#fae hc

[theforsakenmyths]

The Hunt

This is a group of fae that dates back to near the beginning of the species.  They were organized as a judgmental body for the fae.  A sort of police for certain crimes.  Until the breaking apart of the fae, the Hunt was largely quiet in their tasks, because not much required their assistance.  The civil war of the fae, however, changed this.

The Hunt was one group that was giving permission to remain unaligned, but they could come and go between both courts without incident.  Fae on fae crime was not allowed, even between courts after the peace treaty that ended the civil war.  The Hunt were the group of fae that inflicted the punishment for breaking those laws.  They also kept an eye out for the unaligned when they could.

The members of the Hunt are not widely known.  They keep their identities secret, and membership often passes through families.  At any time, there are nine active Hunt members, but that is not the entire roster of people trusted to work under the title of the Hunt.  Many of the fae among their ranks hail from ancient bloodlines, or they have proven themselves to be powerful allies in conflict.

Without question, the Hunt is the one group of fae all of them fear equally. 

[forsakenmyths]

The Fae

At one time, the fae were a species that worked together.  They lived under one single rule, focusing on surviving throughout the changes of time.  As a species, the fae are older than human memory.  For the longest time, they strayed from helping humans, but as civilizations expanded, the fae began to help humans that proved themselves worthy.  In most cases, they were still cautious.

Despite the help they did offer to humans and other species, such as the wolves, the fae were always known as a mischievous lot.  They love to be playful, pull pranks, and enjoy life to the fullest.  Sometimes, that enjoyment comes at the price of others, but for the majority of the fae, this price is worth paying.

The majority of fae is a matriarchal society.  Power and family name pass through the females of the family.  Some families go against this, but for the most part, this is the generally accepted practice.  There are things such as arrange marriages, but these are in some of the most powerful families that need to produce heirs to continue on the family name.  Outside of this, the fae are fairly open to any sexuality.  Most fae will roll their eyes at the human’s need to label everything, and especially to judge another over who they love.

Within the fae, there are different “species” in the sense of their powers.  Not every fae has the same set of powers.  There are some powers that are default to the species, such as glamours, immortality, and enhanced senses.  Outside of that, the fae have power sets that vary greatly. This range of powers grew as families began to mix powers through marriage and reproduction.  Some families decided to keep the powers as pure as possible, but time has slowly lead to the breeding out of the “ancient” (most pure) powers.  

The fae remained a singular unit under the rule of the Silverwing family until around the 1600′s.  During this time, a civil war would break out among the fae over the choice to continue helping the humans or not.  The Silverwing family had always been major supporters of continuing a strong relationship with the humans.  During this conflict, a disease began to spread among the fae.  It caused the deaths of a great many.  Between the disease and the battles, the fae were left weaker, and in the end, there was a split among them.  There was now the Seelie and the Unseelie, as well as those that decided to remain unaligned.  One group was off shoot for all of these - the Aos Si.  They fled to America for a clean and fresh start from the conflicts that plagued the fae in Europe.

Seelie were led by the Silverwing family, and it would be the Blackwood and LaCroix families that took the helm of the Unseelie.  The unaligned had no clear ruler for sometime, and it was truly dangerous to be one of those without the protection of a court behind you.  It would be the Wild Hunt that continued to police the fae, crossing any boundary, regardless of their alignments.  This organization was both highly respected and feared by most of the fae.

The Seelie and Unseelie are not good and bad.  It is not a binary, black and white split.  They are two groups that saw a conflict in different light.  There were bad things done by both sides over the years that followed the split.  Of the two, the Unseelie maintained a want to keep a purity among the fae under their rule.  Seelie tended to be more open when it came to humans and wolves.  The terms Court of Light (Seelie) and Court of Dark (Unseelie) come from the fact that Seelie are more aligned with Spring and Summer; while the Unseelie are aligned with Fall and Winter.

