Known Facts
Facts about the origins of the fae are hard to come by in comparison to other races, primarily due to their social structures and competing social groups. The sparse few facts known about their early history are considered to be vital in understanding the true origins of the group when more such facts are able to come to light- the first pieces of the puzzle.
1. Fairies were completely undocumented by any race or species prior to the 4,000s.
The first interactions with the fairies and other races did occur later on, however, the fae were noted as being very close to their current form in social structure and biology if not the same as they are today, likely because the race had already long been present in the world.
2. Faerie Fungus's genetic analysis points to origins during The War of Black Ash.
Other species of the fungus used in hives may have existed prior to this, or other forms of fungus entirely, but the specific species used in all hives today had its origins in this time period.
Origin Myths
A big factor into the unknown origin of the race is that fairies, in their individual societies, often have competing origin myths against one another. Events, true histories, and myths are often at odds with one another and equally mythologized to the point that even factual information, such as the origins of a specific hive, are said to be the origins of the entire species, even when demonstrably false. While many of these myths have consistent features across multiple hives, it is typically thought that this is simply due to the shared origins of those hives, rather than consistent fact for the entire group.
Divine Origin Myths
There are a great many myths and stories throughout several hives that have mythologized the origins of he Fae as from the pantheon, in a variety of means.
Divine Ancestry through Birth
One of the most common tales through the race, many hives have individual mythos about their origins as the divine children of a variety of gods throughout history. While it is almost certain that the pantheon has played a role in the race's origins in some manner, many of these myths are unlikely at best, and laughably false, easily proven otherwise, and completely against history as it is known at their worst.
Marigold Origin Myths
The Marigold Valley Hive, from the Yellowstone Gulf National Park, has multiple competing myths that their race started with their particular hive as the children of the gods. In particular, their personal mythos claims that the first queen of the Marigold Valley built the hive in the caldera of Yellowstone under direction of a now fallen wasp, in order to safeguard the god's children, the first fairies. The first generation of fairies went on themselves to have children with fallen gods of the spider, bee, mantis, and strangely, Ferventi, who also according to the myth, were the first fairies.
Notably, the myth is confusing in that their first queen was already herself a fairy, caring for the 'first' fairies, with no explanation.
Another myth from the Marigold hive states that a group of the children of a wasp god were uniquely blessed by the pantheon, and later spurned by the rest of the gods for being unsightly. A fallen bee god in particular cursed the early race for raiding her nests for honey, causing the fairies to grow in size until they could no longer fit within the hives, and instead turned to smashing them open to get honeycomb and larva to feed their own young. Out of fear, the bee god cursed them yet again with higher thought, in the hopes of the fae turning to agriculture, at which point they discovered the Faerie Fungus, and no longer raided wild bees for food.
Vegani Hive
The Vegani Hive, from the
Republic of Shanai, has its own distinct mythology and their origins as children of
Fire God Vega with a fallen bee god. The myth claims that Vega shaped lava flows from the volcano into a golden honey and allowed it to cool into amber that the bee breathed life into the statues to create the first fairies. These first queens were born and tasked with spreading their influence across the world in his name, and became scorned against the pantheon due to many of them falling in the War of Black Ash, and without help of the pantheon, abandoned them.
This myth is highly contested even within Shanai itself, and notably has been by the fire god himself, stating that there has never been a bee god present in the nation. Many members of Shanine hives claim that Vega, as well as his daughter Maka, refuse to acknowledge their origins out of spite for the fae not being their perfect children and having lost the pantheon's graces by focusing on their own survival rather than piety to the gods.
Divine Ancestry through Boons
Common in Australian, South American, and Morrocan hives are tales of the race's origins not as the children of the gods, but rather as the boons of individual gods interacting with one another. A common thread through many of these origin myths is that the first fae were animals given boons and blessings, with the magics twisting them and their forms, granting higher intelligence that the gods shunned or sought to take advantage of by placing further boons or curses on the young race.
