Fae

"It is well known about the Fae that they have a relationship with magic utterly different from the processes of mortal sorcerers. Spells thought near impossible by most of us might be child's play to a Fae who finds himself utterly baffled by a simple cantrip. Perhaps only the little-understood medieval Englishman John Uskglass of all human magicians has ever truly understood the fae, and was able to deal with the fae nobility on an equal footing. To the rest of us, we are apparently playing an obscure game we don't get told the rules; it is all in all an ill-advised path.”

from A Study of Fae: a Modern Sorcerer's Guidebook (Alexander Trimegistus, London 1963).

The Fae are an order of life that evolved from magic as more familiar life evolved from biochemistry, and are taxonomically akin to demons. The earliest, or Primordial Fae, were ideologues of wild concepts that rejected the ordered nature of reality, and found themselves most comfortable in the fluid and changeable regions of the Astral Plane closest to the The Dreaming. As these ideologues grew in harmony, those realms were shaped into the Lands of Faerie. Some fifty thousand years ago, the rise of the New Gods touched the Fae Realms and forged a path otherwise long deemed too vast to traverse. The coupling of Gaea and one of the Primordial Fae gave rise to the Tuatha de Danaan, who are considered kindred of the New Gods, and closely entangled the harmony of Earth with that of the ancient Faerie.

Society

In the modern ere Fae can be divided into two classes: the descendants of the Tuatha de Danaan who live in recognizable societies (known as the Aos Si, Sidhe, trooping fairies, Elves, Fair Folk etc), and the more solitary descendants of the Primordial Fae. These latter, wild Fae (sometimes known as Sandestins, or 'undestined Fae'), are perhaps the most dangerous due to their unpredictability. Many of them are Fae lords that offer no allegiance to any but themselves, and are often potent conceptual ideologues -- for example Cait Sith, the Lord of Cats, embodies the supremacy of cats above all other life. The Djann are another ancient race of primeval Fae, many of whom relocated to Earth after the rise of the Demiurge.

The society of Fae is lead by two opposing factions, the Seelie and Unseelie courts, which share the task of protecting the Outer Gates of Otherworld. The rulers of these courts are primordials, known as King Auberon and Queen Titania (of the Seelie Court) and Queen Mab (of the Unseelie Court). Their opposition is a clash of fundamental principles and the ongoing tension between them is a significant factor in the stability of Otherworld, with metaphysical coterminance between those newer domains and the elder portions of the hoary Fae Realms of antiquity. These entities, along with some of the more powerful Fae Lords, are the manifestations of ancient harmonies of rulership of the Fae Realms, going back to the days of the Primordial Fae. There are Fae communities in other realms, notably the Light and Dark Elves of Alfheim who are descended from refugee Tuatha that were separated from Earth by Ragnarok.

Fae tend to find mortals crude, clumsy and unsubtle, and hilarious targets for mockery and mischief. In contrast, mortals tend to view the Fae as dangerous, flighty, easily distracted, and having a poor grasp of reality. Fae magic is extraordinarily potent, but bound by obscure rules. Many of the most powerful mortal sorcerers have relied on Faery Servants for their greatest works, and only three mortal sorcerers are considered to have had a good grasp of Fae arts: Morgan le Fay and her lover Merlyn who formed the realm of Avalon and organized Fae society into the two courts, and the Raven King John Uskglass, a human who learned Fae magic and was said to be briefly a king of three realms; one on Earth, one in Fae, and one in Hell.

Idiosyncratic

It is well-known that dealing with Fae is best done by entering contracts, but that negotiating with Fae is a very risky business. Perhaps because of their chaotic nature and fluid relationship with truth, Fae find the concept of words being binding irresistibly fascinating and will almost universally stick to a contract, even if they act as if it's all a wonderful game. The rules of host and hospitality are considered near-sacred, though opinion of 'letter versus spirit' varies widely among the Fae.

Fae are generally supreme negotiators, and attempting to deal with a Fae in bad faith is almost sure to bring the wrath of that Fae upon any mortal. The specific rules for dealing with the Fae vary widely by class, caste, and lineage. Negotiating with a Pixie Lord is an entirely different task than trying to lock horns with a hungry, blood-soaked Rawhead.

One common trait the Fae share is that they are incapable of outright lies, though the more intelligent ones are at least capable of planning around the falsehoods mortals speak. Interacting with 'gross matter' weakens them -- refined iron and steel can cause agony to even the Queens of Faerie, and Fae magic is severely hampered by iron, silver, or other metaphysically 'pure' substances. Many Fae have certain weaknesses or quirks of personality that are idiosyncrasies verging on compulsiveness. Some cannot resist the need to count spilled salt; others will do almost anything, even risking death, for mortal foods like pizza. Knowing the true name of a Fae gives a mortal tremendous power over the entity, though this is a dangerous game to play with creatures as malicious and cunning as the Fae can be.

Interacting with Mortals

Perhaps because most Fae do not have souls and envy the mortals who do, or perhaps simply because they tend to be perverse creatures, Fae have an odd affinity for the mortal realms, and find mortals both intriguing and endlessly amusing. Their wildly reckless and unpredictable natures have often lead them to ignore this problem and for a long time many Fae lived on Earth, particularly in the Celtic fringes of Europe where so many of the King's Roads through the Fae Realms lead. Their presence in North America expanded after Ragnarok. The Nûñnë'hï, as they were known by the Cherokee (and many names by many tribes), had a largely congenial relationship with the mortals they saw as more spiritually connected to nature.

Still, the rise of humanity and the advent of globalism and industry soured the Fae disposition. Mortals were returning to the ways of science rather than of emotion and metaphysic. The allure of dwelling among mortals waned rapidly. In the 16th century, the Fae departed their homes on Earth for good. All Fae of the Courts live in the demesne of Otherworld or have returned to their homes in the Fae Realms, returning to Earth only as visitors.