Anonymous asked:
How does currency work? Do they use human money, fey money or both?
What a fun question! Thank you! Time for another “innocent question gets way more information than bargained for!”
So, originally, the fey had a reciprocity gift economy. To explain, consider the barter system: barter has the trouble of not only having a surplus to exchange but also finding someone to exchange with who has something you equally value—which proved difficult. So what began happening is you would gift your surplus to someone, with the idea that there would be reciprocity in the future, and that was based on trust.
The problem with that, of course, is if the trust is faulty or if there’s an indeterminate time delay. And so credits were created in exchange, specific copper tokens representing value that could be ‘cashed in’ at a later point, whenever the redeemer (you) saw something desired from the person you originally gifted your surplus to. It was a placeholder for a gift or a favour—and that’s why favours are still very important currency among the fey.
A token was called an aicsu, which translates to something like “a gifting, a wishing, a choosing.” Some of these tokens are around and still in use today, though normally fey just say “you owe me a favour” as the modern derivative. Both have magical connotations that form a sort of contract.
As humans developed coinage, the fey began adapting to Irish money and its fluctuations to accommodate human interaction in the human realm, from the silver penny of 997 AD through to copper coinage and then the British sterling, but moved to the dollar with the move to Manhattan, and so the Irish Saorstát pound was never in true use with the fey.
Due to their lifespan, wealth conservation was a matter of time, and so money does not have quite the same importance among the fey in the feyry realm. Human money still has value and may still exchange hands in the feyry realm, but it’s more likely to exchange information, goods, services, aicsus, and other things that have more immediate personal value.
The two symbols pictured above figure heavily into our game; the first is, of course, the feyry star, while the second is the symbol of Clann Nuadha.
The 7 Pointed Star
The feyry star is used by the fey as a symbol of identity—as with the symbol’s use on the Court rings—as well as a symbol of their very magic—as it’s this star a fey can trace in any form to make a portal. The 7 points of the feyry star are extensions of the ‘human,’ or 5-pointed Vitruvian star. The 4 primary points of that star remain and are the elements of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water, often correlating to North, East, South, and West. This is expanded on in the feyry star, which has the primary 4, and then also the feyry elements of Light, Darkness, and Aether. Light often correlates to a sense of ‘above,’ Darkness to ‘below,’ and Aether to ‘within.’ Aether is a tricky but vitally important elemental point. Sometimes called spirit as the 5th point of the human star, Aether is the element of transcendence. It’s whatever that quality is that makes something a being rather than an object; it’s spark, it’s will, it’s life. In a sense, Aether is the ability to act, to manifest, to be a conduit for magic.
The Airgeadlámh
The Airgeadlámh is the symbol of Clann Nuadha. After initiation, an airgead (a member) will have this symbol tattooed on their right forearm. The symbol is a silver right arm over a black Celtic shield knot.
SAMAIN.
The Tithe occurs every 7 years on October 31st; on off-years, the traditions remain. At dusk, fey leave out offerings in the hopes of being looked over by the Hunt; the offerings are often sacrificial in nature. Though they offer food and drink, feasting the restless souls, those items are often prepared for days in advance from intricate recipes by hand. After, fey who are close to one another gather for a meal of their own; this can be a small or large gathering. Fey stick close to their homes, and when they travel to the gathering, will wear a mask to disguise themselves. The fey will light a bonfire—by magic if there is one so present, or by rubbing two sticks in a need-fire if not—and eat sacrificial cattle. The feasting and storytelling in hushed tones around the fire lasts all night. Then, at dawn, it’s considered November 1st: the feyry New Year. A time for both the mourning of those lost, but also the joy of survival for the night gone. A time to take stock of the past year and make goals for the future. All of the fey gather at their Court’s castle for The Revel. The partying starts at dawn, when the Wild Hunt has passed and is safely in Hybrasil again. Many fey won’t have slept the night before, but the revelling on New Years’ Day is raucous and bawdy and not to be missed. It is a costume party full of guises; guises to deceive, guises to inspire. Costumes are chosen to taunt the act of their survival or to show their hope of the coming year. It goes fully until dusk, and that’s when fey finally sleep. At each Revel, there is also an altar present for the beloved dead that the Tithe have taken. Anyone is welcome to contribute items to the altar in memory, or sing songs or perform poems by the altar to honour the dead who have been taken by the Tithe now or in years passed. It is sacrilegious for a fey to kill any other fey on this day, regardless of war or truce. The only deaths come from the Tithe.
