born the daughter of a knight who had sworn fealty and servitude to the bannorn of rainesfere in ferelden, riza hawkeye had little memory from her youth as a soldier's child. her father, berthold hawkeye, had served as a soldier to the bann before discovering his innate magic and then resigning from the ranks, taking his family into the solitude of the hinterlands.
berthold quickly became a brilliant mage and a productive student of arcane arts, quickly gaining fame among the locals as 'master hawkeye.' he developed an intricate and destructive method of lyrium control : being able to manipulate the flow of lyrium in any form (be it gaseous, refined liquid, or its solid ore form) and cause it to combust or catch fire at will, being able to cut the flow of air from an opponent and even setting the lyrium in a mage's bloodstream on fire : an ability only seekers had been able to perform thus far. one of berthold's students, a young noble mage raised outside the confines of the circle named roy mustang, learned and performed the basis of this ability despite its extreme difficulty, making him an extremely prodigious student to master hawkeye — and the subject of riza's jealousy and ire for further distancing her from her own father.
refusing to give mustang the last of the secrets to his studies because of his want to join the military, berthold rebuked the boy and they parted on bad terms. however, master hawkeye feared his research falling into the wrong hands, and so he tattooed the last of his findings into a coded array on his own daughter's back. riza buried the last of her family shortly after.
as a templar,
at eighteen, riza gathered her resolve and — having been inspired by mustang's want to serve as a soldier — returned to martial duties and begged the templar order at kinloch hold to train her. despite her age, they had accepted her into their ranks and she had quickly become one of their most prestigious soldiers. unlike most templars however, who served as warriors and footmen, riza trained as a rogue, with a speciality in long-form shooting and espionage.
two years later, after an event at the frostback border wherein a number of orlesian soldiers had been apparently killed in a manner which had matched the magic studies of her father, decorated soldier and sudden lord roy mustang reappeared in ferelden. after they had been reacquainted and she had defended him from accusations by a fellow templar that he had been a mage, riza left the templar order as roy's adjutant as he crafts plans to ensure his ascension to the ferelden throne.
miscellaneous notes,
riza is an npc available in the length of the series. unlike most adjutants who serve as sword-and-shield bodyguards, riza is a rogue archer and specialises in craft-form bows and longbows.
her major role is as adjutant to roy mustang, who is an integral candidate for the ferelden throne during the 9:30 dragon landsmeet. as such, she will do her utmost to convince the warden to choose him as their vote for the throne during the quest. for the sake of most of roy's political scheming and courting of noble houses (specifically of noble marriages) in order to reduce scandal, riza dresses like a boy. she often shields her face, rarely talks, and keeps her hair short, with her physique making her perceived gender to be unclear. should the warden follow heavily into her questline, she will eventually reveal herself as a woman.
during the interregnum, riza and roy visit kirkwall and make the acquaintance of the champion. their main purpose there is to discover the dangerous origins of red lyrium, and attempt to reverse their dangerous effects on riza's body. should hawke have low approval with either roy or riza, she will end up as meredith's entranced hostage, and serve as a miniboss before meredith. if hawke manages to save her by defeating her or acquiring high approval with the two, riza will begin to ween herself off lyrium to better serve roy.
roy and to extent riza serve the inquisitor in different ways, depending on his state at the end of origins. had he been chosen king of ferelden, she becomes a party member serving the interests of ferelden as a way for roy to monitor the war on corypheus. if roy had not been chosen for king at the landsmeet, riza offers a solution to a hesitant inquisitor in which he leads the inquisition, and they retain their ability as an important asset to close fade rifts.
devotion, to its barest and whitest of bones : love as a willing fetter, a love beyond love itself.
riza and roy, for @nowincolor :
take me to the farthest corners of the world, take me away from home, take me into the mouth of the beast, take me into hell with you. but do not step beyond the space where i cannot. don't you dare.
