Playing in Fairy Lands

Lands where fairies are completely integrated with mortal society.

    

    There are lands where the world of fairy is not a mystery, where the mortal realm and the fairy merge. In these lands mortals talk to the fairy regularly, having them help with farm work, house choirs, art and war. Much as Ireland, which in legend had an army of fairies help them defeat the Roman legions.
    For the mortals in such lands the gods and the powers of nature are close tangible beings that they can meet fight with and against. This closeness to the powers that control the world brings the people closer to the world around them, causing them to feel distinctly the events that occur to the world so that they can sense the life within all things. It also steeps their world in both fear and joy. For will you might feel a pang of fear on dark and lonely nights the people in these lands have seen nightmares take form, have heard the howls of the wild hunt as it chases down mortals, and have felt the stab of the supernatural as it stalks them. At the same time these mortals have also seen joy and happiness manifest, they can feel the wisdom that the trees thousands of years hold, and they have physically touched one of the beings that created them, eternal beings that love them as a parent.

    The Seven Kingdoms of the Drelo Teg Noz Mountains

    The Seven Kingdoms of the Drelo Teg Noz Mountains are like a string of jewels strung through thick woodlands and glades. Wedged high in the mountains these kingdoms have survived numerous attacks to remain independent and almost hidden despite great changes in the outside world. Ruled by Royal Families descended from high noble fairies the kings are viewed as being somewhat akin to gods and their training and powers actually make them greater then average. This then is a unique situation where the rulers truly do have power over nature and the lands of their kingdom. Such power however does not mean that they are the best choice for leadership positions.

    In each kingdom the people worship the great fairy ancestor of the kings, for the fairies from which the kings are descended from are still alive and still grant powers and allies to those who follow them. It is this closeness between the world of the fairy that helps the people of Drelo Teg Noz retain their independence for when outsiders threaten them the fairies will rise up and help defend the land.

    While the 7 kingdoms and 7 royal families may war among themselves for control over the land, and the royal families pass laws and hold sway over the lives of those in their kingdom the true rulers are the Ollamah, the council of Druids that live among the fairy courts. These men and women decide what direction all the kingdoms must go in order to achieve long term ends. Although their goals are often little understood the Ollamah have the best interest of the 7 Kingdoms at heart, though such interests are long term and so any actions they undertake may require thousands of years to see through. This is why there are many temples dotting the land surrounding the mountains of Drelo Teg Noz that took thousands of years to build and may seem to be abandoned at the moment. For the Ollamah believe that they will need these sacred and magical places thousands of years in the future. As it is often difficult to comply with an order that follows such long term plans so at times Kings will rebel against the Ollamah’s rule, but such rebellions have always been put down by the strength of the council and their ally’s. For it is impossible for mortals so dependent of fairies to fight against them and win.

    Although the Ollamah rule the land the Derwydds rule the way people think by controlling the culture of the people. For these are the most learned men in the land, their collages bring news to the people, and tells them stories of who they are and who they must become. When Derwydd speaks all must listen for the people believe so greatly in their wisdom they will turn on kings who disagree with or act against the Derwydds. As important as their soft power the Derwydds have real physical power such that they can curse forever any family line that disagree’s with them, for at one time their where 9 kingdoms but two of them disappeared thanks to a Derwydds curse.

    The common people for their part live much as peasants have lived the world over, only perhaps more superstitious for in this land superstition is enforced by the fairy magic that binds everything together. This magic although dangerous and often unpredictable has its benefits for crops may be grown with half the land and half the effort required in other lands, people are less likely to die of normal diseases, and they can gain inspiration to create great works of art and poetry.

Commoners can also gain directly from the contact with the fey having brownies to help with choirs, and other fairies to help with farm work. Each household also has a fairy of the hearth that protects and watches over them, sometimes in a very direct way. This makes robbing and theft complex and difficult in this land for the Hob of the Hearth will warn the family of robbers or at times even attack the thieves more directly using magical manifestations. In times of war these Hobs will often manifest in order to attack those who threaten their families. The hobs may also bring back the ancestors of those they are defending to help fight as well. Such events are rare in wars between the 7 Kingdoms, though they do happen. In the case of an outside invader the hobs are always guaranteed.