Likely Theories
Influence from the Pantheon
It is almost certain that influences from the pantheon itself helped to shape the modern race of fairies as they are today, as even though they have no biological connection to humanoids as other divinely created groups do, the fairies share many traits. High intelligence, large body sizes, culture, and the use of language all together are typically marks of races that have had some direct intervention of the pantheon directly, especially when not descended from dragons or humanoids directly. With many stories, myths, and tales of fairies being created by the pantheon, many give credence to the fact that these stories must have come from somewhere, and real historical fact is a likely origin.
Basal Magic
Another prevalent theory to the origins of the fae is basal magic. Although lacking in substantial evidence, magic of all kinds is known for its effects in causing some manner of transformation in living beings, and it is widely thought that basal magic is no different. Many theories about basal magic also propose that it is very likely its transformative effects may be much stronger than that of other more refined forms- by basal magic not being specialized, its effects may solely be on transforming the flesh. Basal magic may no longer be present in the current world, but its influences in the past have no doubt shaped and changed other peoples throughout Terra, such as the Omnia, Mages, and in the creation of the pantheon itself.
Draconic Influence
With more recent information coming from the Omnia into their origins, it has been proposed that the fae are similar to the race in their creation. Draconic magics were prevalent during the late human era and known to have created at least two groups (The omnia and the first gods) through its
Magic Corruption. It has been proposed that the same happened to insects, and created proto-gods, who later became the fae.
Unlikely Theories
As many likely theories there are, there are also dozens to hundreds of ones that are extremely unlikely to downright impossible to how the world works.
Aliens
Popularized through comic books, television, and movies, many who indulge in pop-science and conspiracy have put forth the idea that the fairies are not Terran in origin at all, and are instead, extraterrestrial beings that made their way to our world. Notably, even fairies themselves do not seem to like or give credence to this theory, instead claiming they are true children of Terra, with many finding the notion otherwise outright offensive.
While many individual theories attributing their origins to being alien lifeforms, the exact origin in these theories often vary heavily. A widely popular variant is that the fae are insects raised off of Terra by space fairing humans, who made their way to Terra during the bombardment era. Another, popularized by a science-fiction comic that has since been discontinued due to backlash, is that the fae were biologically engineered from extra-terrestrial organisms on Titan by humans, and sent to Terra in order to do war with the dragons and take back their home. Trailers for a movie production of the comic are often used as evidence due to their found footage style, if one ignores that these trailers were never finished and film equipment, green screens, and crew are visible.
Planets such as Neptune, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, and even other star systems are commonly sited as origin points for the race in these theories.
Mutation by Radiation
Radiation sources abandoned by human-kind were once much more common, and by many, have been cited as a potential cause to the creation of the race. As in many media from the human era, wild theories suggest that the race could have been created by radiation mutating insects. Despite the science proving that insects are just as susceptible to radiation poisoning as any other species, these theories still remain popular on online message boards, particularly in comic or sci-fi enthusiast spaces.
Human Bio-engineering
Despite the commonly accepted theory that humans were largely extinct by the time fairies came to be known to the world, it remains a rather popular theory among the public that the race may be the product of them through bio-engineering. This theory especially gained traction with the discovery of human-era texts describing a technology they called 'CRISP', that according to their literature, had the potential to edit lifeforms.
Many of these theories state, similarly to many pertaining to aliens and extra-terrestrials, that fairies were bio-engineered by humans in order to drive dragons to extinction, and that the race simply outlived their creators.
Here all along
Theories within this type in some way state that like the dragons, the fairies existed far prior to the human era, and that they simply were not known prior to the 4,000s. These theories often do not have an explained origin for the race otherwise, instead focusing on how they managed to evade notice by humans and dragons alike prior to this. Unlike many other groups, the oral storytelling of certain dragon flights does not shift over centuries or millennia, and dragons themselves have stated they had never once encountered anything similar to a fairy in or prior to the human era.
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