The Fey Court

Ruled over by Titania, the Fey Court is also known by the locals of the Black Forest to be the Place of Warm Frost and the Lovely Land. Local opinion, it seems, has a very broad view of the Fey Court. It is a place of beauty and civilization, and though it is ruled by Titania, who is quick to lose her temper or change her mind, it is always spoken of as a place of reward, of an almost unattainable happiness. The children who are taken into the court, though mourned, are praised at home for being so beautiful and refined, and there is always a tinge of jelousy when speaking of the wonders of the eternal youth they will enjoy there.

Queen Titania
The wife of Oberon and his co-ruler over the Black Forest, Titania is known as the Frost Queen and the One Who is Unsatisfied. She is known for her temper, as well as her fondness for children, whom she hopes to protect from sickness and death by making into fairies. Cross her, however, and you risk being transformed into a banshee. The entire population of banshees in Scandala, Iriiv and the Warm Rocks are all due to Titania's wrath.

Often considered to be a woman of extreme beauty, Titania is attended by 100 white Dascian butterflies, and 200 white sprites. Her crown, a wedding gift from her husband Oberon, is made of Kirinoko Pearls from Nyaliri-Mikano and the grey diamonds known as Gadrik's Tears from the mines of Zavak.

The Eternal Princess
The Eternal Princess of the Fey Court is the absolute favorite, and the only one whom Titania will indulge anything, even if it means not indulging herself, which is quite a feat. The Eternal Princess is not one of Titania and Oberon's children, and is likely either a Change-Child or a lesser fairy, despite the Gossip. She is the only one Titania has ever trained in magic and the arts, and it is said that the Princess is the greatest dancer, violinist, and celerist in the history of Itaedia.

The Violin of the Princess, a beautiful deep red object that had been, apparently the object that won the Princess' mother for her father, has a strange tune. Many who have heard it say it sounds like birdsong, or the mournful wind, or the sound that starlight should make, and the Princess was taught a way to play it by King Mataeo that can only be described as a sort of elemental magic that uses music. Titania has often begged the Princess to play for the court, as Mataeo never seems to be around to play when she wishes it, but the Princess has always refused.

Heirarchy in the Fey Court
The Fey Court, famed for its gossip and complex rituals of deference, flattery, and courtship, has a very strict heirarchy. Though the whim of the Queen can have one move from one level to another and back again before lunch, the population of each level remains roughly the same. Sometimes, defying the boundaries of your position can be seen as so daring and worthy of Gossip that Titania will either banish you or make you a lord. At various points, fairies have risked this and created Scandal so as to become Interesting.

The Royal Children
There are 243 royal children, the result of the relatively few happy moments of reconciliation between Titania and Oberon. They reside at both courts at various points of the year, and they are the only ones free from worry over Titania's wrath. They mostly do as they please, and not a few delight in playing pranks on members of the Fey Court. Some of them are known, in fact, to stir up arguments between their parents for their own amusement.

Fairy Lords and Ladies
Courtisans who find particular favor with Titania may be granted the title of Lord, and gain the height of a full adult, though they remain delicate of featire, as if they are children of singluar bone structure that have been stretched out. Translucent and blue, the Fairy Lords often shed their wings, though the Ladies frequently retain them, working them into their outfit of the day.

Fey Courtisans
All fairies are courtisans of the Fey Court, even if they are fufilling their duties guarding a sacred tree for Oberon. If their tree is cut down properly, with the correct tribute made to the fairy and the right sapling planted, the courtisan will often leave the forest to spend time at the Fey Court until the sapling has matured. If the tree is not properly cut down and the fairy isn't killed, merely injured, they will go to Oberon to seek reparations.

While at the court, and there are always dozens of courtisans at court, the fairies will do their best to attain the status of Lord or Lady, help train the findlings into change-children, and enjoy the latest Gossip of the court.



Change-Children
Once humans and skridae, these children have succumbed to the Fey Court, and now have become translucent, though they retain much of their original traits. Though low on the heirarchy, they are more beloved by Titania, and are spoiled with anything they could want. Often, one of the Royal Children will take a shine to them, and will put them under their personal protection, and let them in on their pranks and adventures. If they attain the status of courtisan (or even go straight to lord or lady) they will become the light blue shade of translucence that is typical of the Fey Court.

