[Zalhrada] Brainstorming about Faeries, Shadows, and other Spirits

[Humabout]

I have begun to look at some bigger picture things in Zalhrada.  More to the point, I am trying to sort out the many spirits of the world, but first a little background:

Zalhrada is a city on a material plane.  The material plane is overlapped with the AEthyrial Plane, a sort of spirit world where ghosts and nature spirits live.  The best analogies I can offer are that it is either a coexistant outer layer of the Astral Plane or that it is similar to the Ethereal Plane in D&D.  This AEthyrial plane also envelops the worlds two echoes - the Feywild and Shadowfall (for ease of explaination).  There are "outer planes" and an elemental chaos beyond the AEthyrial Plane, as well as other material worlds, but visitors from there always enter the plane through its Aethyrial Plane first, and usually in some sort of spiritual form or projected form.  For now, I'm just concerning myself with the inhabitants of the AEthyrial, Feywild, and Shadowfall.

Here's what notes I've come up with so far:

[ic=AEthyrial Spirits]
Aethyrial spirits are primarily nature spirits, genus loci, or ghosts.  All of them are typically more powerful in the Aethyrial than when they manifest in the material world, and not every aethyrial spirit can manifest physically.  Ghosts are undead and can be banished, since they linger unnaturally; their proper place in the cosmos is unknown, but definitely not the aethyrial or material world.  They do pass through the Shadowfall on their way out, however, and cannot be banished from there.[/ic]

[ic=Faerie Spirits]
The Feywild is full of nature spirits, virgin wilderness, etc.  It is also full of Faeries, a race of strange, alien entities whose emotions and motivations are so wholly inhuman as to be impossible for mortals to comprehend.  While some are indifferent to mortal affairs, others do take an interest - usually a cruel, sadistic one.  Faeries often abduct people, "borrow" things, and play dangerous and cruel tricks on people.  Even the most pleasant faeries are dangerous and generally best avoided.

Faeries do not have a soul and do not go to an afterlife when they die.  They also do not age or die of natural causes.  They are masters of illusory magic and can change their form magically.  They are preternaturlaly quick and nimble of both mind and body, and make fearsome foes.  They are, however, particularly harmed by iron, must (or at least always) keep to the word of any promises they make, and can be repelled by anyone who knows their name.

Aside from Faeries, the Feywild is home to a great many nature spirits, all of whom seem to be a litlte more cruel and a little less human than those in the natural world; the decendents of faerie abductees, such as goblins, giants, trolls, ogres, etc.; animals; and magical beasts.  Many of the material world's more fantastical creatures may have been born in the Feywild or trace their ancestory to it.  Most of those still living in the Feywild are a little more wild and a little less natural than their material plane counterparts.

Residents of the Feywild can be banished back to the Feywild through magic, but only the feywild nature spirits can be turned.  Faeries and their children cannot.[/ic]

[ic=Shadowfall Spirits]
Where the inhabitants of the Feywild - particularly Faeries - are alien, the inhabitants of the Shadowfall are cold, emotionless, and uncaring.  They are mostly things of shadow and cold who consume life and warmth, or undead entities lingering in the universe - either because of magical compulsions or by force of their own will.  The spirits of the dead pass through the Shadowfall on their way to Whatever Lies Beyond, but these typically do not linger long.

Shadows everywhere are stronger in areas of darkness and harmed by light; but nowhere are they stronger than in the Shadowfall.  In the material world, they can be turned as if they were undead and banished back to their plane with magic.

Everywhere, shadow creatures represent the inevitability of death and decay.  It is unrelenting and unavoidable.  It will eventually defeat every opponent.  In this resepct, shadows are strongly associated with fear and death.  In their associations with literal shadows, they are cold and dark.  Combined with their emotionlessness, this makes them some of the frightening entities encountered in the material plane by mortals.[/ic]

I'm still pulling ideas together and would love comments, questions, and criticisms.  Of the three, I've spent the most time comtemplating faeries, but all three will play relatively large roles in the world, especially aethyrial spirits (who are often revered by different religions).

