Editing Faerie Courts (section)

=== Summer ===
==== High Summer ====
Features "wine and adventure, romances and tragedies, and simpler ballads of those led astray. Heroes, courage, and the threads of epics braiding together and into one another [...] nature and summer, touched by sun."<ref name=":0" /> "Adventure, festival, and pleasant debauchery".<ref name=":3">“Yes, I do think it scares ''him'',” Maricica murmured, and she slid her bare arm out from beneath the wings she had wrapped herself in, along Verona’s neck and shoulder, pointing at Guilherme. “The court of High Summer is the court that loses the most Faerie to Winter. Adventure, festival, and leasant debauchery can only tide you over for so long. Of import: The court of Autumn Below loses the least.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/06/13 excerpt] from [[Stolen Away 2.2]]</ref> "heroes and adventures [...] romances, comedies, and tragedies.  Epics and dramatic moments." Perhaps the only court to focus on romantic love. Closely associated with duels and duelling.<ref>The court of heroes and adventures, ranging all over.  They seem to focus a lot on specific stories: romances, comedies, and tragedies.  Epics and dramatic moments.<br><br>Concepts that keep coming up include duels, (they’re good at fighting fancy) + relationships (can’t think of any other Faerie stuff where relationships have even been mentioned).  - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/08 5.2 Bonus]: [[Faerie Courts & Goblins]]</ref>

This court serves as the army of Faerie and guards the borders of the Courts, every soldier a unique hero fighting for the spotlight. They make use of lesser Others as underlings, and members of the darker Courts as spies and sabeteurs.<ref name=":14">Guilherme, who doesn’t pose like in my picture, says…<br>High Summer holds the borders of the Faerie realm.  We cover the widest territories and when Faerie goes to war with outside forces, we are oft at the front of the war, not as an army of stock soldiers, but as an army of thousands of heroes worthy of their own myths.  We know the heart of Glamour.  We see when abyssal forces linger on our borders for long enough they take some Fae into themselves, and eat and breathe Glamour for long enough.  We must often confront the weaknesses of the very arts we use, or else our enemies will confront us with it instead.  Keep it close to our Self and our hearts, strengthen that Self and that heart, and it will endure.  Our enemies will not.<br><br>Maricica says…<br>It’s an army of soldiers fighting to be better than all the rest.  To fail to stand out is to fail to be a proper Summer faerie.  You cannot manage an army that way.  Look past their rank and file of heroes with titles and you’ll see the bandages and ploys that they use to shore up what doesn’t truly work.  A King + Queen who properly belong in Winter, forces of centaurs and minotaurs to shore up their number and give them lessers to order around, and the agents of darker courts, like mine, who use subterfuge to kneecap the enemy when too many of Summer’s decide to put great heroic plans into action when a simple patrol or patient siege would do instead.  All around the edges of this vast and pretty realm of theirs are the signs of the compromises they made with other things.  Some goblin-adjacent, some Fairy, even some abyssal.  But only if they are pretty enough, or are willing to be decked out in pretty armor and hide their faces.   - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/08 5.2 Bonus: Faerie Courts & Goblins]</ref><ref>Toadswallow’s input on High Summer:<br>You’ve heard me say it and I’ll say it again.  They don’t know how to fight.  Fighting is scrapping.  They duel all pretty and they act offended when the other guy kicks them in the knee and bites off their man nipples.<br><br>They’re drama nerds, hippies, and larpers who didn’t earn the muscles, height, or other assets they’ve got.  A lot of them didn’t earn the stories they tell, embellishing until they believe it.  If some honey-mead scented oaf of a Fae is calling herself the Knight of the Red Pyre, don’t go fighting her and letting her set you on fire.  Go look at the title.  Especially with the lesser ones who are trying to stand shoulder to shoulder with their important buddies, dig into the story and look for witnesses.  That’s how you break them.<br><br>Those fauns, minotaurs, and whatever elses?  Most of them are starved for a bit of normal after spending decades with these oafs who suck their own- They’ve only got a couple of their own ilk to hang with.  Crack a joke at your own expense, share a drink, and they’ll be your best friends.  Good way to get the dirt you need.  - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/08 5.2 Bonus: Faerie Courts & Goblins]</ref> As part of this mission, they often establish outposts at [[Crossroads]] between Realms, especially the places Faerie realms border on the [[Warrens]] or [[Abyss]].<ref name=":9" /> 

Loses the most to Winter.<ref name=":3" /> Ruled over by a King and Queen who arguably have already fallen to Winter themselves.<ref name=":14" />

Includes [[Guilherme]].

==== Low Summer ====
Consists of Fae who have become non-Fae [[Others]]<ref name=":2" /> meant almost as a "anti-body" for all non-fae things.<ref>'''Dark Summer/Summer Below'''<br><br>Monstrous Faerie. The fairy tail trolls, ogres, and other lumbering monsters find allies in these Fae, who have given up a lot of what makes a Faerie a Faerie. They’re not always subtle, they’re not always pretty, and they’re not very fragile.<br><br>Key words are instinct, savagery, violence, scars, blood, brutality. The goblins love to tell us stories of these guys, so it’s pretty easy to draw those associations. Verona thinks they remind her of a fantasy book. Like, swords and sorcery being adopted by the Faerie, kind of.<br><br>Lucy wondered at one point if they were something like an antibody or failsafe. Something familiar the Faerie keep around as a way to deal with some very anti-Faerie threats or problems that could do a lot of damage otherwise. Or stirring things up + breaking them down without weakening the Faerie realms, cuz they’re still made of glamour and understand glamour? Dunno. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/08  5.2 Bonus: Faerie Courts & Goblins]</ref> In some cases, the Fae weaknesses they have not yet given up are strengthened.<ref>Guilherme says:<br>Those monsters that are of Faerie have strengths and weaknesses befitting Faerie, but it isn’t always obvious.  What they give up in weaknesses they gain in other needs.  For some the Faerie’s dependence on words and wordcraft matter more, and they must finish their pronouncements, tell their story, or get you to invite your own demise.  A fun diversion.  For others, they must make you a part of their story, a ritual of deeds or actions that give them permission to come for you.  Three nights + three days of stirring a pot and getting the recipe right before they can devour you, in one case.  For others, they cannot eat Glamour and must eat regularly.  Often meat.   - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/08 5.2 Bonus: Faerie Courts & Goblins]</ref>

Notably, they tend to retain a certain Faerie charm and charisma, and the stories they weave around themselves tend to be appealing and memorable even if they are the villain in that story.<ref>Maricica Says:<br>I think it speaks a great deal that our local suntouched oaf can speak of his nemesis court with a faint smile on his face.  I could tell you stories of a madwoman fae I once knew from the Summer in Shadow and while it may have been a test of my patience, the stories I was left with are good ones.  If you asked the goblins, those who have encountered this Court would have their own stories.  So yes, while they may eat hearts or collect skulls, they retain the Faerie’s social adroitness, turning it away from grace and toward crafting good stories from within the story.  Oft by playing the heel. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/08 5.2 Bonus: Faerie Courts & Goblins]</ref>