[truaillithe-blog]

The Unseelie / The Court of Dark

These are the fae who believed that humans had no part in their lives.  They wanted to break from helping humankind completely; even seeking out to harm humans of merriment and pleasure.  Not every Unseelie believed this about the humans, though.  Some sought out this alignment because they believed their powers were a danger to humans.  It was their way of protecting unsuspecting humans.

The LaCroix and Blackwood families led the Unseelie for the better part of their existence.  At it’s creation, the Blackwood’s held the throne, but soon, the LaCroix took the lead.  Much like the Seelie, they had the help of dragons to create a protected space for their kind.  The Dragons of the winds and permafrost gave their magic to help defend the Unseelie, who had aligned themselves with Autumn and Winter.  This was how the Court of Dark was formed.

The Unseelie were not as open minded.  Many of them had a long standing belief in the purity of the fae, and they rarely were accepting to change.  The believed their was strength in their purity, and many of them coveted the strongest of powers to weave into their blood lines.  The La Croix family did not fall into these beliefs, but they did what they could to keep the peace among their people.

[theforsakenmyths]

The Unseelie Fae’s Court of Dark

Not all of the fae wished to maintain the helping relationship that they held with the humans, or even the wolves.  They wished to help their own, seeking out their own interests, rather than that of others.  These fae would break off from the rest of their species to form the Unseelie.  It was this group that closed itself off from helping humans, and they became known for their pranks against this humans for means of amusement.

The Unseelie, much like the Seelie, set up their Court in Ireland.  There was magic in place to shield it from the eyes of humans, wolves, and other fae.  This magic was thanks to the dragons Bran and Neve. It would be this magic which would help sustain the Autumn and Winter aspect of the Court of Dark.  It would blanket the area with the beautiful and dangerous calm of those seasons.

At the start of the Unseelie, the Blackwoods held power, but this was transitioned into a joint partnership between the Blackwood family and the LaCroix family.  Sable LaCroix and Talia Blackwood were the respective heads of their families during this time.

Much like the Seelie, the Court of Dark was full of both good and bad.  There was no giving to one side of the line over the other.  Regardless of this, the Unseelie still maintained a darker reputation than the Seelie, due to their treatment of humans.  Very few Unseelie did anything to correct this thought, or to explain how it was not completely true.

[theforsakenmyths]

Ancients

The Ancients are the fae that are the oldest known.  These fae have the strongest powers due to very rarely mixing of power types.  Elementals married elementals, and they had children together that were pure elemental.  This is just one example of how the Ancients worked.  Many of them were sought out during the mounting tensions within the fae.  People wanted the power of the Ancients on their sides, and when they were denied, some of the Ancients were killed to keep their power from falling to the opposing side.

This all led up to the attack on the Ancients home, Echelon.  Not much is known about the place now, as fact has given way to faded memories.  Some of the remaining Ancients sought refuge within the Courts, while others made a go on their own.  Of all the fae, the Ancients hold the most direct connection to the dragons; outside of the fae born direct of a dragon parents.

[theforsakenmyths]

The Fae

At one time, the fae were a species that worked together.  They lived under one single rule, focusing on surviving throughout the changes of time.  As a species, the fae are older than human memory.  For the longest time, they strayed from helping humans, but as civilizations expanded, the fae began to help humans that proved themselves worthy.  In most cases, they were still cautious.

Despite the help they did offer to humans and other species, such as the wolves, the fae were always known as a mischievous lot.  They love to be playful, pull pranks, and enjoy life to the fullest.  Sometimes, that enjoyment comes at the price of others, but for the majority of the fae, this price is worth paying.

The majority of fae is a matriarchal society.  Power and family name pass through the females of the family.  Some families go against this, but for the most part, this is the generally accepted practice.  There are things such as arrange marriages, but these are in some of the most powerful families that need to produce heirs to continue on the family name.  Outside of this, the fae are fairly open to any sexuality.  Most fae will roll their eyes at the human’s need to label everything, and especially to judge another over who they love.

