The Dangerous Magic Indictment
Vilandiss Kanlaw by DMFW with Art Breeder
Tanwen by DMFW with Art Breeder
Telberon by DMFW with Art Breeder
The Fey Royal Judges
The dangerous magic indictment, was a judicial ruling which changed the course of royal succession at the Fey Court, resulting in the disgrace, dethronement and imprisonment of king Telberon, and the subsequent crowning of his brother Oberon.
King Telberon had become the ruler of the fey under mysterious circumstances, following the disappearance of his father Vilandiss Kanlaw. His reign was a short one, lasting for little more than a century before it was brought to an end by this momentous trial.
The scandal began with a sensational accusation from a fey named Tanwen who had also gone missing at the same time as the old king and who now reappeared to accuse Telberon of disposing of his own father through the use of forbidden magics, and attempting to dispose of her in the same way.
According to ancient customs dating back to the Age of the First Wars and updated by Queen Efeomo's reforms in the Age of Lost Memory, a king or queen could be removed by the unanimous public ruling of a triumvirate of officers, drawn by lot from the principal advisors to the crown and designated as the Fey Royal Judges.
So it was that the Fey Court appointed, Nywellema, the castellan at Shaldarenen, Vidit Rathjol, the commander of the castle at Caer Cathasach and Shailyn Jää, the High Warden of the castle of Jäätynyt Ovi to be the Fey Royal Judges. The story which came before the Fey Royal Judges is set out below.
Nywellema by DMFW with Art Breeder
Vidit Rathjsol by DMFW with Art Breeder
Shailyn Jää by DMFW with Art Breeder
The Accusation
Towards the end of the reign of Quathooma Xinva, Tanwen ended a relationship with a long term lover. Finding the manner of the breakup peculiarly painful, it was her habit at this time to visit the Wood of Soft Tears, where she found solace in following the Path of Moss all the way to its source at the Spring of Recurrence and to talk with her friend Mahryna Santess.
It so happened that after Quathooma Xinva died, her consort Vilandiss Kanlaw, the new king of the fey, also took to wandering in the Wood of Soft Tears where he too sought for a balm to soothe his grief.
One day they met as they were both following the bank of the stream and hesitantly at first, they talked about the matters that were in their heart. When they met a second time, the king was eager to continue their conversation and so one slow step at a time they began to comfort one another without conscious desire, and this is how they began to fall in love.
When Telberon found out about the secret meetings between his father and Tanwen, he began to wonder how much further their relationship might go. If Tanwen became the consort of the king and gave birth to a girl, she would be the heir to the throne ahead of him, according to the rules which Queen Efeomo had established in the Age of Lost Memory.
Not wishing to be usurped from the primary claim to the throne he had always considered would be his forever by right, Telberon conceived a plot to get rid of his father and his father's new love. Using forbidden magic he opened a wild portal with a random and fluctuating destination into the deep Discontinuum and with a surprise magical assault was able to force the king and Tanwen into the churning maelstrom of inter universal energy, as they emerged from the woodland.
With Vilandiss Kanlaw and Tanwen reported missing, Telberon began to spread the rumour that they had fled together and abandoned the Fey Court with a de facto abdication. Although some found this supicious, after a little while he was able to assume the mantle of King of the Fey.
Vilandiss has never returned and he is assumed to be dead or lost forever, but Tanwen, through the random fortune of fate, was not cast so far from home and was ultimately able to work her way back to the Fey Court, a circumstance which Telberon had not expected. In this trial she would have justice.
Forbidden Magic
Tanwen's accusations were uniquely shocking to the fey. Beyond the obvious offence of treasonous betrayal amounting to effective patricide and the similar violence of the assault against Tanwen, there was the matter of the magical method employed in the crime. Forbidden Magic had a technical meaning to the fey. It refered to a specific branch of powerful spells concerned with opening portals into alien realms.
There are many mechanisms for moving between realms. Some are random and natural but impossible to direct. Some make use of natural energy exchanges and token swapping and are relatively easy. This is the basis of the technique known as Changing which the fey have long practiced, giving them their dubious reputation as the creators of Changlings within the evolutions. Other methods make use of established portals but there are also natural realm runners, a rare ability for mortals but one which all fey possess. Natural realm runners can open their own temporary windows into other worlds and pass through them, although it is a process that costs much energy and usually requires long rest and recuperation between each transfer. This is how Tanwen, did eventually manage to navigate her way home, but she had a great deal of luck.
More ambitious techniques establish new portals through magical engineering. This was done in the Age of Lost Memory when the fey established close contact with Magicians' End.
Finally, there are difficult second order magical methods which can achieve much further and deeper jumps into realms that are more distant in the discontinuum. It is this type of magic that was designated as Forbidden Magic, after the First Rift War, when it was understood that by practising it, the Glass Monsters had been given a way to break into the Fey Court.
Telberon was accused of using this forbidden magic to transport his victims into unknown realms from which he expected neither of them would ever return.
The Verdict
Telberon's defence was that Tanwen was a fantasist who had made up the whole story. Indeed he suggested that it was even possible she had run away with his father of her own free will and then returned with a complete fabrication of a story when something went wrong.
Mahryna Santess by DMFW with Art Breeder
When Tanwen was able to locate the precise location where the ambush had taken place, the forensic specialist Palazyn Dreldul was able to confirm that magical residues left at the site provided strong evidence that someone had used forbidden magic there in the relatively recent past.
Now Telberon attempted to suggest that this didn't prove he was the guilty party. Some other fey could have been responsible. But, by now the Fey Royal Judges simply didn't believe him. Telberon was well known as a powerful user of related techniques in sorcery. In fact there were very few other fey who could even use forbidden magic if they had wanted to. He was pronounced guilty and sentenced to imprisonment, at the new king's pleasure. Telberon was locked under physical and magical guard at the Old White Tower of Hen Tŵr Gwyn. His brother, Oberon was crowned in his stead and the trial was over.
Unfortunately, the consequences of the verdict were far from over.
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