What Ever Happened to the Dusk Court?
Have you ever wondered why there’s a Day, Dawn, and Night Court, but no Dusk Court?
Me too. So, of course, I had to make up my own, and it’s been in my head for a while, so here’s the whole thing.
Long before the Great War, when humans were little but slaves to all the High Fae, and faeries in general, there was a court of dusk. It was one of the smallest, nestled above the Night Court.
The High Lord of the Dusk Court was a tall, broad shouldered man who went by the name of Austrin, or night breaker in their local dialect of the common tongue. Austrin was married to a woman named Estreida, who had lineage which traced only vaguely back to the Night Court, and came to become known as the prettiest of all the High Lord’s wives at the time. Many, however believed that the two were unhappy together, mostly due to rumors of the couple not sharing a bed, or even a bedroom. However, this was untrue–the two loved each other very much, and were mated.
Together, they had seven children: six girls and a boy, with their son Olthe being their final child and only son. By the time succession was in order to begin, Olthe was 293 years old, and a know womanizer. It was clear why–the thick, curly hair he’d inherited from Estreida, gentle hazel eyes, and tanned skin from spending time in the skies, riding alongside winged lesser faerie which would later develop into modern Illyrians.
Many of the High Fae in the Dusk Court possessed powers such as daemati powers, similar to the one just beginning to become seen in the Night Court, along with shapeshifting, as well as power of enchantment through voice or music, a power extremely rare then and almost completely extinct now, save for in a handful of Illyrians who have been alive for almost a thousand years.
When Olthe came to power, a particularly nasty disease was swiping the populations of lesser faeries and certain vulnerable High Fae. Olthe himself caught the disease from a half-human, half-Fae he was known to have a particular liking to. Olthe was not incapacitated, getting over the disease quickly due to his strong High Fae immune system, but this nonetheless tainted the young High Lord’s reputation.
Soon, a coup to take Olthe off the throne was stage by a group of disloyal nobility. The coup succeeded, Olthe being forced out of the court, and he fled to the Fae mainland in the continent to live with a distant relative.
The Dusk Court throne was then taken by a High Fae called Sabheine, a male who notoriously sought to colonize the few “wild” and “untamed” territories left in the main continent.. Sabheine strongly favored the Autumn and Night Courts above all, eventually selling his daughter into marriage with the soon-to-be High Lord of the Night Court, whose eventual great-great grandson would rule over the Night Court during the Great War many centuries later.
But 50 years after Sabheine’s coming to power, war broke up between different territories in the mainland continent. Many were killed, and the survivors sought refuge in the Dusk Court, and the relatively benevolent Sabheine let them in, also hoping that this would later lead to colonization of the mainland.
However, this did not have as good of an impact as he’d imagined. Many of the refugees had differing powers that weren’t as useful in the Dusk Court and Prythian in general. Poverty began to rise as the small court became overpopulated with the masses of the new Fae from the continent.
The Night Court tried to assist their ally, but could only give so much food and water before they’d have to cease aiding efforts. Since they could no longer do this, but still wished to help, they began giving them small pieces of their mostly mountain bound land, hoping to spread out the population and ease tensions.
This helped for a little bit, but the now perpetually-stressed Sabheine grew fed up and eventually took his own life.
Onthe’s third-eldest sister, Avrelle, took power in Sabheine’s place, mostly by force, using her few loyal yet powerful followers to “silence” major opponents. Though many bristled at the prospect of a High Lady, Avrelle had a legitimate claim to the throne, with her other siblings having no desire to take up the throne, so she became High Lady. (Her legacy was eventually erased, and now children are taught that Avrelle was not a female, but a male, due to many years of scholars altering her biographies and accounts of her reign)
Once High Lady, Avrelle got to work quickly, brutally killing refugees and their families, promising to open the Dusk Court up to its “rightful natives”. Real problems began when refugees fleeing Avrelle’s genocide entered the land given to the Dusk Court from the Night Court.
Since the two courts were close allies, there were no official borders on the temporarily-loaned land. This led to many more problems once Avrelle caught wind of the refugee’s new strategy and ordered her guards to kill all those hiding in the mountains–but these guards did a poor job at this, and ended up killing many Night Court Fae who still dwelled in the area. Though it took time for the Night Court to notice, the High Lord was enraged, and quickly severed all ties with Dusk. While the economically interconnected and stable Night Court had no problem surviving, the Dusk Court was almost entirely dependent on trade between the Night Court, and struggled terribly.
After a few decades of witnessing the Dusk Court suffer from overpopulation, poverty, and disease, the High Lord of Night offered this to Avrelle: surrender all Dusk Court territory and become a part of the Night Court, and their citizens would reap the benefits of being a Night Court Citizen. Another caveat appeared: all members of Austrin’s original bloodline had to be killed. Avrelle hesitated in her decision, and, within months, riots in the street and higher-ranking Fae had found and killed all five of Austrin’s daughters, save for Avrelle. Olthe was allowed to live out the rest of his life on the continent. Avrelle had no choice but to sign the deed to give up her Court, and was soon put to death afterwards.
Many Dusk Court Fae had already died, leaving a lower population density. Soon, the now-Night Court Fae began to mate with the winged lesser faerie dwelling in the mountains, eventually leading to the creation of the Illyrian species.
Now, any traces of a Dusk Court are almost completely erased from history.
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