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

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>

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>

Spring

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>

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" />

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>

Loses the most to Winter.<ref name=":3"/>

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. - Faerie Courts & GoblinsFaerie Courts & Goblins</ref>

Autumn

The courts of Autumn are both liable to trade in humans transformed into, for example, animal pets.<ref name=":6" />

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" />

Shellie Alitzer was a slave to this Court.<ref name=":7" />

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" />

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" />

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> Falling to Winter terrifies other Fae.<ref name=":3" />

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, including the larger "fairyland" or "FaeWild" that the courts are situated in, this and the adjacent realms are inhabited by Fairies.

Residents

Fae
Fae-adjacent
- Brownies
Elves<ref>

Wildbow on Discord</ref>

Fauna Ephemera
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

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>

Trivia

Fairies have been divided up societally in various ways.

References