Faerie Courts

<infobox> <title source="name"><default>Faerie Courts</default></title>

<image source="image"></image> <header>Basic Information</header> <image source="map"></image> <label>Type</label> <label>Location</label> <label>Inhabitants</label> <label>First Appearance</label> </infobox> The Faerie Courts, also known simply as the Courts or Court, is the Realm or collection of Realms where the Faeries mostly reside. Elegant, deadly and drenched in glamour.

Description

Don't eat the food there.<ref>The woman offered Avery one of the apples, biting into the other.

“No, but it seems nice of you to offer,” Avery said. She could remember what they’d been told about Faerie, and not eating things while visiting the Faerie. This wasn’t the Faerie, but maybe the same rules applied. - Excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.1</ref>

When they have exhausted the potential of a specific Court system, the Faerie will overthrow their rulers and institute a new dynamic,<ref name=":5">“I see,” Sandra Duchamp said. “Here’s my counteroffer: what if I offered a messenger?”

“The Queen won’t listen,” Padraic said, sighing.

“To other banished Faerie, in other cities and towns. Until our family line ends or the Queen is replaced and the court dynamic changes up once again.”

“Springtime,” Padraic said. “Mm. That would have been a good offer. Paved the way for an insurrection of sorts.”

“Perhaps,” Sandra Duchamp said. “That would be dangerous for my family. I was thinking of maintaining some connection to the courts, in a peripheral manner.” - Excerpt from Damages 2.2</ref><ref>It’s one moving piece in the midst of a thousand thousand that will see the courts change again. From seasons to something else, though the Winter Court will remain what it is and always will be, the rest of us will adjust, and so will the games we play. Your great-grandchildren, if any, could be dead of old age by the time those moving pieces start moving. - Excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.8</ref> often using glamour to make it appear older.<ref>The Faerie go through trends, fashions of a sort. Mixing notions, styles, and past ideas into new forms until they’ve run completely out of ideas. Then they rebel, they overthrow the court, and a new season begins with a different foundation. Light faerie versus the dark, for example, or a court with a true king and queen and a dynasty that they’ve glamoured up to extend back through the centuries. - Excerpt from Damages 2.5</ref> As of 2020 there are seven Courts:<ref name=":0">“There’s courts?”

“Seven courts,” Guilherme explained. “My court is one of 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. The great bard wrote of us. The court of nature and summer, touched by sun.” - Excerpt from Stolen Away 2.2</ref>

High and Low Courts

Three of the four seasonal courts are further subdivided into High and Low. The High courts are also known as Above, Bright, in Sunlight, etc; while the Low courts are also known as Below, Dark, in Shadow, etc.

The Low courts are associated with rain, darkness and cold water. Using their glamour for sunlight things may provoke a negative reaction.<ref>“Was there a problem downtown?” Charles asked.

“No,” Maricica said.  “They smell like Glamour and sunlight.  Did you use my glamour for something related to sun?”

“Ahhh,” Verona said.

“I’m a Faerie of the court below.  Rain, darkness, cold water…”

“Got it, got it.  Also, ow.”

“It will pass.  Try not to pay attention to it,” Maricica said.  “Or the glamour that still dusts you will take that attention and use it to make the harm more lasting.” - Excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.7</ref>

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. - 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.

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. - excerpt from Playing a Part 15.z</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.” - 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.” - excerpt from Stolen Away 2.2</ref> They excell 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.

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.

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. - 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.

Toadswallow’s Take on High Spring
(I went over what I wrote down and what Guil & Maricica said)

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.

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.

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. - 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. - 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. - 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???

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.

- 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. - 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. - 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.

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. - Bonus Material: Dossiers</ref>

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.” - 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.

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). - 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…
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.

Maricica says…
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. - 5.2 Bonus: Faerie Courts & Goblins</ref><ref>Toadswallow’s input on High Summer:
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.

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.

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. - 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

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.

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.

