Unseelie Fey

Written by Mlawt

"Tom Lin was a jovial fellow
And on one night he rise'd in furor
By figures danc'd in the wood narrows,
A'prancing and jig, a light'd score.
To his delight,
Upon th' hedgerow they retreat'd,
'Neath lunar languor, lamenting 'long.
But late, nature rendered t'fright,
members of ghastly court entreat'd.
And Tom Lin was there, but lain in song."
-From Tom Lin and the Queen of Faerie, 1022 RK

Culture

Shared customary codes and values

The official currency of the Fey are favors. A Favor for a Favor is how things are paid for and requested. What is done is a promise for future payments. For all things, should one wish it of the Faerie, they must be enticed with action of gifts not words. Words are far more likely to incense the most patient of the Feyfolk and have already offended the easily impassioned. What would seem to be bartering or a generous system in the world of the Common Folk, is a law of economic and legal investments to the Fey. Should one ever renege on a deal entered into with the Faerie-folk, it will be repaid either by the favor demanded upon or blood gathered.
This currency is also their value, their code, and their morality. To beget that which is bought, by promise of blood. The Fey will return every slight ever suffered, even those unrealized by the original party. Debts must be repaid.

Coming of Age Rites

The Unseelie are a wide and varied bunch, so it is simpler to approach their alien nature from the perspective of the common folk. Particularly, the Faerie have coming of age rites for races outside their kin, as many believe there is no use in those races rites and rituals and the Fey have better and more beneficial means of establishing orderliness. It is common for the Unseelie, to "assist" or interfere in common rituals and holidays of other races. Often they attempt to trick or beguile those, sometime this is a means in which they themselves come of age and, at times, proliferate.
Particularly, Faerie focus on capture or kidnapping; children are favored, brought back to the wood and and forced to find their way home or cursed into other shapes and forms to be hunted by their own kin, young maidens work just as well. They're favored by satyrs, nymphs, and trolls for their beauty; mostly tested with carnal temptations to be savored by the Fey-folk (of which they also believe unnecessary for short-lived races). Should any of these result in bloodshed of any Faerie, there are scores of Unseelie willing to avenge the bloodshed-- in equal measure. Eye for an eye, as is customary.

Common Taboos

More of a taboo for those entreating the Fey, but it is regarded wildly as to never give a Fey a gift. Gift-giving is seen as establishing a non-negotiable deal with the Faerie and those deals which are entered without the consent of the Fey party are perceived as slavery of the gift-recipient. Ironically, most Fey believe their gifts are deserved and desired, regardless of whether or not the common folk understand the ramifications of accepting a favor from a Fey.

Common Myths and Legends

The story of Tom Lin is particularly notable for its reflection of an Elven noble. Tom Lin is a handsome man who in his coming of age is captured by a Noble Elf-woman. He is made to be ageless so long as he is her prisoner. She keeps him for years, and he outlives his family and all relatives he may have known, even the village he grew up in. All to satisfy her desire to own beautiful things. She parades him around as different animals of the wood in front of the other Faerie-folk, to admire his pleasingness in all forms. Many times he attempts to escape, but each attempt is solely in her favor.
Centuries pass and a maiden finds a stream he resides in as a nymph. Tom Lin seduces the maiden and after their impassioned night together, she finds she is with child. With this, Tom Lin vows to love her forever, so long as she can trick the Elf-wife that has claimed him. The maiden seeks out the animals of the wood, finding the most virile and strong of stags and captures him with a lock of Tom Lin's hair. Again the maiden returns to the stream Tom Lin resides and sleeps with the stag for four days and four nights, each time placing a kiss and a lock of the nymph's hair onto the beast. By the fifth night, the Elf-woman was convinced Tom Lin had become the stag and was entreating the maiden's attention.
As the Greater Fey stole away the stag in jealousy, Tom Lin appeared again, telling the maiden to bring a cup of water from the stream back to her well and pour him into the village well on the night of the new moon. The maiden did so, and on the new moon Tom Lin swam out of the well as a man again, free from the enchantment. Tom Lin kept his promise, but the maiden died in childbirth.
Nevertheless, Tom Lin loved her and paid homage to her every year on the night of her first visit. Their child would become a great knight, known throughout the valley in their own legend as the Green Knight. Years would pass and as Tom Lin reached middle age the Elf-wife would discover where he had fled to. In the end, she stole him away, imprisoning him again under her rule. His freedom was not without cost, as the village and farms were burned and cursed to famine. All those who ever came in contact with him were hunted down and brutally slain; their bones used to build ash-white trees, their blood to fertilize the red-clay earth.
And Tom Lin is said to remain there to this day...

Major organizations

Champions of the Lady; The Lunar Court

Related Organizations

• Champions of the Lady
• The Unseelie Host of Brec'hwood

Related Locations

• The Brec'hwood