Chandling

The faerie-adjacent creatures who work for others without payment, in exchange for their labour they accrue a karmatic debt, their service comes with strict rules and if broken they uses aforementioned debt to exact severe retribution.<ref>She couldn’t express gratitude, or the brownies would turn on her. With the one-sided arrangement, a karmic debt was accrued, but there were always rules. The faerie-adjacent brownies might strike a deal, like never ever watching them work. When a hapless, curious individual finally did, they would be blinded. The more the debt, the worse the fate.

The last incident with the kitchen brownies had been six years ago. Just over two thousand days and nights of breakfasts and dinners provided without a disruption of the arrangement. At this point, the person who crossed the brownies would probably not be allowed to die, as the karmic debt came to roost. Nicolette was careful to keep her expression neutral, taking it all in stride as she picked up the tray. - Excerpt from Stolen Away 2.z</ref>

Nature

They do all kinds of work for all kinds of people waiting for the chance they can repay it ten times over when their rules get broken.

Their varieties are found worldwide firmly sit in the liminal space between the goblins and fae, summer and fall.<ref>Brownies come from the crossroad Goblin and Fae, Summer and Fall. That’s the reason for their cross-eyes, you see. - Excerpt from Gone Ahead 7.7</ref>

Brownies

Brownies are a subset of the larger Chandling variety.<ref>[Snowdrop] caught it by the wrist. It was smaller than her, but only barely, with wiry hair that looked like copper wire, eyes that were more like knife slashes that made ‘x’s than regular eyes, ragged in their edges, with ‘lashes’ like frayed flesh, lined with red. The orbs on the other side were liquid-y metal, like copper mixed with gold. It had skin that was like thick leather that had been bleached white. It was knobby, spindly, and beautiful, with what looked like fancy lacy stockings or fishnets trapping hair close to its arms and legs, and more layers of the same around its body and legs. She wondered if it was halfway between goblin and Faerie, from how it was misshapen but a beautiful misshapen.

It fought like its life was on the line. Long fingernails raked her arms. - Excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.x</ref> They have hair that resembles copper wire and x marks for eye slits, the eyes themselves are a metalic liquid colour between gold and copper. Their skins is a thick whtie leather.

They can be bound by fresh green wood, eggs, milk or wheat. They are also weak to the Ruins.<ref>“I know. I’m just working out possible plans and options. I can stall, maybe?”

“You can. Fresh green wood, egg, milk, and wheat will serve if you need a circle.”

“Or the Ruins-gate,” Verona said.

- Excerpt from Gone Ahead 7.7</ref>

Trivia

As in much of the Otherverse the Chandlings have have a basis in folklore.<ref>Brownies are fantastical household helpers, generally included in the same general subgroup as faerie/fairies, stuff in that vein. Old wives tales and myths suggested brownies would help you with your housework, do chores for you, or otherwise protect your household if you left milk/cream/honey on windowsills, or made other token offerings.
Some darker variants on the brownie myth involve bargains where, for example, a lazy stablehand received an offer from brownies to do all his chores for him, but with a stern warning never to ever do a chore again, or a housewife had her chores done for her, but could never peek to see who was doing the chores. Invariably in these stories, they break the rule: the stablehand gets bored out of his mind and starts sweeping or the housewife gets curious and peeks, and they get ruined: the stablehand never receives help (or just the opposite: they sabotage his every effort from there on out) the housewife gets her eyes taken out with needles. - Wildbow on Reddit</ref>

References