In all my travels through Grara I only encountered rumors of the fae. Stories, myths, and fables. The Stormcastle, the Blightbird, and the Sisters. But everything is different here in the Orthlands.
Tasiir didn't even bother to warn me about what we might encounter. We saw something, like a deer but with leaves for fur and a head I can't even begin to describe. I asked Tasiir why he didn't inform me that we would find fae here and he told me that it was a part of life and he never thought to tell me.— Takalia, A Life of Wind and Song
What is a Fae?
The question of what is a fae has been discussed often by wisemen and women or just people who have had a bit too much to drink. The fae are many things, lively, curious, fantastical, dangerous, and more. Some fae look like animals but made of plants, others look like people but with animal skulls for heads, and still more may be long fish with glowing eyes - they can look like just about anything. Each fae is unique though all of the fae native to a region share some similar traits.
Some live in the forests, some in the mountains, others yet in the plains, or within the very stones of the islands themselves. Anywhere there is no civilization, the fae can be found. In a few stories fae can even speak the civilized languages - though the emphases and rhythms are described as being so wrong they would send a shiver down your spine.
Whatever the fae may be, there is one thing everyone agrees they are not. They are certainly not people.
In the Untamed Wilderness
Fae are almost never found within the borders of towns and cities, though they may occasionally be seen on the outskirts. As the borders of civilization expand, the territory of the fae is also pushed back - but not always without conflict as the
Bral Empire knows well.
In
Burim the fae can be found in the few remaining undeveloped places, in
Bral they are left only in the mountains after they were hunted down by the
Wildslayers, and in
Zinato they can still be found in forests, on mountains, and by babbling brooks. The islands of
Tamazee are fully developed and almost overcrowded but the blue waters of her great lakes cannot become cities and fae remain a common sight. Similarly, in the
Orthlands, where the
people live in harmony with nature, fae are still a part of life there.
The Timeless
There are stories of people who have encountered fae, usually after they became lost in the woods or in the mountains, and spent time with them. Often this experience is described as joining them in song and dance. When these individuals find themselves back in reality, a season - or more - could have passed. In one reported case, a man danced with the fae for what seemed like a few hours only to return to find his grandchildren already grown adults.
The fae do not experience time in the way that people do - especially not in the way that
humans do - and this experience seems to extend to those people and places around them.
Faekin of
human heritage struggle with time. Sometimes cycles will pass and they won't remember any of it, other times the past clouds their minds, and occasionally it is as if time stands still and each second feels like an eternity.
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