geoffery chaucer, the ellesmere illuminated manuscript's 'the tale of the knight' from the canterbury tales / 'to the dead,' frank bidart / maggie stiefvater, the raven king
st. george and the dragon, briton rivière (1908) / fullmetal alchemist: brotherhood 16 'footsteps of a comrade-in-arms' / 'good-bye my fancy,' walt whitman
the green knight, david lowery (2021) / deactivated user / 'i cannot be known,' paul eluard
'how, after long fighting, galehaut was overcome by lancelot yet was not slain and made great speed to yield to friendship; or, galehaut, the knight of the forfeit,' daniel m lavery / the wheel of time 1.5 'blood calls blood' / 'planet of love,' richard siken
'chapter 95: beyond the inferno,' hiromu arakawa in fullmetal alchemist / tamsyn muir, gideon the ninth
born the third of seven children, percival de rolo acquired the sight from a family of mundanes tasked with guarding the institute of leicester as victorian nobility : diplomats or clerks for their shadowhunter employers. but when the mysterious downworlder couple of the briarwoods — the vampire silas and the warlock delilah — is invited under peaceful means into the institute to discuss negotiations, they violently take over the establishment and kill all of the de rolos in a savage coup that the clave often does not speak of behind closed doors. having escaped with the help of his youngest sister cassandra, the latter of whom is savagely recaptured, percy leaves the ruins of his home to move south, swearing vengeance on the briarwoods and every downworlder that had affiliated with them.
percy's insecurities and thirst for vengeance attracts the demon orthax, who promises great wisdom and means for revenge in exchange for possession of his body. herein lies a strange combination of both the humane and demonic, where orthax feeds percy with arcane and supernatural knowledge and means to create firearms capable of taking down vampires and shadowhunters alike in exchange for his growing power that will eventually take all of the downworld for his own.
percy is strictly human. he is neither shadowhunter nor downworlder, instead possessed by a demon that gives him incredible edge against both nephilim and downworlder. he is capable of small feats of shadow magic and seraph blades (due to his mortal nature) are useless against him. the guns made by percy with assistance from orthax target shadowhunter and downworlder weaknesses, such as rendering their runes useless or elemental damage towards downworlders. this could be contrasted to james herondale's gun from chain of iron, though of a more powerful variety.
when unhinged and without cause, percy is a vigilante killing downworlders (mostly bloodthirsty vampires or ambitious warlocks) and nephilim who corrupt their power. he especially has little to no faith with the clave or nephilim associated with it, as they abandoned his family's institute to die and covered up their massacre due to them being simple mundanes.
being possessed by orthax, percy's possessed nature is relatively difficult to detect unless in bouts of extreme anger or stress, when orthax merges with his body. however, shadowhunters with special demon senses or sight affinity may recognise his possession especially if the demon finds itself necessary to hide.
in the last events of clockwork princess, tessa is captured by the warlock sisters mrs black and mrs dark, to be spirited away to cadair idris to finally join forces with mortmain in order to further his plans. however after finally meeting his demands to speak with his father, she kills mortmain. it was an accident, something unfortunate whereupon the summoning of a warlock would have unleashed something colder in her blood. a handshake becomes lashes of necrotic energy that began to seep away at mortmain's mortality.
in truth, the manifestation of her father's full power begins to creep through her veins and in the darkness of the mountain, wracked with the loss of will from her soul and the death of jem and the shock of taking a mortal's life, she hardens her resolve in a prison that becomes her palace. that timid girl dies there and then speaks with her cursed father in that unfathomable night and exchanges some vestiges of her shadowhunter divinity for a measure of some of his power. it becomes enough to assume control of the remains of mortmain's army. she becomes the heiress to that dark progeniture, and nothing will stop her now.
idealism,
tessa's goal in the assumption of mortmain’s clockwork army and resources is the complete eradication of the shadowhunter and downworlder existence, instead of one side. no more shall the grief of demons hurt those she loves, no more will they take her family from her. her goal is to erase both the clave and the existing downworlder communities with the army, but she is open to being reasoned with. pacifism would trump her necessity for violence above all else, in only due to the fact that negotiations not in her favour do not last long.
death-turned,
in assuming her father's power, tessa grows features similar to his : grey hair that grows long and unkempt, with yellow eyes and dark shadows tracing her every step. her voice grows into an amalgam of all the people she had turned into and her changing ability has advanced so much that she need not focus as hard to change from one form to another.
for love,
tessa maintains her headquarters at cadair idris and it becomes natural that the shadowhunters and downworlders alike will move to stop her. will herondale and the newly changed brother zachariah are the only two left who could possibly convince her to spare the entirety of the nephilim and downworlder environment, for she will do anything to convince the two soulmates she loves otherwise ; even going so far as to present them with the demons that had ruined their lives for them to kill.
