I just got Gurps Faerie

[jason taylor]

It was very interesting, though much of it I already know.

I think when I use it I will use it as in-verse mythopoeia rather then saying the wee folk are an ordinary part of people's lives.

That said, I will make some modifications to fit my tastes.

1. Fear of religion: that makes them seem to much like demons. Which we already have. The point about fey is that they are different, different from humans, and different from angels both good and evil. Therefore I will say that what they fear is mechanism and it's symbols. They would be just as much afraid of the Imperial Sunburst. Thus the fear of religion is connected to the fear of iron. Both are symbols of technology and organization which are powers they fear and don't understand. Fey which have made deals with the devil, are of course afraid of crosses in the traditional manner. For most fey however fear of religious symbols is fear of the biggest bureaucracy in the Middle Ages. Thus Seelie at least have no fear of the Celtic Cross and some Celtic hermits and monks and such were friends of them back in the early middle ages.

2. Seelie and Unseelie: way to dualistic. While fey in principle know good and evil it is interpreted by them in their own way with their own priorities based on their particular powers and limitations. The Golden Rule is understood by them for instance, but they habitually apply it in a manner that is appropriate to them(just as humans in different circumstances would do). What they do not have is a Middle Earth like separation between an always good side and an always bad side. Rather the difference between Seelie and Unseelie is roughly similar to the difference between Lawful and Criminal among mortals. Thus Seelie are capable of great ruthlessness(particularly when one of their own or their the place they anchored, or a mortal they befriended) is threatened as well as generosity. Likewise Unseelie are capable of good. Just as it is among mortals.

3. Relations with mortals: Much of their bad reputation is projection: it is after all the case the that many of those who tell the stories admit that they were trying to rob the fey(by demanding gold), enslave them(by demanding wishes) or even rape them(by stealing the sealskin of a selkie or the cap of a mermaid and forcing marriage). Or just trespassing where they don't belong. Furthermore the fey fear the mortal's powers of technology and organization and their(sometimes) insensitivity to their homelands. Mortals and Fey are roughly equal in power but have different powers. They are strange and inscrutable to each other. And often at feud. And that is describing the relations between mortals and Seelie. Unseelie are of course often malicious. Just as human criminals are.

4. Psychology: the psychology of Fey is naturally mysterious, but the most notable are capriciousness and particularism which is to them far more pronounced then even among mortals. They are not sociopathic as such but are likely to be insensitive to those outside their circle, fey as well as mortal. This is not necessarily malicious or murderous, but it can be among some. And it can as well be insensitive among fey who don't realize how damageable individual mortals can be(perhaps their only perception of mortals is mysterious creatures with axes or bulldozers). Fey don't have "their own morality" as such; they have their own typical failures to live up to morality which is different from what mortals have. And these failures are caused in part by limited empathy. On the other hand despite their well-known capriciousness and insensitivity toward those outside their sphere, they do not have vices which require extreme abstraction. That is no fey cares to try to take over the universe; dancing is so much more fun. There is a bright side as well as a dark. A fey is extremely loyal to those who it does give loyalty toward almost compulsively. But they are seldom abstract. Fey are not "nature spirits" as such. That is they have no concern for "nature". If the mortals chop down a forest far away that is no concern of theirs. But when the mortals chop down forests near their home, their wrath can be terrible.

Like I said, this is mythopoeia, or what might be called tertiary belief. This is how the fey are interpreted by storytellers in my verse.

[JCurwen3]

I always felt the fey, if any group would, generally deserve the "chaotic" descriptor, if you wanted to hand out alignments. So I'm not sure I'd make the Seelie / Unseelie distinction about law and crime.

Rather, I think the labelling either (1) has more to do with their behaviour toward humans and how they're subsequently perceived by humans, (2) their appearance, with more human or attractive being more Seelie, or (3) internal rivalries and politicking. Not ultimately a good / evil or a law-abiding / criminal thing. Just a matter of things like whether they generally play nice with humans, possibly their looks, and how they get on with one another, determines Seelie vs Unseelie. IMHO.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by JCurwen3

I always felt the fey, if any group would, generally deserve the "chaotic" descriptor, if you wanted to hand out alignments. So I'm not sure I'd make the Seelie / Unseelie distinction about law and crime.