Within the fae, there are different “species” in the sense of their powers.  Not every fae has the same set of powers.  There are some powers that are default to the species, such as glamours, immortality, and enhanced senses.  Outside of that, the fae have power sets that vary greatly. This range of powers grew as families began to mix powers through marriage and reproduction.  Some families decided to keep the powers as pure as possible, but time has slowly lead to the breeding out of the “ancient” (most pure) powers.  

The fae remained a singular unit under the rule of the Silverwing family until around the 1600′s.  During this time, a civil war would break out among the fae over the choice to continue helping the humans or not.  The Silverwing family had always been major supporters of continuing a strong relationship with the humans.  During this conflict, a disease began to spread among the fae.  It caused the deaths of a great many.  Between the disease and the battles, the fae were left weaker, and in the end, there was a split among them.  There was now the Seelie and the Unseelie, as well as those that decided to remain unaligned.  One group was off shoot for all of these - the Aos Si.  They fled to America for a clean and fresh start from the conflicts that plagued the fae in Europe.

Seelie were led by the Silverwing family, and it would be the Blackwood and LaCroix families that took the helm of the Unseelie.  The unaligned had no clear ruler for sometime, and it was truly dangerous to be one of those without the protection of a court behind you.  It would be the Wild Hunt that continued to police the fae, crossing any boundary, regardless of their alignments.  This organization was both highly respected and feared by most of the fae.

The Seelie and Unseelie are not good and bad.  It is not a binary, black and white split.  They are two groups that saw a conflict in different light.  There were bad things done by both sides over the years that followed the split.  Of the two, the Unseelie maintained a want to keep a purity among the fae under their rule.  Seelie tended to be more open when it came to humans and wolves.  The terms Court of Light (Seelie) and Court of Dark (Unseelie) come from the fact that Seelie are more aligned with Spring and Summer; while the Unseelie are aligned with Fall and Winter.

[theforsakenmyths]

The Aos Si’s Briathorn Court

This is the home of the group of fae that leave Europe to escape the civil discord.  They disagree with the in fighting, and the blood of their own kind being spilled over the situation.  Not all of them agree with the helping of humans, but one thing they agreed on was that there were better ways to deal with the situation.  

Cole Corvus takes over the lead of the Aos Si when they get to the States.  He flees Europe before finding his sister, but he does not give up on the search for her.  Along with him, Keeline Boone also becomes a force in setting up the fae home in the States.

They are not free of their own problems, but they strive to make a place safe for the fae in the States.  Especially back in the 1600′s traveling back and forth between Europe without certain magical abilities was difficult.  Within the Briarthorn Court, there were portals back to Ireland and Scotland, but they were heavily guarded.

While the Briarthorn Court is located out in nature, there are gateways to the Court in most major cities.  These are guarded, and they typically tend to be at Waystations.  The Aos Si are more open to other species than the Unseelie, but they still do not take kindly to humans or wolves in their Court, unless they prove their loyalty.

Some fae do have their homes within the Court.  These are typically the leading families.  There is also space for any fae that are in trouble and in need of shelter.  The Aos Si can have a reputation of being harsh, but this was crafted on purpose.  Cole and Keelin pull no punches when it comes to protecting their kind, as well as those they deem worthy of their protection.

[forsakenmyths]

HC || Fae and Sexuality

The fae are far more open in terms of sexuality.  There are still the push for heterosexual marriages to sustain bloodlines, but most fae families were very open to the idea that their children could love anyone that made them happy.

Even with this openness, you will still see times were some of the fae underwent pressure to be a certain way.  Power and family name tends to pass down through the females of a family in fae society, so they were often set up in arranged marriages.  This tradition was broken when Aine took the throne of the Seelie.  (Even with her ruling, it still happened, but it was done more in secret.)

Fae are also more open to the concepts of polyamory and hedonism.  This is something that remains true even after they fracture into the Seelie and Unseelie.  The Aos Si even continue the acceptance of these traditions when they come to the States.