[Humabout]

Faerie Psychology
Faeries are as inhuman in their thoughts as they are human in appearance.  While not devoid of emotion like shadow denizens, faeries have a wholly different and incomprehensible way of thinking and feeling than humans.  Their motivations often appear petty and childish, yet their plans are often quite complex and long-term.  They are capricious, callous, cruel, sadistic, and more than anything, unpredictable.

[ic=Privacy]
Faeries value their privacy in an extreme.  They are a secretive people and unless they wish to reveal themselves, they expect to be left alone by mortals.  They do not like to be watched, do not like mortals trespassing upon their land, and do not like mortals boasting of any associations with them.

Faeries who discover a mortal watching them react in different ways.  The most a mortal can hope for is that they simply disappear, usually by turning invisible or hiding.  If they are dancing, they may try to drag the mortal into the dance until he collapses or dies from exhaustion.  They may attack, often with elf-shot, or curse the watcher.  They may feign fleeing in order to lure the watcher into a bog, off a cliff, or into some other danger.  They have even been known to put out the eyes of  mortal peepers.

Even if a mortal accidentally spots a faerie, he must not approach, speak to them, or otherwise give away his presence.  By far, the best thing a person in such a situation can do is to go about his business as if nothing happened, hoping that the faerie didn't notice.

Trespassing in faerie lands also carries severe penalties.  If they are only mildly offended, they may invisibly pelt the trespasser with nuts and small stones until he leaves.  Otherwise the consequences can be quite dire.  They may use elf-shot or magic, causing disease, paralysis, madness, or even death.  They may try to lead the invader into danger, or even the Otherworld where he can be enslaved.  If they are particularly kind, they will put the trespasser to sleep and leave him to wake far away from where faerie lands.
[/ic]

[ic=Gifts]
Faeries sometimes give gifts to mortals – especially gold and other treasure.  These often turn out to be stones and leaves covered by an illusion, which wears off after a few hours, at daybreak, or when the recipient tells another from whom he received such gifts.

Faeries can also give magical gifts to favored mortals.  Faeries usually inform the recipient of such gifts of any conditions or prohibitions that could be dangerous.  Some have a limited number of uses; others lose their powers if removed from a certain location, given to another person, or if their origin is ever revealed.

Faeries sometimes grant mortals a supernatural level of skill in a particular art or craft, or teach them how to make supernatural potions and ointments.  A musician taught by faeries can almost compel his audience into certain actions or emotions; a smith may find himself capable of crafting exquisite, magical objects.
[/ic]

[ic=Etiquette]
When dealing with faeries, it is best to always keep their vulnerabilities, weaknesses, and dislikes in mind.  While iron may protect against them, it is best not to display iron objects or wear iron armor.  Using the term "faerie" is considered distasteful, and under no circumstances utter a faerie's given name.  When in doubt, euphemisms are best used, and the most utter politeness is appreciated.[/ic]

[ic=Behavior]
Faeries are known for their love of riddles and tricks.  They particularly delight in tormenting lazy, drunk, ill-tempered, or ungrateful people, it would seem.[/ic]

[ic=Punishment]
Faeries are renowned for the harshness and cruelness of their punishments.  They have been known to strike people blind, drive them mad, afflict them with disease, cripple, dismember, and even kill people who have committed even the most trifling offense.  They do not kill their own kind who break faerie laws, but their punishments are still harsh.  Banishment and torture are common.[/ic]

[ic=Truthfulness]
Faeries typically have a very loose regard for the truth, although they take particular delight in misleading others by telling partial truths and equivocating freely.  This carries into the faerie ethic of keeping vows.  Every faerie is expected to abide by the letter of any promise he makes, and most are quite adept at wording their promises in such a way as to not bind them to any course of action.  Still, a clever mortal can use this against them.[/ic]

[Steerpike]

Fey are always interesting, and I like the aspects you're playing up - caprice, inhuman psychology, the importance of language and strange rules, etc.

Are you envisioning any factions within the fey - either classical Seelie/Unseelie divisions, seasonal courts, racial factions (spriggans, dryads, or whatnot), or some other kind of social structure?  Or do you see them as more individualistic, without hierarchies or group disivions?  Are they social creatures, or do they prefer seclusion?  How do they interact with one another?