if they manage to turn her, the heavenly fire of ithuriel burns the strength of belial from her blood, rendering her powers weak for the next few decades to come.
the art of fae sorcery is difficult to both learn and master. like human sorcery, which is a talent born onto a specific demographic of humans, only few among the fae are able to practise sorcery ; they usually consist of rulers of courts or their descendants, or other variations of fae nobility, though there have been many notable exceptions in the past few years.
magic versus sorcery,
magic to fae is natural as breathing, and every fae — whether high or low born — is capable of performing magic. this is considered natural elemental manipulation such as water and wind, and the manipulation of light (for the seelie fae) and shadow (for the unseelie fae) . pixies, goblins and wood sprites, for example, are capable of bending elements under their jurisdiction and either light or darkness, never both. sorcery, meanwhile, is rare, and is an ancient art mastered by the aos sídhe, old fae who specialise in the craft. sorcery allows one to manipulate elements outside of one’s elemental restrictions (such as a wind fae being able to manipulate water or fire, and so on) and allows them great feats even among other fae.
the six elements,
basic fae sorcery deals with the manipulation of six elements, each corresponding to a different name and responding in a cycle : aim (fire) , bei (wind) , col (water) , dai (earth) , with fire leading to wind leading to water leading to earth. the other two elements are eadhad (light) and iodhad (shadow) , which cannot overpower the other and are locked in constant conflict.
some sorcerers have a usual affinity for one or two elements, or perhaps a combination of both. some sorcerers also have mastery over most of them. to cast an elemental spell and manipulate the element, one must first name it to command it to one’s bidding. this is otherwise called a spell, or a cantrip. the call is the syllable -a, which to the element compels it to action, and is usually suffixed at the last part of the name. to summon fire would to call it aim, but to summons fire and command it launch, one must create a conduit for receiving it, such as opening one’s palms or outstretching them, and recite aima, the basic spell for fire.
other callings include -as, an intermediate spell, and -asadh, an advanced spell. these can be attached to elements accordingly (for example : daias as an intermediate earth spell, eadhadas as an intermediate light spell, or colasadh as an advanced water spell) . the greater the call, the more actions an element could be compelled to do. the most powerful cantrips of each element prefix themselves with the call lúi-, which demands power. only advanced sorcerers are capable of demanding power from elements (for example : lúibeia, lúieadhada, lúiodhada) .
combinations,
the four elements are capable of being combined in unique ways in order to manipulate more elements, with their cantrips differing as well. a combination of water and wind can yield one of two elements : ice or mist. in order to call upon a specific element, the cantrip must put the focused element before the second element, before the call. for example, to summon ice, the cantrip to be used is beicola, with water preceding wind. to summon mist, the cantrip to be used is colbeia, with wind preceding water.
other elemental combinations are lava and ore (fire and earth) , wood or mud (earth and water) , and lightning and temperature (fire and air) .
love is selfish, it makes you a country of two : at war with the rest of the world.
yor and twilight, for @mysteriae :
i met us in the midst of a false quiet, and we walk on the street as you look at me ; just like the world is gone. it conglomerates when you walk. look at me.
nickie zimov / anaïs nin to henry miller / 'tell me gently,' laura marris
deactivated user / notorious, alfred hitchcock (1946) / franz kafka to milena jesenká / 'dominique present today,' paul eluard
when the moon was in the seventh house, ashley e. walters (2013) / tatsuya endo, spy x family / thomas pynchon, gravity’s rainbow / vladimir nabokov to his wife vera
katrien de blauwer / spy x family 1.24 'mother and wife/friends and groceries' / svetlana alexeivich quoting lyudmilla ignatenko (tr. keith gessen) / alain de botton, essays in love
le feu follet, louis malle (1963) / jeff vandermeer, hummingbird salamander / 'the girl from ipanema,' performed by frank sinatra and antonio carlos jobim
* the queen of air and darkness, seethes and waits and blooms.
my canon influences for morgana le fey.
this post serves as both a list of all the influences i take from the immortal canon of morgana le fey, and a reading to basic matter of britain canon in general. i will define in more specific terms the details of morgana under the cut regarding each media, and some facts regarding morgana's journey as a character. where available, i will also link the work as the link in their headers, because most of this shit is in the public domain, so definitely give reading it a try.
vita merlini, attributed to geoffery of monmouth (tr. by john jay parry) .
