Swan shifter

**Swan shifters** are a subspecies of shifter fae. There are a number of swan shifters in the canon, including potentially most or all the swans resident at King Oengus Og's tower.

## Physical Description

In true-form, swan shifters typically resemble regular swans, if a bit larger, though some swan shifters - like Julvia Dubna Vajat - seem particularly vibrant in this form.

In hybrid-form, swan shifters have their large feathery swan wings at rest (normally) behind their backs, and otherwise largely appear as human. They can have webbed fingers and swan feet, and have completely black eyes. Their fingers end in claws.

In full human-form, their wings become a feathery cloak, which they can remove from their bodies and entrust with someone else.

## Abilities

Swan shifters - or at least swan maidens - can give their hearts to those they deeply care for. This can cause an upswell in power for the swan shifter in question, even when the act is not fully complete. It also makes leaving the presence of the person with the swan shifter's heart incredibly painful for the swan shifter, and the swan shifter will mourn, even if the one they've given their heart to still lives. A swan shifter doesn't have to be romantically in love and/or physically intimately with the person they give their heart to, but it appears that they must still give their heart to someone.

Swan-maidens can control wind currents, as well as fly.

If someone obtains the feather of a swan shifter, the swan shifter must fulfill one of their wishes - one for each feather.

Julvia noted that swan-maidens have embroidery magic.

## Characteristics (culture, habits)

Julvia swears by 'the name of the Swan Prince', so he appears to have some importance in their culture, but it's unclear who he is or if he's alive or not. It's unclear if Julvia's status as a daughter of a King makes her a princess or if that's simply a title given to swan maidens. Dubna was embarrassed to be called a Queen, but her daughters still called her that, sometimes.

Dubna seemingly took her name from her family home, the Dubna, and potentially served as the primary head of family, but it's unclear if this is a regular occurrence among swan shifters. Like most fae, their home is important to their well-being. When the Dubna was poisoned by Augus Each Uisge's Blight, it killed almost all the resident swan shifters, save Julvia. Swan shifters seem to prefer living in areas with access to water.

Swan shifters can be of either alignment, and are meant to be pacifists, to the point where fae like Gulvi are treated as aberrations and outcast, though Gulvi's terrifying reputation has made some fae wary of any swan maidens they meet. It's rare for Unseelie fae to be pacifists. The only other Unseelie species known to possess that aspect are Aur dryads.

Swan underfae 'care for each other' and 'have big families'.

The Dubna family feasts on small fairies, but the swans at Oengus' tower seem to feast on regular swan food.

While in true-form, swan shifters seem to act much like regular swans, and cannot communicate in non-swan speech.

Swan shifters perform water burials, and memorials, if water burial is not an option.

## Trivia

* Although King Oengus Og transformed into a swan for some time to be with Caer Ibormeith while she was cursed, he is not actually a swan shifter. He simply used his magic to shapeshift.
* 'Eran had learned that most fae seemed to naturally treat swan maidens like some kind of royalty, and always seemed surprised to see them.'

## Folklore/Mythology

A version of the *Knight of the Swan* tale was included in 'Johannes de Alta Silva's *Dolopathos sive de Rege et Septem Sapientibus* (ca. 1190), a Latin version of the *Seven Sages of Rome.* In the tale, a human lord 'becomes lost in the hunt for a white stag and wanders into an enchanted forest where he encounters a mysterious woman (clearly a swan maiden or fairy) in the act of bathing, while clutching a gold necklace. They fall instantly for each other and consummate their love. The young lord brings her to his castle, and the maiden . . . gives birth to a septuplet, six boys and a girl, with golden chains about their necks. But her evil mother-in-law swaps the newborn with seven puppies. The servant with orders to kill the children in the forest . . . abandons them under a tree. The young lord is told by his . . . mother that his bride gave birth to a litter of pups, and he punishes [the bride] by burying her up to the neck for seven years. Some time later, the young lord while hunting encounters the children in the forest, and the wicked mother's lie starts to unravel. The servant is sent out to search [for] them, and find the boys bathing in the form of swans, with their sister guarding their gold chains. The servant steals the boys' chains, preventing them from changing back to human form, and the chains are taken to a goldsmith to be melted down to make a goblet. The swan-boys land in the young lord's pond, and their sister, who can still transform back and forth into human shape by the magic of her chain, goes to the castle to obtain bread to her brothers. Eventually the young lord asks her story so the truth comes out. The goldsmith was actually unable to melt down the chains, and had kept them for himself. These are now restored back to the six boys, and they regain their powers, except one, whose chain the smith had damaged in the attempt. So he alone is stuck in swan form. The work goes on to . . . obliquely hint that this is the swan in the Swan Knight tale, more precisely, that this was the swan “*quod cathena aurea militem in navicula trahat armatum* (that tugged by a gold chain an armed knight in a boat).'

'The story of the Knight of the Swan, or Swan Knight, is a medieval tale about a mysterious rescuer who comes in a swan-drawn boat to defend a damsel, his only condition being that he must never be asked his name.'