IMBOLC.
Imbolc is the festival on February 1st. In preparation, fey often do ‘spring cleaning’ before or around this time. If February 1st is a sunny day, it is viewed as bad luck, as the Cailleach is gathering more wood for winter. If it is a dreary day, the divination went that spring would be soon. The holiday festivities begin at sunset and the entire holiday is spent in gratitude for the return of the light. It celebrates the coming of spring and the lengthening of daylight hours. It’s a festival of light and hope; if the Courts are in an accord, they might throw a party together as a symbol of good faith, and it often is bedecked in candles and torches and whatever venue is used is lit by the lights of fire alone—no electricity lights any room. It’s now also a reminder of times before modernity and the preciousness of sunlight. In an outdoor space, a small fire is lit—small enough to jump over—over which the fey may choose to jump as a form of purification. Blackthorn blooms are important decorations; garlands deck each door and window and may create other more elaborate decorations as well. There is a great feast as the winter stores are shared with all, in the hopes of more to follow. Gifts may also be exchanged during this holiday, as a further sign of good will and gratitude. At midnight, there is the Sunwise Dance, which is a good luck dance the fey participate in. It can be done in singles or doubles or variants thereof; the primary concern is that the motion of the overall dance, with all dancers combined, is in the form of a circle going clockwise. A fountain is often present, in which offerings of coins are left, and after the party is done, fey take some of the water from the fountain to bless their homes.
BELTAINE.
Held on the 1st of May. This is a festival centered around the start of summer and to encourage growth throughout the season. It is a holiday of love and protection. In each Court, special bonfires are kindled, and their flames, smoke and ashes were deemed to have protective powers. The fey and their prized livestock (which Players would be considered among) walk between two bonfires for a ritual blessing of good luck and protection. Any household fires—fireplaces, hearthfires, candles, et cetera—would be lit from the embers of these fires. After, separately or together, the Royals hold a great feast and everything is decorated with yellow flowers. A variety of breads are particularly prized. At the feast, the fey create a “May bush,” which is a thorny bush then decorated by affixing flowers, ribbons, bright shells, and other beautiful baubles. The most common flowers for this festival include primrose, rowan, hawthorn, gorse, hazel, and marsh marigold. This holiday is also well known for its healing magics, so the fey may sing a ‘sound bath’ for healing, or do other healing arts. Just as the veil between worlds is thinnest as Samain, so, too, is it thin at Beltaine. This is the time to ask the gods for special favours in the hopes they might be answered, having the opportunity to be most clearly heard. Offerings of honey and milk follow. This is also a holiday somewhat akin to modern Valentine’s Day—a day for lovers and fertility and fucking, and to get up the gumption to wear one’s heart on one’s sleeve. Gifts of flower crowns are given to one’s beloved—or one’s desired—and the wearing of such was a marker as a romantic beloved.
LUGNASAD.
The harvest holiday, Lugnasad is held on August 1st. A major piece of this shared both human-side in Tara and in the feyry-side of Tara is the Tailteann Games, which occurr during the day. Lugnasad is a holiday that—no matter how the Courts are getting along—they do together, in neutral Tara, and for the duration of the holiday, there is a required truce. As an autumn festival, there is a note of mourning alongside, and so heroes and athletes are mourned through the song that opens the games at dawn. Games include the long jump, high jump, running, hurling, spear throwing, boxing, contests in swordfighting, archery, wrestling, swimming, and chariot and horse racing. They also include competitions in singing, dancing and story-telling, along with crafts competitions for goldsmiths, jewellers, weavers and armourers. This is, of course, finished off with a great feast at dusk, during which toasts are made to ancestors and to one another for the great feats accomplished and remembered. The feast’s meals are called “first fruits,” which are made from the first produce of the harvest; the first course also traditionally includes bilberries. A fountain is often present, in which offerings of coins are left, and after the party is done, fey take some of the water from the fountain to bless their homes. The final activity is the voting for the temporary marriage of two unwed fey; the fey tie a knot to symbolize the union. They then have a year and a day to divorce. However, the divorce must be done by cutting the knot in half and then going to two opposing hills in Tara and burying the cords separately; until then, the marriage is still binding.