Adventuring in the 7 Kingdoms.

    Adventurers are greatly respected in the 7 kingdoms so long as they are honest ones. There are after all many dangers in such a magical land from dragons to ogre mages and unseelie fairies the land teams with many fearful things. Every land has haunted locations as many kingdoms some built by the fairies themselves have risen and fallen in this land, and there are many hidden places where the world merges with the land of fairy or the ethereal making areas that would only seem to be a few dozen feet or less, miles of treacherous and magical realms.

    Adventuring in this land however is different from adventuring in other lands, for knowledge and diplomacy are necessary to survive as one must deal with strange mystical powers in order to transverse the landscape and find the secrets necessary for victory.

    Olma Os Thenobi

    

When Fairies are solitary known but feared 

In some lands there are few fairies from the courts, in these lands the fairies are free to do as they please, often independent and cruel or unpredictable in the extreme.  Such lands are constantly haunted by dark powers, beings that often time oppose the gods of the people. In these lands the people are hardened by the darkness that surrounds them. For here they see the effects of bad luck, and they feel most acutely the danger of disobeying the dark powers that transverse the world. In such lands the people have gathered together for more then survival and are willing to do anything to keep their souls safe from the darkness that lurks beyond their little cities. For this reason twisted tyrants are able to rule over their lives, and strange mystics are able to give bezzar and often cruel edicts, for few would dare disobey them and loose their protections.

The feudal lands of the Dregdirqroth

   For miles it stretches,s dark forests of black wood and deep green leaves, trees so old that the world seems to have been created under their roots. Like a vast dark sea the forests stretch out and crash against the cities that dare to emerge from their dark depths, always threatening too swallow up those who live there. This is a fearful land tamed by dark wizards, undead vampires, and evil twisted fairies. A place where humans are not so much as invaders as they are food, game, and sport for the dark creatures that inhabit the wilderness. This is the land of Dregdirqroth, 4 kingdoms and hundreds of countships for in this land kings are not truly greater then many of the counts. This is a land where people truly did choose the slavery of serfdom to protect themselves from what lay outside their towns  within the dark forests. It is because of their willing slavery that many of their rulers will turn on their people in ways that are so unthinkable that the description of the counts acts are beyond human comprension as they devour their serpents body and soul.

    Even in a land so dark as this there are some few good fairies, Bunniks inhabit the Bath Houses of the land, and Hearth Spirits peoples homes. There are also fairy courts that reside among the clouds or in deep caves where the most beautiful of creatures live.

    Supersition is replaced in this land by paranoia, as the peasants and royal families strive to do anything to protect themselves from the dark creatures that inhabit the forests and their nightmares. The few wizards that make this land home inhabit a special place in society as they are greatly feared, yet respected and needed for the survivel of those around them.

    Adventurers too inhabit a special place, for like all strangers in a land so dangerous they are greatly feared, people never feel safe talking to them, for one never knows who they are or what strange power they work for. At the same time people put great hopes on them, for they can banish the darkness in their lives even if for just a moment. In a land such as this the people of this land pull together to survive, giving gifts to help each other, and sharing secrets and discoveries in whispers, and adventurers will get much of this help though what they can believe will always be questionable.

