The Fae
The Fae (also Fey, and colloquially, 'fairies') are ancient gods of the natural world. Some claim that they never existed and are entirely mythical in nature. Others claim that they were eradicated millenia before recorded history - possibly in a war with the ancient gnomes and or anicent giants. Still others claim that the Fae are in hiding, biding their time while they plan for their resurgence and potential conquest of all of Tear. Knowledge of them does not come from historical records, but rather from ancient fables, songs and poems of unknown authorship - myths that are echoed across all the regions and cultures of Tear.
The uncertainty surrounding their existence also raises questions about faefolk - a group of magical creatures including imps, pixies, satyr, and many other enchanted creatures that are indeed known to exist. Are faefolk lesser divinities in the Fae pantheon, or are they simply magical creatures related to (or perhaps created by) the Fae gods?
While there remains considerable uncertainty about whether these divinities exist at all, the Fae gods are consistently described in myth and legend as sinister, malevolent and not to be trifled with. However, unlike Infernals who for the most part are considered to exist in an organized hierarchy, the Fae are depicted as capricious, disorganized and unpredictable. The notions of Fae royalty including the Fairy Queen and the Fae Princes and Fae Princesses represent an implied hierarchy and an organized power structure that seems at odds with their representation as chaotic beings opposed to formal hierarchy.
Kontzeziona, the Fairy Queen
Kontzeziona is an ancient gnomic name, but regardless of the language spoken, it is the same everywhere on Tear, even thousands of years after the disappearance of the ancient gnomes and their language. Modern gnome women, who claim to be able to recite their maternal lineage all the way back to ancient gnomic times, assert that Kontzeziona is indeed a female gnomic name, but that no gnome has ever had the name, and the name would never be given because it belongs to the Fairy Queen.
In legend, Kontzeziona is described consistently as a slight woman, perhaps 1.5m in height, of extraordinary beauty. She has delicate features, white hair with a greenish sheen, and pale skin with a faint greenish pattern resembling the swirls of fern leaves. She has the wings of a butterfly, never touches the ground, and leaves a trail of sparkling fae dust in her wake wherever she goes. It is said that any who gaze on her are immediately enraptured and will neither long for, nor love any other for the rest of their lives.
Kontzeziona is consistently described as being adorned in her regalia: the Thorny Crown, the Root Staff and the Fruiting Cloak. The Thorny Crown is a simple crown made of a twisted ring of sharp brambles that sits atop her flowing hair. The Root Staff is generally described as a sceptre, perhaps sixty centimeters in length, that appears to be little more than a section of gnarled root from a tree. The Fruiting Cloak is a long, flowing cloak or cape made of leaves and vines, adorned with clusters of fresh, ripe fruit and berries of all kinds. The cloak does not seem to interfere in anyway with her wings or her ability to fly.
Despite her beauty, grace and elegance, Kontzeziona is described as cruel and ruthless. Legends tell of her delighting in the torture of children, and of her entangling entire armies in thorny vines and constricting and shredding them to death - showering in their blood as they scream and die in agony.
Perhaps the most well-known description of Kontzeziona is a nursery rhyme of unknown authorship. It seems to originate from before recorded history, and is sung to children and also sung among them when they play. There are different regional variations from all over Tear, but a version known as The Song of the Fairy Queen would be considered by most to be a reasonable amalgam of the most common and well-known versions.
The Song of the Fairy Queen
Her crown is of thorns, her cape is of fruit, All leaf and all life sprout forth from her root. She dances at dusk where the nettle stalks bend, And calls to the stars for daylight to end.
Her laughter is wind and her promises flow, Like vines through the fog at the edge of the slough. She whispers her song in your dreams while you nap, But rise to her bell and your blood turns to sap.
She chirrups with kittens, she squeaks with the mice, She brews a sweet tea made from ergot and rice. She'll serve you a cup with a baked toadstool bun, With a sip and a nibble cat and mouse become one.
So the children all say when Azane's getting low, Don't follow her flute to where elderoots grow. For Kontzeziona counts hearts as her prize, And keeps them in bell jars like dried butterflies.
The Fae of the Four Seasons
Among the Fae Princes and Princesses are the Fae of the Four Seasons. Each of these takes as their domain one of the four seasons (which are global on Tear, based on Vehira's orbital proximity to Azane). At any given time, one of these Fae is dominant, one is waxing in power, one is waning, and the other dormant. At seasonal transition, the waxing Fae confronts and overthrows the dominant one, and this is how the seasons change.