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. - 5.2 Bonus: Faerie Courts & Goblins</ref> In some cases, the Fae weaknesses they have not yet given up are strengthened.<ref>Guilherme says:
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. - 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:
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. - 5.2 Bonus: Faerie Courts & Goblins</ref>

Autumn

The courts of Autumn are both liable to trade in humans transformed into, for example, animal pets.<ref name=":6" /> They often establish markets at Crossroads between different Realms.<ref name=":9" />

High Autumn

They are "melodramatic and brooding, tangled in human ways and things, they play for keeps, with beginnings and endings in mind",<ref name=":1" /> "playing pranks, stealing [humans] away to return them to the same place, years in the future", including "the small, gnarled Fae who do errands and give gifts in exchange for cream or honey".<ref name=":8" /> Include "Faerie brokers, thieves, and Fae who traded in faces like money".<ref name=":7" /> Melodramatic, and inclined towards high-stakes dealings and betrayals that would produce a dramatic ending.<ref name=":15">These guys focus on change, changing, and exchange. Those things cover transformation, constantly shifting positions and dynamics, markets, manipulation, and back-and-forth betrayals. If the High Summer Fae watch the perimeter, these guys deal with tunnels, caves, back doors and ways through to other places. Or our world. They’re apparently broody and melodramatic, and mingle a lot with other non-Faerie Others, and with humans. They love rises and falls, individual status, and stories. [...] Maricica Adds: Their love of beginnings makes them fond of children and preying on a child’s naivette. This can be used against them, if you feign such. Else, turn them against one another, or turn the bartering into a game of very high stakes. Their love of endings gives them a secret wish for a dramatic loss or fate. Use this, but do not lose if you do.- 5.2 Bonus: Faerie Courts & Goblins</ref>

They focus on change and exchange, including trade with the outside world, both open and clandestine.<ref name=":15" /> They charge dearly, and their goods inevitably carry hidden costs.<ref name=":16">Guilherme Says…
Seeing the courts outlined like in your notes can lead one to think they are the rabble or commoners, the High Spring court the nobles, and the High Summer the military. This is not so. Each is its own culture, and the Bright Autumn court benefits from being thought of as lesser. Some may be shabbily dressed, but pretty in their own ways, or you may find the small Fairy in their number, cooking, cleaning, or selling knick-knacks for the equivalent of pennies. All is by its design, and all are conniving. Faerie have in the wake of Man’s rise, but the Bright Fall Faerie have adapted and weathered this better than any, though some would say it wasn’t without cost and a loss of some of what makes them Fae. They scrabbled and fought, even climbing over one another to establish a place and a meaning, and you, or anyone else they might deal with, are the handholds and footholds by which they achieve this scrabbling. If you find yourself in dire need, you could seek them out. They’ll give you answers, cures for illness, madness, or a curse, they can transform you, permanently or temporarily, or give you a magic item. Just know that when you strike a deal,the price they ask of you will seem (and be, Maricica adds) to be exorbitant, paid in favor, barter, or coin. The actual price you pay will become clear in time, and will exceed the given price by ten times or more. - 5.2 Bonus: Faerie Courts & Goblins</ref> Their trades are so crooked that there is no karmic penalty for stealing from them - although they employ terrible traps, and indeed the goods are often a trap to encourage stealing. Other than trading, they also cover entrepeneurship and invention.<ref>Toadswallow on the Bright Autumn:
Their markets are so steeped in cheating and unfairness You can cheat, steal, or rob them and it’s not going to count against you. It’s a whole other game, where they protect wares and have special measures set up. Some even want you to steal something they’ve cursed or made a part of a bigger story. But if you’re there out of desperation, it can be better to steal it, and deal with the traps and consequences then and there, while your desperation give you an edge, instead of waiting for it to hit you years down the line.

Outside the market, you can find Faerie, half-Faerie, and Fairy researchers, inventors, and others. Trying to work out the next big fashion, making magic items, or using Glamour to blend a man with a mystery or mix a child together with a dream. I don’t very well f’ing know. They’re looking for opportunity. Don’t be that opportunity. - 5.2 Bonus: Faerie Courts & Goblins</ref>

Sometimes viewed as "lesser", the rabble, but they are a fully-formed society in their own right and have weathered the rise of Humanity the best of any court.<ref name=":16" />

Shellie Alitzer was a slave to this Court.<ref name=":7" /> The Blue Heron Institute pupils visited a minor, out-of-the-way market in this Court on a field trip.