Qarthin Destroome
    A dark wizard indeed, man who wanders the dark woods of the land listening forever to the whispers of the dark fairies that inhabit the woods, drawing strength from them. Destroome was born in the the northen most village of the dark forest, where his father was a wolf hunter. Here he grew and learned to travel through the woods to haunt one of its most feared creatures, for the wolf in the dark forest is often driven mad by its evil surroundings or a servent of some dark power. It was because of his skill at haunting these serpents that Destroome came to the attention the evil fairies who began to haunt his steps. The villages witch believing him a threat to the balance had him sent into the woods at age fifteen to die, but he did not die, for Qarthin was a cunning boy who had observed many things in the woods and had come to understand secrets few mortals knew. And so it was that Qarthin survived and learned more and more until he met the king of the forest who agreed to teach him even more secrets of magic if he would spare the kings wolves and help him cast down the gods who where driving the fairies from the land.
    So it came to be that Qarthin grew into a fearsome wizard, pretending to be a holy man and armed with powers few could dispute he set out to crush the church of his former village and the witch who had banished him. The people however where afraid to loose these protections and so Qarthin ended up destroying more then he had intended. Driven mad with guilt he fled south where he came to be the wizard of the courts of a dozen rulers for he travels so fast as wind, and can make himself look as anyone he desires. So none know that he is in truth one man living as a dozen in the towers of many lords. From this position of power he twists the thoughts of a whole region, bending the lands to his deranged will, and trying to steep away his guilt with ever more loathsome acts.
    Though his exact goals are unknown it can be presumed that Qarthin still has the edict to drive the gods from the land, and so it is that as a holy man he works against the churches of the land and for the greater power of the dark fairies in the woods beyond the cities. He creates many dark creatures, summoning forth demons to mix with faeries and animals, cursing trees, and twisting the very land itself to be a blight upon all good life.

Trsthina the Hag
    Tristhina like all girls of her village was a princess to her family, a well loved child that dreamed of becoming a great dancer who would be renowned throughout the land and loved by a great man. A child of average looks, normally pretty with dark hair she was a dreamer more intelligent then any of the other children in the village it was assumed that with her great strength she would dance as no other. But as she hit puberty here world began to change for her skin grew coarse and her hair grew slimy. To make matters worse her ears grew more acute so that she could hear the whispers of those she passed as they discussed how ugly she was growing. Yet soon she did not need her incredible ears to hear the openness with which some people teased her.
    As she grew more angry she began to smell the world as never before, and with this smell she could smell those humans around her not as people or friends but as food. And so it was that one day when a boy insulted and mocked her as he had done many times before she eat him and fled into the woods. Here she was amazed at how much she new of the dark forests she had never before entered.
    As she made her home in the woods near the village she had once lived legends grew of the girl who had become a dark witch who devoured humans, for she came to hate the village that had once been her home and the people who had cast her out. In a morbid form of revenge she used her new found powers to cause one of the communities most respected men to fall in love with her, so that she could have a child with him. Then she replaced the child by his wife with hers so that they would raise unknowing another girl to enter the woods and forever haunt the village.
    Years passed and Trishtina found that she still longed for the music of her past, and so it was that she practiced both the dances and the songs, with her new found powers to help she soon became a great bard, able to charm the birds out of the trees and strike fear so great it caused mortals to die. And so she lived slowly birthing more and more children, and waiting for them to grow and become as she was. This happened for over 200 years until at last there where 3 coveys of 3, each ruled by her, and together they twisted and expanded the woods into new villages beyond the dark forests, even as they tormented and swallowed up their once home turning it forever into a cursed and haunted glade.

Fairies are known common but not integrated

    In most lands of a magical world the fairies though common are being banished by the gods, as mortals slowly shift from worshiping the fairies to worshiping the more distant but often greater and more predictable powers. In such lands fairy encounters may occur with some frequency, but these events are still as meetings between two worlds. For in these lands some fairies may still help mortals but normally they do so in secret, just as they haunt them in secret, as there is a rift between the mortal and fairy world which is growing. 

    The mortals in these lands are still truly superstitious for they all have seen or know one who has seen the powers of the fairy manifested, they still know of haunted woods and homes, but these things are disappearing, and a place that was meant to be guarded by the fairies is not always guarded. For this reason the people of these lands may respect the fairies and some few may worship them in secret but as a whole they do not follow the fairy edicts or feel the connection to the surrounding world that they once did.

Mostly Unknown but Still believed in 

    In some lands fairies have become little more then legends, creatures of an age of dreams long sense past. In such land the presence of the fairies is very difficult to detect, for they rarely manifest themselves in ways which mortals would notice.

Fairies have for the most part been forgotten (Modern)

Fairies have reemerged (Fairies in Future)

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