Abaizar the Summer Prince
Abaizar is the Fae Prince of summer. He is said to have the appearance of a humanoid tree 100 meters tall, with a skin of thick bark, and huge lush branches growing from him everywhere. Wherever he goes, wild plants grow explosively.
Ekialdi, Daughter of Winter
Ekialdi is the Fae Princesses of winter. She takes the form of a creaking, gnarled, leafless tree. The sound of her branches rattling and cracking in the wind can shatter your bones.
Mitxoleta the Orange Leaf
Mitxoleta is the Fae Prince of autumn. He takes the form of pile of colorful leaves, shambling over the ground in a disheveled pile or floating through the air in a whirlwind. If his leaves blow over you, you age rapidly.
Pikitza the Dandelion
Pikitza is the Fae Princesses of spring. She is the smallest of the Fae gods; taking the form of a tiny wisp, floating through the air like a dandelion shoot. It is said that if she lands on you a thousand flowers will erupt from your body, and a popular children's game during the spring is to chase one another with dandelions, blowing shoots at each other in a form of tag.
The Fae of the Elements
The Fae of the Elements are seven Fae Princesses and Princes who represent something akin to the classical elements. Strangely, the common elemental spirits of Tear (Air, Earth, Fire, Frost, Storm and Water) are not generally considered to be faefolk, though most interpretations consider them to be naturally extant forces susceptible to the command of these Fae.
Amezaren the Rain Daughter
Amezaren is the Fae Princess of storms. She manifests as a tall, stocky woman often depicted as being three or four meters in height, but with the proportions of a dwarf. Her skin has a swirling grey cloud pattern to it, and as she moves her muscles flash like stormclouds. Her entire body crackles with electricity.
Edizarbi the Ever-Changing
Edizarbi is the Fae Princess of the wind. Her form shifts from that of a tiny weeping girl in a tattered nightgown to a whirling dancing figure lost in a cloud of dust, to a flowing invisible breeze. She can steal your breathe and suffocate you at will.
Galbetzi, Ice and Snow
Galbetzi is the Fae Princess of frost. She takes the form of a newborn babe with skin as white as snow, and ice for eyes, teeth and claws. She has the wings of a white owl. It is said that if she touches you, you will turn to solid ice and shatter.
Goizargi the Ember Heart
Goizargi is the Fae Prince of fire. He is depicted as having the form of a humanoid forged of wrought iron, heated until it glows red. He is not considered a god of the forge, and he detests creation and craft - he is the most chaotic and some say the most spiteful of the Fae Princes. Some legends say that the fire Obrum 'discovered' was in fact an eye stolen from Goizargi and given to humanoids to create with - a humiliation that tortures Goizargi and fills him with a special and unique hatred.
Kartabanxi, Prince of Sands
Kartabanxi is the Fae Prince of the sands. As a fairy of the 'earth' he is distinct from Zorentiz, the Fae Prince of Stone who is unmoving, while Kartabanxi is ever-shifting. Kartabanxi is manifest as a drifting mount of sand - a living dune that moves over the land like a wave though the water. Kartabanxi can turn anything he touches to dust.
Maitigargi the Surging Tide
Maitigargi is the Fae Prince of the sea. He has the appearance of a humanoid, perhaps 100m tall or taller, but completely overgrown with corals, barnacles, anemones, and other such creatures. Some merfolk claim that Maitigargi is included in the pantheon of merfolk gods known as the Levijata by a subset of isolationist cultists who reject any form of contact with land-dwelling humanoid society.
Zorentiz the Immovable
Zorentiz is the Fae Prince of stone. Some say he is the most ancient of all gods - certainly older than any Fae, and older even than Vehira, Azane, or Azimzilit. His form is unknown, and myths and legends do not decribe him as manifest in any way. Some say that he is everywhere in the earth and rock. Some say he is the moon Tear itself, and that he is everywhere in the ground at all times.
The Fae of the Wild
The so-called Fae of the Wild are the Princes and Princesses whose domain is over the living plants and creatures of the wilderness. Of all the Fae gods, these are most similar to different types of ordinary faefolk in terms of their general appearance. Many have claimed to have encountered these Fae gods in the wild, though very likely what they encountered were ordinary faefolk pretending to be Fae gods - as faefolk are freqently said to be mischievious, capricious and deceptive.
