Marika

**Marika** is a Seelie Daoine Sidhe, a classless fae, and a member of the Coalition of the Classless. She serves as one of Gwyn ap Nudd's tutors when he was young. She later goes with Zudanna and other reinforcements to join Gwyn and the other combatants in Dharnam in the battle against Olphix.

## Appearance

Gwyn ap Nudd says Marika is 'stunningly beautiful. She had a more refined face than even his mother.' She has pointed ears and fits the fairy stereotype better than most fae. She also has grey eyes with pupils that are able to turn to slits like a cat's.

Her voice is flowing and rippling, almost like a brook. Eran Iliakambar describes it as 'exquisite' and like water.

She usually wears transparent silks. At the last Wild Hunt, she wears small pearls on her ears, and '[d]iaphanous hunting attire, and strapped to her calf, a small hunting blade. Around her long fingers glittered rings, and Gwyn had no doubt that one of them housed a sharp little spike.' At the Coalition of the Classless, she wears a 'glittering gown [that] shone like the dawn'.

When she arrives in Dharnam, she is 'dressed in hunting attire that managed to look both functional and gauzily stunning', and carries 'a longbow, at her side a quiver of arrows . . . Her fingers were decorated with beautiful rings, the gemstones an opaque white, with a lustrous iridescence. At her ears were pearls set in silver.'

## Personality

'Marika was one of the few tutors whom [Gwyn had] been permitted to spend more than a year or two with, because Marika had constantly maintained a brutal coldness around him. To the point that Gwyn had wondered if Marika was secretly trying to kill him when he was a child.'

She can be sarcastic, but is also secretly concerned for Gwyn. She is very wise, and understands the importance of the existence of both Seelie and Unseelie fae.

## Life

Marika is a classless Seelie fae. It's unknown if she was alive before Olphix and Davix created the classless as batteries, in order to gather power over time that the Mages would later take for themselves at their leisure.

Marika's home neighbors the An Fnwy estate in the Seelie courtlands. She has cousins among the Unseelie. She was also alive during Titania's reign.

Gwyn visits Marika's estate when he was younger. Marika teaches Gwyn his skills with the recurve bow. She once confronts Lludd Law Eraint on why he is rushing Gwyn through war training at such a young age, and is told that Lludd is confident Gwyn will be triumphant, and then Lludd refuses to continue discussion on the topic.

Marika trains the Seelie bow squadrons - the most advanced ones. She owes Gwyn three life debts for supporting him during his military campaigns, and fights alongside him. She ultimately votes to demote him from Kingship. Her reasons are that the lie makes her melancholy.

During Albion's war with the Unseelie Court, Gwyn finally visits her to collect on her life debts. She at first allows archers to shoot at him to assess whether he kept up the skills she taught him. Only then did she welcome and invite him in. She discusses her reasons for voting against him, and a little of what she knows of his life, then, because she supports Gwyn's goal of preventing the Unseelie Court's collapse, she volunteers under blood-oath to 'cease tutoring all Seelie fae in the art of the bow, for a period of five months. Five months only. And I will cease working in the military in any capacity, except advisory, for three months.' She tells him to save the life debts for a later time, when he'd really need them, and said she'd lie to Albion about this.

She demands that Gwyn take back his full name, and advises him not to trust Duribard, before advising him to teleport out, as her archers will be merciless on his exit.

According to Mikkel, Albion interrogates Marika at some point, along with other Seelie fae who are close to Gwyn, and she narrowly escapes execution when her lies are revealed. She is put under house arrest, instead. Gwyn visits her again in secret and broaches the idea of forming a Coalition of the Classless, so that they can mediate the affairs of the Courts. He wants her to gather the Seelie classless who would be interested in this plan, while he asks the Nain Rouge to be his Unseelie liaison. Marika agrees to reach out to the Seelie classless, but can't promise anything.

Marika attends the last Wild Hunt, and even talks with Gwyn a bit. She is horrified at Prince Vane killing Mikkel with the mothersbane-coated arrow targeted at Gwyn.

