Editing Faerie Courts (section)

=== Winter ===
Fae who have failed to stave off boredom, understanding the patterns and cliches of everything and so becoming nothing but patterns and cliches themselves. Automatons.<ref>“Is there a winter court?” Avery asked.<br><br>“There is,” Guilherme said.<br><br>“He doesn’t like to even think about it,” Maricica murmured, walking behind the three girls. Avery averted her eyes, turning a bit. The Faerie woman went on, saying, “Faerie live for very long times. Grey Isbold’s offense was done in an era when men held swords, not guns, and she had been around for thousands of years before then. But as much as our bodies are immortal and we are ageless, our minds grow restless. There are only so many things to see and do, so many stories to tell or adventures to participate in. After a while, you start to see that stories tend to have the same underlying structures. Then you see that ideas come from the same places. There is precious little that is truly original in the world. The courts are in large part defined by how we approach that problem.”<br><br>“That you get bored?” Verona asked.<br><br>“That we ''become'' boredom. After thousands of years of listening to music and making our own, we might hear something new, and it entertains us for a few hours or days. Then, trained by hearing thousands of years of music and its variations, our minds jump to the obvious conclusions. We guess how the rest of it goes and what might come of it, and what follows from that new thing is only minutes, now, of entertainment or distraction. Do the same for music, for interaction with others, and we fall into a kind of stasis. Habits become personal rules, become inevitability, and the personality ceases to be. ''That'' is the winter court. Doomed to stasis, often powerful, but more automaton than individual. Like your computers playing chess against one another, getting the same results over and over again, if you watch long enough.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/06/13 Excerpt] from [[Stolen Away 2.2]]</ref><ref>The way they describe it, if you live long enough you can run out of things to do.  Or you figure out a ‘best’ way of doing things and what you do all the time is this optimized, perfected approach, and doing otherwise feels bad or feels like a failure.  So between these things you get stuck and with the rest of eternity ahead of them, a Faerie can lose it.  So it’s kind of like a prison and kind of like death, and kind of an asylum, and they really don’t like talking about it.  Especially Guilherme. [...] They say they ''become'' boredom, or become their rut, or whatever.  Even when they face new things, they know enough about art or music or social situations that it sucks the fun out of it.  As if every movie was spoiled. [...] Even goblins usually stay away, but for different reasons.  They’re like robots, numb and stuck in routines and what’s the fun in fighting something that doesn’t hurt?  - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/08 5.2 Bonus]: [[Faerie Courts & Goblins]]</ref> Falling to Winter terrifies other Fae, and is viewed much as humans view death.<ref>Faerie talk about Winter like it’s dying.

They talk about the Winter Fae with a mix of pity and what might be fear. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/08 5.2 Bonus]: [[Faerie Courts & Goblins]]</ref><ref name=":3" />

With the power of repetition, Winter fae are exceptionally powerful.<ref>Toadswallow says:<br>Practice is pattern and Winter Fae have been stuck in their patterns for a long, long time.  They’re very strong and even most practitioners steer clear.  - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/08 5.2 Bonus]: [[Faerie Courts & Goblins]]</ref> Winter Court glamour is more intense than most, a permanent delusional madness, and it's effects tend to be permanent and irrevocable even if one would not wish it.<ref>“The glass was winter?”<br><br>“Yes.  And so is the wound.  Winter is a court of endings, of fate, of final verdicts.  It is less of an illusion, and more a descent into a delusional madness one has to live with for the rest of their lives.  If I’d known I wouldn’t have given you that glass.”<br><br>“What does that mean, though?  Fate?  Final verdict?”<br><br>“The wound may last, Verona Hayward.”<br><br>“Last like…?”<br><br>“For life.”<br><br>“Is there a cure or-?”<br><br>“No.  Not in the sense you mean it.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/11/13 Excerpt] from [[Playing a Part 15.5]]</ref>

Most likely to turn captured humans into semi-animate props.<ref name=":6" />

[[Grey Isbold]], now known as Arthild, had fallen to this court.