Aes
Elves
In their true forms, the aes appear as gossamer humanoids of wispy shadow occasionally illuminated by glints of starlight. They possess long limbs, smoldering moonlit motes of light where eyes should be, and an immobile bronze mask for facial features. However, most mortals cannot see an aes’s true form.
Scions of a dead god and beings of pure magic, the aes once strode the world as shining paragons of might and majesty—but that was long ago, before the Great Betrayal and the ascension of humanity. The surviving aes exist in a tragic mockery of their brilliant former selves, their society now fragmented and in decline.
For eons, the aes preyed on worlds at the behest of their queen and mother, like immortal locusts swarming in the sky to devour everything in sight before moving on. But this world was different, intertwining them in its own dark Fate and hurtling them toward extinction. However, it also gifted them with something they’ve never before possessed: the ability to change and grow.
Though they’ve acted as agents of chaos and chance on every planet they’ve ravaged, aes society was fundamentally static. The same aes forged as nobles by the great Hekaté worlds away and epochs distant remained nobles here, the same artisans still plied their trades, and the same laborers raised their quickbronze monuments to the immortal queen’s glory. They enthralled, conquered, or manipulated the natives as always, but the birth of the daimn, the death of their god, and the ebbing of their own power has left the entire race in flux for millennia.
And with their recent return from their self-imposed exile, they are learning that not only can their race change as a whole, but that individuals within it can themselves evolve, forging and then following their own Fates, rather than those dictated by their lost progenitor.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Aes are creatures of the Od woven into humanoid forms by their goddess-queen, and the inherent magic of their form serves to protect them in various ways, though they are not the demigods they once were.
The aes do not age. They are vulnerable to neither extreme heat nor cold, though an open flame or an icicle to an eye will harm them as it would mortals. They draw no breath, and therefore may neither drown nor suffocate. They are not vulnerable to illness or poison. They do not eat or drink for nourishment, but rather subsist on the stuff of magic, either absorbed from places steeped in Od or by harvesting the Fortune of mortals. They do not suffer Injuries as mortals do, since they are spells made manifest rather than creatures of flesh and bone. And they may not be Slain!, save by magic or a deathblow struck with iron or its alloys. Aes also possess limited control of their physical shape, this malleability allowing them to approximate mouths, tongues, sex organs, and other orifices and protrusions as necessary to appropriately interact with mortals. The aes mutability of form and fluidity of gender identity means they may shift their sexual identity from male to female to androgynous—or even to a gender-neutral form—according to their desires.
In addition, a magical veil serves to shield aes from unwanted scrutiny. A construct of amber moonlight and magic, this glamour, as the effect is known, has allowed the aes to operate among humans with less conflict than might be expected. However, as night falls on Yolk’s new-moon phase, the glamour briefly fades away, revealing an aes’s true form before a new visage settles upon them—the identity they will reflect for the following lunar month. Though they have no control over this magical mien, it is always true to their nature. An aes knight will always appear as some sort of warrior, while an aes maker will always project a craftsperson’s seeming. Reflective surfaces, such as mirrors, still waters, or even a highly polished piece of armor, will reveal an aes’s true form. Knowing of glamour’s limitations, aes sometimes adopt masks, bandanas, or hooded cloaks to further obscure their features.
Though there are clearly a myriad of advantages to being an aes, there are also drawbacks inherent to their nature.
Aes completely lack the senses of smell and taste. They are incapable of reproduction—though they are quite capable of making love. And despite a tendency toward mercurial temperament and indulgence of whims, most aes are bound to the societal expectations of their Houses (as reflected in their suggested alignments), as neither individualism nor creativity were valued by Queen Hekaté or the aes elite. Both traits fell even further out of favor after the schism between themselves and the daimn.
Their greatest weakness, however, is their vulnerability to iron. Wounds inflicted by iron or steel weapons are easily capable of slaying any aes, and even the slightest touch of it will burn them and potentially disrupt their glamour, revealing their true form to a dangerous and superstitious world that has been taught to fear the faerie folk.
Behaviour
The aes were created as a fairly simplistic near–hive mind prone to groupthink. Only the greatest of them, their powerful nobility, possessed individualistic drives imparted on them upon their creation. It was only after the aes were fractured after the demise of Hekaté that they truly evolved into factions, quickly developing Alignments in line with the aes lords and ladies who now commanded them in their god’s absence. It is these common Alignments that are presented in the House entries. However, Fate has freed aes Blackbirds from their former static roles and mindsets, offering them a chance to grow into individuals capable of making new judgments about the world and their place within it. Thus, Alignment for an aes Blackbird is determined by the player and the Fateweaver in the final steps of their first "reading, regardless of those favored by the aes’s House.
- Ancestral Modifier: +1 to three Bonuses and –1 to three Bonuses, as determined by the House the player chooses
- Boons: Gossamer Glamour, Immortality of the Aes, Odsight, Undying plus one the player chooses
- Banes: Devourer of Fortune, Fateless, Ironbane, Magical Creature, Odic Outcast plus one the player chooses
- Impact on role-play: High