translated from latin as the life of merlin. the author of this poem is unknown, though scholars believe now that it's probably geoffery of monmouth, one of the earliest writers of arthurian texts, written around 1150 AD. his name is familiar to you because he also wrote historia regum britanniae : a list of kings basically, wherein the earliest of arthurian mythos canon (arthur-king, the betrayal of mordred, the battle of camelot, the isle of avalon) is found. written entirely in hexameter, this poem focuses entirely on the character of merlin, but it's significant for it being the first time morgana by name is mentioned in matter of britain canon.
historia mentions the isle of avalon, but vita explains the island in a bit more detail. in a tirade, merlin talks about the islands of the world and focuses on the isle of avalon (written in cornish as enys avalow, or literally the isle of apples) as the residence of the chief of the nine sorcerer queens morgen. she is capable of magic — though here used for good — and is learned in herbology, mathematics, shapeshifting, and healing. she and her eight sisters are to care for the dying arthur once he is brought to them after the battle of camlann : the final stand by arthur against the onslaught of his traitorous nephew mordred.
it's debated, but morgen here is probably derived by geoffery of monmouth by a number of influences, including : the mythological greek figures of circe and medea, the morrígan of irish forlklore, or modron / dea modron of welsh folklore. avalon itself is linked with the mysterious tír na nóg and the mystical niamh and deirdre. morgen's name itself also has roots in myth and superstition ; morgen here comes from the old welsh / briton moryen or morien, from its old irish cognate muirgen, meaning sea-born. the name muirgen itself shares its name with a shapeshifting mermaid from old irish folklore, whose name has also been translated as muirgeilt (meaning sea-wanderer) .
érec et énide, chrétien de troyes (tr. by w. w. comfort) .
translated as eric and enide from the french. known as the very first writer in the ' this is my oc do not steal ' category of fiction, chrétien de troyes is probably the most widely-read arthurian author for romance, and his character lancelot du lac is probably familiar to you just from proxy of his influence today. this poem is the first from his five romances (the later ones being that regarding lancelot) . it's a kind of boring courtly love story between knight erec and lady enide for over 7,000 lines of french.
it's important for our purposes because a character named guigomar appears in it, and is said to have romantic relations to a mysterious morgan, who herself has many connections to supernatural magic and celtic otherworlds. guigomar is the nephew of both arthur and his wife guinevere, and this poem is the first we get of the rivalry between guinevere and morgan. this is also the first time we get mention of the name perilous vale, a mysterious forest often associated with morgan. here, we also get the first mention of morgan being arthur's sister, though the relation is still largely unclear.
the vulgate cycle.
also called lancelot-grail, this anonymous (and frankly, huge) compilation of french prose was published in the 13th century and expanded on the poems of gautier map and robert de boron, as a kind of chronological retelling of arthur up until that point, a retelling of the stories discussed above and more in an attempt to make one consistent canon. this is deeply important in canon for establishing the following :
arthur is taken away from his birth parents by merlin, into the household of ector and his son kay. kay and arthur grow up as foster brothers — with kay the obvious noble and arthur his squire — until an accident has arthur pull the sword from the stone where he is declared king of england.
the lady of the lake is canonised as lancelot's mother and the keeper of excalibur, the famed sword.
arthur lives with his round table of knights and his queen guinevere in his castle of camelot, in the kingdom of logres.
the affair between lancelot and guinevere, where it was treated as romantic and courtly love in the time of de troyes, is now heavily scrutinised as basically adultery.
it introduces the concept of the quest for the holy grail that's basically synonymous with king arthur, and the knight perceval who accomplishes the quest.
it introduces more knights, such as : yvain, bors, and galahad, the latter of whom is lancelot's illegitimate son.
for reasons that are probably linked to attempting to make her anti-christian, morgana in the vulgate becomes a more chaotic, sinister, ambitious character, becoming closer to her more popular villanous archetype. most of the episodes in the vulgate have her as a cackly witch-like temptress who is a foil to the fair and royal guinevere. she gets caught up in multiple sexual affairs with arthur's knights, especially lancelot (a story beat which i genuinely hate) to further this comparison.
