The Fey

**The Fey** stem directly from the Spirit of All Things, with their existence being the purest manifestation of the fundamental supernatural force of the universe known as the Anima, the force that grants the ability to "be" to all things that are. As a result, they are considered to be the oldest existences that the inhabitants of this world have ever encountered or heard about, having come in to being when the concept of existing came into being.

Much as the Anima cannot be destroyed or transmuted into something not Anima, the presence of the Fae in the known world is one that cannot ever be eradicated entirely. As a collective species, The Fey are truly immortal, becoming more apparent when one considers the various, more esoteric and godlike Archfey. As Anima just is, so the Fey simply are.

## Nature

### The Anima

Anima is a fundamental force of the universe, the fundamental force responsible for life, and that force which gives rise to the concept of the aura of an Awakened Sage, the lifeforce of living things, and the general variety found in various lifeforms both mundane and extramundane. This fundamental force shapes everything and is the source of every concept that has the ability to possess life, and the existence of this fundamental force is said to stem from what is referred to as the Spirit of All Things.

However, life, as generated by Anima and thus as the Fae perceive it is far beyond what most mortals would understand or typically regard as an extension of life. While most are incapable of coming to terms with this particular perspective, it is the Anima that breathes life into everything in existence, it is the Anima that pushes objects out of the Root of All Things and into existence. The Anima breathes life both into the animate and the inanimate, bringing forth concepts such as free will, sentience, innate vitality, but at the same time, allows for the characterization of various things in the universe, as it is the Anima that breathes properties into formless nothingness, infusing them as well with a unique essence. For example, it is the Anima that give a rock it's form, it's composition, it's texture, it's weight, these things are enveloped in the "life" of the object.

Life to the Fey and as given by the Anima is in actuality the ability to "be", and what exactly the thing given life by the Anima is may vary wildly, giving rise to the natural world. The Fey themselves, as the manifestations, self-appointed arbiters, embodiments and simultaneous progenitors of the Anima as beings composed of and originating from the Spirit of All Things have a judiciary system that governs and restricts how and where the Anima influences the material world, preserving a natural balance. Everything that the Anima has influenced can be broken down into permutations and different combinations of the original concepts the Anima first gave rise to, and it is these inner concepts that form the Inner Houses of the Court of Stars. Within the Green Fey, the Sea Lords, and the Gloaming Fey, there exist subdivisions of Fey that represent the interests of these original concepts within their factions and the Grander Court of Stars.

### Realm of Origin

The Fey are considered to originate from what scholars hypothesize as a plane of existence predating the split of the world into the Valiant Sphere and Purgatory as known today. The true name of this realm is currently unknown. Over various interactions with the Wyldfae, historians have noted that everytime they are asked as to where they come from the fey in question gives them a different name. However, the common repeating names include but are not limited to Arcadia, Avalon, the Feywild and The First World. It is not Valiant Sphere, so it is considered to be in Purgatory, though it is not any location that one can traverse to by any conventional means in Purgatory. Despite the immense power of the Archfey, it is said that within their realm they are even more powerful than they boast on Earth, with an attempt to attack an Archfey in their realm being the same as subjecting yourself to a million fates worse than death.

**Avalon** however is the name that scholars typically utilize to refer to their realm of origin, and is considered to potentially be the same as the Spirit of All Things in one sense or another. Not much is known about it except for the fact that it appears to have it's own flora and fauna, as Tiandra claims to govern the Emerald Forests of the Summer Court.

### Heterogeneity

The Fey unlike most entries within what would be the Legion's database of creatures stemming from Purgatory do not exhibit a categorical homogeneity in appearance and other such traits due to the nature of a Fey's Form and Heritage being extremely multifarious. A common misconception, the term Fey does not refer to a singular type of entity that can be readily identified through physical observation, but rather creatures with a common origin.

While there are major characteristics that can be identified in each example of a Fey creature, in **Dominion**, **Prominence**, and **Heritage**, these are qualities that also stem from the common origin of all Fey. Without even considering the fundamental distinction between Court Fey and Wyldfae, which will be addressed shortly, the Fey come in all shapes and sizes in such a manner that it may possibly be more useful for human researchers to further divide the Fey into subcategories for the purpose of gaining any true insight on any group of individuals (e.g fairies, dryads, nymphs).