Fae
While Spirits and Shades are a matter of observation, the Fae are a bedtime story from the Kingdom’s creation. At Kingdom’s dawn, the Fae warred with the nascent Crown and its allies for control over Seln. The Crown won; the creatures vanished. If some few stragglers remain, they only pretend to the glory of the ancient Grand Fae.
What follows is only records of history, now passed to children in nursery rhymes. Worry not for faded memories.
Nature
They saw a land like clay And shaped it to their liking Of those buried in the flood of clay Little thought
While Spirits and Shades emerge from Seln, its past and present incarnated, the Fae arrived from without. Their land of origin is unknown, even to themselves, and Fae waste little time on the worries of history.
For, more than anything, the Fae are dreamers. They dream with the passion of youth, imagining this world and a thousand others; spinning dramas and mysteries to their heart’s content.
Such is the strength of their dream call that Seln must answer. The land, its flow, and its people all bend to their dreams, becoming actors in their plays. Even history itself bends to their flow – for to dream is to live in the eternal now.
Thus, to speak of a Fae is to speak of a river in motion. The dance of the dream is the dreamer, a being revealed in the glimpses of its form through the steps.
Can such a creature ever be understood by those who live only one life and wear only one face?
Role
How do the Fae define the borders of their self in the chaos of dream?
They adopt Roles like actors upon a stage. Fair or foul, heroic or villainous, the Fae becomes an actor in their own play. Some prefer the leading Role, dominating all events; others play the strings of the dream as a bit player like a scullery maid or a watching animal.
These Roles define the Fae in both body and temperament.
Prominent Roles require stronger Fae, though the stories are unclear how the Fae measure true strength. Perhaps it is the strength of vision itself that defines a Fae’s power.
Weaker Fae may be subsumed in the Role, forgetting past experience to dutifully act out the Role until the story’s end. Stronger Fae remember their past, even if irrelevant to the current dream. The strongest might even know how to hold multiple Roles at once!
The Importance of Names
The Fae’s Role is internal, truly known only to itself. To the world, the Fae must present a Name. These Names link the outside world to the Fae’s mercurial self, providing power and vulnerability both.
To garner more power, the Fae must bind the Name closer to its essence. By the same measure, the loss of that Name more severely injures the Fae.
For example, a blacksmith Fae that claims the Name of “Best smith in all the land” would suffer injury should a Graced craftsman beat him in a competition of metallurgy.
Those names closest to the Fae’s essence are more vital. Though called “true names” in folk lore, there is no inherent power in the Fae’s first name beyond its centrality. Most Fae find the concept of a “true name” confusing!
Floran fancy
The clever, playful Florans know much of Names. They even know how to use a Fae’s own games against them. Florans can take Names like the Fae and then slip those names later!
It remains unclear how the Rose Queens harnessed such power, and they keep their secrets.
Story and Sincerity
Despite the transient nature of their Roles, the vast majority of Fae play their part with utter sincerity. They display no meta-knowledge of their situation while in the Role and refuse to draw from information outside their own situation. Even when one Fae plays multiple Roles, they keep these Roles segregated by iron curtains!
The reason for this is a mystery. Would they not be more effective if they allowed their Roles to communicate and inform each other?
Some scholars have theorized that the Fae consider the playing of the Role an art form. To mingle Roles for mere convenience would be trite, ruining the competition! This is a convenient answer, but could the Fae value such art so highly that they would allow schemes of a thousand years to crumble over the dramatic irony of the single missed detail?
Death
Death is merely the end of this dream. Another begins, but the same Role cannot be reassumed. Many Fae plant seeds of future Roles, and a few clever ones orchestrate their own downfall in service to a multi-faceted story!
Fae find death deeply frustrating. It severs the work of their dream and forces them to begin anew. Still, there is always another dream, and Fae are often far more willing to fight to the death than normal folk.
Even benevolent Fae struggle to understand the ramifications of mortal death. Mortals claim that death is their end, but their continuation is self-evident! Look, more are born every day!
Children and kidnappings
In babies and small children, the Fae see fascinating potential. Though it is strange that mortals would choose to start their Roles in such an unfinished state, these children gleam with unlimited potential. In games of pretend, the children dance between Roles like pixies on autumn leaves!
The power of imagination found in small children empowers Fae and strengthen their stories. Fae ply these children with sweets, treats, and toys to harness this power. Mortals may call this kidnapping, but the Fae regard it as simple play.
Of course, a greedy Fae might decide that they would rather play more than let the child return home…
The Claim
When the gravity of the Fae’s dream overpowers mortal resistance, the mortal becomes subject to the Claim. The mortal suffers a transformation into the Role of the Fae’s choosing. Their bodies and minds change to match, reshaped like clay.
Those taken by the Claim have their former mind and memories buried deep. In waking, they believe themselves to be as they were shaped. Most Claimed consider “rescue” a kidnapping in its own right and fight to return to their “rightful place”!
The Claim required prolonged exposure under normal circumstances. However, the Grand Fae are reputed to be capable of the Claim with nothing but a touch!
Thankfully, cultivated souls and spirits are much more resistance to the Claim. Thus, the Paths are the first line of defense against the Fae.
