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The Courts:
Within the definition of "Fairies", there are many different faeric subspecies that show many differences and very few similituds to each other, but in order to organize them, these subspecies can be classified into two different groups, known as Courts: The Seelie Court and the Unseelie Court.
The Seelie Court:
The term "Seelie Court" denotes the groups of faeric beings that are similar to other species in terms of appearence, personality and abilities. Among this definition one can find the humanoid fairies, the beast-like fairies, the Sidhe and others, mainly being entities with an appearence similar to humans, animals or other beings, but with slight differences, mostly that they are usually more gtraceful and effeminate than their counterparts, or that they have magical abilities tied directly to the nature of the world in which they are residing. Many of these fairies have wings, most of them having them as butterfly-like or insect-like colorful wings, that add to their graceful, fragile appearence. Like many species, they have two recognizable physical sexes.
In terms of behavior, most Seelie fairies show themselves as being more organized and calmed than beings from the Unseelie court, having also more interest in beings other tham them. Despite this, they sometimes present apathy and indifference towards the well-being of others, and can be rather selfish.
The Unseelie Court:
Unlike the more organized and calmed Seelie Court, the Unseelie Court is considered as random, chaotic, mutable and very, very dangerous. These are beings that have no regard at all for any kind of life, hedonistic beings who lack any sense of morality or ethics, and in many moments have shown themselves to lack a normal sentience. Most of them are entities who exist only to live and feel, leaving behind all notions of rational thought, becoming unrestrained forces of chaos.
Despite this, there are several examples of Unseelie fairies who have reached some degree of level-headness, with their personalities showing, aside from the obvious randomness, just small moments of quirkiness without causing a direct threat to anything; the exact reasons of why these beings show more calm behaviors is still unknown.
Something notorious is that, unlike many other species, the subspecies from the Unseelie court lack many traits associated with fairies, more often than not lacking wings, and even lacking proper bodies: most of them take forms resembling jesters, harlequins and others, in particular the "clothes" those beings would wear, as no one has seen if they really are anything underneath said forms. They all wear masks, lacking true faces, and these masks change according to their mood to show their emotions. If the masks are removed, all of the power of the fairy will come from the void left and the fairy will eventually die, but will cause an explosion that will destroy everything around it. Also, like the Seelie court, all of them have effeminate appearences, with the males tending to look more opulent and flamboyant than the females and all other sexes.
It must also be noticed that the subspecies of fairies classified as the Unseelie court have seven different physical sexes, with only two being at least similar to the usual male and female dichotomy most species have. This doesn't mean the other sexes are in between the male and female spectrum: the other 5 sexes are nothing like those known to humans or any creature from this world, lacking any kind of counterpart in the male/female spectrum (although some other species, such as some kinds of demons, angels and others, also possess this kind of differences). Like in other species, there are also cases of fairies presenting a different gender identity to their physical sex, or presenting aspects of two (or more) sexes in their bodies. In matters of gender identity, though, so far, there have been identified at least 258 different kinds of possible identities.
Mixed Fairies:
There are certain fairies and entities that have reached a mixed state beteen the Seelie and Unseelie classifications. These beings are usually fairies of one or the other denomination who manage to also gain traits from the other, augmenting their powers and managing to get a secondary form and attributes based on the other classifications. The best example of this are the five Queens (Glorianna having being a fairy of the Seelie court who gained aspects from the Unseelie court, Mab being a fairy of the Unseelie court that gained aspects from the Seelie court, Morgana being a Unseelie fairy/human hybrid who gained aspects of a Seelie fairy, Nimuë being an Seelie fairy/mermaid hybrid that gained aspects from the Unseelie Court, and Titania being a Seelie/Unseelie hybrid who had this status from birth). In their Seelie form, these Mixed fairies can think more rationaly and use magic based in knowledge, but have less power, while in their Unseelie form, these fairies achieve high degrees of magical power but are unable to focus it with the retional way a normal magician could.
Unlike in certain other definitions, such as Angels and Demons, a viable offspring between both kinds of subspecies can be achieved, as they are merely subspecies and not opposite species, such as Angels and Demons.
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List of subspecies:
- Sidhe: Powerful entities and the ones more well-known as fairies, traditionally thought to be the descendants of Gods, or the souls of the dead incarnated in new identities. While most probably, like all other fairies, they were simply born out of the conglomerations of magical energies in their worlds, said energy may have been reshaped by the will of Gods and mortals alike, their dreams and imagination, and may even have been assimilated by the souls of dead beings. By now, though, they have formed their own society in the otherworlds, existing like most normal beings. They are the most extensive and well-known group of fairies.