Low Autumn

These are "the most wretched of Fae",<ref>“You have yet to succeed in swatting me,” Maricica taunted, before laughing.

“You’re enemies?” Lucy asked.

“A question of courts and houses,” Guilherme said. “I’m of the Summer court above. She is of the court of the most wretched of Fae.” - Excerpt from Stolen Away 2.2</ref> "the wretched", who focus on "transformations and curses",<ref name=":4">“The court of Dark Fall is the court of the wretched, if not the most piteous and powerful,” Guilherme said. “When a Faerie of another court is cursed to carry a scrabbling rodent in her womb for every rodent born in her country, the penalty of a game lost or offending the wrong noble, she might crawl to the court of Dark Fall, to seek assistance and to become a different kind of Fae that can bear the curse and still function.”

“Grey Isbold,” Maricica said, like she was amused. [...] “They grow inside her, they scratch and writhe, they’re eventually born, and they dart into dark corners, where they summarily disappear. Their job is done, you see. She’s learned to manage them, in more ways than the one. My home court is one of transformations and curses. I do think it’s the most interesting and subtle.” - Excerpt from Stolen Away 2.2</ref> "cast off rules and roles [...] be this or do that".<ref>“Oh, I’ll tell you of the Court of Fall in Shadow,” Maricica said, slipping out of the shadows to appear right next to Verona. “We cast off rules and roles. That we should be this or do that. Why wear one skin, hm?” - Excerpt from Stolen Away 2.2</ref>

Many "traffic in humans", creating new Fae from them (the primary court to do this), bartering them, breaking them down for spell parts,<ref name=":8">Guilherme smiled. The cave was cool enough that his breath fogged a bit. “While I’m telling you things about her, I could tell you one more thing about her court. Fae of the High Fall traffic with humans, playing pranks, stealing them away to return them to the same place, years in the future. You have the small, gnarled Fae who do errands and give gifts in exchange for cream or honey… but the Fae of the Darker Fall court don’t traffic with humans so much as they traffic in humans. The children who are stolen away, the ones who I described making their way to the Courts, or being brought in to then be drowned in Glamour? Largely the province of that girl’s court. The ones who can’t be bartered away to other courts for power, cures, or fixes become parts and ingredients for remedies.”

“I’ve yet to decide if that’s what I wish to do,” Maricica said, dropping down from the ceiling. - Excerpt from Stolen Away 2.2</ref> or transforming them into pets to trade.<ref name=":6" /> Responsible for most stories of Changelings.<ref name=":17">Dark Fall – Maricica’s Court

Other courts change. The Court of Dark Fall is mostly made up of the changed, the changing, and the exchanged. The stories of changelings, who are Fae placed in a crib to replace a child that is stolen away are mostly based on this court. Fae from the Dark Fall may be the cursed of other courts finding refuge, the transformed and those who wear more than one skin.