Feyry funerals begin at dusk, as with all meaningful events. At dusk, those nearest and dearest to the beloved deceased gather at the deceased’s home to wash the body. After, the body is laid out with the head to the west and feet to the east in a prominent place, often in the living room on a table or in the bed of a bedroom, and the body is draped in fine white linen. Candles are placed and lit around the body afterward. From these flames, magical ground hawthorn leaves are lit in memorial pipes as attendees experience memories of that person’s life while inhaling. In front of the body, there is a large bowl for offerings for attendees to give both to celebrate the life of the deceased as well as to give things that they may want with them in the afterlife. This could include clothing, food, wine, coins, et cetera; all things that can decompose save for the coins. The fey believe in an afterlife simply referred to as the ‘Otherworld’—no ‘good place’ or ‘bad place,’ simply one place of rest before reincarnation. The room with the body is meant for gentle mourning, grief, and memories; sometimes keening is heard.
The kitchen and dining area are the places reserved for festivities; there is a great feast, with merriment and singing, with whiskey and mead, where the funeral becomes instead a celebration of the life well-lived in a grand send-off party. Games are played and toasts are made. Traditional games are more concerned with the sensual world of the living than with the sterile world of the recently deceased corpse. The closer an attendee was with the deceased, the longer they stay; some friends depart at midnight, while others remain until dawn. It is not unusual for the ruler to stop by for a short or long length of time, as funerals are relatively rare among the fey when the death is not a product of war. The ruler brings with them their Court’s Edad, which is a ceremonial aspen tree rod carved with ogam. It is considered very bad luck to look at the Edad if you are not using it. At midnight, the Edad is used by the highest ranking fey present—or if no Archfey are present then, the next of kin—to measure the length of the deceased’s body. The Edad is then used outside at the intended burial plot to measure the length of the burial site, often within a Court’s carn (an underground burial mound—like, so—with passages within it). If the fey wished to instead be buried outside of the carn, the resting place would be dug between midnight and dawn.
At dawn, the body is gathered and all remaining people wail as they march the body out to the burial site. The body is interred with the head to the west and feet to the east. If the site is not in the Court carn, then the body is covered with dirt and then piled with stones in a similar carn fashion. After the last stone is placed by the next of kin, the funeral is over.
MARRIAGES
To understand feyry marriage is to understand the interplay between independence and love. Marriages are serious to both Courts because vows are very serious to the fey in general and are supposed to be unbreakable (and so, used accordingly). Because of this, divorce is rare: a failed vow as a personal flaw, a debt needing to be repaid. As for what a marriage looks like for a couple—monogamy, polyamory, etc—that’s up to the fey involved; monogamy isn’t encouraged more or less than other forms of relationships. Marriage is between two people—but that does not preclude multiple or additional marriages. So persons 1 and 2 might be married, and person 2 might seek to also marry person 3. This does not marry persons 1 and 3 unless they, too, seek a marriage. Such an arrangement is not required, but it is an option. Marriage is not a requirement and being single is not a burden.
Marriage is sought as 1) a display of commitment and 2) a sharing of assets and 3) a rearing of children. All or none of these reasons might be present to seek a marriage. Per #1, some marriages begin without commitment, as during a “násad marriage,” on Lugnasad when the voted-for fey tie a knot to symbolize their union. They then have a year and a day to divorce, but, the divorce must be done by cutting their knot in half and then going to two opposing hills in Tara to bury the cords separately; until then, the marriage is still binding. Per #2, after a year and a day past any marriage ceremony, all assets are equally shared between the two married parties and that is lawfully binding thereafter. This is also why, especially to Seelie Archfey, status is particularly important when choosing a lánamanda (gender-neutral Irish term for wedded partner). Per #3, feyry life is sacred and so having a child is both a rarity and a blessing; often, though not always, parents will wed to raise a child jointly and can be as much a symbol of dedication to the child as it is to one another.
