Ondine (ˈon̪ˠ.dʲiːnʲ)
Queen of the Deep Court
"Let my cousins rule their dry and tiny courts. I have the sea and all that lies beneath it at my command." - Queen Ondine
Ondine of the Deep Court is one of the most powerful of the Fae monarchs of Oileán Fiáin. Her domain encircles the island, and extends across the Skìth Channel and the Gwlff Ffynid besides. While she is no longer the goddess that she once was, her power is great and her realm undiminished. All who sail through the waters around Oileán Fiáin must accept her authority, or suffer her displeasure.
Before the Clarati
Before the coming of Celestina to Oileán Fiáin, Ondine was one of the Tuatha, a group of Numina closely related to the Ellyll of Ynys. There is little known about her from those times - like most of the Tuatha, Ondine does not use the same name as she did then and does not like to speak of her former divinity. Scholars have speculated which of the ancient gods she might have been, but nothing can be said with certainty.
During the Conquest of Ynys she and the other powerful Tuatha were bound by the Clarati through the use of their True Names. Unable to resist, they were trapped within The Dream while Celestina siezed control of the island and its people.
From God to Fae
During the thousand years that Celestina ruled over Oileán Fiáin, she conducted many experiments. She amplified the power of The Egregoric Force locally, and used her magic to feed new stories and narratives directly into the minds of the populace. The corpus of stories she used was alien to the Million Islands, and had dramatic effects on the trapped Tuatha. They lost their divinity, and gained bodies of flesh and blood for the first time. While they were still trapped in the Dream, they were no longer purely Numina - they were altered so dramatically that they became a new species. The name Fae was drawn from the alien tales from Celestina's storybook, a strange word that felt both unnatural and correct to the ears of the former gods.
The change was traumatic to those who experienced it. Ondine has spoken of having her identity plucked away from her in shreds and tatters, while strange new thoughts and ideas were being forced into her at the same time. She retained her connection to the sea, but many of her memories were lost, and if she knows her old name, she does not share it.
When Celestina was slain near the end of the Age of Warlocks, the bindings upon the Fae broke, and they were free to do as they wished again. Traumatized and enraged, they lashed out at the Fir Fáinne, blaming them for being the instruments of Celestina's manipulations. They rampaged across the land, hunting and slaughtering for vengeance and sport. In the sea, Ondine led the sea fae in a campaign to destroy all the ships that came within their reach, sinking and drowning them all, and then sending the remnants onto the shore in huge waves that flooded entire cities.
From this chaos, the legendary diplomat Airgetlám manged to forge a peace. He convinced the Fae monarchs to spare the Fir Fáinne, and found a balance between the two sides that has been maintained ever since. Each of the main courts were paired to a kingdom of Oileán Fiáin, and by constant attention and diplomacy, they remain balanced to this day.
Queen of the Deep
Ondine's Deep Court was paired with the Kingdom of Dalriada, on the eastern coast of Oileán Fiáin. She created the Sunken Embassy to be a place where the mortals could come and treat with the Fae, and has made several bargains with the rulers of Dalriada over the years that have generally benefited both sides. She is no true lover of land dwelling species, but permits them to pass over her domain mostly unmolested. Relations improved dramatically when Ondine discovered the Selkies who lived north of Ynys; she found them to be a delight to watch, and has enticed a colony to live within her territory. Selkies in the waters around Oileán Fiáin are known to be special to the Queen of the Deep Court, and bothering them is considered a very perilous thing to do. Her interest in these marine humanoids has caused her to become gentler with their dry cousins, and she no longer sinks ships for minor infractions of the accords established between Dalriada and the Deep Court.
Fae vs Numina
Celestina managed to create a whole new species when she warped the Tuatha in the image of her stories. Unlike the Numina, the Fae are not purely of the Dream. They have physical bodies that must eat and drink, and can even die. The powers they can access, while still great, are not as expansive as the gods they once were, and they have acquired a hatred of iron that their former selves did not suffer from.
However, there are advantages as well. Since they now have bodies rather than anchors in the physical world, Fae can travel freely throughout the Million Islands. They also are more resistant to the warping influence of the Egregoric Force than previously, although not as much as creatures who are primarily physical. They are not quite gods anymore, but what they have lost in power they may have gained in freedom.
This article was originally written for Spooktober 2024. You can find all of my Spooktober Articles at Spooktober Central.
This article was originally written for Spooktober 2023. You can find all of my Spooktober Articles at Spooktober Central.
Her love for Selkies is endearing. She sounds like a fascinating character who has suffered a lot. I am curious as to her previous name/life, but definitely wouldn't want to enrage her.
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She’s definitely not someone to be on the bad side of. At some point I’ll write up the old gods that became the Fae, and then let people guess who became who after the transformation.