Fair Folk

The **Fair Folk**, also referred to as **fairies**, are a humanoid and human-made species with magical abilities that live in fairy colonies.

## History

### Creation of the fairies

In the aftermath of a heart-wrenching series of losses—twins lost during childbirth and a beloved child succumbing to a childhood illness—the Artisan sought solace from her grief. She planted and cultivated three mandrake roots, treating them with the tender devotion she once reserved for her own children. The intensity of her love was so profound that the mandrake roots, once mere plants, began to become conscious beings. Gradually, these once-ordinary roots transformed into humanoid magical beings that were later named **fairies**.

### Peaceful times

The **Artisan** sought the help of her husband, the Sentinel, as well as her uncle and aunt, the Healer and the Sage, to raise and protect the fairies. The **Sentinel** supported her through everything, and grew to love the fairies just like his wife did. The **Healer** helped her care for the physical needs of the fairies and tried to find out in how far their needs resembled those of human infants. The **Sage** wrote down all of the knowledge they both discovered about the fairies. While her husband focused on the health and well-being of the fairies, the **Sage** later helped them explore their magical abilities and limitations. She was responsible for many discoveries regarding the fairies, such as how to create more of them.

Meanwhile, many people from all over the lands heard of the fairies and set out to find them for various reasons. One of them was the Seer, a teenage orphan who lived hidden in an alcove behind a waterfall, with only the spirits of nature as company. One day, the spirits told him of the fairies and prophecied that they would soon be perscuted by humans who feared and envied their power. He felt that he needed to leave his safe haven to protect them and set out to find the **Artisan**, to warn her of the impending future. When he joined their little family, he taught the fairies all about the spirits of nature, and he was also the one who taught them the Fair Tongue after being taught the language by the wind spirits. Another person who came to find the fairies was the Seeker, a traveller who aimlessly wandered the lands to satisfy her curiosity. One day, she heard of the **Artisan** and her fairies, and she was curious about them and also about the woman who had managed to create a new species out of intent alone. She sought them out and spent tome time with them, eventually growing to care for them.

When the fairies started to resemble young children, the **Artisan** began to let them explore the village. One day, they came upon a blind travelling bard passing through their village, the Dreamer. The young bard had already become famous, both for his ability to travel on his own without the ability to see, and for one of his songs—the Ballad of the Moon. The song tells a tragic love story, but its melody and lyrics were so soothing that it could calm any distressed child and bring comfort to anybody in need. The fairies were touched by his story and offered to restore his eyesight, however he declined and said that he was alrady content with his life. Instead, he asked the fairies to save the Maiden from her fate, since he met her when they were both still children and she had been the one to encourage him to chase his dreams despite the obstacles.

The **Maiden** was a young girl whose mother had died young, and her father lost himself in his cups and wanted to get rid of his responsibility to her as soon as possible, thus he betrothed her to an old lord. She was to be married to him as soon as she came of age, and everybody knew that she would likely end up as nothing more than a broodmare for the old lord. Yet she never gave up home and continued to believe that one day, good things would happen to her if she did good deeds. She sought solace in the countless animals she saved, both from slaughter and from illness. Her hopes paid off when she was saved by the fairies during the night, due to the **Dreamer** asking the fairies to help her. Both the **Maiden** and the **Dreamer** joined the fairies and their family and friends afterwards.

The last to join them was the Lover, a healing apprentice who was raised by the **Healer** and grew to develop a strong bond with the plants growing in the garden of the **Healer**, to the point that he was able to understand their wants and needs. He met the fairies and their family and friends through the **Healer**, and promptly fell for the **Dreamer**. He spent a long time trying to find a way to cure his eyes using the plants and created many useful herbal remedies during that time, but he never succeeded in finding a cure for the **Dramer**, making him think he was unworthy of his affection. Unbeknownst to him, the **Dramer** had fallen for his compassion and his dedication, and the two of them eventually confessed to each other and spent the rest of their lives together.

### Fight for Freedom

Their peace would not last, as the villagers finally had enough of the strange and powerful beings that they had no idea how to control. They reported their existence to the king, which resulted in an assassination of the **Artisan**. Her father, the Warrior, who had previously shunned her for the creation of the fairies, sascrificed himself and was grievously injured while trying protect his daughter and the fairies she called her own children. The fairies were able to escape, but the **Artisan** died, despite the **Healer**'s best efforts to heal her. The last promise he gave the **Artisan** was to always protect her children and others like them, who were considered, outcasts or abominations by society.

The **Sentinel** continued protecting the fairies, both out of love for them and out of loyalty for his late wife. Similarly to the **Artisan**, he was also a creative individual and he was the one to craft the first ever fairy wings, to allow his children to fly away, should they ever find themselves without protection. One day, they indeed found themselves without protection, and they were chased through a forest by humans. However, they hadn't consumed food in too long, because they hadn't wanted to hurt neither the animals, nor the plants, thus they had become too weak to protect themselves or to fly away using their new wings. They only survived due to the timely arrival of the Huntress, who killed the humans chasing them. The **Huntress** lived in the forest because she had escaped society after being shunned by her village ever since she was a child because her mother, who had died while giving birth to her, had been a prostitute and she was thus considered an impure child. She taught the fairies that if you had pure intentions, such as protecting yourself or eating and drinking simply to survive, it was okay to kill other living beings as long as you did not treat them cruelly and did not do so in excess.

The fairies and their family had left the village and looked for shelter elsewhere, eventually stumbling upon an inn belonging to the Matron. She allowed them to stay in the inn as long as they helped her out in secret, with tasks such as washing dishes or cooking. In return, they were allowed to eat, sleep and use the other facilities of the inn. She taught the fairies both about hard work, but also about taking care of one's needs and comfort. It was with her guidance, that the first fairy practices, customs and fairy cuisine were created.

Their fight for freedom ended abruptly when messengers brought the news that the **Warrior** had killed the king that had demanded the persecution of the fairies. In return, he had been executed for the assassination of the king. The new ruler, the Queen, ascended to the throne after her father. She had originally been the land's beloved princess, but she quickly fell from grace when her first deed as queen was to decree that the fairies were not to be persecuted anymore and that their persecution would from then on be punishable by law. The fairires showed their gratitude by putting her under nature's protection, which is the only reason the **Queen** survived several assassination attempts.

### The aftermath

The **Sage** and the **Seeker** worked together to find a safe haven for the fairies, because despite being protected by law, they were still discriminated against on a daily basis and they knew they could not remain in the land of the humans forever. The **Sage** used her immense knowledge on magic and science, while the **Seeker** contributed knowledge she had carried together throughout all of her travels. One day, the **Sage** found a letter from the **Seeker**—who had gone yet another journey because she believed she knew how to find a safe haven—telling her of a way to create hidden realms, however the **Seeker** herself was nowhere to be found. To this day, it is unknown what happened to the **Seeker**.

The **Sage** used the instructions from the **Seeker** and created the first ever hidden realm, the Twilight Grove, and the first fairies moved in. With the fairires having left the land of the humans, their little family scattered. However, it is believed that the fairies still had some form of contact with them, because when the **Maiden** died, they knew to come back and get her beloved animals, who would become some of the first animals to populate the Twilight Grove, with the exception of the fish, insects and birds they had already brought with them when the Twilight Grove was created.

Over the years, the **Queen** made many changes and reforms. She also made sure that the people forgot about the existence of fairies over time to protect them, causing the fairies to become legendary beings.