While the marriage vows are very serious, the ceremony itself is less so—as with much else for the fey, it’s a raucous good time and a means for a celebration of love. The ceremony is called a handfasting. Handfastings can be held anywhere within the lánanma (couple’s) Court, though those who are particularly devout might seek to have their wedding in Tara, the neutral area between Courts. The handfasting is witnessed by the Court’s ruler—or, if the ruler declines, then the Court’s Ardsagart (high priest) witnesses. Along with holidays, marriages are the only other instances where the Court’s Ardsagart might be required as present; rather, death and life are considered family affairs, and the Ardsagart must be invited in. Anyway, to begin a handfasting, each person must walk on foot three miles to where their handfasting is to be held, to show their dedication and to afford the time to sweat out any last minute thoughts or concerns. If a person does not show, it is said that their feet found another path, and the handfasting is off.
The guests can arrive however they wish, though they are there before the couple arrives; the only required attire of guests is that they wear—somewhere on their person—a bell bracelet, necklace, or similar. If one person arrives at the ceremony before the other, they wait at the back until their partner arrives; together, they move to the front of their gathered guests, hand-in-hand. As they do so, the guests ring their bells to disperse any ill omens or negativity. At the front, with arms extended and hands clasped, the witness wraps a braided cord and ties it around their hands. While tied, the couple recite vows and exchange rings. After, the presiding person pronounces the couple as married! As mentioned above, divorce is given every opportunity to be avoided before the handfasting; after the handfasting, legal ramifications occur after a year and a day and divorce becomes not only more difficult, but more stigmatized. Before that point, the couple can easily take off their rings at any time and cut their handfasting cord, burying each set where ever they see fit.
After the handfasting, there is a great feast, with dancing and music. Handfastings typically occur between Bealtaine and Lugnasad. This ceremony is a more elaborate, and more official, version of the “násad marriage” held on Lugnasad as mentioned earlier, during which the two assigned fey simply tie a knot in a cord with no hands, no vows, and no presiding figure involved except the holiday witnesses; as an initial ring, they simply wear braided twine. But both situations is where the term “tying the knot” comes from! Another fun fact is that for a month (literally a turn of the moon) after a handfasting, the couple is encouraged to drink mead (honey wine) daily in order to encourage virility, conception, and/or just really excellent sex. This is the origin of the term “honeymoon.” As fey are independent beings and can also hold more than one marriage, their surnames do not change as a result of the union.
You do not need to write nor do minor magic, but here’s the information.
The majority of feyry magic is to do with their personal powers, their shapeshifting, their glamour, and their blessed Wild Hands. However, that is not the sum total of the magic the fey can do. The rest fall under ‘minor magics.’ Feyry magics are primarily about tapping into the ‘nature’ of the thing itself, as the fey too are wired into the natural; as such, they can impose their will to manipulate the natural world to some degree.
Enchantments. Small enchantments can be placed on 1) inanimate organic objects for 2) no longer than 24 hours that 3) do no harm. All enchantments require an element of ritual to achieve, often relying on the root of either herb or crystal magic as a base conduit. The stronger the will behind it, the stronger the enchantment. An example of an enchantment is the bonfire whose fire cannot spread or the tobacco that evokes memories along with different flavours.
Seelie blessings. All Seelie magics are rooted in herb work, so the Seelie are well versed in flowers and plants and their various meanings and applications. They can make sachets and bath melts and teas from herbs which encourage love, beauty, luck, persuasion, and riches. These work less like direct-correlative and more like energy-invitations to promote and increase in this given area over time. The Seelie are specifically known for their enchanted plants.
Unseelie blessings. All Unseelie magics are rooted in crystal work, so the Unseelie are well versed in crystals and stones and their various meanings and applications. They can make perfumes and tinctures and amulets and the like from crystals which encourage truth, wisdom, self-knowledge, bravery, and advantage. These work less like direct-correlative and more like energy-invitations to increase in this given area over time. The Unseelie are specifically known for their enchanted jewelry.
