Editing Faerie Courts (section)

=== Spring ===
These courts deal in nobility, and often interact with or adopt nobility from other courts.<ref>Maricica heard my take and says (to paraphrase):  All courts have Lords and Ladies.  The higher a Faerie rises in status, the more they have to deal with the Spring courts.  A sufficient rise can see one join the High Spring.  - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/08 5.2 Bonus]: [[Faerie Courts & Goblins]]</ref> They will often claim [[Crossroads]] as a "space of prominence".<ref name=":9">There were places that were often called crossroads.  The realms frequently overlapped Earth, or overlaid it, in layers visible to only those who could see the right frequency, with the right Sight, or from the right angles, coming from one place to another. [...] And, of course, realms themselves could overlap.  Abyss crossed Ruin in places.  Warren overlapped Faewild.  Digital Aether intersected Demiurgic domains.<br><br>

The Fae liked to establish bases of operation at crossroads.  Even small ones.  The Spring courts liked to mark out a space of prominence.  The Summer courts might establish outposts, to guard the Fae realms, wild and otherwise, against incursion from the Abyss or Warrens.  And the Fall courts… markets. [...] Monstrous, gnarled, and odd Fae milled around, alongside those who were almost human, almost Other, but neither or both.  The Names and Heroes watched and managed, or they thought they did.  The Fae were the true managers. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/12/08 excerpt] from [[Playing a Part 15.z]]</ref>

[[Padraic]] and his coterie are part of this court<ref>'''Interaction''' – Faerie, Summer and Autumn (Already did Spring in a prior work) - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2023/11/04/essay-creating-pale/ Essay – Creating Pale]</ref>

==== High Spring ====
Features "aristocrats and gilded things, parties, fine craftsmanship and even finer, craftier lies",<ref name=":1">“High spring, aristocrats and gilded things, parties, fine craftsmanship
 and even finer, craftier lies. High fall, melodramatic and brooding, tangled in human ways and things, they play for keeps, with beginnings and endings in mind.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/06/13 excerpt] from [[Stolen Away 2.2]]</ref> "emulates human aristocracy and celebrity".<ref name=":2">“The courts below are dark shadows of the ones above. The High Spring emulates human aristocracy and celebrity, the Dark Spring does away with the humanity and replaces it with the monstrous, dressing themselves in chitin, spiderwebs, and skins while they deal in nightmares and upstaging one another in the torments they can inflict. The Dark Summer instead lost their Faerie nature, mingling too much with distant and opposed Others, because they fought them for too long, or they took them as allies one too many time. Imagine the monsters of fairy tales, and you would not be far amiss.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/06/13/stolen-away-2-2/ excerpt] from [[Stolen Away 2.2]]</ref> They excel at effectively lying without technically breaking their word, and consist of nobility and high society without any society beneath.<ref>They’re really really really good at lying without actually saying lies.<br><br>Words that keep coming up are queens and princes, lords and ladies, and other titles.  Some of this stuff comes up with other courts, but with High Spring stuff seems to start and finish with it.<br><br>Other stuff includes gold and silk, politics and political intrigue, and ‘high society’ thing like parties and balls, but without the society beneath to justify it. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/08 5.2 Bonus]: [[Faerie Courts & Goblins]]</ref> They deal mostly with other Faerie, and tend to be inexperienced with everything else. They tend to suffer from more concentrated versions of the normal Fae weaknesses, and must employ other courts as warriors.<ref name=":10">Guilherme says:  They build cities with their glamour, and build illusions of something bigger with their words.  They don’t oft interact with the Fairy or humanity, and this is a boon.  You can catch them off guard.  They wish dearly to keep up with the time and trends, but struggle to do so because of courtly obligation.  Use this when negotiating with them.  Offer them a lesson in modern culture.<br><br>Toadswallow’s Take on High Spring<br>(I went over what I wrote down and what Guil & Maricica said)<br><br>Their twit glitter is flimsy and fragile.  They’re Faerie who mostly deal with other Faerie and mess with Practitioners so think of them like concentrated Faerie.  Insufferable tits.<br><br>T.S. thinks Faerie started out with glamour and got good at the social stuff as a way to help sell it and distract people long enough for the glamour to ‘set’ and High Spring Faerie are concentrated versions of this.  To deal with them, he says, you have to fight decorum and fancy.  Be a jerk, be crude, catch them off guard.  Kick in the door, crap on the floor and insult them to their faces.  Question everything and don’t let them tell you something’s gold without biting it to test the softness.<br><br>In the High Spring court you’re going to find a lot of snooty arrogance from ‘twits’ (T.S.’s word) who can’t fight to back it up.  They are really bad at fighting, apparently, but they use other courts to get soldiers or ‘knights’ that they keep close in case of problems. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/08 5.2 Bonus: Faerie Courts & Goblins]</ref> Archaic and old-fashioned.<ref name=":11">So apparently the Dark Spring courts are way more ‘with the times’ than the Spring court, with a lot of the modern mixed in with the medieval.  The upside, as I understand it, is they’re fastest on the uptake with stuff like sexuality and gender identity and race, where High Spring Fae aren’t even caught up all the way wit this ''century''.  That’s about the only good thing I’ve heard about them. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/08 5.2 Bonus]: [[Faerie Courts & Goblins]]</ref>

