What can I say of the Faer Folk? Never will you meet a more fair, fearsome, awesome, awful, wonderful, and terrible people.
You will never meet a more dangerous people.
There are many kinds of Fae in the world, and precious few of those have been recorded in history or myth. And those that have have taken great pains to ensure their history, personality, weaknesses, and accomplishments are muddled and muddied to ensure their prey can not fight back effectively against them.
For the prey of the Fae is man.
If you’ve read the modern fairy tales, all you’ve read is the passing fancy of a human at best, and actively malicious Fae disinformation at worst.
Etymology:
The Word “Faerie” derives its roots from the Latin fata, meaning “the Fates,” via Old French “Faie,” or someone that was skilled in magic, herblore, and knower of Names and the suffix “-erie” which describes a group, collective, or type of practice. Or, together, a group or collective skilled in the practice of magic.
Geographic Origin:
All Fae by definition originate from or near the European continent. Some of the strongest factions and sub-factions originate from Germany, France, England, Ireland, Greece, and Scandinavia. They are not the only magical creatures in the world, though they are the largest, and the word “Fae” is often used as a catch-all for all magical creatures in the world, despite the fact that only those from Europe are technically Fae.
However, they are not the only magical creatures nor people in the world, and while generally magical peoples are referred to by the catch-all Fae because of their geocultural significance in my part of the world, they are not, by any stretch of the imagination, the only extant magical peoples.
However, after European Colonization efforts, the Fae led a systematic extermination effort against all of their potential rivals, to varying degrees of success. Djinn, spirits, and guides from outside Europe still remain, but their influence is overshadowed and remains impacted by the effects of European colonialism.
In particular, the magical peoples of the Americas were nearly extinguished. Some still remain in scattered pockets, still hounded and hunted by Christendom and Fae alike, spoken of in whispers by the people to whom they had been influencing before Europeans and Fae arrived on their shores. The knowledge of their existence can be jealously hoarded by the non-magical people they and their legends grew around.
Indeed, while some of the American magical peoples are experiencing a kind of minor reinvigoration in recent years, they take care not to advertise their presence for the most part, somey preferring to remain in the shadows so they do not get targetted again, others have chosen to re-emerge and declare their continued survival in acts of rebellious defiance in an attempt to keep their ways, knowledge, and language(s) alive.
Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and the Oceanic Islands remain havens for their native magical peoples, who still remain and, while guarded, are nowhere near as secretive as the remaining American magical peoples.
Behavioral Patterns
Fae, speaking of the magical peoples and creatures from Europe, are predators in the main. While there are some non-predatory Fae, those have mostly been killed off or warped by the others until only the predatory Fae remain.
The Fae are not human, and if interacting with them, it is vitally important that this is kept in the foreground of your mind. They are, first and foremost, predators. Any percieved weakness will be jumped upon. Any debt--real, imagined, percieved, or purchased/acquired--will be weaponized to its fullest (and worst) effects.
Humans are their prey, their domesticated livestock, walking snacks to be consumed at their leisure, left to roam in a pasture the size of a planet to proliferate and breed to ensure that they will never go hungry. If a thing exists, it exists for the Fae. Gifts, unless explicitly negotiated, are not gifts. Due to the long life of the Fae, they are more of a long-term rental item, to be reclaimed upon the reciever’s death, paid for with essence of life until that point has arrived.
Fae, by and large, are incredibly proud, and can often be thwarted by exploiting their pride. But because of their pride, if they have been thwarted, they will not forget and they do not forgive. They will remember the insult, and pay it back, with interest.
They do not generally appreciate their food outsmarting them.
Types of Fae
In the main, there only a few types of Fae that have survived to the present day, largely separated by their food source(s). All Fae feed off the life essence of humanity, but their specific (or preferred) diet varies. It is important to note, as well, that these are general groups, and any kind of Fae can be found with any other kind of Fae or on their own.
Theological Fae
Theological Fae feed off of the power of human Belief. The term “Theological Fae” has stuck because, while it is not just the power of belief in a higher power (or in the Fae themselves), they can also feed off of the belief in other things. Within Theological Fae, the three main branches are the Religious Fae--who have posed as and/or use the belief in a higher being as a food source--Philosophical Fae--who embody and embrace the meandering branches of human philosophy--and the Celebrae--who feed off of the human belief in and devotion to Nobility and those with fame. Some Celebrae are famous themselves and feed off of people adoring them, and others are merely hangers-on, and passively feed on the adoration of their host.