Marika gathers several classless Seelie fae to form the Coalition of the Classless alongside the Nain Rouge's Unseelie classless, and they gather Gwyn, Albion, and their respective Inner Courts for the meeting. Marika is one of the main speakers during the meeting, and informs the two Courts that the Coalition will offer the Courts its protection in exchange for sanctions that would get the fae realm back in order and end the war, with the threat that the Coalition would strike the Courts down if they didn't obey. The Courts are ordered not to send their militaries against each other for the next ten years, to stop assassinating prime targets on the other side, and Albion is ordered to leave the inter-alignment communities alone, while Gwyn is to stop calling on his life debts absent true need.

The Kings agreed to the sanctions. The Coalition also sends two of its members - one from each alignment - to the opposing alignment's Court, as an observer. Old Pete goes to Gwyn's Court, and the Spider Queen goes to Albion's. Marika tells Gwyn and Albion that after ten years, the Coalition will reconvene. They also plan to announce their existence publicly, so that all fae will know what happened. Marika pointedly looks at Davix when she notes that the Courts are fragile and need assistance at a time when 'other forces [were] at play', implying that she knew something of what Davix was up to.

It is implied that when Olphix takes the power of the classless for themselves, Marika was among those who lost her power.

Marika goes to Dharnam with Zudanna to join Gwyn in the fight against Olphix, and brings a group of archers with her. When Gwyn asks about what she knew of how poisonous the Seelie Court was during Crielle's essential reign there, and afterward, Marika notes, ‘I regret that I didn’t find a way to communicate with you more often . . . But my own life is not sparing, and time is a resource I do not have in abundance. Even now, what I spend here, I must make up for later.’ She then talks with Gwyn and Zudanna in private over alcohol, and possibly getsdrunk with them.

## Special Abilities

#### Magical Propensity

Marika knows magic, but the extent of her abilities is unknown.

#### Skills

**Archery:** Marika is skilled with the recurve bow and was Gwyn's tutor when he was a child. She continues to teach this skill to other fae.

**Stealth:** Marika is so well-trained in stealth that she manages to sneak up on Gwyn while he's King.

## Relationships

### Crielle ferch Fnwy

Marika states that Crielle never liked her, but invited her to many soirees and other functions.

### Gulvi Dubna Vajat

It's possible Marika and Gulvi know each other, since Marika seemingly went to talk with her during the last Wild Hunt.

### Gwyn ap Nudd

As an adult, Gwyn realizes there are depths to Marika that he hadn't seen as a child. She hid her care for him as a child, and still likes him for never supporting the Oak King's anti-Unseelie agenda. She still criticizes him for not meeting his mother's standards. But Mosk Manytrees notes they seemed like friends.

#### Titania

Marika misses Titania, and thinks she was quite the lady.

## Quotations

* ‘You are Gwyn ap Nudd, child of Crielle and Lludd, and as they did not kill you, they had no right to take away your name. I always appreciated your strategies, and I appreciate them now. Do you know what Albion will do, with you impacting so many of the significant military land fae? He will remove them from power, or put them on the bench, and then he will put his mer-fae and merrows into positions of power. For they owe you no life debts. He will create a very powerful military. He already has. But the land fae, the Seelie land fae, will not appreciate Albion’s response to you.’
* 'I was only making sure my tutoring had left its indelible mark on you, as I am glad to know it has. You know as well as I, that I could mount a far more aggressive attack upon you if I wanted, and you would still survive it.'
* ‘The Coalition of the Classless – or the Coalition of Islands – has formed under duress, during a time of great conflict,’ Marika said, her voice calm and even. ‘We are twelve Unseelie and Seelie, and despite our disparate ways, we are all cousins across the river. Some of us are even islands in the middle, remembering what it is when true cooperation between us all was part of what made the fae realms so great.'
* To Gwyn: ‘How you’ve changed, Your Majesty. That beard, that moustache, I can scarce believe it. Never before have you looked so much like you belong to the lineage that you do. I wonder what Lady Crielle would have thought, to see you like this.’