- Leanan Sidhe: Specific Sidhe that subsist on the life energy and emotions of other beings. They are similar to the incubi and succubi, in that they need of the energy of others to subsist, but they're substantially different in two specific ways: 1) They usually do fall in love with their "victims", and as such only take energy form one specific source, who in return must be in love with them for it to work; and 2) in return for the energy, the Leanan Sidhe gives its victim/lover inspiration and power, transforming them into heroes and accomplishing their every wish. While it is usually thought that the lovers of the Leanan Sidhe may have miserable and short lives, it must be noticed that this only has happened in a few cases, and in such cases it is only because the Leanna Sidhe was not the most stable one among them.
- Banshee:Usually seen as an omen of death, an spirit or entity of usual faeric or otherwordly origin, sometimes thopught to be an spirit of the dead who has become a fairy. They manifest as women who cry and weep or who wash blood-stained clothes, either resembling beautiful maidens, matrons or ragged old hags. In whatever form they manifest, they will announce the death of someone in between their cries, and usually only manifest to those persons. Originally, it was thought that they would only appear to those of the bloodlines or families known as the O'Neills, the O'Briens, the O'Connors, the O'Gradys and the Kavanaghs, but due to intermarriage in the last centuries, the list has increased (of course, this tradition might not be entirely accurate). Usually seen as having powerful screams, which is known to be true, but they only display it if feeling menaced during their mission of announcing death.
- Durahan:Extremely powerful and dangerous unseelie fairies who may be considered as opposites to the relatively more bening Banshees. Portrayed as headless entities, who carry their heads around in their arm in myths; in modern times, given the observations given, they mostly appear as suits of armors made with metal and bones lacking the headpiece (or any actual head) and with a mask on their chests that acts as a mask. Their weapons tend to be made of the corpses of their victims, reinforced through magic. They are entities of death, created from the vlash between faeric magic and the energies od death and the underworlds.
- Peris:Descendants of Fallen Angels and other many different entities with at least one faeric ancestor. Little is known about them, but they have apparently created a world for themselves in the outside of the borders between the faeric otherworlds and the Heavens.
- Xanas: Faeric women, mostly thought to appear in the regions of Asturia, in Spain. Beautiful damsels with golden hair and celestine eyes who spend their days caring for their beauty and singing beautiful sons. They are thought to also change women's children for their own, the Xaninos, so as to ensure their own children may be taken care of (and in some versions of doubtful origin, to ensure they are christened or baptized). Unlike most fairies, their society is ruled by an specific queen, called the Xana Mega.
- XaninosThe changeling-like children of the Xanas, usually much more benevolent than traditional changeling. They tend to take on the shape of the child taken away, but have already developed a relatively notorious maturity (it must be noticed that, given the process of aging for the Xanas, they tend to be hundreds of years and display the physical and slight mental capabilities of a child at his early years, more or less). They might be tricked to reveal their own nature, at which point their faeric mother is to take them back and give again the child taken away.
- Changelings:Children of specific kinds of fairies, the Changelings are at times left in the place of children of other species, more often than not humans. They tend to have relatively low magical potential, but due to an unstable nature, their appearence tends to shift at unpredictable and strange rates.
- White Ladies:Also known as "Wisse Frauen", "Dames Blanches" and "Witte Wieven" (the last one meaning "Wise Women"), these powerful entities are thought to be actually female manifestations of the otherworld's energies, more accurately being spontaneus figures created by magic and the memories and personality traits "recorded" or "remembered" by specific surroundings of sorceresses and spirits of different kinds. A theory suggests that they might be Völva or female shamanesses from nordic lore, who after their deaths bound their spirits to the mortal plane; others believe they are actually elven females who have gone through the process to become fairies (similar to how fallen angels become demons and ascended emons become angels, to a degree). They are wise and powerful, but of random nature at times: they can either be protectresses of nature, or can be commanders of spirits of the death at the other.
- Das Feenreich:German for "The Faeric Empire" given by mot recent investigators. An extremely powerful group of faeric entities, that posed a threat to the order of different realities and even the Gods themselves. It took the combined power of the Five Queens and the Xana Mega, along with many other faeric entities, angels, demons, and even Gods, to actually seal them up in their own realm, cutting all ties between the realm and the other worlds. Unfortuantely, their world has started to recently connect itself to the Earth again, and at least three portals have been found: one in Germany, one in Italy and one in Japan, though they tend to shift locations in between their regions. Unseelie fairies of great power, but also possessing little to no actual minds in most cases, and the few who have are inherently wicked and destructive, only looking to satisfy their desire for power. Their leader also acts as their main mind, and possesses the combined entirety of their might, making him/her truly Godlike when the conditions are met.
List of specific faeric beings:
- The Five Queens:The five absolute rulers of all fairies and entities of their otherworlds. Well-known for their might and power, the queens decreed millennia ago to stop interactions with other entities, a decree that they have neither received and respeted nor enforced by the queens themselves.