[Seraph]

I really like your Faerie Psychology.  I may steal some of that.  Especially details about the Privacy and Truthfulness.

[Xathan]

I love that you're doing my favorite thing with the fae - playing up their inhuman mindset. I'm interested in reading more as this expands.

[Humabout]

Thanks for all of the responses!  I'm sort of picturing faeries as being analogous to modern day aliens.  Not full-on Lovecraftian horrors (those live Beyond Time and Space), but just truly alien entities that are vastly more powerful than most mortals.

Are you envisioning any factions within the fey - either classical Seelie/Unseelie divisions, seasonal courts, racial factions (spriggans, dryads, or whatnot), or some other kind of social structure? Or do you see them as more individualistic, without hierarchies or group disivions? 

I see the Seelie/Unseelie division as just a human invention that reflects just how adversarial a group of faeries is toward humans.  SH and I were discussing this at some length with regard to Cad Goleor, and as I recall, we ended up somewhere around, "Seelies are the faeries who don't really care about mortals one way or the other, and Unseelies are the ones with the human rape pits feeding off of their emotional energies, and later off of the humans themselves."  I am toying with seasonal courts, although I'm still not sold on those.  I'd like to see some social organization, but frankly, human social organization in Zalhrada is already potentially seriously messed up; I don't need to clutter things in the Otherworld, too.  I could certainly see some faeries operating outside of the larger social structure, though.

Are they social creatures, or do they prefer seclusion?  How do they interact with one another?

It probably bares mentioning that the faeries I'm talking about so far are a single "race" of entities.  These are generally social enough to form groups and work together, but there are individuals who are loners.  Faeries deal with each other in much the same duplicitous, chaotic, and cruel way they interact with mortals.  However, this is normal to them, and they generally know what is going on where a mortal in their shoes would just be confused and feel mistreated.  Faeries have their codes of conduct, but hell if mortals can really figure them out.  The Truthfulness, Privacy, and Gifts sections above probably tie into that code of conduct somehow, but I'm not too concerned with exactly how.  My main goal is to describe how faeries interact with mortals and to keep their feel juuuuust human enough to really accentuate their alien nature.  I mean, come one!  It's a race of secretive extra-dimentional beings who abduct people and sometimes conduct sexual experiments that result in hybridization of the two species.  And it's already a legitimate fantasy concept!  Ser Fox Mulder would be proud!

Faeries aside, there are plenty of other inhabitants of the Otheworld.  Most are the progeny of abductees or just faerie animals or nature spirits.  Those tend to be an ittsie bittsie like Faeries in mindset, but aren't nearly as harsh.  They are tainted by the plane, though.  They tend to be a little more magical, a little more callous, and a little less predictable than normal, non-Otherworldly creatures of their type.  Some of these have evovled into entire races that now naturally reside in the Otherworld.  I'll eventually dig into them, but the most important inhabitants really are the faeries, so they get the first treatment.  Heck, they enslave, manipulate, or rule most of the other denizens of the Otherworld anyway.

I'll try to write up and post more on Faeries later today.

[Humabout]

Faerie Activities in the Mortal World
Despite their innate unpredictability, faeries tend to interact with humans in fairly predicable ways:

[ic=Abduction]Kidnapping mortals or luring them into the Otherworld to be enslaved is among the most common activities attributed to faeries.  Theories surrounding the reasons for these abductions abound, but no faerie has ever taken the time to explain exactly why they take people.

One of the most perilous times of a person's life in faerie-haunted areas is as a newborn baby.  Faeries seem to delight in stealing infants and replacing them with stocks or changelings.  Some wise men suggest that faeries are sterile, and so they take human children to rear as their own.  Others suggest that the faeries feed on the children in some way; while, still others maintain that faerie children tend to be sickly and malformed and often cannot survive without a mortal wet-nurse, so they switch them with those of mortals to give them a better chance of living.  Whether any of these notions are correct or there exists some other stranger reason, no one is sure.

Parents can take certain precautions to protect their babies from faerie abductions.  One is to hang a pair of iron scissors over the crib, making sure they are open so any intruding faeries may cut themselves.  Others include placing an iron knife in the baby's bedding, hanging self-bored stones, or including a number of rattles and bells in the baby's clothing.  Once a baby is about a year old, it is generally no longer at risk of being taken, but that doesn't stop faeries from taking older mortals.