Grand and Lesser
“Grand Fae” is a title of the Kingdom granted to those most powerful and dreadful opponents at the dawn of Seln. The Fae themselves accept this Name only as a convenience to themselves. Of course, many lesser Fae would claim the same, and travelers should withhold judgement. A Fae does not need to be “grand” to be dangerous!
The Grand Fae of old were tightly interwoven with their visions of conquest and thus inflexible. Those Names were destroyed in the Kingdom’s victory. Thus, categorically, any Fae that happens to be found in the modern Kingdom cannot be grand!
Go to sleep
That’s right. The Grand Fae were defeated. Now they’re just bedtime stories to scare children.
If some naysayers happen to point out that destroying those names of conquest might have freed those Grand Fae to pursue more devious plans…well, they’re wrong. That’s silly. Go to sleep.
Go to sleep now.
Realms
Fae Realms vary as widely as their owners. Some are so close in nature to Seln that natives struggle to discern the Realm. Others are utterly riven from the land of Seln, like floating islands in place of a lake.
Confronted with this display of vision, some mortals have mistaken the Fae for gods.
Underlying the Realm, however, is the Fae’s singular intent. Events in a Fae Realm conspire to the Fae’s own ends, dominated by the Fae’s Role and its demands. If the Fae wears fang and claw, then the Realm might become a darkened wood where slavering wolves pursue every interloper. If the Fae prefers high society, a city might spring up overnight to accommodate their drama!
Control and Chaos
Fae Realms are ordered, though not by mortal understanding. Rather, the Realms are grown to match the Vision.
However, even the Fae must accept limitations. For each concept the Fae chooses to order, another slips from their grasp.
A Fae that demands a heroism may lose control over what manner of beasts threaten the wilds. One that demands a story of romance may lose the ability to take a Role of martial prowess.
The Fae may choose to pour their control into the Realm, generating alien vistas with no relation to the topology of Seln. Having set the stage, they surrender explicit control over its themes. Or they might choose to tightly bind the themes of their Vision and surrender control over the land.
Once chosen, these features endure for the lifetime of the Realm – even if these choices turn against the Fae later.
Figments
The Fae’s vision often calls for inhabitants of the land beyond their servants and victims. How can a Fae populate an entire Realm to properly set the stage?
The answer lies in the Figment – fragments of autonomous vision. Figments fill the extraneous gaps in the Realm: the chimney sweeps; the scullery maids; even the squirrels in a forest!
In other words, a Figment is a literal NPC (non-playable character).
Adventurers into Fae realms must take care. Even if they learn of Figments, they cannot assume that the town baker is one! Figments fill out the roster to fulfill the Fae’s grand Vision, but there is no guarantee that the Fae did not populate a town with the Claimed and loyal servants out of pure whimsy!
The ecosystem of shadows
Oddly, Figments do not seem to rise as a function of the Fae’s power. Even the weakest Realm can be home to a complex and lively assortment of Figments. In fact, Figments do not necessary serve the Fae’s vision at all!
Even stranger, sometimes a shadow…stop being a shadow. Through some combination of interaction with mortal folk, proximity to the story’s center, and the fickle whims of fate, a Figment can one day simply become as real a Fae as the one ruling the Realm!
Just what kind of land do these Fae come from where people can be born as automata and one day awake to independent sentience during their daily chores?!
Time and space
For the Fae, distortions can become impossibly severe. Fae Realms may dilate time such that hours or even days inside are mere moments outside. Stories abound of Fae that trap their victims for years while only a day passes inside!
Some among the Grand Fae are reputed to be able to dilate time the other way, passing centuries of Seln time in a day.
In either case, mortals in Fae Realms age according to Seln time. Thus, a traveler stranded in a distorted Fae realm may realize something is amiss when years appear to pass but a child never grows up or a wound still hasn’t regenerated.
Once Claimed, however, the mortal ages according to the apparent time of the Realm.
For matters of space, the Fae display the usual distortions of the landscape. These can be quite strong, totally remapping the land!
Even beyond that, the Fae can somehow rarely reach beyond Seln itself – plucking from worlds beyond the Akashic Sea! Travelers, artifacts, and technologies from lands unknown appear in Fae Realms, baffling Seln’s mortal inhabitants. A few of these, known as Outlanders, appear to be mortals from other worlds!
Treasure and Temptation
The treasures of spirit and shade Realms are tangible. A sword found in either Realm can return to Seln.
Not so the treasures of Fae Realms. The substance of the Realm is manifest dream, and any objects found in the Fae Realm crumble or fade away outside the Realm. (Figments removed from the Realm vanish and reappear in the Realm as though they had never left.)
What, then, can be found in a Fae Realm worth the risk of its plundering?
Youth. Beauty. Courage. Fae Realms can enhance and rejuvenate mortal flesh and spirit! If those are not to your style, the Fae can offer hidden Arts, ancient secrets, or visions of far-away events.
The price is simple. To sample these benefits, the buyer must accept a tiny fragment of the Fae’s Vision.
Such prices are often simple. A woman regains her youth, but she must correspond with letters that arrive in her room. A man learns the secrets of his lineage, but each time he uses the Art another symbol appears on an ancient scroll in the Fae’s Realm. Such tiny prices are easy to excuse, especially for the desperate.
The Fae would characterize these as trades, not trickery. After all, Path warriors accept a Bane in order to channel their spirit further. Is this really so different?