'The Six Swans (German: *Die sechs Schwäne*) is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm in *Grimm's Fairy Tales* in 1812.' It was provided by Henriette Dorothea Wild. In the tale, a 'King gets lost in a forest, and an old woman helps him, on the condition that he marry her beautiful daughter. The King . . . accepts . . . He has six sons and a daughter from his first marriage, however, and fears that the children will be targeted by his new wife; so he sends them away and visits them in secret.

The new queen and now stepmother, who has learned witchcraft from her mother, finds out about her six stepsons and decides to get them out of her way. She sews six magical shirts and goes to the hidden castle where the children are hidden for safety, then tosses the shirts over the boys and transforms them into swans.

*Swan Lake*, a ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky that premiered in 1877, tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. Prince Siegfried goes on a hunt and nearly kills Odette in swan form before she transforms back into a human, and explains her curse, which can only be broken by someone who hasn't yet loved another, or sworn to. Siegfried promises to help. The sorcerer Rothbart tricks Siegfried into announcing he will marry Rothbart's daughter Odile, instead. Siegfried realizes his mistake and goes to apologize to Odette, but the mistake cannot be undone: she and her sisters will remain cursed forever. In despair, Odette decides to die, and Siegfried jumps with her to their deaths. It's theorized that the ballet might have been inspired by the 1858 Russian fairy tale *The White Duck*, about a newly-wed Queen who is tricked by a witch and turned into a duck. The King discovered her mourning over her murdered children, and when he caught her himself, she returned to her original shape, and restored her children to life.

## Image Gallery

Fanart of Gulvi Dubna Vajat by djingin https://djingin.tumblr.com/post/48737747500/lady-chaos-djinngindeviantartcom-forFanart of Ondine and Julvia Dubna Vajat by intheendlessbluewine https://intheendlessbluewine.tumblr.com/post/179665503029/ondine-and-julvia-confirmed-ill-just-be-over-here
## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 1 - The Forest of Fire.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 15 June 2018. https://archiveofourown.org/works/12036105/chapters/34608941. Chapter 22: Twisting and Turning.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 not\_poignant. “The Court of Five Thrones.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 28 August 2015. https://archiveofourown.org/works/1749290/chapters/10665527. Chapter 58: Hope.
3. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 2 - The Seething Seas.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 9 January 2020. https://archiveofourown.org/works/17959874/chapters/52978921. Chapter 23: The Sea of Sculptures.
4. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 3 - The Ice Plague.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 3 September 2020. https://archiveofourown.org/works/26266345/chapters/63940123. Chapter 1: The Ice and the Dryad.
5. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Court of Five Thrones.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 31 October 2014. https://archiveofourown.org/works/1749290/chapters/5651081. Chapter 16: Death.
6. ↑ not\_poignant. “Game Theory.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 21 March 2014. https://archiveofourown.org/works/915296/chapters/2808781. Chapter 46: King.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 not\_poignant. “The Court of Five Thrones.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 12 September 2014. https://archiveofourown.org/works/1749290/chapters/5045072. Chapter 9: Amends.
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 3 - The Ice Plague.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 17 March 2022. https://archiveofourown.org/works/26266345/chapters/94345423. Chapter 28: Family.
9. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 1 - The Forest of Fire.” *Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 1 December 2017. https://archiveofourown.org/works/12036105/chapters/29432541. Chapter 9: A Meeting.
10. ↑ not\_poignant. “Unwound.” *The Fae Tales Verse - canon extras. Archive of Our Own,* 31 July 2016. https://archiveofourown.org/works/7562599/chapters/17386390. Chapter 4: IV.
11. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 1 - The Forest of Fire.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 27 October 2017. https://archiveofourown.org/works/12036105/chapters/28495692. Chapter 6: The Court of Five Thrones.
12. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Court of Five Thrones.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 26 February 2015. https://archiveofourown.org/works/1749290/chapters/7541705. Chapter 32: Limbo.
13. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 3 - The Ice Plague.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 8 October 2021. https://archiveofourown.org/works/26266345/chapters/65621236. Chapter 4: Esgrettio.
14. ↑ not\_poignant. “Game Theory.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 22 August 2013. https://archiveofourown.org/works/915296/chapters/1826870. Chapter 5: Status.
15. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 1 - The Forest of Fire.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 10 August 2018. https://archiveofourown.org/works/12036105/chapters/36302208. Chapter 26: A Familiar Blue.
16. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 1 - The Forest of Fire.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 13 April 2018. https://archiveofourown.org/works/12036105/chapters/33001740. Chapter 19: Stronger Than Love.
17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 "Knight of the Swan, Dolopathos". Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight\_of\_the\_Swan#Dolopathos. Accessed 3 May 2021.
18. ↑ "The Six Swans". Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Six\_Swans. Accessed 3 May 2021.
19. ↑ "Swan Lake". Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan\_Lake. Accessed 20 May 2021.
20. ↑ "The White Duck". Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_White\_Duck. Accessed 20 May 2021.