Bullán curses. This is the most difficult magic, as it requires a purity of will. A purity of will is hard to come by the longer a fey is alive because of their varied experiences and the grey area that often comes to fill their perspectives. A bullán curse requires a bullán stone, which is a rarely occurring natural rock hollowed out by water. A ritual imbuing the bullán with a curse is particularly potent and often comes at personal cost as it is a more direct-correlative magic.
As with everything feyry, all magic has a cost—nothing comes from nothing; to have something you must give something. This is why minor magics aren’t done to excess. There is at play an element of exchange; to manipulate a fire not to spread for a short time is a minor edit, requiring little to no backlash, which is why enchantments are a favourite among fey. However, the bigger the manipulation, the greater the personal cost. This is why the taboo magics are forbidden, both out of Court preservation as well as self-preservation.
The cult that knows enough—and yet not enough—about the fey...
Here’s everything one could know about the cult (and there’s a lot).
HIERARCHY
There are 7 tiers within Clann Nuadha, as there are 7 points in the feyry star. The Clann does not name them in correlation with the elements, however, as ‘ranking’ the elements robs the balance. The feyry star isn’t one of Clann Nuadha’s symbols, but they put this symbol on things or people they value; the Clann believes it protects whatever they put it on. In truth, it does that, in a fashion... but when you mark something or someone with the star, the fey consider whatever is marked to belong to them. So sure, they might protect it, but we all know that protection often comes with an unforeseen price.
A tier is simply called an “fáinne airgead,” meaning silver ring in Modern Irish. A Clann Nuadha member is called an airgead, or just a silver. All cult members take on an Irish name after initiation. The tiers are referred to as just Rings. So, a member might be a First Ring airgead, or a Second Ring airgead, according to their status. Each Ring member gets an amount of silver band rings correlative to the Ring they belong to, to be worn on the right hand, with the thumb being first and the pinky being last. It’s not uncommon to see Fifth Ring airgeads raise their pinky in affectation to show off their last minor ring.
At the Sixth Ring, airgeads wear silver chainmail handflowers on the right hand. It is difficult to be promoted to a Sixth, of which there are only six members at a time until one dies or is exiled. (Never “a Six,” as a Sixth indicates being part of a whole, not an entity unto oneself.) There is only one member in the Seventh Ring: the leader, called Slane. The leader is always called Slane, both as his name and his title being one and the same, and in this Slane is “immortal,” though there has been more than one Slane so far. Slane wears a sleek silver gauntlet on his right hand as a symbol of leadership.
SYMBOL
The Airgeadlámh is the symbol of Clann Nuadha. After initiation, an airgead will have this symbol tattooed on their right forearm. The symbol is a silver right arm over a black Celtic shield knot.
CORE BELIEFS
“All will become whole through Nuadha.” Anything that ails you in this life will be healed in the next life. The cult tends to attract people who think they’re broken or defective or less-than in some way and gives them hope. They believe the fey are saviours and that by allying with them, the fey will take them to their world when the apocalypse comes and humans are made unviable by global warming.
Humans can’t destroy nature; they can only make it adapt to the point where they can no longer survive there. The members aim to help nature adapt and push it along; to help earth return to a more natural, human-free state. Global warming, to them, is supposed to happen. It’s inevitable. It’s supposed to go this way (and that it’s going this way confirms our point of view). Littering as a radical act.
Nuadha is, to them, a “living” representation of Nature, as the King of the fey. The Well of healing, which helped heal Nuadha’s people, is what the airgeads think of as the source of all magic; and so when they reference magic happenings, it’s “the gift of the Well,” and “the Well” (”Toberanleise,” Tobar for short) is where those who died in service to Clann Nuadha go before the apocalypse—when they will be reborn to help—and so ”becoming one with the Well” is slang for dying.
The end of the human world has to come so the fey come so the airgeads can go to the feyry world and get healed. They earn this by helping along the inevitable change that is nature adapting and healing itself by removing the human virus. They think helping nature along will please the fey and allow them to take over both worlds. In reality, the fey like their human toys and don’t want this to happen. The fey often cull the cult’s numbers by taking some as Players.
