The An Fnwy curse

## Introduction

The An Fnwy curse is the family curse that made many later generations of the An Fnwy family crueler and sadistic, despite being Seelie.

## Appears in

Major canon:

*Deeper into the Woods*

*Game Theory*

*The Court of Five Thrones*

*The Ice Plague: Book 2 - The Seething Seas*

*The Ice Plague: Book 3 - The Ice Plague*

Canon extra:

*The Curse*

## Details

At some point, a member of the An Fnwy family slighted Davix, which angered Olphix so much that he forced a curse into one of their family members, poisoning their blood by marrying it to his own magic. The curse traveled down through the generations, building and building on itself, until it finally broke when Crielle ferch Fnwy gave birth to Gwyn ap Nudd, who was an Unseelie fae born to a Seelie family, who would ultimately be the last of the family line.

The curse didn't affect every member of the family, even prior to Gwyn, at least to the same degree. Rhiamon ferch anFnwy pointed out that it sometimes skipped a generation, as it affected Rhiamon more than her mother, and Crielle more than Crielle's mother, Adain ferch Fnwy. It also didn't affect them all in the same way, even at their cruelest: Rhiamon was notably masochistic alongside her sadism, whereas Crielle avoided any discomfort, and Crielle was particularly cruel herself, but often kept her actions at a distance from her targets, preferring manipulation, brainwashing, and poisoning, whereas Penarddun ferch Fnwy was far more bloodthirsty, and liked to torture people up close and personal. The curse also didn't stop those affected from caring for certain select individuals: Rhiamon loved her daughter and grandchildren (and perhaps her son-in-law); Crielle loved Rhiamon, Penarddun, and Efnisien ap Wledig; Penarddun loved Rhiamon, Euroswydd, Crielle, and Efnisien; and Efnisien seemingly loved Crielle.

Although Gwyn often uses the An Fnwy curse as a crutch to explain his monstrousness, Augus Each Uisge often points out that Gwyn is actually quite similar to his father, Lludd Llaw Eraint, in many respects, and Lludd would not have been affected by the curse, as Lludd was born outside the family. Lludd was simply a cruel and abusive man with a heartsong of ruthlessness who helped form Gwyn into the man Gwyn became. Augus also often points out that Gwyn is simply Unseelie, and it is natural for him to behave as he often does, in accordance with his alignment, which Gwyn is quite uncomfortable with, after having been raised for 3,000 years as Seelie fae, in part in a household that despised the Unseelie (and Gwyn in particular). Gwyn 'didn’t want to be cruel. Yet there was a darkness inside of him, a breadth of cruelty that crept upon him. The harder be became, while forcing himself to serve the Kingdom, the more it sprawled out of him.'

#### Known Affected

* Adain ferch Fnwy (deceased)
* Crielle ferch Fnwy (deceased)
* Efnisien ap Wledig (deceased)
* Penarddun ferch Fnwy (deceased)
* Rhiamon ferch anFnwy (deceased)
* Rhiamon's mother (deceased)

## Quotations

* Rhiamon: 'A Mage once cursed the An-Fnwy line. So long ago that we do not know the Mage, nor the names of the people he cursed. So the story goes. . . . He was terribly insulted . . . A member of our line behaved in a way he found most unsettling. To punish them, and the rest of us, he lay a curse upon our bloodline that would make us cruel and malicious. Even though we are Seelie, even though we have only ever been Seelie, he made us more like our cousins across the river.'
* Rhiamon: 'The curse has a tendency to be more keenly felt in certain generations. Your mam is not as touched by it as I am, as you are. My mam was the same. And my sweet, it is very strong in you.'
* Augus: 'He knew of a curse that was meant to make the An Fnwy family more vicious and cruel than the average Seelie fae.'
* 'I’m nothing like them,’ Gwyn said, and then his cheeks flushed red. ‘What I mean to say, is that I cannot go home for this.'
* Gwyn: 'they’d all want to know if it was the family curse, if it was madness, if it was just *cruelty*.'
* 'Sometimes fae whispered about the ‘family curse’ that affected Gwyn’s family. He’d never had any idea what they meant as a child, and his father had dismissed it, saying that people mistook the ability to get what one wanted using whatever means possible as madness. It was true that Gwyn’s entire family were prone to fits of terrifying violence and cruelty, and it was certainly true that at a certain point, that cruelty tended to stabilise as a permanent character trait. His mother, father, cousin Efnisien, Efnisien’s parents...they had never been cursed, they were not insane, they were simply damaging, cruel people.'
* Augus: 'I don’t think you have a family curse. I think you have a need to express something that is innate and inherent, and you suppress it and become *this* instead.'

## Trivia

* It's possible that Ondine dubbed the An Fnwy curse as the 'family curse'.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 *The Curse*, Chapter 1. Accessed 16 March 2021.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 *The Ice Plague: Book 2 - The Seething Seas*, Chapter 31: Whatever It Takes. Accessed 30 April 2021.
3. ↑ *The Court of Five Thrones*, Chapter 37: Explosion. Accessed 29 April 2021.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 *The Curse*, Chapter 2. Accessed 23 March 2021.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 *Deeper into the Woods*, Chapter 3: III - The Waterhorse. Accessed 30 May 2021.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 *Game Theory*, Chapter 6: Retaliation. Accessed 30 May 2021.
7. ↑ *Under the Influence*. Accessed 27 March 2021.
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 *Game Theory*, Chapter 28: Light. Accessed 30 May 2021.
9. ↑ *Deeper into the Woods*, Chapter 5: V - The War General. Accessed 30 May 2021.
10. ↑ *Game Theory*, Chapter 5: Status. Accessed 20 March 2021.