The World of the Fae/Fey/Sidhe

Submitted by MrDave on Sun, 12/03/2006 - 23:32

Posted in

LABN2: Private Game Discussion

Okee dokee...we are having an elf-centric storyline this time around...which suits me fine. But we need to set some ground rules.

What are the Fey/Fae/Sidhe and what can they do?

Some definitions first:
Fae is the collective name for races that predate mankind but come after the age of demons including Sidhe/Elves, Leprechans, Gnomes (and a few splinter races like Goblins and Redcaps) and the nature spirits (Sylphs, Dryads, Undine and Brownies)

Fey refers to things that are "of the Fae". The Fae races would use fey magic. Fae is the noun, Fey is the adjective. The word Fae is not like the word Human (both noun and adjective)...it is more like Bear which is only a noun (Ursine is the matching adjective). Fae is the word for the fey races.

Sidhe are the Fae that most resemble humans. They are the most powerful of the Fae and they rule over the other races (with a few exceptions like the wild spirits of nature: Brownies (Earth), Dryads(plants), Undine(water) or Sylphs (air)). Sidhe are sometimes called 'Elves" but that is a misnomer.

Elves are Sidhe who are 'cast out' of the Sidhe community and live in the mortal realms of humans. They can never go back. They are sometimes called "Dark Elves" or "Dark Sidhe" - especially if they seek to do great mischief among the humans.

The Sidhe are ruled by the immortal 'Lords of the Fae" This royal court decides the fate of those who are to become Elves, Dark Elves, or who are demoted from the ranks of the Sidhe to become lesser races. Names like Oberon, Titania, Puck and others from myth and legend will be familiar here.

The Fae all come from a demi-place known as "The Forest of Youth" (Tir na N-Og) - it borders our reality but time flows there subjective to the individual (so no two people age the same while there - imagine Peter Pan compared to Rip Van Winkle). While there no Fae need ever die. While here, they do age, but very slowly. Nature spirits carry bits of the Forest of Youth within themselves and so they will never age as long as their habitat is not destroyed (which is why they are prized as sources for potions of immortality).

The Fey magic is also known as 'wild magic' and it taps into power at a much more primitive level than humans do. Very often a fae has no idea what sort of effect he wants to achieve, but summons power from a ley (or earthly) source and unleashes it...often times as startled by the results as his target. It is very unpredictable and sometimes as dangerous to the individual using it as the victim. It is a lot like using a Tesla coil instead of a taser for instance - even though they can achieve the same results.

Long ago - back when the demons had left but the Fae still lived alongside humans much of the time, the Shidh taught some chosen humans how to perform magic. They taught them how to tap into the wild places and draw forth power. But humans have a need for order so they began to formalize the wild magic creating mazes of words and symbols of power that refined the wild magic and forced it to bend to their will.

Many of the Sidhe bristled at this and so they build the Cloch Cosan to regulate the flow of energies between their world and the mortal realm. They hid behind their portal and would only let through the chosen ones.

But one of the clever humans figured out how to open the Cloch Cosan into Tir na N-Og and began to impose human order on things wild and chaotic. He was known then (as now) as the Huntsman. The Huntsman tamed the wild things and bent them to his will. He was defeated (but not killed) by the highest expression of the wild magic - a Green Man.

Green Men are powerful natural creatures that rampage until brought low by the forces of magic. They are Unnatural creatures in that they are spawned by impurities introduced into natural places. Much like pearls are spawned by irritants in oysters. Green Men are spawned by irritating nature.

The appearance of a Green Man was made possible by an artifact of Human design. The device was a magical torc known as the Caithranigh (pronounced kat-rey-nah). The Caithranigh will purifiy the essence of the bearer and made him (or her) more of what they were. More Fae, more Human, more magical, more chaotic, more ordered...whatever impurities they have will be distilled out. These impurities are stored in a place called a nemeton (grove or sacturary) where the turbulence of the living creates a "Green Man". A Green Man is a force of fey magic made manifest.

However, the Caithranigh must be keyed to a specifically prepared nemeton for this process to work or else the impurities are tranferred into the very ley sources of magic that it can connect to - poisoning the wild magic and contaminating all the Fae who tap into those sources. (Imagine the effect of unfiltered sewage pouring into a stream as opposed to running it through a treatment plant - or nemeton - to give you a good idea of how this works).

Poisoned ley lines will eventually destroy all magic (to put this into perspective) but the Fae feel it first because they are closer to the source. And the effect of using 'tainted' wild magic will be sort of like eating contaminated food, I suppose. You can eat it, metabolise and process it. But you won't like it. And if you eat too much of it it will eventually kill you.

The World of the Fae/Fey/Sidhe

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