The next most dangerous age for mortal abductions is in the teens and early twenties.  Faeries generally prefer to lure away unmarried adults rather than forcibly kidnapping them.  Judging by the horrific stories told by abductees who have managed to escape their captors, faeries usually use abductees as slaves – commonly for metalworking or weaving – or as food; vampiric faeries and hags often keep dungeons full of slaves on which to feed.  Quite often, those who learn a craft during their abduction gain supernatural skill and may become famed for their ability if they escape and return to the mortal world.  Exceptionally attractive youths and maidens are often taken by faeries to become lovers and consorts.

Women who have recently whelped are sometimes abducted and forced to serve as wet-nurses to faerie babies in the Otherworld.  Typically, a stock is left in the mother's place, rather than a changeling, giving the appearance that she died in childbirth or shortly thereafter – not an uncommon even in any case.

Older women may also be abducted to act as midwives to the faeries, who appear to have trouble with the entire reproductive process.  They are usually women of some local reputation as midwives; they answer a knock at the door at night to find a supposed human stranger who claims his wife needs help at once.  They are then taken to a cave or other faerie site, which appears as a fine house or palace, where a beautiful lady lies in childbed.[/ic]

[ic=Trickery]Feats of trickery are so common among faeries that many mortals have speculated that it is a large part of their culture, if they can be said to have one in any human sense.  Perhaps they consider it a contest of wits, or maybe it carries some other, stranger meaning, or perhaps they simply feed off of the fear and confusion created.  Regardless, here are a few of the more common tricks faeries use to torment mortals:

Faeries are notorious for giving false treasures – money, jewelry, gemstones, etc.  These cannot be trusted and usually turn out to be nothing more than nuts, stones, or dung, with a glamour cast over it to make it appear as something of value.  The glamour usually breaks at daybreak, when the mortal goes to use the item, or mentions how he came to possess it.  Another common time is at midnight on the full moon.  It is wise to spend faerie gold as quickly as possible.  As with all faerie magic, iron dispels any illusions on false treasures.

Conversely, faeries sometimes give a mortal something that appears worthless that later turns out to be gold, silver, or something else of value.  A gift of leaves or nuts may turn into gold coins overnight – but the recipient of the gift should accept it as though it were valuable, and show proper gratitude, or else it remains worthless forever.

Faeries are most dangerous for their attempts to lead travelers astray.  Methods vary; some use lights and sounds to lead travelers from the road at night, while others cast glamours to make one road look like another or switch the appearances of a road or field.  Sometimes this is just for amusement, but more often than not, it is a punishment.  When travelers are lucky, they end up tired, lost, and muddy but otherwise unharmed; when they do not, they find themselves in bogs, walking off of cliffs, or worse.  Such deadly pranks usually target drunkards, bad-tempered people, and other unwholesome people.  This is also one method by which faeries abduct people.

A common faerie amusement is to tangle the hair of women and girls, and the manes and tails of horses, into complicated knots that are often known as elflocks.  Elflocks are virtually impossible to untangle, and it I said to be bad luck to do so.

Many faeries delight in sneaking into houses while the residents are sleeping or away and making a horrific mess.  They will scatter the contents of a room, throw grain, flour, another supplies on the kitchen floor, upset furniture, break dishes, hide clothing, etc.  Rural residents commonly considered a sign that the victim offered some slight – wittingly or otherwise – to a faerie and is getting off lightly.[/ic]

[ic=Borrowing]Faeries who interact with mortals regularly sometimes make a habit of borrowing things without asking.  They may borrow grain, use a mill or spinning wheel at night, or even borrow tools from time to time.  If caught or observed borrowing something, the usually get angry, so it is best to pretend that nothing has happened and perhaps say to no one in particular that those who borrowed are welcome to whatever they want.  If proper respect is accorded in this way, faeries usually repay their debts threefold, returning borrowed tools and equipment cleaned and repairs, and often working better than they ever did before.  Naturally, the lender risks the wrath of the faerie if he ever relates the incident.[/ic]

[Xathan]

I love that the fey are becoming very much modern day UFO aliens. I do have a question from a prior post:

It probably bares mentioning that the faeries I'm talking about so far are a single "race" of entities

How much polymorphism is there among the fey? Are they as similar to each other as humans are, or do we get things as varied as Pixies, Grigs, Nymphs, Formorians, Elves, etc? Or all such beings the result of abduction and breeding, and there are only the one true Fey?

