A Discussion on Fae

[Kaz]

Fae are a new race being introduced to alleviate issues between the Sidhe concept and the troop types. This thread is to come up with a decent description of the Fae race and the various sub-types which include (but are not limited to) the following troop types:

T1. Pixies
T2. Sylphs
T3. Undines
T4. Banshees
T5. Faeries

The Fae are one of the three 'elemental' races of Tonan. Along with the race actually called Elemental, and the Droben. They are incorporeal creatures of (Spirit, Wind and Water). In game they will be an average race, with a 'slight' twist towards Magic and Forts and no 'major' weaknesses. Statistically similar to human (but without the twist towards scum)

This thread is to come up with ideas to help form an official description of the race, including : Rarity, Longevity, Physical Characteristics, Society and Culture.

[Rhoslyn]

I did (many, many moons ago now) have an Unseelie court of fae in the days of Maxim. They were fun

I will have to dig out my old threads and see what I wrote about them in terms of culture etc

[Kaz]

I was looking though wikipedia (and other sources) and spotted that there is not 'that much' difference between pixies and faeries. I've cherry picked various bits from around the interwebs to help give us some inspiration to establish the differences in 'our' pixies and faeries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy

According to this, Faeries

"are the most human looking of the three and have the most potential (and inclination) to do good for people. Faeries are often portrayed in literature as "testing" humans to see their worthiness and then meting out either punishment or reward accordingly. "

the same page also mentions

"Faeries are also the creatures most associated with stealing babies from their cradle and leaving "changelings" in their place,"

. When talking about pixies the same source reads

"pixies differ in that they are typically known to be more mischievous than fairies. Pixies are more Celtic, I believe, and are said to delight in deliberately misleading people."

According to Encylopedia Mythica

http://www.pantheon.org/articles/p/pixie.html

"In folklore, pixies (or piskies) are little people who believed to live on the downs and moors of Cornwall, England. According to one myth, pixies were originally Druids who resisted Christianity, and the more they resisted the smaller they grew. Yet another myth tells of a race of people who were not good enough for heaven, nor bad enough for hell and were doomed to wander the earth forever.

They love to steal horses and ponies and make nocturnal rides on their backs over the heaths and moors, while entangling the manes of the animals. Even inside houses people are not safe to their tricks, such as throwing small objects at the inhabitants. Although pixies like to play, they are hard workers as well. They work on the fields the entire night for some bread and cheese. "

http://www.pantheon.org/articles/f/fairy.html

"The original fairies, or faeries, bestowed gifts upon newborn children, such as beauty, wealth and kindness. In the subsequent centuries they continued this original function, but expanded their activities into other types of meddling in human affairs.

Fairies can only be seen clearly by animals and seldom by humans, although if one is fortunate enough, one might catch a fleeting glimpse. There are a few exceptions however. The first is when fairies use their power (known as 'glamour') to enable a human to see them. Also, during a full moon on Midsummer Eve a mortal witness fairy dances or celebrations. And finally, by looking through a self-bored stone (a stone in which a hole has been made by tumbling in the waters of a brook; not found on a beach) one can see fairies distinctly.

The rulers of the race of fairies are Queen Titania and her consort Prince Oberon, their court being in the vicinity of Stratford-on-Avon. Other synonyms and euphemisms for fairies are: the Little People, the Green Men, the Good Folk and the Lordly Ones.

The name is probably a combination of the words fae "friend" and eire "green." So Faerie means "Green Friend.""

According to Mythical Creatures Guide

http://www.mythicalcreaturesguide.com/page/Fairy

A fairy (sometimes seen as faery, faerie, or even fae; collectively wee folk) is a spirit or supernatural being that is found in the legends, folklore, and mythology of many different cultures. There are many definitions of what constitutes a fairy. Definitions sometimes describe them as any magical creature like a goblin or gnome, and at other times are described as a specific type of creature with short wings.

The fairy, as in the specific creature, was said to have originated in Italy, where they were known as 'Fatae', stemming from the Latin 'Fata' (roughly 'Fate'). They then traveled to France where their name was corrupted to 'fees' and then to Britain where they were known as 'fays', which the countryfolk eventually changed into 'faeries'. Other ways to reference the faerie include the Little People, the Green Men, the Good Folk and the Lordly Ones.

They are generally portrayed as humanoid in their appearance and have supernatural abilities such as the ability to fly, cast spells and to influence or foresee the future. Although in modern culture they are often depicted as young, sometimes winged females of small stature. They originally were of a much different image. Either tall, angelic beings or short wizened trolls being some of the commonly mentioned fay. The small, gauzy-winged fairies that are commonly depicted today did not appear until the 1800s.

http://www.mythicalcreaturesguide.com/page/Pixie

Pixies are mythical creatures of English folklore, considered to be particularly concentrated in the areas around Devon and Cornwall, suggesting some Celtic origin for the belief and name. In regional dialect, these mischievous little folk are sometimes referred to as piskies/piskeys or the little people. They are usually depicted as wingless, with pointed ears, and often wearing a green outfit and pointed hat. Sometimes their eyes are described as being pointed upwards at the temple ends.

