unseelie Court** is more directly cruel, particularly toward humans and outsiders. That's not to mean they're unreasonable or evil. They're just more blunt and mean-spirited than the Seelie. The Unseelie are ruled by King Finvarra and his Fable queen Morgaine le Fey.

**The Sheeda** are corrupted by the Bleed and while it is treated as a political faction, it's more of an infection. The Sheeda are ruled by King Melmoth and Queen Gloriana.

**The Solitaries** are the Fae that live outside of the court systems, usually due to living on another plane or living on the border between the Seelie and the Unseelie where the need for political affiliation is relaxed. The most notable tricksters are usually Solitary, bouncing between the two main Courts as needed.

### **The Fair Folk**

**The Autumn Folk** are connected by their shared ties to death, decay, harvest, earth, funerals, preparations, and farewells.

**The Vernal Folk** are connected by their shared ties to spring, rebirth, rain, water, and new beginnings.

**The Winter Folk** are connected by their shared ties to cold, ice, the night, the wind, storms, and hunting.

**The Summer Folk** are connected by their shared ties to heat, fire, the day, travel, and trade.

**Common Folk:** Are the basic Faeries the commoners of the Fair Lands have very little innate magical ability but often make up for it by having a talent which they are inhumanly gifted at, often with magical abilities associated with it. For instance, a common fae who is an artist may be able to make paint that never loses its color or a seamstress might be able to make clothing that is indestructible but completely invisible.

**The Noble Folk:** Are the most powerful of the Fae interestingly, two Noble Folk can never produce children together so while they often secure their positions with political marriages to other Noble Fae, they often keep harems of lesser Fae and humans for procreative and entertainment purposes. The child of a Noble Fae and a Fae of the seasonal Folk always produces a Noble Fae while a Noble Folk's offspring with a Common Folk creates a seasonal fae. Noble Fae's mating with humans creates a Noble Half-Fae who is born with a twin known as a Changeling.

**Changelings:** Are the result of humans coupling with Noble Fair Folk. Fae Blood breeds true a child of a Fae and mortal is a half-fae. If that child has children with a human, the child is quarter-fae or fae-blooded. If a half-fae or a fae-blooded mate with a fae, the child produced is always a full-blooded fae. They are often seen as a byproduct of such a mating, an imperfect twin of the more human-looking half-fae child. Sometimes Changelings are sent to live on Earth with the human parent while the Fae keeps the true child. Other times the reverse happens until the child is of the proper age that the switch is made. Whatever the case, Changelings are rarely ever raised with their twin and often despise their twin. Other times, the relationship is less intentionally hostile, with the Changeling acting as a secret guardian of their twin, vicariously living through their twin's happy life as the Changeling removes obstacles for them by any means necessary.

## **Description**

### **Appearance**

The Fae Folk are known for their unearthly beauty, many faeries said to be extremely attractive with delicate and regal faces. Though they mostly resemble human beings with one or two distinctive tells such as pointed ears, unusually bright eyes, horns, elongated limbs, wings, sharp noses, an unusual skin, eye, hair color, or an odd smell.

### **Personality**

They are known for their cunning and their cruel sense of humor, and they especially delight in tricking humans and creatures alike. They frequently seek to bargain with humans, offering someone their heart's desire but failing to mention that the desire comes with a terrible cost. They are committed to notions of honor and etiquette, and while faeries always exactly follow the letter of any promise they have made, they deliver these results with great irony and often use clever wordplay to their advantage in order to create loopholes. The Fae Folk are also unable to lie. They might, however, tell what they believe is true, even if it is not. They may also expertly weave lies into sentences by using methods such as not telling the whole truth, letting others assume things, or not correcting the people with whom they're speaking. Faeries are also capable of manipulating one another. There have apparently been times when these either playful or serious manipulations, specifically resulting from problems or conflicts between rival courts, bleed into the world.