They are the best at moving in shadows, because so many are used to hiding and they share tricks among one another. They are also described as being pretty monstrous. Not in shape or anything, but in what they’ll do with stolen children, selling them or changing them to different forms. Human-animal forms or forced transformations to the animal or monstrous are pretty common. These guys can harbor a lot of grudges, and they seem to use kids as, like, sharpening stones for the tools they want to use for revenge. Really good at transforming and Maricica says they’re resistant to Winter? - 5.2 Bonus: Faerie Courts & Goblins</ref> However, they cannot take infants without the parent's accidental consent, or older children who have not implicitly volunteered.<ref>There are rules on who and what they can take. They say the very young can only be taken if the parents ask for it. A mother at her wit’s end over her squalling child may say something she doesn’t truly mean and something at the window may listen. Once a child has autonomy, they must invite it themselves, or else accept an invitation to run away, to join a circus, or such. - 5.2 Bonus: Faerie Courts & Goblins</ref> Their agents often leave behind bone, hair, shed feathers and shed skins, carcasses with essential pieces missing, and dolls and other children’s things that are made of macabre or curious materials.<ref>Keep an eye out for bone, for hair, for shed feathers and shed skins. For carcasses with essential pieces missing, and for dolls and other children’s things that are made of macabre or curious materials. These things left here and there can mark the activities of the Dark Fall. They may operate in groups or with singular agents, and will travel to and from the markets in shadow with their gains. - 5.2 Bonus: Faerie Courts & Goblins</ref> In addition to children, they also have markets which sell the darkest of secrets; almost nothing is verboten to this court.<ref>We allow indulgence in all things and we rule nothing out. For those who want dark secrets or power, with a few specific exceptions, our markets sell all things, including that knowledge. - 5.2 Bonus: Faerie Courts & Goblins</ref><ref>Toadswallow says: They’d be good company if they weren’t so wrapped up in their misery, trying to convince any who’ll listen that they’re piteous. Their market is safer than the ‘Bright’ one, my dears, but only because the dangers are either obvious or you’ll know to stay clear because the trap is too well wrought for you to ever notice. - 5.2 Bonus: Faerie Courts & Goblins</ref>

Few are born to this court,<ref>“Can I ask what you did to get sent to the Dark Fall court?” Verona asked.

“Can we please stay focused?” Lucy asked.

“I was of the rare few born to it,” Maricica said, her eyes wide. - Excerpt from Stolen Away 2.2</ref> but Fae who have been cursed may make their way there to learn control over the curse.<ref name=":4" /> Lose the least to Winter.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":17" />

Include Maricica and possibly Grey Isbold.

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.

“There is,” Guilherme said.

“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.”

“That you get bored?” Verona asked.

“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.” - 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? - 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. - 5.2 Bonus: Faerie Courts & Goblins</ref><ref name=":3" />

With the power of repetition, Winter fae are exceptionally powerful.<ref>Toadswallow says:
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. - 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?”

“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.”

“What does that mean, though?  Fate?  Final verdict?”

“The wound may last, Verona Hayward.”

“Last like…?”

“For life.”

“Is there a cure or-?”

“No.  Not in the sense you mean it.” - 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.

Court Borders

There are realms part-way between the Courts and Earth or other Realms; Faerie frequently claim these, and even unrelated Crossroads, in ways suited to their Court.<ref name=":9" /><ref name=":14" /> The courts are situated in a larger "fairyland", which includes wild dangerous spaces known as the Faewild;<ref>They’d befriended her, offering her their services, which she had taken, because the wildernesses that stood between any Faerie-inhabited space tended to be dangerous, and she wanted Hildr in tip-top shape in case something happened. - Excerpt from Interlude 3</ref> this and the adjacent realms are inhabited by Fairies.<ref>Fauna Ephemera are Fae-adjacent works.  Wildlife cultivated to exist for a few glorious years as living pieces of art. [...] The beasts were crossbreeds between dark summer, dark fall, and the pups had crossbred with mundane earth animals of their ilk.   If they aren’t Finnea’s, whoever owned and nurtured them died and they moved on to new pastures.  Chasing the smell of carmine blood, I imagine.  I sent them scurrying back in the direction of the Faewilds, but after the fact, Maricica made hints she knew about them. - Excerpt from False Moves 12.3</ref><ref name=":9" /><ref>Brownies come from the crossroad Goblin and Fae, Summer and Fall.  That’s the reason for their cross-eyes, you see. - Excerpt from False Moves 12.3</ref>

Wild Hunt

Each Court has its 'officers' to enforce the rules and standards of their respective courts<ref name=whdf/> and the distinctions between given courts and barriers between fearie and the human world;<ref>“I wanted to make a proposal.  I’ve been keeping track of trends and everything and I do think that if a concerned adult were to follow you through certain passages…”

“Bas, no.  It costs too much.  There are fees, the responsibility commodified…”

“There are certain roads you could take.  They aren’t patrolled often, I can cover some of the costs if you get caught.  We could use more fodder.  There are people who would buy.  You could buy your freedom weeks earlier.”