The pixie also has a matured cousin called the heather pixie.
Pixies by Brian Froud
Pixies are notorious pranksters. One of their favourite ways of messing with people is leading them off into the woods leavingand leaving them lost for hours before literally dropping; thus the term 'pixie-led'. Pranksters they maybe but not malevolent, they are known to help out a worth human in need. They are also known to shape shift, a common form taken is the hedgehog.

______________

The differences between the other Fae are reasonably clear.

Sylph
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylph
http://www.mythicalcreaturesguide.com/p ... Elementals
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/577599/sylph

Undine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undine_%28alchemy%29
http://www.mythicalcreaturesguide.com/page/The+Undine
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/614337/undine

Banshee
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banshee
http://www.mythicalcreaturesguide.com/page/Banshee
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/52157/banshee
___________

Should be enough there to come up with the context for this race. Hopefully Rhoslyn will also dig out those old threads to give us some more Tonan-related info

[Rhoslyn]

Righty-o, after spending a while reading old threads and generally enjoying myself by remembering things I'd forgotten, I've tracked down the few threads that my Unseelie Court appeared in, the main one being this:

http://www.evernight.com/maxim-archive/ ... 17&start=0

Culture-wise, my ideas behind this lot were basically that the fae come in two main flavours, Seelie (the good guys) and Unseelie. Most were beholden to one Court or another, normally ruled over by a King or Queen (with the potential for extended royal families and the like), unaffliated fae were generally looked down upon. The Court was a strictly hierarchical society with the Queen/King at the top, Tuatha Dé Danann acting as the nobles, below them the army (in Andraste's case the army were very much based on the Wild Hunt), and then anyone else at the bottom.

I also liked the idea of the race pretty much being at war with itself, so the Seelie and Unseelie Courts warred with one another to the point of extinction.

Although my Court were Unseelie I never really saw them as evil per say but following a very different moral code. They looked upon other races as lesser beings, fit only for amusement or being made into pets. Humans (or edan as they called them) were the lowest of the lot to their mind and they despised them for spreading over the lands and despoiling them (a Seelie fae might have felt very differently of course). They saw humans as no better than animals or even insects, so to kill one or even a great number wasn't a big thing to them (if you wanted to get rid of an ant's nest would you consider yourself evil for pouring boiling water over it?). I suppose you could say I was trying to portray them as having a very different view of the world to anyone else.

Physically, well with the Unseelie Court I pretty much jumped on any and all descriptions of the nastier and weirder looking fae. In my mind the Seelie Court were far fairer and more beautiful.

In terms of strengths and weaknesses; well I tended to have my Unseelie fae using a combination of magic and physical strength through numbers. Andraste demonstrated powers of glamour as is traditionally allocated to fae creatures, the abiity to twist what people think they see. Her armies on the other hand went with strength of numbers, they couldn't take on an armoured human one-on-one but they would seek to overwhelm them with numbers (there's some war posts out there somewhere about that). Big weakness was their problem with iron (again another traditional thing for fae), anything made from iron or steel would poison them and cause them to sicken and die. It was quite fun trying to think up ways how a fae Court could go to war against a human army when the enemy would naturally be using iron and steel.


Anyway that's all I can write for now, too late to keep thinking

[Sikil]

I like the idea of Fae having a court system for their government. It would be nice to have a race that naturally have a feudal society but I think it should be because it's in their genetics and not because it was forced on them by any ruling family.

Remember, the following are just ideas.

For the troops, I think Banshees should be more of a defensive troop. With their cries, they'd be able to warn the other Fae that someone is encroaching on their territory as well as possibly scare the intruders away. Kind of like a 'living' security system.

Appearance wise, I think Banshees should appear female (obviously) but with some major changes. They're bodies would be that of younger women but their faces wrinkled. They would have massive mouths that take up all the space below their noses right to their chins and have a snake-like mouth when they scream(double hinging, that kind of thing) but when they're mouth is closed, they sound like they are whimpering. Their mouths would be filled with massive teeth. They're bodies would attract soldiers, thinking that they're maidens in trouble, but when they get too close... well, they're chow.

Undine females out number the males four to one, making the male of the species rare to be seen. Whatever their sex, however, undines all have pale greenish-blue skin with green eyes and hair. It's not unknown for them to have webbed fingers or toes as well as gills along their neck. They're speech is much like water and its easy to tell their mood by it. When angry, it has the pitch of crashing waves, voice rising and falling rapidly while when they're calm, its almost monotone. They are tied to the water where they're born and when traveling away from it must carry a vial of water taken from their home, most often in the form of a pendant though some have been seen wearing rings with the water in a hardened-glass bulb where a jewel would be.

Pixies are small, no taller then a dwarf's knee, and are the unlikely foot soldiers of the Fae. In appearance they look like elves, however small, and the higher hierarchy have wings. They have the ability to shapeshift into animals and even in this form its easy to distinguish between natural animals and the shapeshifted pixies. No matter what form they take, they always have pointed ears that stand up directly and their eyes are bright with mischief and slanted upwards at the temple.

Also, I think that for role-play, all of the Fae should have a personal rule that they can't break. Not just that they don't want to do something, but literally they can't. For example: A Banshee char can't move over worked stone, forcing her to go out of her way to cross a road, A pixie char has to count the windows in a house before entering. Of course, each character would be able to choose their own 'rule'.