While the Theological/Philosophical Fae were once the pre-eminent Fae, their numbers and potency has declined in recent years as humanity has slowly lost interest in the Fae and has begun approaching (but has by no means reached) parity, technology for magic, with the Fae.
Note: While it is true that many of the Religious Fae have posed as gods or god-like beings (see the Pantheonic Fae in particular), this does not, in itself rule out the existence of a higher power or powers. Indeed, the Fae themselves, including many Religious Fae, have their own religious beliefs--they just can’t feed off each other.
Emotional Fae
Emotional Fae prefer the taste of human emotions as their source of nutrition. The more powerful and the rawer the emotion the better. The Emotional Fae are currently the most powerful type of Fae on the whole, largely divided into two main camps--the Summer and Winter Courts. At one point, there were hundreds, if not thousands of Courts, but over time they all died out, absorbed each other, or killed each other off. Indeed, what is now the Summer Court includes what remains of the Spring and Autumn Courts, absorbed in one of many power plays.
the Summer Court believes in unapologetic excess in attempting to cultivate and harvest the emotions of humanity. Different factions of the Summer Court have entire cities as their demesne, and carefully cultivate their herds of humanity to ensure a steady food supply.
And when it is time for the harvest, the Barrow King, the most powerful and dangerous of them all, rides out from the Underhill and leads his Court in a time of wild harvesting and hunting. Entire cities and countries have been pulled below to be seasoned, aged, and properly cultivated in horrific ways to bring out the best and purest forms of emotion.
The Summer Court are creatures of shadow and deception, subtlety and spycraft.But while this is their preferred modus operandi, they are also capable of tremendous violence, and often come to victory by their sheer numbers, discounting even the power of many of their members.
More than any other kind of Fae, beware the Summer Court of the Fae. If you suspect that you are in one of their cities they are patiently raising for harvest., run. For if the Summer Court does not Harvest you, the Winter Court might exterminate you.
The Winter Court is based out of the martial factories of the North Pole, producing the most potent magics and equipement the world has ever seen. The San’ta (Atlantean for “Great General”) leads her Court with a frozen iron fist, with her husband Krampus at her side. The Last Atlantean, the Winter Queen has never forgiven the Barrow King or the Summer Court for their role in the destruction of Atlantis, and has sworn their destruction.
But do not mistake Winter’s sworn mission for a suitable ally against the Summer Court. Cold and implacable, inevitable as a glacier, as harsh as a polar vortex, unforgiving as a winter storm, Winter does not care about humanity beyond their being a food source for Summer. Indeed, stated doctrine for the Winter Court for the last several centuries has been to wipe out any known field of man the Summer Court has planted.
And this generally means wiping out population centers of humanity.
There are few things that match the sheer power of a Winter Court blitzkrieg, capable of reducing a thriving metropolis to untouched wilderness in the course of a day--all signs of humanity and the Summer Court extinguished with contempt. But for all their stopping power, they cannot hope to survive in the face of an extended war with the Summer Court’s extended, if decentralized, power.
And so they bide their time, starving every Summer Fae they can find, exposing and....eliminating human collaborators with prejudice, undermining their foe and building their own power as they wait for the day that finally they can take their revenge, at last, for that single day and night of misfortune.
National Fae
After the 20th century, there are not many National Fae left. Most were wiped as they clashed alongside their humans in wars of attrition that weakened them significantly. Those that were remained were largely overwhelmed by the other Fae, sensing weakness and jumping at the opportunity to remove their rivals. National Fae were Fae that thrived off of the belief in and subscription to national identities.
The last major force of National Fae that remain, the Kingdom (formerly Empire) of Avalon, watches over England and the United Kingdom, guarding its borders as best it can. King Oberon, Queen Titania, and their heir, the Morrigan la Fae, rule over an unruly court, spurred to ever more chaotic heights by Oberon’s son, Puck.
While the National Fae are on the decline, the Kingdom of Avalon remains a powerhouse even as it wanes, and the Morrigan’s human husband, Merlyn, is one of the major power that keeps the other Fae at bay.
Although this has not prevented a rivalry with the Nordic Pantheon, specifically with the death goddess Hela, from forming. Indeed, the Arthurian Crusades are the stuff of legend, and Hela’s second, one Arthur Pendragon, has never forgotten the wrongs he believes the Morrigan la Fae and Merlyn have done against him that forced him to his current allegiance.
WildFae
A catch-all termfor Fae that do not belong to an organized group, coalition, nation, or Court. There are some that use the term to denote a lower-functioning kind of Fae, but in traditional and common parlance, the WildFae are merely unaffiliated Fae that choose to live their lives alone and away from the politics of the larger groups.