She changed in the middle of the store, kicking off her slacks and pulling off her vest.  She took the tea from the overly-long-limbed Nascence midway through changing.  “I could also condemn myself to debt.  The Wild Hunt April is on the prowl for trespass and smugglers.” - Excerpt from Gone Ahead 7.6</ref> they break the rule breakers. Can be called by properlly credentialled individuals, this includes powerful fae<ref name=whdf>The consort reached into her mouth and withdrew her tongue, without even needing to tear.  “You’ll not call yourself Fae, certainly not of this court.  You’ll stay within the walled garden for the rest of your existence.  I’ve taken your tongue, but the rest I leave to you.  For the rest of your existence, you are not to make a hint of a sound, or my informants will know of it, and the Wild Hunt of the Dark Fall will descend upon you.  As miserable as your silent existence may be for you, your glamour slipping away, the fate the Wild Hunt will deliver for your breach will be worse.  Understood?”
[...]
“I’ll gladly attend.”

That ‘gladly’ was a play of wording.  [Maricica] would only be glad because the alternative was the Wild Hunt, the most elite and dour of Fae from this court, they would blow their horns and ride in, and they would deliver her to the feet of whatever lord or local power had called on them, or else they would find a fate for her worse than any she’d heard of or seen yet. - Excerpt from Dash to Pieces 11.z</ref> or well connected practitioners.<ref>“Estrella thinks they might be taking a shortcut through the Faerie realms,” Raymond said.

“Any number of routes,” Estrella said.  “Faerie makes sense, but they might think we know that.”

“That’s a tricky game, because if we don’t think they’ll go that way…” Avery said.

“It’s a game I’m comfortable playing,” Estrella said.  “Mr. Sunshine, with permission, I’ll send a silver-lined letter.  We can make the Faerie difficult to cross, while-”
[...]
“A [Silver lined letter] to Estrella’s family court.  We’ve had her send a few to requisition certain services or cut past red tape in other courts.  We did so with our field trip.  A request for a favor, they’ll send out soldiers to look for your Faerie.  I trust Estrella to handle it.  If it’s too expensive, we’ll cover the costs for her.  Once they’ve secured and alerted appropriate regions of the Faerie, they’ll send soldiers to other realms.” - Excerpt from Fall Out 14.6</ref> As in many things the Winter Hunt are considered the best, and not in a good way.<ref>“I can’t come to say hi?  Bring you something?  See if you’re okay?  Show you how far things are coming with the guitar?”

“Best if you don’t.”

“Well, if you don’t give me a good reason, I think I will anyway.”

“The Wild Hunt exists to punish, and there is no transgression they view as deserving of punishment as a failure of dignity.  Each court maintains its own hunting party, and the court of Winter is the harshest of them.  If I should say or do something that lowers myself in others’ eyes, and lowers the perception of the Winter Court or Fae as a whole, they will come.  I don’t want that, and you shouldn’t either.” - Excerpt from Fall Out 14.6</ref>

Residents

• Fae
• Fae-adjacent
  • Brownies
  • Elves<ref>Wildbow on Discord</ref>
  • Fairies
  • Fauna Ephemera
  • Gnarlings<ref name=fa>“How low have you fallen, grub?” Guilherme asked her.  “You’ve become graceless, your schemes are this?  Not even thinking two moves in advance, you’re reduced to one, perhaps?”
    
    “I have other schemes at play that take higher priority.  As you say, the primeval beasts are not to be toyed with.”
    