They often construct illusionary cities.<ref name=":10" /> Might keep [[Glamour Drowned]] humans as dancers, competing to train the best one.<ref name=":6">''Many of the Glamour Drowned were used for a specific function. In the High Spring court, for example, they may be endless dancers, trained by Faerie to dance as a competitive act, where one Faerie competes against another to see who can elevate a human more. The Fall courts may turn them into animals to sell to the other courts as pets and accessories, with the ability to turn them human on a whim because it is easier to set aside a place for a human than, for example, a twenty-foot serpent. The winter court may turn a person into an object, such as a goblet that is asked to tell riddles, or a tapestry that changes to keep track of the days in reailty.'' - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/09/17 Bonus Material: Dossiers]</ref>

==== Low Spring ====
Akin to High Spring but without the human appearance; "dressing themselves in chitin, spiderwebs, and skins while they deal in nightmares and upstaging one another in the torments they can inflict".<ref name=":2" /> Relatively progressive, but otherwise quite dubious by human standards.<ref name=":11" /> They make use of modern celebrity culture a great deal, blending modern technology and aesthetics in with the archaic, and are leaders in fashion and trends among the Fae.<ref>Maricica Says (about Dark Spring)…  She’s been there twice and she thinks it’s fun???<br><br>She says it’s like the equivalent of one of us getting to go to the red carpet stuff at Hollywood.  They have beautiful Faerie, even among other Fae, and cutthroat, sometimes literally cut throat, fashion.  There’s a major blend of our celebrity stuff with old stuff, with an intensity and attention to the art of things that leads the trends in other courts.  It drives High Spring Fae crazy, the last century or so.  These are Fae who use guns and swords at the same time, build skyscrapers and castles in the same places, and make it mesh.  Which I (Avery) do have to admit, sounds cool.<br><br> - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/08 5.2 Bonus]: [[Faerie Courts & Goblins]]</ref><ref name=":12">The impression Lucy, Verona and I get is they like celebrity and trends and hip new things, but there’s an underlying culture of those in charge ruling over those on the bottom, and they rule with fear.  Key words that keep popping up are art, emotion, tragedy, pain, darkness.  They like bugs and bone decoration, wearing skin, but really, each ruler designs their own realm with rules and aesthetic.  Verona says it’s like what would happen if all of our childhood cartoons ended with the bad guys killing the princess and taking over the kingdom and they were all one setting. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/08 5.2 Bonus]: [[Faerie Courts & Goblins]]</ref> Their glamour focuses on negative emotion, on tragedy and horror. Powerful Dark Spring fae may mimic the powers of human [[Practitioners]].<ref name=":13">Guilherme says: decorum and rules matter here.  Know how a Lady should act, how to defer to rank, and show respect.  In the Bright Spring, these things may be the golden threads they use to hang you.  In the Spring Below, the lack of decorum is their justification to destroy you, and it would be a long and slow destroying.  Their glamour is focused on the darker emotions, pulling on heartstrings, and they can read you at a glance and know exactly where your weak points are.  Strong Fae of this court can emulate other practices with Glamour, so know your way around curses and summoned Others.  The lowly Fae of this court are most dangerous, for they brim with resentment and will not wait for a social misstep.  - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/08 5.2 Bonus]: [[Faerie Courts & Goblins]]</ref><ref name=":12" />

Low Spring is divided into a number of smaller courts, each fiefdom with a somewhat different aesthetic and ruler. Their culture is based around fear, hierarchy, and strict rules.<ref name=":13" /><ref name=":12" /> 

[[Daniel Alitzer]] was held captive by this Court, forced to sing an endless song of mourning for their dead Queen.<ref name=":7">Shellie, 27, is a Bright-Eyed human woman, caretaker of her brother, a 30 year old Glamour Drowned. Sold to the Faerie by their own parents as children, they were separated, Shellie sent to the Bright Fall court, and Daniel to the Dark Spring.<br><br>Daniel Alitzer was made to bear witness to the death of an immortal queen of the Dark Spring, an event contrived to evoke a sense of tragedy never before seen. [...] Shellie spent a total of eighteen years among Faerie brokers, hieves, and Fae who traded in faces like money. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/09/17 Bonus Material: Dossiers]</ref>