despite this, morgana is fleshed out heavily in the vulgate and is given a backstory based on merlin by robert de boron : where she is the illegitimate daughter of lady ingraine ( arthur's mother ) and a minor noble, making her arthur's maternal older half-sister. she is sent away on an education to study supernatural spells and rituals, from which she gets her moniker la fée (meaning the fairy from french) because of her vast knowledge and magic abilities. this later translates into having her father become gorlois, duke of cornwall, who is defeated by then-king uther pendragon in a war for gorlois' wife, igraine. she is adopted into king uther's household with her other two sisters (famously now elaine and morgause) before she is sent to a convent to study after the birth of arthur. there, she masters knowledge, herbology, astrology and science. in some traditions, she is instead taught by merlin.
the vulgate also fleshes out morgana's relationship with guinevere, where in their youth, the two of them were close friends, with even morgana being guinevere's lady in waiting. however, guinevere one night catches morgana in an unmarried affair with guiomar (that guy in love with a fae queen from earlier) and tells guiomar to break up with her. this begins their lifelong feud for morgana to take the crown and usurp her half-brother and his wife for camelot. this story also becomes the origin of perilous vale, when guiomar ends their affair and a heartbroken morgana imprisons him in a deep wood that becomes val sans retour (the valley of no return) which is now pinpointed to be in the real-world paimpont / brocéliande forest. this is also believed to be the forest which houses trémelin lake, supposed abode of the lady of the lake.
but it's not all villain-arc for morgana. in one of the later books, arthur manages to find himself in the realm of morgana, who is now reformed and longs for life in solitude and retirement, and the siblings reconcile. however, she accidentally reveals to him the affair of guinevere and lancelot and an angered arthur returns to camelot and declares war, breaking the round table's fellowship. in the ensuing fight, camelot becomes weakened by the fight by lancelot and allows mordred and his own army to storm and kill arthur. he is led to his resting place by morgana and her sorceress siblings to avalon, where she is often pointed out in visual motifs as the chief mourner on the boat to avalon.
the vulgate is a huge leap for morgana lore, but i don't recommend reading it, because it's boring and doesn't tell the story well, if i'm honest. and because there's a book here that does that better.
le mort d'arthur, sir thomas malory (the ernest rhys version) .
split into two volumes, thomas malory's le mort d'arthur was published during a high-time revival of arthur in england. it is the quintessential arthur literature. you honestly don't need any other book other than this if you love arthur and want to learn about the lore. it's basically a rebranded, rewritten vulgate cycle but written for a more modern audience and organised in a consistent manner.
morgana here is less of a grey character as seen in the vulgate and is more consistently evil. she — and not mordred — is seen as the most dangerous threat to camelot, because of her knowledge of black magic and ambition. she is basically the kind of female figure that medieval writers fear in terms of sexual and ambitious power, and malory's misogyny in life definitely does not help morgana's character in any case. she is seen as a kind of saturday-morning cartoon villain to foil knights on quests or prank queen guinevere, which is kind of camp and fun.
however, unlike the vulgate, morgana has no part in revealing lancelot's affair to her brother (which, to me, sucks ; i think she should be the one to reluctantly tell him) and when she makes peace with him at the end of his life, it's also largely unexplained.
other miscellaneous bits of morgana that i love.
and there are just some other stuff from her more modern iterations and interpretations that i think are neat. here are a few.
morgana pendragon : as she's played by katie mcgrath in the bbc show merlin, who is also an excellent alternative faceclaim. i love the idea of her having her father's name and really pushing for that ' true heir to the throne ' ruthlessness seen in her other repetitions. i've only watched, like some two and a half seasons of merlin, and i do have some catching up.
'the last defender of camelot' : a short story written in the late 70's by robert zelanzy and tells the tale of an immortal and jaded lancelot, who has lived to the present day and who is now assisted by a reluctant and concerned morgana in order to vanquish merlin. this is arthuriana at its most interesting, where it takes enough liberty with its source material to do something interesting while respecting the tradition of the characters, such as lancelot being steadfast and heroic, and morgana being ambitious but mercurial. also, it was a twilight zone episode.
