The Land of Faeire :

 

In a dimension parallel to the the human world, lies a different world, known by many names throughout the history of the world. Many mythologies tell of magical beings, playful jokers with mystical powers that came to our world to trick mankind for their own amusement; wise and inescrutable lords of magic that a hero would ofter approach in search of help in it's quest; monsters that stole children, killed cattle and spread diseases. This is the world where those beings come from.

 

• Metaphysical

 

The world of Faerie is a mysterious place. Throughout the dimension exists a strong background field of magical energy, allowing for nearly anything and anyone in to be magically active in some form. That energy is known as Glamour (not to be confused with appearance-changing glamour spells). The magic of the Fair Folk, based on controling such energy, is highly complex. The Glamour almost appears to be sentient at some points, so using it to alter parts of reality requires convincing such parts into doing what the user desires; for example, convincing the shadows to hide them or the water to freeze and turn into ice.
 

Inhabitants :

 

Faerie is inhabited by countless races of sentient beings, varying greatly in shape, size and demeanor. The origin of it's population is a mystery to many, a topic of discussion to scholars of ancient history. One theory once held in vogue by some is that they would be the descendants of angels and demons that interbred with eachother, but it has been disproven, as is it has an angel and a demon are incapable of breeding. The existance of both demonic and angelic essence would make the

zygote destroy itself seconds after it's conception.

 

All the inhabitatants of Faerie are inherently magical, even if not all of them are capable of spellcasting. Ancient and powerful fae will progressively become less phisical and more beings of pure magical essence, which gives them power comparable to archangels and greater demons. This also gives the Fair Folk a well-known weakness: cold iron (that being pure iron, worked only manually and cold at the moment). For unknown reasons, pure iron is anathema to the magic of Faerie: it burns the Fair Folk if they touch it, and wounds caused by it are almost incurable. It's mere presence is enough to weaken fae magic, and it isn't affected by it. The older and more powerful they become, the more the Fae are affected by cold iron: the mere touch of it is enough to make them begin disintegrating.

 

While the Fair Folk can vary wildly from one another, there are a few groups with similar enough characteristics to be roughly grouped as subraces:

 

• Elves: 

 

Elves are the most numerous sub-species of Fae, and can take nearly any role in Faerie society, be it either soldier, craftesman, artist, scholar or any other. Of all fae, they tend to be the most magically capable, and are usually the leaders of the kingdom. They can vary in height as much as a human, but are nearly always lithe and slender. Elves are nearly always attractive in some form, but those good looks can frequently appear strange and otherworldy, some times only slightly "off" compared to a human, other times bizarre and fantastic. The only caracteristic that is constant is pointed ears, but otherwise can have appearances very different from the elves of most fiction: they can have the horns of a goat or a deer; skin made of wood, stone or with unusual colors; hair made of leaves, fire or ice; etc.

 

• Fairies:

 

Fairies tend to be smaller than humans, from just short to small enough be fit on your hands, but some can take human-sized forms usung magic. They tend to be playful tricksters, either mean or friendly. Like elves, they tend to be magically capable, but their powers tend to be more trickser-like, unlike the elves grand spellcasting. Nearly all of them have wings.

 

• Dwarves:

 

Dwarves are an odd group. The Fair Folk is already very isolacionist and uncaring for what happens to the other dimensions, but the dwarves take that to a whole new level, barely ever exiting their underground strongholds. They are shorter than humans, but much stockier, and are some of the greatest craftsmen in the world.

 

• Ogres:

 

Ogres tend to be larger and stornger than mankind, from just muscular and overweight to giant sized. They are usually rather simple-minded, from stupid brutes to just book dumb, but a few can be quite clever and are very dagerous. Because of their superhuman strenght, Ogres are normaly manual workers or heavy combat units.

 

• Beasts:

 

Besides the humanoid population, Faerie is home to countless kinds of magical beasts, both sentient and not, and many mythological beings are native either to it or to the parallel dimension known as the Hedge.

 

Society:

 

Faerie society is rather medieval-like, with the society split into the four great Seasonal Courts: Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring. Each one of the courts is composed of many noble families, with the common folk swearing allegiance to one of those families. Similar to the rulling system of the Holy Roman Empire, each family gets a seat and the right to vote in Courts, where the realm is governed in a semi-democratic fashion. Despite that, there is still a monarchy, with the king or queen having, among other powers, the to veto and the deciding vote in a stalemate.

