Oberon

**Oberon** is a classless Seelie fae, and a member of the Coalition of the Classless.

## Appearance

When he appears in *The Court of Five Thrones*, he is 'bedecked in the leather leaf-workings of his kind'.

## Life

Oberon is the consort of Titania, former Queen of the Seelie Court. It's unknown if he 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.

Since Gwyn ap Nudd requests Marika's help to ask for representatives from the Seelie classless fae as part of the Coalition of the Classless, it's likely Marika reaches out to Oberon as an attendee. He later appears at the Coalition as one of the Seelie representatives. The Coalition decides on and imposes sanctions on both Courts to end Albion's war with the Unseelie Court, stopping them from sending their militaries against each other, outside of territorial disputes, for a decade. Albion is to stop bothering inter-alignment communities, and Gwyn is to stop assassinating Seelie Courtiers and calling in his life debts to disrupt Seelie politics. The Coalition also assigns two members of the Coalition to serve as observers at the opposing alignment's Court, to make sure they are following through with the sanctions, though Old Pete serves as the Seelie representative to the Unseelie Court.

When Olphix steals the powers of the Classless during the ice plague, it's implied that Olphix takes some or all of Oberon's powers, though Oberon's fate is unknown.

## Relationships

### Titania

Little is known about Titania, but of the little that is known about her relationship with Oberon, in *The Court of Five Thrones*, it is stated that she chooses Oberon as consort largely because of his substantial power (and also his beauty). It is unclear if Titania is still alive when Oberon appears in *The Court of Five Thrones*.

## Folklore/Mythology

'The name Oberon is first attested to in the early 13th century *chanson de geste* entitled *Les Prouesses et faitz du noble Huon de Bordeaux*, wherein it refers to an elven man of the forest encountered by the eponymous hero. Huon, son of Seguin count of Bordeaux, passed through the forest inhabited by Oberon. He was warned by a hermit not to speak to Oberon, but his courtesy had him answer Oberon's greetings and so gain his aid in his quest. Huon had murdered Charlot, the Emperor's son, in self-defense, and so he must visit the court of the amir of Babylon and perform various feats to win a pardon. He succeeds only with Oberon's aid.

This elf is dwarfish in height, though very handsome. He explains that, at his christening, an offended fairy cursed him to dwarfish height . . . but relented and gave him great beauty as compensation. . . . The real Seguin was Count of Bordeaux under Louis the Pious in 839 and died fighting against the Normans in 845. Charles l'Enfant, a son of Charles the Bald, died in 866 of wounds inflicted by a certain *Aubouin* in the circumstances of an ambush similar to the *Charlot* of the story. Thus, Oberon appears in a 13th-century French courtly fantasy that is based on a shred of 9th century fact. He is given some Celtic trappings, such as a magical cup (similar to the Holy Grail or the cornucopia) that is ever full for the virtuous. "The magic cup supplied their evening meal; for such was its virtue that it afforded not only wine, but more solid fare when desired", according to Thomas Bulfinch. In this story, he is said to be the child of Morgan le Fay and Julius Caesar.

A manuscript of the romance in the city of Turin contains a prologue to the story of *Huon de Bordeaux* in the shape of a separate romance of Auberon and four sequels and there are later French versions as well.

Shakespeare saw or heard of the French heroic song through the c. 1540 translation of John Bourchier, Lord Berners, called *Huon of Burdeuxe*. In Philip Henslowe's diary, there is a note of a performance of a play *Hewen of Burdocize* on 28 December 1593.

. . . In William Shakespeare's *A Midsummer Night's Dream*, written in 1595/96, Oberon is the king of all of the fairies and is engaged in a dispute with his wife Titania, the fairy queen.'

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 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.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 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.
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.
4. ↑ "Oberon". Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oberon. Accessed 24 May 2021.