Findlings
The children newly brought into the Fey Court are known as Findlings. Still human or skridae, they have no ability to fly and are completely opaque. They move slowly through the Fey Court, as they are too heavy to truly be in it. They are treated as naive, pretty objects by the Lords and Ladies of the court, and many change-children and fairies seek to teach them, so that they may quickly assimilate and be able to enjoy the Court to its fullest. Many parts of the castle, it should be noted, are inaccessable if one cannot fly or is to heavy to reach it. Morevoer, sprites, the servants of the Fey Court, have trouble seeing findlings, and so cannot wait upon them.

Guards and Servants
There are 1,000 guards of the Fey Court, who are roughly 7' in height, muscular, and winged. They are translucent and red, delicate of feature, and often come directly to Titania on their knees, whether a fairy, lord, or an admiring mortal, and beg to guard her. Usually, the plea is granted. They wear thick armor of polished spider's web and carry axes of diamond with long handles that end in a spear point.

The servants of the Fey Court are a species found nowhere else in Itaedia: sprites. Spriteswhose wings move so fast they are invisible, and make a high-pitched tinkling sound---are small, no bigger than a child's fist, and are covered in long, soft hairs that pulse with light. They drink nectar, and communicate telepathically, and are blind. They swarm by the dozens around each member of the Fey Court, attending to their every whim, and going on small errands around the court for their masters and mistresses. Curiously, they tend to imitate the color their master is wearing that day.

The Choosing of the Children
Possibly the most anticipated even in the Fey Court, every autumn Titania takes her retinue down to the southeastern parts of the Black Forest to meet with the Brownie King, and select children from those he has found for her. He takes them from the CastleCreature one at a time, where they have lost their memories, and presents them to the Queen.

At this point, the child is inspected for beauty, grace, and delicacy. If the child passes here, Titania will ask if they can sing, or dance, or make a daisy chain or catch insects. When this subject has been explored, if the child still passes, Titania will ask the opinion of the Eternal Princess, if she is present. If the child isn't completely perfect, Titania will sometimes offer it to one of the Royal Children, or any of the Lords and Ladies who might be in favor at that time.

The brownie swarm hovers over the entirety of the proceedings and, if at any point a child isn't found to be of Titania's liking, is swallowed up by it immediately.

The Brownie King
A fixture in the Fey Court, the Brownie King is the main liason to the Court at Itaedia's Antlers, and the provider of children for the Choosing. Hailing from a small town in the Black Forest, often considered to be Brynnewald, Mataeo had been some sort of nobility before joining the Court. Appointed to his current position by Oberon in an effort to stop the Horrors, Mataeo is a special favorite of Titania, and ranks somewhere between the Royal Children and the Lords and Ladies of the court.

The Horrors
A dark point in the history of both the Black Forest and the Fey Court, for at least the first five centuries of written history, the Black Forest was an even more inhospitable place. Though woodcutters would often brave it to provide for their families, humans only dared live on its outskirts and skridae rarely breeched the surface of the Whystern, and desperately clung to it for protection. Werekin children were cautioned to never take the form of a human, even if it meant being hunted down by starving villagers.

This was all because Titania would, as she marched through the forest with her retinue (for this was before she had her castle), snatch up any child she saw. If they were beautiful and gentle children, she would bring them into the court, but if they resisted her, or were ugly from crying, she killed them there. She would pass through towns in the night, and send her Lords and Ladies into the houses to take babies from their beds. There were few Royal Children then, and they all stayed at the Antlers, and this drove Titania to futher grief, and she sometimes took to taking young boys and girls older than she normally would.

If any party of villagers tried to rise against her, she would kill them, then destroy the town, and raze the land so the forest could not grow over the bodies, which were left undisturbed by even the wildest of animals. Oberon made war against her frequently in those times, for she would even turn her wrath upon the Myconids and the Dustkiin babes.

In the 5th Century, however, after the Splitting of the Tribes and the Kind Banishment, Oberon apointed Mataeo to the position of the Brownie King, and thus ended the Horrors.