    “You stand at the same level as a fae-kin gnarling, a teind, a trooping faeling.  To think you’re naturally born to the Dark Fall.  A word in the right ear would see your betters come to dispatch you.  They are made to look lesser by mere association with you.” - Excerpt from Left in the Dust 16.5</ref>
  • Strangling
• Humans
  • Glamour Drowned
  • Bright Eyed
• Ogres
• Echoes<ref>“He weaves his own web, with silver bells instead of black silk web in a lightless cave, each strand dripping acid that can eat through metal. The habits are similar, the mentality. I remember a Wraith Socialite in the courts, too.
  [...]
  She was a dark echo in a dark vessel, poorly created by one Fae or another, but none could call her out as such because she could so easily be a trap. What happens if you call her a poor work of artistry and she turns out to be an allegory you weren’t clever enough to get? Or a joke ready to be played on whoever stood opposite her to challenge her? A sword wound is one thing, but being made a fool is the sort of thing that makes noble fae wish to avoid you. She was left to her own devices, gathering up Fae of the lowest caliber in a network, whispering and communicating, warning.”
  [...]
  “If you want me to do something about the bells then just say it straight, Guilherme. Or is the common part of it that they all pose a small danger?”
  
  “Not a danger, Lucy, not directly.”
  
  “Just say it straight, Guilherme, I know you’ve got this thing where you want me to connect the dots myself and grow and crap, but I’d rather focus my energies on helping Chloe. Maybe I can digest the lesson later.”
  
  “The danger is exactly that. Pressure, inexorable, annoying, sapping away enough of your focus that you cease to grow, or you start taking easier paths. What a waste it would have been, had I cut the finale of my centuries-long rivalry short, or pushed into predictable action against an echo who was fabricated and convinced she could be a scheming aristocrat on par with Fae.” - Excerpt from One After Another 10.3</ref>

History

There have been many many permutations of the courts, for example the twenty courts of the flowers.<ref>They knew so many little things. That the Courts were not a thing to be properly discussed in high society. All courts in all eras existed at once. For now, the flavor was to speak of light and dark, the courts above and below, a subset wintered over. But they were also the seven courts of the seasons and the twenty courts of flowers and in the right contexts and the right moments all would shuffle, invert, and every Faerie would be expected to adapt on the fly and act as if things had been this way for a long time. - Excerpt from Dash to Pieces 11.z</ref>

When Johannes Lillegard met Faysal Anwar, there was more than one Court, including as always a "winter court" that was also known as "the sunless court" and held "the darker faerie".<ref>One of the darker faerie, a lucky find, his ace in the hole. He’d spent four months screwing with the rat population until something took notice. He’d expected a spirit, he’d picked up the faerie instead. One from the winter court, the sunless court. - Excerpt from Interlude 14</ref> During Pact in 2013, there seems to have been a singular Court<ref>As your partner Rose already said, they’re weak against the unrefined, against crude things. That includes attitudes. Their court is one of dancing around subjects, allusions, games, masquerades, and complex plots that unfold over decades and centuries. [...] She wasn’t so good she could become part of the story they were telling in the court. [...] Some defy the court and try to change the game in another way, trying to bring about a larger change, and they get banished when they fail. - Excerpt from Damages 2.5</ref><ref>Exiled faerie were kept out of towns with Lords as a matter of course. The Court apparently didn’t want exiles making deals or gaining power, so they stuck them only in small villages and towns, or even in areas well out of reach of humans. - Excerpt from Signature 8.2</ref><ref>The Duchamp family works with the Court and the Court may well wonder what happened to its fine allies, to the highborn and noble faerie who were given as pets to the Duchamp families. [...] Sandra wasn’t Faerie, but she had picked up some things in her time as the Duchamp ambassador to the Court. - Excerpt from Interlude 13</ref> with a single hierarchy<ref>Padraic would be unhappy, but he wouldn’t take it further from that. I know Faerie superior to him in the court, and I would act as the middleman, putting you at minimal risk. - Excerpt from Signature 8.6</ref> led by a Queen.<ref name=":5" /> As of 2020 there are seven Courts.<ref name=":0"/>

Daniel Alitzer was witness to the death of a Queen of the Dark Spring at some point before the year 2000.<ref name=":7"/> Given the timeline it may be he witnessed the murder of a queen of a court equivalent to the current Dark Spring.

Rad Ray Sunshine used his demense to give his class a tour through a facsimile of the current courts.<ref>Everything was decorated. Every surface with a curl of gold. The air smelled like incense, spices, and fruits. It wasn’t bright like the other places she’d seen, but it felt like there was a lot of glare, light reflecting off of places so that there was always something glittering and trying to catch her eye. Like every part of Ulysse had sparked the mental stutters, fireworks, and imagination, everything here sparked the same.