### **Types**

**Banshees:** A banshee (also known as bean sí, baintsí, ben síde, baintsíde, cyhyraeth, bean nighe, ban nigheachain, nigheag na h-àth, or "woman of the fairy mound) are an always female variety of Autumnal Fae who have a reputation for the heralding of the impending death usually by unnatural wailing, shrieking, or keening. Banshees are unique as they are not born from the Fair Lands, but hail from Earth. Specifically, they are born from Sidhean essence combining with the tumuli or "mounds" that dot the Irish countryside. While banshees can be born elsewhere on Earth, it's worth noting they tend to be quite different from the Irish variety and are known by other names (which will be discussed later). Banshees true form gives their face a skeletal appearance (with a sort of spirit paint and not an actual skull), white skin and bright blue eyes. The child of a banshee and a human male is usually a female half-banshee. Other Banshees are created when a human pair conceive a child on such a mound, usually at night or when at least one of the parents is in a state of mourning. Such children are often born with jet black or pale blonde hair and will grow to become a banshee (though they may not realize it). Sometimes a newly born banshee assumes the form of a deceased woman buried near the mound from which the banshee originates. Some banshees even assumed the identity of the dead woman or girl, even having some degree of their memories which leads many to falsely believe that banshee are ghosts. Male children born from banshee mothers are very rare. They are called the "Ua Briain" or High Kings. The children of half-banshees and their children, and their children's children, and so on are banshee-blooded. While some banshee have found their way to the Fair Lands, becoming interesting additions to the politics of the Seelie and the Unseelie, most choose to linger on Earth. Most have actually integrated themselves into the culture of Earth, becoming famed singers.

* **Clairaudience:**
* **Curse Inducement:** Banshees have a potent ability to issue curses which do not target a single target but that person's entire family, passing the curse down through generations. Each banshee can only issue one such curse at a time and cannot invoke it again until the curse has been broken or the family has been wiped out. A banshee cannot remove its own curse once it has been invoked.
* **Death Inducement:** It is possible that a truly powerful Banshee’s touch could have a dangerous, perhaps even fatal, effect on the living. This is achieved through causing a strong surge of death essence to transfer from the banshee to the mortal, overwhelming their soul and killing them within seconds.
* **Death Sense:** The Banshee has an affinity for the essence of death. They feed of it. This does not mean they will always be compelled to kill, but those banshees who choose to live peacefully among humans often can be found working as coroners, morticians, crime scene investigators, or simply living near graveyards.
* **Sonic Scream:**

## **Powers, Abilities, Equipment, and Weaknesses**

### **Powers**

**Magic:**

**Semi-Immortality:** Fae folk are ‘functionally immortal’ in that they will live forever unless something unnatural occurs to them. Half-fae can live twice as long as humans, or even longer if they live in the Fair Lands or engage in certain practices. Fae-bloods will live very healthy lives.

### **Weaknesses**

**Breeding:** All children born of that lineage will also remain quarter-fae or fae-blooded for five generations before the fae-blood aspect simply disappears.

**Contracts:** Contracts are sacred things in the Fair Lands. Even a verbal agreement is considered sacrosanct. Violation of a contract comes with harsh penalties if the violation goes unforgiven.

**Iron:** Faeries can not stand the touch of unforged iron, it burns and weakens them. Cold-wrought iron weaponry can kill them. Modern cities are risky for the Fae to live in because they risk running into iron, though that risk has been lessened by usage of modern metal smiting and the preference for steel.

**Magic:** Faeries have a sacred reverence for the Rowan Tree and charm made of its wood can protect travelers in the Fair Lands. Other charms which can protect one from Sidhean mischief include wearing one's clothing inside out, wearing bells on your clothing, St. John's wort, and four-leaf clovers are regarded as effective. Another protection is bread and baked goods. Faeries love bread and baked goods from Earth and as such will not risk contaminating it with Sidhean magic. Eating fresh bread can even be a cure to many basic Sidhean curses.

**Powers of Names:** If a Faerie knows the full, true name of a human or of another Faerie, they have power over that being. The most powerful Faerie magic requires knowledge of true names. Humans, even humans without magical ability, are able to gain great boons from faeries if they discover their true name as most Fae would do anything in their power to have a person agree to forget their name (which would be magically reinforced).

**The Truth:** Faeries cannot usually lie (it is considered a breach of contract). So they often have become masters of language to twist their words around and still be able to get what they want. They can tell half-truths and some more powerful Fae, such as Noble Fair Folk, can tell white lies. The only fae capable of complete deception are the most cunning tricksters.