Fae

File:Matilda Knight.jpg

## History

Throughout the world, Fae (or fairies, faeries, fays, fae folk, faerie folk, fair folk, and all manner of other derivations) are known for their timeless beauty, powerful magical gifts, mischief, and love of stories. The Fae come from the deepest and most remote parts of the Void, known as the Fair Lands born from raw essence (also called wild essence or Sidhean magic). They belong to three major courts, the Seelie Court, the Unseelie Court, and the Sheeda Court; and in addition to those courts of which they dedicate their political allegiance, there are six major classes of Fae: the Summer Folk, the Autumn Folk, the Winter Folk, the Vernal Folk, the Noble Folk, and the Common Folk. Fae come in many shapes and some scholars believe they are so diverse that they may not even be a related species, only a collection of different beings who conform to a different cultural identity.

Not all Fae are allowed in the Fair Lands, some of them were exiled due to corruption of the Bleed. These are the Sheeda, a rogue faction that invades various dimensions. Another type of Fae with Bleed corruption are Dream Vortexes, rare beings that possess humans and are toxic to the Dreaming.

## The Fae Courts

* **The Seelie**, while more benevolent by their nature, one should not interpret to mean the same as "good," because they're not good. They may be kind, but they are the more manipulative of the Courts. The Seelie are ruled by King Auberon and Queen Titania.
* **The Unseelie Court** is more directly cruel, particularly toward humans and outsiders. That's not to mean they're unreasonable or evil. They're just more blunt and mean-spirited than the Seelie. The Unseelie are ruled by King Finvarra and his Fable queen Morgaine le Fey.
* **The Sheeda** are corrupted by the Bleed and while it is treated as a political faction, it's more of an infection. The Sheeda are ruled by King Melmoth and Queen Gloriana.
* **The Solitaries** are the Fae that live outside of the court systems, usually due to living on another plane or living on the border between the Seelie and the Unseelie where the need for political affiliation is relaxed. The most notable tricksters are usually Solitary, bouncing between the two main Courts as needed.

## The Rules

* **Power of Names:** If a Faerie knows the full, true name of a human or of another Faerie, they have power over that being. The most powerful Faerie magic requires knowledge of true names. Humans, even humans without magical ability, are able to gain great boons from faeries if they discover their true name as most Fae would do anything in their power to have a person agree to forget their name (which would be magically reinforced). However, a birth name is not often the true name of a person. Many magicians undergo rights to take on new names when they begin down the magical path, never revealing their new name except during private, powerful rituals or when reinforcing pacts between allies.
* **Contracts:** Contracts are sacred things in the Fair Lands. Even a verbal agreement is considered sacrosanct. Violation of a contract comes with harsh penalties if the violation goes unforgiven.
* **Fae Food:** If humans eat Fae food they become ‘fae marked.' Faeries can sense a person who has eaten faerie food for several months after the consuming of faerie food and such mortals are more inclined to be chosen for abductions to the Fair Lands. If a person eats Fae food in Faerie lands, the effect is stronger and they may become addicted to the glamour-enriched food. Glamour addicts are usually unable to stomach normal food ever again and often, as a result, become trapped in the Fair Lands.
* **The Sight:** Humans capable of seeing Fae in the mortal realm due to having supernatural sight are often regarded as higher class visitors in the Fair Lands. They are given most of the same rights as Fae citizens, especially by the Seelie Court, but are likewise treated more harshly for violations of Fae law.
* **Iron:** Faeries can not stand the touch of unforged iron, it burns and weakens them. Cold-wrought iron weaponry can kill them. Modern cities are risky for the Fae to live in because they risk running into iron, though that risk has been lessened by usage of modern metal smiting and the preference for steel.
* **The Truth:** Faeries cannot usually lie (it is considered a breach of contract). So they often have become masters of language to twist their words around and still be able to get what they want. They can tell half-truths and some more powerful Fae, such as Noble Fair Folk, can tell white lies. The only fae capable of complete deception are the most cunning tricksters.
* **Glamour:** The main magic that all Fae possess lets them manipulate how and what humans see. It lets them hide, change their appearances, disguise objects as other objects, create illusions out of thin air, and so forth. Glamour is among the most powerfully illusionary magic, which is so strong that its illusions become quasi-real and tangible.
* **Breeding:** Fae Blood breeds true. A child of a Fae and mortal is a half-fae. If that child has children with a human, the child is quarter-fae or fae-blooded. All children born of that lineage will also remain quarter-fae or fae-blooded for five generations before the fae-blood aspect simply disappears. If a half-fae or a fae-blooded mate with a fae, the child produced is always a full-blooded fae.
* **Charms:** Faeries have a sacred reverence for the Rowan Tree and charm made of its wood can protect travelers in the Fair Lands. Other charms which can protect one from Sidhean mischief include wearing one's clothing inside out, wearing bells on your clothing, St. John's wort, and four-leaf clovers are regarded as effective. Another protection is bread and baked goods. Faeries love bread and baked goods from Earth and as such will not risk contaminating it with Sidhean magic. Eating fresh bread can even be a cure to many basic Sidhean curses.
* **Lifespan:** Fae folk are ‘functionally immortal’ in that they will live forever unless something unnatural occurs to them. Such as a severe sickness, a curse, or straight up murder. Old age and weakness may occur after thousands and thousands of years and if a Fae chooses to, they may cease to be and vanish, returning to wild essence. Half-fae can live twice as long as humans, or even longer if they live in the Fair Lands or engage in certain practices. Fae-bloods will live very healthy lives but have lifespans comparable to normal humans.