[Numinous]

[T]he faeries, who appear to have trouble with the entire reproductive process.

I caught this in the section about abduction, and although you seem to enjoy glossing over it, you might be missing out here.  Exploring the idea that faeries are mischievous or weird psychologically is a great angle to take, and I love the way you're casting them as aliens.  However, figuring out precisely what is up with their reproductive habits could give you some leverage in making them really weird.  Whether it's just that the fey cannot reproduce in a pure way, instead always altering what exists in other races, a deeper infertility altogether, or simply being extremely fragile creatures during the beginning of their lives.  An idea I like especially is that due to the competitive nature of the fey world, newborns are targeted as potential competition, so placing them in the mortal realm is a way of protecting them until they come of age.  Just some thoughts on that.

Additionally, you mention goblins, trolls, and so on as the descendants of once-abducted creatures, twisted by the feywild.  I've never really felt that D&D goblins had any identity other than being small and vicious, but imagining them as a bunch of Smeagles twisted by generations of survival in perilously magical forest is too delightful of an image to ignore.  Fun times.

[Humabout]

How much polymorphism is there among the fey? Are they as similar to each other as humans are, or do we get things as varied as Pixies, Grigs, Nymphs, Formorians, Elves, etc? Or all such beings the result of abduction and breeding, and there are only the one true Fey?

Ugh, this is where usign the same word for both a collection of creatures and one specific creature gets WAY too confusing.  For the purposes of not being terribly confusing, I will capitalize "faerie" when I refer to the specific race I am describing here, and use lower case for inhabitants of the Otherworld.

Capital-F Faeries are a single race as similar to each other as humans are.  Their strong ties to magic do result in a pretty wide variety of magical skills and abilities, but this is merely akin to the wide variety of aptitudes humans demonstrate in the real world.  Not everyone is an Einstein, and even Einstein wasn't a brain surgeon; that was Harvey Cushing (who sucked at physics).  What mortals perceive as different "races" of Faeries is just the result of different magical aptitudes, and even in many instances, different approaches to doing things.

For example, two Faeries with a strong affinity for vampiric magic might feed and grow strong by draining the life force from a victim.  One might inspire its victims with feverish creativity that drives them into violent fits of creativity during which they slowly work themselves to death as the Faerie syphons off its victim's life force.  The other might abduct mortals and force them to copulate in dungeons, feeding off of their sexual energy, fear, enger, humiliation, and torment.  A totally different one might just drink teh blood of mortals, or feed on their dreams.  All of these are just ways Faeries can use vampiric magic.

With regard to pixies and grigs, I actually don't have those.  They were Victorian inventions, and frankly, Victorian fairies do not fit in this world.  They are reflectiosn of Victorian English society, and my Faeries are alien.  I haven't really considered formorians yet, although I do intend for there to be faerie giants.  These are an invasive species that after millenia have gone all nature-y (cloud giants, storm giants, stone giants, etc.).  Ettins, faerie Ogres and faerie Trolls are the results of abuctions and breeding.  I'm toying with Ogres and Trolls originating from the Otherworld; Ettins almost certainly do.  Nymphs are genus loci, and as such may live in the Otherworld, but are just as common as aethyrial spirits of watery places.  Faerie nymphs are just a bit weirder and more alien than the natural ones.

I caught this in the section about abduction, and although you seem to enjoy glossing over it, you might be missing out here.  Exploring the idea that faeries are mischievous or weird psychologically is a great angle to take, and I love the way you're casting them as aliens.  However, figuring out precisely what is up with their reproductive habits could give you some leverage in making them really weird.  Whether it's just that the fey cannot reproduce in a pure way, instead always altering what exists in other races, a deeper infertility altogether, or simply being extremely fragile creatures during the beginning of their lives.  An idea I like especially is that due to the competitive nature of the fey world, newborns are targeted as potential competition, so placing them in the mortal realm is a way of protecting them until they come of age.  Just some thoughts on that.