dance of death : du lac & fey : perhaps the main reason why i wanted to revisit morgana in the first place. taking after the tradition of zelanzy with lancelot and morgana, the two instead have been immortal beings since the time of the fall of camelot and go around as a crime-solving duo, but with one twist : morgana is cursed to be a dog and cannot access the full capability of her magical powers. set in the forefront of victorian london, in the middle of the ripper killings, the pair realise involve their plans to seek out merlin. played with extreme cleverness and wit by perdita weekes, morgana is an excellent main character and narrator alongside the charismatic, noble, yet oblivious lancelot (performed with extreme talent by gareth david lloyd, who is the voice of solas dragon age, and the reason i also picked up this game in the first place, yes, judge me idc) . this pairing is also excellent in terms of the found family angry roommates dynamic i adore, and makes me wonder about the deeper implications morgana has concerning arthur and his knights outside any romantic interest.
anyway, i'm glad you stuck through that, and i hope i gave you some interest in not only morgana and plotting with her, but writing some arthuriana yourself. the only reason the legend persists, after all, is because we choose to tell it.
here are also some great further readings i use for some extra content, that might interest you :
the once and future king, t. h. white
monty python and the holy grail (1975) , which is to me the arthur screen adaptation
the mists of avalon, marion zimmer bradley, whom i suggest you research before you engage with any of her work
as one of the fae lords, the ruler of the autumn court, and one of the only few aos sídhe still alive, fiadhaích has amassed an intense amount of skill and arcane knowledge which has only grown more impressive as millennia passes them by.
chlorokinesis : the ability to manipulate shrubs, more prone to using otherwise dead shrubbery.
umbrakinesis : the ability to manipulate darkness and shadows, only in the natural unseelie capacity of magic.
terrakinesis : the ability to manipulate earth and soil.
cariesgenesis : the ability to manipulate decay and rot.
herbalism : knowledge of plants and fungi to create into toxins or healing, but used primarily for the crafting of poisons.
skilled sorcerer : the most skilled and knowledgeable of the unseelie fae in the arcane arts and dark magic, and casts spells and cantrips with ease. this allows them to manipulate elements (such as fire, wind, lightning, water, mist) and reality (transformation, teleportation, transmutation) in ways very few fae can.
necromancy : this is usually limited to mere communication with the dead ; it takes a great deal of power for them to resurrect or raise the dead.
casting and vision of glamours : the ability to manipulate or see through various glamours.
telekinesis and telepathy : the ability to manipulate objects' movement and read one's mind.
mental manipulation : the ability to influence the thoughts and desires of humans.
immortality : cannot die from illness or old age.
nature affinity : the ability to commune with and speak with animals of all kind and bind their feeling and desires to his own. they are also spiritually bound to the alder wood, meaning if the woods die or suffer from illness, so does he, and vice versa. if the forest flourishes, especially during the fall, so will they. they are especially strongest during the autumn equinox.
shapeshifting : the ability to transform into a variety of plants or animals ; this power is limited to any creature that reside in or step foot into the alder wood.
omniscience : limited to the scope of the alder wood, but through his affinity with the forest, they are aware of everything and anything within it.
forgemaster : they were once skilled with the ability to forge swords and other weaponry made entirely of fae magic, completely indestructible and which guaranteed victory to whoever wielded them in battle.
skilled scythe wielder : though no longer practicing the ability, they were able to once wield the great war - scythe cathaoir.
centred in the middle of the alder wood lies the house of leaves, the court and residence of fiadhaích. it is a tall, mostly indecipherable and indescribable structure, almost appearing as an amalgam of different mansions and houses combatting each other for space, merging together haphazardly in juxtaposing and violent ways.
the main doors open to a large and beautiful courtyard open to the air, but beyond that, once one ventures foolishly into the adjacent wings without assistance, the house grows so impossibly large, twisting and turning with hallways longer than miles, than years. doors lead to more doors, leading to rooms with more doors. one may easily find themselves lost in the house as easily as in a labyrinth and wood, and it is not uncommon to find the memorabilia of those who have tried before you scattering across the countless hallways. in one room the windows open to trees with hanging starlight, and another to a garden lit by the sun despite the dusk out the windows. one room leads to a garden from which rubies hang off the branches, and another a library more massive than the building seen outside. one holds all the gems in the world, another a wardrobe for kings and queens, and yet another perpetually on fire. no one has tried to count all the rooms of the house, and it seems to grow more rooms and lose them in equal amount with each passing year. some fae say they number in the thousands, yet the host keeps knowledge of them all.
the house, like all things, is living, and will shift in accordance with both the will of its master first and its own will second. only fiadhaích knows the way through the house with ease, as if the door he chooses is the door it had meant all along. no one resides in the house but him.