## The Fair Folk

* **The Common Folk** are the basic Faeries. Many look humanoid with one or two distinctive tells such as pointed ears, unusually bright eyes, elongated limbs, sharp noses, an unusual skin or hair color, or an odd smell. The commoners of the Fair Lands have very little innate magical ability but often make up for it by having a talent which they are inhumanly gifted at, often with magical abilities associated with it. For instance, a common fae who is an artist may be able to make paint that never loses its color or a seamstress might be able to make clothing that is indestructible but completely invisible.
* **The Winter Folk**, like all Fae, can come in many different shapes and sizes, but the Winter Folk are united in their connection to essence of the cold, ice, the night, the wind, storms, and hunting.
* **The Summer Folk** have dozens of sub-races associated with them but all have connections to heat, fire, the day, travel, and trade.
* **The Autumn Folk** are connected by their shared ties to death, decay, harvest, earth, funerals, preparations, and farewells.
* **The Vernal Folk** are all about spring, rebirth, rain, water, and new beginnings.
* **The Noble Folk** are the most powerful of the Fae. Interestingly, two Noble Folk can never produce children together so while they often secure their positions with political marriages to other Noble Fae, they often keep harems of lesser Fae and humans for procreative and entertainment purposes. The child of a Noble Fae and a Fae of the seasonal Folk always produces a Noble Fae while a Noble Folk's offspring with a Common Folk creates a seasonal fae. Noble Fae's mating with humans creates a Noble Half-Fae who is born with a twin known as a Changeling.
* **Changelings** are the result of humans coupling with Noble Fair Folk. They are often seen as a byproduct of such a mating, an imperfect twin of the more human-looking half-fae child. In the Fair Lands, Changelings look like creatures made of bundled sticks and twine roughly in the same size and shape of their twin, but on Earth, they will look identical to their twin (except for one small tell, such as a strange freckle, an odd scar, different colored eyes, a streak of discolored hair, a limp, or the inability to speak in the first person). Sometimes Changelings are sent to live on Earth with the human parent while the Fae keeps the true child. Other times the reverse happens until the child is of the proper age that the switch is made. Whatever the case, Changelings are rarely ever raised with their twin and often despise their twin. Other times, the relationship is less intentionally hostile, with the Changeling acting as a secret guardian of their twin, vicariously living through their twin's happy life as the Changeling removes obstacles for them by any means necessary.

## List of known Fae

* Tawky Tawny
* Matilda Knight
* Timothy Hunter (half-fae)
* King Auberon
* Queen Titania
* King Finvarra
* Queen Morgaine le Fey
* King Melmoth
* Queen Gloriana Tenebrae
* Vindemia Faye
* Carabosse
* Tom Horn (half-fae)
* Pinocchio (half-fae)
* Rose Dagger (half-vernal)

## Trivia and Notes

### Trivia

* First Fae appeared when Perpetua and Pralaya created a pair of stars in the Void.
* Female variety of Autumnal Fae are called banshees. They have a reputation for the heralding of the impending death usually by unnatural wailing, shrieking, or keening. Banshees are unique as they are not born from the Fair Lands, but hail from Earth. There's also "Banshee Kin" in other Seasonal Fae: Sirens in Vernal Folk, Crocotta is Summer Folk, and Snow Women in Winter Folk.
* Sirens are a vernal breed of Fae, they are also regarded as cousins to sea-nymphs by the Ancient Greeks due to having similarly heightened sex drives as the elemental daimonic nymphs.
* Elves are a subspecies of Fae descending from prolonged interbreeding with daimons. There are six known subspecies of elves:
	+ *Ljósálfar* (Light Elves), known for their fair complexion.
	+ *Dökkálfar* (Dark Elves), known for their ashen skin.
	+ *Hvítálfar* (Shining Elves), known for their silver eyes and white hair.
	+ *Myrkálfar* (Wood elves), whose name is taken from "Myrkviðr" (murky wood), an Alfheim forest considered sacred by these elves. The Myrkálfar have sap-like blood and are much closer related to daimons.
	+ *Æðríalfar* (High Elves), who are similar to Ljósálfar, but have a higher level of Fae blood than a common light elf due to having noble fae heritage. They also bleed blue blood.
* Folkvang is the Vanir word for the Fair Lands, but also the proper name for a border realm held by the Norse, lying in the light of both eldritch and sidhean stars. Many souls of the Norse (those not yet worthy of Valhalla and not deserving of Helheim) go to the Folkvang to work the gossamer fields there. The goddess Freyja has a residence here, where she oversees the souls of the Norse souls there. The Norse and Fae have an uneasy alliance, with the Seelie Court granting the Norse the Folkvang in exchange for the Norse's Valkyries agreeing to help deter Supernal and Infernal invaders from the Fair Lands.

### Notes

* In the comics the Sheeda are a race of genetically engineered or evolved descendants of humanity who attack from the future.

## Links and References

* List of Fae

1. ↑ Dinkley Files: The Fae
2. ↑ RepCap: Pralaya
3. ↑ Dinkley Files: Banshees
4. ↑ RepCap: Rose Dagger
5. ↑ Earth-27 101: 'Tis the Season
6. ↑ Dinkley Files: Gods of the Norse