Bixenti the Wild Prince
Bixenti is the Fae Prince of animals. Also called Lord of the Satyr, he is said to take the form of a satyr with the torso of a humanoid and the legs and horns of a goat. As with satyrs, Bixenti is said to be aggressive, though he is less bawdy playful. Satyrs are known to pretend to be Bixenti to intimidate their foes, but it is said that Bixenti will also sometimes pretend to be an ordinary satyr. A well-known fable tells of an army who were slaughtered by Bixenti after their scouts dragged the scheming Fae god back to their camp believing they had captured a satyr as a prize.
Ekantzil of the Fishes
Ekantzil is the Fae Princess of fish. Also known as Queen of the Sirens, she is similar in appearance to a siren, and might easily be mistaken for one, or even for a merfolk by those who have not seen many merfolk. Unlike sirens, which will appear to have different genders, Ekantil only ever appears as a female. She is extremely beautiful, and always nude, covered only perhaps in seaweed. She has plump, pale skin with a slightly blueish undertone. Ekantil is murderous and hateful, and delights in preying on sailors - boarding ships and boats, clubbing, gutting and skinning the crews alive, then devouring their flesh and casting their bones aside - treating humanoids exactly the same way they treat fish.
Hilargi of the Bees
Hilargi is the Fae Princess of insects. She is tiny, and like Tenerix, Princess of Feathers might be mistaken for a pixie except for the fact that she has a bristly coat of yellow and black striped fur - like a bumblebee. She does not look like an insect, though - her wings are like those of a butterfly, and she has a humanoid form under her distinctive coat. Of all the Fae gods, Hilargi is said to be the only one that is not entirely obsessed with the total destruction of organized humanoid society. Some legends depict Hilargi as a companion or messenger for the Celestial Alcinette.
Izazuar, Prince of Worms
Izazuar is the Fae Prince of worms. He appears as a shambling mound of worms or maggots - unlike any of the faefolk, but similar in some ways to a vurmigant. Some myths and legends mistake him for an Infernal, with some confusing him with Gib'l-Gorach or suggesting that Gib'l-Gorach is merely one of the worms that comprise Izazuar, that went off on its own to become an Infernal (in some cases the first Infernal).
Muskilda the Listener
Muskilda is the Fae Princess of forests. Her appearance is unsurprisingly similar to that of a dryad - an androgynous, humanoid tree-person. Muskilda might easily be confused for a spriggan, eoten or mandragge - particularly by those who have not encountered these before. Muskilda is particularly hateful toward humanoids given their penchant for clearcutting the very forests that are her domain, and for using the butchered corpses of the woods to construct their hovels. Myths of Muskilda tell of her slaughering entire villages by tangling their populations in vines and cutting them to pieces with a saw.
Orobidi Long Tongue
Orobidi is the Fae Prince of reptiles. He has the appearance of a humanoid frog, but with four arms. He is amphibious, he can walk on walls, he can leap a kilometer, and he can pluck a person from the horizon with his tongue and devour them in a single bite, in the blink of an eye. Grenills very often worship Orobidi in some form, though their religions have little consistency or structure across their bands or villages. Salamanders, stingers, and troglodytes have also been known to carry idols or charms representing Orobidi or something like him, and in the rare instances where the lairs of such creatures have been explored, shrines and even temples to Orobidi have been found. How this entity and his mythology are known to these creatures remains a mystery.
Odanener who Thrives in Shade
Odanener is the Fae Prince of mushrooms. He manifests as a gaunt, pale, spongey humanoid with thousands of tiny caps sprouting out of him, and draped in a shaggy coat of mycelia. Some say that Odanener can come forth from any mushroom or fungus he chooses, at any time, and can even be manifest many times simultaneously. Others say that all mushrooms and fungus are Odanener, all at once. Odanener might be mistaken for a manshroom, though manshrooms are not generally held to be faefolk. There are stories of manshroom lairs being found with shrines to Odanener, but this has never been confirmed. It is said that those touched by Odananer become a part of Odananer, slowly sprouting mushrooms from themselves until they are entirely transformed into fungus.