 

The Courts of Summer and Winter are the largest of the four, and are also known as the Seelie and the Unseelie. To outsiders, the Seelie and the Unseelie may seem like and are known as, respectively, the good and the evil Courts, but that is a misconception. While the Seelie tend to be more aproachable to humans, while the Unseelie are reserved and isolationist even for the standarts of the Fair Folk, both are just as likely to care very little for the afairs or interests of humans as they are to be actively friendly to them. Meanwhile, the Spring and Autumn courts, smaller and not quite as influent, tend to take a neutral position, both regarding mankind the the other courts; and mostly care for their own affairs. The Spring court tends to be hedonistic, carefree and capricious, caring more for the pleasures of the moment. Meanwhile, the Autumn court tends to take a more active role, dealing with humans to make sure they don't interfere with the affairs of the Fae.

Courtly politics is bizantine in complexity and incredibly cuthroath. Nearly all the Lords Elector of the courts have been there for centuries, and are masters of deception and manipulation. Despite that, the Fair Folk are nearly phiscally uncapable of lying or breaking a sworn promise or contract. To counter that, any noble that wishes to be more than a puppet needs to learn the art of half-truths, omission and hiding loopholes in a contract. Still, the system ends up effective due to sheer strenght of meritocracy: any noble who is corrupt or incompetent is quickly replaced.

 

While the common population isn't allowed at the Courts, they are not powerless. Faerie is home to nearly hundreds of Entitlements, semi-secret societies and guilds of like-minded Fae, sworn to upheld a idea or to accomplish a particular objective. The Entitlements control many areas of civil society and can take many roles, from festivities organizators, stoneworkers and cooks to bounty hunter guilds and societies dedicated to explore and study the more dangerous and

unkwnon areas of Faerie.

Despite it's mostly early Modern politics, Faerie is aesthetically closer to the Victorian Age, with lords having manors and estates instead of castles and feuds, athough fashion can be quite varied and fantastical for human standarts. The technological level is also close to that age, but magic gives access to several modern conveniences. There are also groups of younger and more open-minded Fae that work with rather complex magitech devices that are just as good, if not better than their mundane versions. Faerie society also has always been quite gender egalitarian, if otherwise conservative.

 

• The Hedge

 

While the human world and Faerie are indeed connected, as it can be seen by the numerous incursions of Fair Folk into Earth, their connection is not direct. In between the two, lies a third dimension, known as the Hedge. In many places, particularly in places where Western culture is dominant, the Hedge lives up to its name, appearing as a dense, dark forest, filled with thorny brambles, but it may take many forms. However it appears, be it swamp or desert or jungle, the Hedge is always wild and seldom safe.

 

It's most noticiable characteristic is just how chaotic and unstable the spacial topology and geometry of the entire dimension is. Unless you tread specifc paths bound by fae magic and will, the world will change with every step. Turning around a tree could send you somewhere you've never been, and trying to follow back your steps is a pointless endeavour.

Portals to the Hedge can be found everywhere in the world. Natural ones tend to appear in places with a natural concentrtation of magic, and can take the shape of any natural formation that could be described as gate-like: an ancient tree bent into an arc by time, a hole crossing a moss-covered boulder, a cave with no end or bottom in sight, etc. Portal can also appear in urban areas, but are extremely rare and hard to find. It is possible to create artificial portals, but it's easier for the Fae, it requires noticiable skill and power for normal spellcasters. While natural portals allow anyone to cross them, artificial ones or portals that have been bound by spells require rituals to activate them. The rituals vary wildly in difficulty and complexety: it may require anything from just saying a password to burning a lock of the hair of a person, mixing it with the blood of it's enemy and spilling the mixture over the outline of the portal drawn over a flat stone.

 

While wandering through the Hedge, it is possible for one to find a patch of open land, where the chaotic land has been bound into a stable, constant form, similar to the pathways that cross the world. Those are often the dens of creatures, either native to Hedge or to Faerie, but they are also often the abode of the Fair Folk. It is debated which is more dangerous  to find. Those Fair Folk domains are either known as Enclaves or Freeholds, based wheter they respond to the courts or are independant. Enclaves are usually camps for expeditions into the Hedge, either millitary or scholarly, while Freeholds are often the homes of exiles, criminals, vagabounds and other lowlifes.

 

The flora of the Hedge is particularly noticiable. Like everything else in it, the plants are inbued with fae magic, and so can have a variety of side-effects, many of them being powerful reagents for alchemy. Those plants can vary from golden apples that heal the wounds of anyone who consumes them, to a bush with silvery leaves that induce visions when consumed to even a root that works as a powerful narcotic for vampires and does not require them to consume it with blood for them to actually feel it.