The scene shifted. From gilded and gold to the natural. Vines crawling. Berries, fruits. Branches extended indoors, weaving around things until they looked like they’d always been meant to be there. The smells and sights that found her nostrils and eyes made her imagine that keeping to the rules about not eating in strange places would be very hard. Being closer to nature, at the Blue Heron Institute had made her want to be more active and stretch and maybe played a role in why her brain was reacting like it was to boys. And this felt more outdoors than any place she’d been, even with the four nature-covered walls of the church around her.

Again, things changed. The walls became fronts for other buildings. Figures moved within. Things that were like goblins but beautiful instead of small scrambled about. Some called out, their voices indistinct, as they held out baubles and things. There was no sun, anymore, but it felt like it was all a very pleasant shade to dwell within, here. The air was filled with music, and she took a step forward without meaning to. Students before her stirred, restless. Her eyes roved over the things in the church, and she knew Verona would have been inspired by them.

Frost crept over everything. The creatures fled. Storefronts closed and shuttered, and the shutters became wall without window. When Lucy looked up, the walls extended up as far as she could see, and she had no idea if it was night or day, indoors or out. The frost curled out over everything, in brilliant, kaleidoscopic patterns, and what didn’t captivate the eyes like optical illusions reflected things. She saw a glimpse of herself, clearer than in any mirror she’d seen, and closed her eyes before she could see too much.

When she opened her eyes, she was in the market again. There was chatter, sharp, in a variety of strange languages. Bells rang and tinkled everywhere, and the air was musical with the sound of creaking wagon wheels, carts, and things that were Other, with creaking limbs and lumbering gaits. The residents here that offered their wares were bent, stooped, or part animal, coming in all sizes, from the giant to the small. When there was beauty, it was heartstopping. A fine, elegant woman standing at the back of the room. A young man with hair that became like peacock feathers, that he wore wrapped around his body, in a tantalizing way.

Maricica was from a place like this. She would have been one of those beautiful figures in the background. All the more beautiful for being surrounded by the crooked and ugly.

Others were looking behind Lucy. She turned, then backed away swiftly, narrowly missing a small figure so wrapped in robes that its true face and body couldn’t be seen, snatching for her wrist.

At the raised back of the church, a withered old man with long pointed ears held up a baby, swaddled in pastel hues that seemed wrong amid the wet stone, roots, leafless trees, and the buildings that had been carved into the surfaces around them. It shouted something in a native language.

At the sides and back of the room, creatures made bids. Holding up coin, bent sticks, and books. And for a moment, she forgot that it was fake, and she felt the desperate need to save that child- to offer something.

The scene moved away. The outdoors taking over. The leafless trees became a rule. The path through the church became rough stone, the church itself a ruin, like something that had once been like that great, intricate hall of gold leaf and fine decoration, with everything gold and great torn out. The ruin of the church had a cloth tied to the highest points, and she felt a bit of sorrow because whatever it had been a part of had been more beautiful than any and all of the places she’d just seen.

She hated the emotions these places were pulling at.

There was singing, a beautiful, mournful voice joining with a rough-edged, vulgar one, and she shivered. She knew, even though she couldn’t identify the language, that it was a Faerie singing alongside a goblin.

And then they had a roof and walls again, pulling together whenever she wasn’t looking.

Not gold but bone, not cloth but spiderweb. Humans in fine clothing knelt along either wall of the church, bowed, heads bent, hands clasped. Like people were meant to bow low before a great king, queen, or terrifying emperor. But the king, queen, or emperor- she had to check. They weren’t here.

And as she watched the unchanging scene, beautiful in its own way, horrifying as she looked into each thing and saw more fine details, like polished white teeth by the hundreds, she came to realize they were bowed in case that terrifying figure made an appearance. Like anything else was the worst thing imaginable. - Excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.6</ref> The Blue Heron Institute students later took a school trip to the Bright Fall court.

Trivia

• Fairies have been divided up societally in various ways.

References

<references/>