Until Slane recently met Marigold, they hadn’t had confirmation in this generation that fey truly exist; only rumours.
LANGUAGE
Whenever possible, airgeads speak (with however poor inflection) Modern Irish. Studying Modern Irish is encouraged and offered at Maynooth, the Irish-inspired catch-all pagan shop where most of the airgeads work.
“Dá fhada an lá—” “—tagann an tráthnóna.”
“No matter how long the day—” “—The evening comes," is the primary chant and mantra used by Clann Nuadha; it is often used as call-and-response. It's ambiguous in meaning, conveying both that good things will always end, as well as no matter how hard the day, rest will come. Their parting phrase to one another is, “May the fey never weaken your hand.”
“Ná lagadh aos sí do lámh.”
HISTORY
Started in the ’70s as an offshoot of the free love and nature-positive movement who believed literally in fairies—but in the ’80s humans started realizing the impact that humanity was having on the atmosphere and that utterly changed the shape of the movement. Originally, it was seven people, led by the first Slane, and there were no other ranks or rungs. Lawrence Olsen, the current Slane, was among them—he worked for this title. It grew immensely in size in the ’80s and that’s when the hierarchy and what we know today really got its roots. Over 50 people by 1986. Now numbering over 100.
CULTURE
Obsessed with Irish things. They all get married with claddagh rings. When you are ready, they will tell you more. They make you jump through a million hoops before they share their secret knowledge. Each Ring knows more knowledge. Clann Nuadha opposes critical thinking by responding to questions they can’t answer with, “Because it is Nuadha’s way.” The cult comes before family ties and obligations. It is encouraged to cut off contact with those who don’t see things as you do, for you are chosen and know the truth, and they will only taint you and make you ‘unwhole.’ Being ‘unwhole’ is a terrible thing to be. Other churches therefore are ‘unwhole’ and lesser than.
FOUNDATION
Clann Nuadha is based on the misunderstanding that Nuadha is King of all the fey. In truth, Nuadha was one of the Kings of the feyry gods, the Tuatha Dé Danann. Clann Nuadha erroneously thinks the Tuatha Dé Danann and the fey are one and the same. But as we know, the fey have Courts and are ruled by their own rulers. The fey recognize that the authority among the feyry gods is the goddess Danu, for whom the Tuatha Dé Danann are named.
Basically, the fey see Danu as the be-all authority, while Clann Nuadha thinks it’s Nuadha. Do not correct a Clann Nuadha member on this count. They will not listen and will just call you a blasphemer. The fey tolerate Clann Nuadha. Their goals are antithesis to the fey's own, but they provide willing donors that the fey don't mind picking off for their games and otherwise pay them little mind.
In the story cycle, which airgeads of the cult would be well aware of, Nuadha is King until he loses an arm protecting his people against the Fir Bolg (another people). They won the battle and most of Ireland, ceding the area of Connacht to the Fir Bolg. In Irish culture, a king must be whole and perfect in order to lead a whole and perfect rule for a whole and perfect community, and so Nuadha was no longer able to be King despite his sacrifice. He was replaced by Bres, who was half Tuatha Dé and half Formorian (and the Formorians were their mortal enemies).
King Bres was oppressive and inhospitable, giving much of the Tuatha Dé’s riches to the Formorians. By this time, Nuadha had his lost arm replaced by a working silver one by the physician Dian Cécht and the goldsmith Creidhne (and later with a new arm of flesh and blood by Dian Cécht’s son Miach). Bres was removed from the kingship, having ruled for seven years, and Nuadha was restored. He ruled for twenty more years. He was succeeded by the younger Tuatha Dé god, Lugh, and later killed during battle.
Dian Cécht blessed a well called Sláine where the Tuatha Dé could bathe when wounded; they became healed and continued fighting. It would heal any wound but decapitation. The cult believes that Nuadha lives on in Dian Cécht’s blessed well, Sláine, which is where Slane (the Modern Irish version of the name) gets his name from. He is the “speaker of the well.”