Tenerix, Princess of Feathers
Tenerix is the Fae Princess of birds. Another tiny Fae, Tenerix cannot be mistaken for an avian humanoid as she manifests as a bird-like being the size of a hummingbird. Like Hilargi of the Bees, she could easily be mistaken for a pixie - particularly if she is fluttering about at high speed - which she almost always is. Tenerix' song is said to entrance all listeners and for every verse she sings, those entranced will age a full year.
Other Fae
The groupings above are somewhat abritrary and are by no means recognized as authoritative or complete, and there are several other Fae gods that escape this simple classification.
Artizar the Fairy King
Whether or not the Fae exist at all is debatable, but even if they do exist, Artizar may still be entirely imaginary. He does not seem to exist in songs or poems prior to those whose origins can be traced to the middle of the Second Epoch, and it is possible he was created for literary or dramatic purposes.
The legend of Artizar is that he was the father of Kontzeziona and her six sisters, and that he kept them all in a cage, marvelling over their beauty. Overcome with insatiable desire, Artizar decided to eat one of his daughters. They all appealed to him, pleading with him to eat one of the others, and once he made his choice and devoured the first, his desire was sated for a thousand years. But a thousand years later he became hungry again. His daughters again each appealed to him to eat one of the others, until he made his decision and ate another one.
This repeated every thousand years until only Kontzeziona and one other (unnamed) sister remained. This time, Kontzeziona used a new strategy. Rather than pleading for Artizar to spare her and eat her sister she suggested a different approach. She suggested that she should eat her last remaining sister, and that once she was so fattened up, he could eat her and would then finally be sated for eternity. Artizar felt this was an extraordinary idea, and so watched as Kontzeziona devoured her sister.
Once she was finished eating, Artizar opened the cage and reached a hand hungrily inside - but devouring her sister had made Kontzeziona much stronger. She bit off Artizar's hand, making her stronger still, then she broke free of the cage and in a fury devoured Artizar, claiming all of his power and his throne and all of his domains, establishing a new realm over which she would rule as Fairy Queen.
Likurixi of the Night
Likurixi is the Fae Princess of the stars. Legends hold that she can manifest herself in the world by taking the form of any of the constellations - stepping out of the night sky and down into the world as a cloud of shining stars. She is said to be able to manifest the powers of whatever creature or being she takes the form of. Her name in ancient gnomic is the modern word for 'firefly' (licurici) in Golanicjan and Odovicjan and there are many variations of songs and rhymes children sing about fireflies that relate to this Fae Princess and her powers.
Sartazon, Lady Sleep
Sartazon is the Fae Princess of sleep and dreams. She manifests as either a floating cloud of smoke or fog, or as a dark robed apparition with a pale white face with no eyes as her only distinguishing feature. Sometimes her lips are depicted bright red leading to a conflation between Sartazon and Mol-Imit, the Infernal Queen of the Undead, but it seems unlikely that these entities (if either of them even exist) are related in any way. Sartazon is said to be the 'dream fairy' and that among all the gods across all the pantheons, she rules exclusively over the abstract and surreal domain of dreams. When you go to sleep, you (or your mind, or yyour spirit or your soul) are entering her dominion (perhaps invited or perhaps intruding). She is said to have absolute power of live and death over all who dream.
Sorkunde of the Dawn
Sorkunde is the Fae Princess of the dawn. Sorkunde is said to manifest as a 'flare of light', only ever discernable for an instant at the moment of dawn, and passing around the world as fast as Azane moves through the sky. There are not many legends or songs about her, though her name has passed into common usage in that a 'sorkunde' (sorkundi, sorkunte, zorkind, etc, varying by language) is a generic word for any weapon or device designed specifically to kill vampires (which also vary by culture).
Udikalde the Lucky
Udikalde is the Fae Prince of chance. He is very often described as slight, humanoid sized fairy with butterfly wings, easily confused with a jinx (and jinx' are easily confused with pixies). Whether the Fae gods exist at all, the existence of Udikalde among them is even further uncertain and it may be the case that Udikalde is (or was) the name of a particularly powerful or otherwise renown jinx. In any case, there are scant few legends that tell of Udikalde. This may be because the reality bending powers attributed to him - notably the ability to transform anything that did happen into anything else that could have happened - are difficult and cumbersome to translate into many languages, and therefore the myths and tales about him have been relegated to history.