You know, you raise an excellent point.  I'm tempted to really go Ufologist here and keep it unknown exactly what their preocupation is with reproduction, but damn do they meddle with it a lot!  Are they trying to create faerie-mortal hybrids for some reason?  Do they have their own issues with procreation, so they twist existing life?  Are they merely fragile in their early life?  Do they need Faerie Viagra?  Do they feed off of sexual energy?  Who knows?  Know one really wants to conduct the research, so conspiracies abound!

For certain, though, I will give this more thought.  Sex pretty much drives every creature in existence, whether they like to admit it or not.  Messed up reproductive habbits/methods might be driving their alien psychology.

Additionally, you mention goblins, trolls, and so on as the descendants of once-abducted creatures, twisted by the feywild.  I've never really felt that D&D goblins had any identity other than being small and vicious, but imagining them as a bunch of Smeagles twisted by generations of survival in perilously magical forest is too delightful of an image to ignore.  Fun times.

Thank you!  That is kind of the idea, really.  Decrepit, devolved smeagles that have bred true and left the Otherworld to plague the planes!

[EDIT]
Another rough thought that occurred to mem last night concerns where agnels and demons fit into the picture.  The more I've thought about it, the less I've really seen where Zalhrada needs demons or angels.  They don't add much, aside from a judeo-christian flare.  They also help populate judeo-christian heaven and hell, both concepts that are looking more and more unnecessary.  But there is something about the medieval/rennaisance catholic church archetype that is very appealing.  This got me to thinking, and I have come up with this:

Heaven and Hell are not normal planes. They exist solely in the mortal consciousness and result from a profound belief in them, just as tulpa, but in plane-of-existance-form.  Likewise angels and demons are actually tulpas that embody certain ideas and have gained independence.  Their strength grows from belief and can diminish just the same.  As a result, angels, demons, heaven, hell, and miracles are all just psychic phenomena.  Yes, the kingdom of god is inside everyone, because they believe it is and that creates it.  Someone's personal demons might be just that.  A person's faith can be their shield - and possibly their demise.  In this sense, angels and demons are different than other spirits and happen to behave exactly as they are believed to behave.

It's weird and it might not stick, but it was a thought and worth mentioning.  More on faeries and Faeries to come in the future.  Next up will either be faerie weaknesses or some of their more common magical tricks.

[Xathan]

Doing this post from iPhone means I have to keep it short, but wanted to say I love heaven and hell as being 'spiritual psychoplanes'. Never seen something quite so...innovative there. Do people know this? Would faeries be able to actually change the nature of Angels and demons by manipulating enough people into believing different? Would they want to?

[Numinous]

Another rough thought that occurred to mem last night concerns where agnels and demons fit into the picture.... Heaven and Hell are not normal planes. They exist solely in the mortal consciousness and result from a profound belief in them, just as tulpa, but in plane-of-existance-form.

If you haven't heard of it, you might want o look up The Pure Land.  It's a heavenly realm that is very similar to the Judeo-Christian conception of heaven, but it idealizes slightly different values to make an idea of the perfect world.  It might give you a better perspective on how heaven might be polymorphous in the minds of humans.

[Humabout]

Do people know this? Would faeries be able to actually change the nature of Angels and demons by manipulating enough people into believing different? Would they want to?

People definitely do not know this!  Theoretically, faeries, shadows, or even other humans could mount a meme war to alter the nature of angels and demons, if they realized this is what was going on.  Perhaps faeries do realize this, but if they do, they haven't let on.  As for what faeries want, you'd have to catch one and ask it; and hope it doesn't bite out your tongue for bothering it.

If you haven't heard of it, you might want o look up The Pure Land.  It's a heavenly realm that is very similar to the Judeo-Christian conception of heaven, but it idealizes slightly different values to make an idea of the perfect world.  It might give you a better perspective on how heaven might be polymorphous in the minds of humans.

I haven't!  I shall look it up presently for sure.  I had been intending for Heaven and Hell to just be a rough average of all human beliefs in them, but having it slightly differ based on each person's beliefs could be really cool, too!