fae lore differs from culture to culture. the one i am writing takes inspiration from various other lore that currently or had existed, mostly from ireland and old gaelic folklore. what follows is mostly a guide for understanding both fiadhaích's character and the world he lives in. please do not use this for metagaming or allowing your muse to easily overpower the fae. this is also not a complete list, and will be continuously written the more i explore the world of the fae.
rules and respect among fae,
fae cannot lie, but they will always find loopholes or vague wording in order to change the meaning of the words in order to manipulate situations to their benefit or in trickery. do not strike bargains with them even if they seem to benefit you, it will not serve you well in the end.
do not steal from them or lie to them, or eat of their food and drink of their mead.
do not under any circumstances give a fae your name. names are power and it is best this is remembered when speaking to them. for a fae to remember your name means to give up your being, your essence, to their control.
faerie rings are dangerous when sighted, and should not be ignored or turned back against. to step into one means to be cursed, and to see one without giving proper respect would mean illness, or bad luck for life.
fae have two forms : one that is usually indecipherable or eldritch to humans, and one that is purely human in appearance, with only their pointed ears giving them away. older fae have a propensity for preferring their more natural form.
the seelie and unseelie,
the two types of fae group — the seelie and unseelie — are usually characterised as seelie being good or 'light fae' and the unseelie being evil or 'dark fae,' which is not always the case. the seelie are kinder and patient with disrespect and indiscretion given to them by humans, the unseelie are not and never forget when they are wronged. contrary to popular belief, the seelie and unseelie are not locked in constant combat between dark and light, but usually fall victim to power struggles and opportunists both within and between the courts. call it a mild indifference towards one another : aware of each other's existence, but caring very little for each other, or not at all.
on iron,
iron is the only metal capable of wounding fae, and prolonged contact towards it will usually kill them instantly. as such, most variations of fae will find a way to trick humans into letting go of iron weaponry once entranced.
the iron itself cannot be simple iron but metal that is infused with specific cantrips and spells to the killing of fae. this is referred to has fae-felling iron. a fae who has been cut with iron or pierced by it suffers from extreme poisoning, which can lead to a slow and painful death or an instantaneous one depending on varying circumstances including type of fae, previous resistance to iron, and so on.
while rare, fae who have survived iron poisoning are easy to identify, as they have a distinctive white streak in their hair as a result of the iron neutralising magic their bodies.
the aos sídhe,
the aos sídhe are a supernatural subset of the fae said to have been descended from the tuatha dé danann, the deity race of old ireland. they are said to walk in a parallel 'mirror world' from ours with the ability to manipulate and maintain the barrier, and are the most expert practitioners of fae magic or sorcery that have served both the seelie and unseelie courts for thousands of years. usually they are stationed as guardians or retainers to leaders of courts. they are often symbols of great power, and nowadays they are exceedingly rare among the courts. fiadhaích is one of the last few aos sídhe to still be alive to this day.
the courts,
each of the four seasons fall under the domain of one of four lords : a type of powerful faerie given responsibility over the season by old gods. the seelie rule over the courts of spring and summer, while the unseelie rule over autumn and winter ; they are ferelith of the aineswood (spring court) , king e'eren of the seelie (summer court) , fiadhaích of the alder wood (autumn court) , and queen méadhbh of the unseelie (winter court) . no matter their gender, they are referred to as 'lord.'
each of the four elements corresponds to each court — summer to fire, autumn to wind, winter to water, and spring to earth. as such, fae are usually strongest during the summer and winter solstices and spring and autumn equinoxes, but weakest at the end of their seasons.
fae magic,
high - ranking fae such as the four lords or their highest subordinates are usually brilliant practitioners of magic, which are limited to either photokinesis (light manipulation, for the seelie) or umbrakinesis (shadow manipulation, for the unseelie) . the lords also specialise in elemental magic corresponding to their respective season.
the main difference between sorcery and magic is that magic is an instinctual ability born within fae that the are able to perform. sorcery is more sporadic, and is a gift that must be taught. magic is teaching a child how to walk, sorcery is teaching one how to fly. therefore very few fae can practise sorcery. usually spells and cantrips are carved as runes onto various objects like boughs, leaves, papers, skulls, and magic is channelled as to collect power from these objects. expert uses of magic usually have runes or cantrips tattooed onto their bodies to enhance their power, written in the ogham writing corresponding to spells.