- Titania: The most powerful of all the fairies, an entity of magical power made flesh and bone by sheer will of her spirit. Born as the daughter of a seelie fairy and an unseelie fairy, Titania gained both the control and sentience of her seelie father, and the extreme and ainsane level of power of her unseelie mother. Her name means "Titanic" or "Daughter of the Titans" to commemorate such thing. Her elemental alignment is to energy and power itself. She is wise and fair, but also vain and proud, and her moods can affect even the weather of the worlds closest to her own kingdoms at the time. It is thought she might have fashioned herself to a degree after the mother goddesses and queens of the heavens, such as Hera.
- Glorianna: A mysterious queen of the fairies, with her element being Earth. She is a seelie fairy that through research gained the powers of unseelie fairies, but still doesn't dominate them fully. No one really knows her origin, and it is said that she may be faeric counterpart to Queen Elizabeth I (her kingdom could be considered a counterpart to elizabethan England...).
- Mab: The Queen of Air and Darkness, a powerful and relatively insane ruler of the fairies. Originally born as an Unseelie Fairy, she managed to receive the body and powers of a Seelie fairy, and gaining at least a degree of self-restraint with it. Mab is a powerful creatrix of illusions and her kingdoms are chimeric and derivative from dreams; she also apparently has at least a degree of control over the Leanan Sidhe.
- Morgana: A fairy hybrid of incredible power, being half-Kadmonite. It is thought she once stole power from the Goddess Morrighan, or was granted such power by the Goddess herself. It is said that she's a mistress of illusions, and may have been a half-sister of King Arthur. Other names she has include "Morgan Le Fay" and "Fata Morgana" (unrelated to the other being also known as "Fata Morgana", who simply adopted such sobriquet).Morgana's element is Fore.
- Vivienne: A seductive and beautiful woman, also known Nimue, Elaine, Nyneveh, Niniane and many other names. She's thought to be a hybrid of a fairy and a mermaid. Her element is Water. She's the mythical Lady of the Lake, who reconstructed and reinforced the sword Caliburn to become the more well-known Excalibur.
- Robin Goodfellow:A trickster and one of Oberon's main servants, also known as "Puck", a maker of mischief and general wanderer. Often looks for nothing except to enjoy his own life, though at times can be quite harsh and cruel, since he doesn't really know or care that he might be hurting others.
- Oberon:A King of the Shadows and Fairies who is married to Titania. Despite this, he is mostly the King Consort, though has kingdoms of his own to rule over. Oberon is proud and powerful, but far more levelheaded than his relatively more mood-swinger wife. The two fight quite a lot, but it is obvious they love each other.
- Hellequin:A powerful and insane hybrid between a powerful demon and an unseelie fairy and thought to be a brother of Arlecchino, also one of the instigators of the Wild Hunt. A commander of spirits, he takes delight in manifesting in the human world every now and then to take them to the faeric realms, where he attempts to force them to love him, at the same time needing their energy to subsist. If the love isn't returned, he will kill the individual, absorb their soul and transform whatever he can find on it to be valuble for himself into a faeric minion, so that he may later start the process again. Then again, he is also known to kill them and repeat the process anyway: he is just insane.
- Melusine:A faeric entity cursed to become half-reptilian, and who eventually became a full dragon after her mortal husband called her a "serpent". Her descendants are thought to have at least some degrees of her powers, and possibly her curse, which may have fused or transformed into a power in and on itself.
- Fata dei Capelli Turchini:Also known as the Blue Fairy. A powerful fairy who, unlike many of her own kind, goes out of her way to help others. She usually uses her magic to enable others to understand what they need to do, and to help them and give peace to their souls. She has a particular fondness of children, and will do anything to help them in any way (apparently steeming from a loss she had once). It is believed she wasn't originally a fairy.
- Carabosse: Self-styled "Wicked Fairy Grandmother" thought to be the inspiration in the fairy of the same name in the earlier versions of "Sleeping Beauty", an Unseelie fairy of already massive power who fused and destroyed a Seelie fairy (specifically, the Fairy Queen Caelia), creating itself a body from the remains of the Seelie fairy and adding her powers to its own. Carabosse is cunning and deceptive, but can also be whimsical and cruel, and is as insane and dangerous as can be expected from a being of her species.
- Caelia An old and powerful Fairy Queen, though one only of the Seelie fairies. Caelia was beautiful and charming, and it is said that she was at least half-angel, which would explain her use of holy magic alongside her sidhe magic. Benevolent and compassive, she had three powerful daughters who eventually inherited her kingdom, known as Fidelia, Speranza and Charissia. It is thought that she was a lover of a descendant of King Arthur and bore a child to him, though the mtyh remains unproven. Her body, soul and powers were eventually taken over by the entity who took the name of Carabosse.
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