## Folklore/Mythology

'The 'aos sí' . . . is the Irish term for a supernatural race in Irish mythology and Scottish mythology (where it is usually spelled Sìth, but pronounced the same), comparable to the fairies or elves.

They are said to live underground in fairy mounds, across the western sea, or in an invisible world that coexists with the world of humans. This world is described in the *Lebor Gabála Érenn* as a parallel universe in which the *aos sí* walk amongst the living. In the Irish language, *aos sí* means "people of the mounds" (the mounds are known in Irish as "the *sídhe*"). In modern Irish the people of the mounds are also called *daoine sídhe* . . . in Scottish mythology they are *daoine sìth*. They are variously said to be the ancestors, the spirits of nature, or goddesses and gods.

In many Gaelic tales, the *aos sí* are later, literary versions of the Tuatha Dé Danann ("People of the Goddess Danu")—the deities and deified ancestors of Irish mythology. Some sources describe them as the survivors of the Tuatha Dé Danann who retreated into the Otherworld when fleeing the mortal Sons of Míl Espáine who, like many other early invaders of Ireland, came from Iberia. As part of the terms of their surrender to the Milesians, the Tuatha Dé Danann agreed to retreat and dwell underground. (In later interpretations, each tribe of the Tuatha Dé Danann was given its own mound.) Geoffrey Keating, an Irish historian of the early 17th century, equates Iberia with the Land of the Dead, providing a possible connection to the *aos sí.*

In folk belief and practice, the *aos sí* are often appeased with offerings, and care is taken to avoid angering or insulting them. Often they are not named directly, but rather spoken of as "The Good Neighbors", "The Fair Folk", or simply "The Folk". The most common names for them, *aos sí*, *aes sídhe*, *daoine sídhe* (singular *duine sídhe*) and *daoine sìth* mean, literally, "people of the mounds" (referring to the *sídhe*). The *aos sí* are generally described as stunningly beautiful, though they can also be terrible and hideous.

*Aos sí* are seen as fierce guardians of their abodes—whether a fairy hill, a fairy ring, a special tree (often a hawthorn) or a particular loch or wood. It is believed that infringing on these spaces will cause the *aos sí* to retaliate in an effort to remove the people or objects that invaded their homes. Many of these tales contribute to the changeling myth in west European folklore, with the *aos sí* kidnapping trespassers or replacing their children with changelings as a punishment for transgressing. The *aos sí* are often connected to certain times of year and hours; as the Gaelic Otherworld is believed to come closer to the mortal world at the times of dusk and dawn, the *aos sí* correspondingly become easier to encounter. Some festivals such as Samhain, Beltane and Midsummer are also associated with the *aos sí.'*

## References

1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 not\_poignant. “The Court of Five Thrones.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 12 December 2014. https://archiveofourown.org/works/1749290/chapters/6186821. Chapter 21: Fracture.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 3 - The Ice Plague.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 12 May 2022. https://archiveofourown.org/works/26266345/chapters/97400118. Chapter 32: Our Better Natures.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 not\_poignant. “The Court of Five Thrones.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 24 July 2015. https://archiveofourown.org/works/1749290/chapters/10022663. Chapter 53: Arrow.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 not\_poignant. “The Court of Five Thrones.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 14 August 2015. https://archiveofourown.org/works/1749290/chapters/10409742. Chapter 56: Islands.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 1 - The Forest of Fire.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 6 September 2018. https://archiveofourown.org/works/12036105/chapters/37093806. Chapter 28: Like Batteries.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 not\_poignant. “The Court of Five Thrones.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 6 February 2015. https://archiveofourown.org/works/1749290/chapters/7205945. Chapter 29: Classless.
7. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Court of Five Thrones.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 16 January 2015. https://archiveofourown.org/works/1749290/chapters/6910442. Chapter 26: Clarity.
8. ↑ "Aos Si". Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aos\_S%C3%AD. Accessed 7 May 2021.