Rather, I think the labelling either (1) has more to do with their behaviour toward humans and how they're subsequently perceived by humans, (2) their appearance, with more human or attractive being more Seelie, or (3) internal rivalries and politicking. Not ultimately a good / evil or a law-abiding / criminal thing. Just a matter of things like whether they generally play nice with humans, possibly their looks, and how they get on with one another, determines Seelie vs Unseelie. IMHO.

By "law" I don't mean law as mortals know it; mortals are far more organized, lawful, and humorless then even the Seelie. They build cities and empires which no Fey can do(A Fey "court" would be no more then a hidden refuge full of treasure). I mean law as Fey know it, which would be tribal customs and various such things, often incorperated in traditional spells they place on themselves to counteract their natural bent toward chaos. An unseelie would be one that has no restrictions whatsoever and a seelie would be lawful according to it's lights according to the myth I am making. It's laws would be few because it can only handle so many. It would be "chaotic" in inclination(though D and D metaphors don't quite do the thing), but it would not be amoral as such(I think only beasts can be amoral; any attempts of a sapient creature to be such would make it simply immoral).

The reason I picked that is I wanted the Seelie-Unseelie distinction to have meaning, and "perceptions of mortals" didn't do it for me. However having a Seelie Court and an Unseelie court seemed to me to lawful even for mortals let alone Fey. The answer I gave was a compromise.

The closest analogy would be that Unseelie are like outcasts among hunter gatherers and Seelie are like tribesfolk. Except that fey are not so dominated by the need to survive, and get to spend more time partying. Unseelie are the ones that have crossed a line that every fey knows is there. There are enough Unseelie to be a threat; after all fey are hard to control. But the Seelie at least have the self control to stay in the line. For the moment; some Seelie have been in exile before; during that time they would be classed as Unseelie, thus they can go back and forth but there is still a definition.

As a side note, I thought the "projection" aspect interesting. In so many tales you see mortals acting effectively as "Fair Folk to the Fair Folk" by trying to bully them into doing their will. It made me wonder kind of.

What I wanted was Fey who could be good and bad but still had a bit of edginess to them. If we assume that all Fey are fantastic terrorists that kidnap babies, then the Macleods(for instance) are guilty of treason to the human race. And, at least for me, calling them "amoral" doesn't make them cease to be fantastic terrorists, but emphasizes it. Grimmifying them to much makes them just another kind of monster and there are enough monsters. But the Disney version of Fey is unsatisfactory too. Assuming that they have a curious psychology but they do know good and evil and have an internal quarrel within their own minds(like mortals, though one that takes a different shape because of fey psychology) about it fits my tastes. It means a mortal can be friends with Fey, but it also means that some fey are creatures no one should risk being friends with. It still leaves them mysterious and scary and dangerous, but they can also be wondrous and innocent. Depending on which human is talking about which fey and so on.

To put it another way, the closest human analogue to a "typical" fey in this arrangement is an ISFP in the myers briggs scale. However this is added to the fact that all fey are to some degree Tsunderes. This makes them sound benign which is not the picture I intend. Some are benign and some are not and when they aren't they are very much-not.

A story I wrote a long time ago was of a lighthouse where a child of the keeper came out to watch them dance. They learned to care for her and blessed her with great beauty. When she was a young woman a pirate tried to kidnap her and sailed off. However the Fey rescued her. To this day the people in the city say that when they hear the wind they are really hearing the imprisoned pirate screaming in agony.

[jason taylor]

The Sylven and Water Fairy templates would be closest to the ones I imagined. But I also imagined a class of domestic fey called Hesties(named after Hestia naturally), but not exactly. Noble fey would be chieftains over the Sylven and Water Fey, in this arrangement.

As I pictured it Fey in their natural form are made of "aether"(read mana) and dependent on it. But they need a sort of anchor in the material world which is why they get so angry when their mounds or their forests or even "their" Innocent Mortal Child is threatened. It is like a physical attack. Furthermore all Fey have some degree of shapeshifter and take the form they prefer; water fey often appear as porpoises and the mortals next door "know"(remember this is mythopoeia rather then direct worldbuilding) this which is why porpoises are taboo prey for fishermen. Water fey also don't need fish tails like a Starbucks mermaid; I just thought that was kinda squicky if there is ever an interspecies romance. Fey can appear as fully human. When they travel with a human, a lover say, they need to carry some material from their home for instance a vial of seawater.