Re: The Deep Forest Fey
Flitter gives Mystal a curious look. “I am sure Oote means he is happy he is traveling with other Pixies.”
A few of the other Pixies in the area giggle.
Then one of the other Purple Heron Marsh Pixies, a female wearing a bouncy headdress of purple flowers, approaches Mystal. “You are not a Pixie, that is certain, your ways must be different. So I will tell you of ours. Pixies are playful and flirtatious, and with female Pixies it is usually teasing and silly, but with male Pixies it is always teasing and silly, because their world is firstly games and play. And secondly and thirdly. And fourthly and fifthly. So Pixies might expect you to flirt, because that is what female Pixies do, but not Oote, because he is male and therefore without Clue.” *
The Fauns have weightier things to consider. In between their long dinner of forest specialties there are talks of the quests of the adventurers, and what they might find along the way, and when Morgan brings it up… Fey history.
Morgan, with a few of the Fey around for advice (Mostly Faun advice, although Mintflip can surprise now and then with a useful bit of trivia) put things together as follows: Quite a long time ago (How long? Who knows. The Fey don’t track that way. A long time) this forest – which was much bigger then and extended all the way east to the area of what is now Lutetia Parisiorum- was caught up in the great struggle between the Seelie and Unseelie Fey Courts.** The Unseelie had a very simple, obvious idea: being beautiful and wise and powerful, they should be ruling the world, not allowing the “lesser folk” to run willy nilly and spoil it all. They even invited the Seelie (whom they saw as equals, or at least, near equals) to join them. The Seelie would rule by day, and the Unseelie by night.
But Unseelie rule would mean pain and loss of freedom from almost everyone. The Unseelie, though certainly beautiful and powerful, had no regard for anyone’s feelings but their own. They would tease, trick, and even kill for amusement, without any feelings of guilt. The Seelie could not let them rule the world. In the end, the Seelie banished the Unseelie… but not without banishing themselves. They thought it was for the best, though, since in addition to Pixies, Nixies, Sprites and all manner of Good Fey, they left behind their children: The Elves. This is how the Fey tell the tale.
Among the Unseelie, everyone is a Noble. This is how they view themselves. As Mintflip reports, the Unseelie say they are Number One, and all others Number Two, or lower. Each and every Unseelie thinks himself or herself a wonderful, enlightened, special being made to rule.
Of course, this was a war before Humans made the art and science of war. No great armies in the field, ranks of archers, mighty fortresses. All Fey folk, even the Seelie and Unseelie, are passionate and individualistic and forming great hierarchies does not come naturally to them. It was a war of individuals and small groups, and a war of personal actions and reactions, ambushes, heroics, and betrayals, played out over the vastness of the forest, for many years.
In the end, which for Mortals was the beginning, the Unseelie were banished, and the Seelie also left the world for a different world.
There were loose ends. Rimatyali was apparently one of them. An Unseelie Lord (but then, they all are). Feared, and rightly so because he enslaved many Ocean Fey, but Vanished, and never seen again. The name has come up, generally with Unseelie accusing the Earth-bound Fey of still holding prisoners, but he has not been seen in the time of Mortals.
*Romance among Pixies is a very tricky thing, especially for female Pixies. This is because while female Pixies sometimes develop the inclination, male Pixies almost never do. Some knowledgeable Fey have said this is because the Pixie mind stays in a state that a Human might call childish. They have trouble with mature thoughts, and as Human males tend to reach those thoughts later in life than females, Pixie males tend to have trouble getting there at all. It’s not unusual for a frustrated Pixie female to drop increasingly unsubtle hints on her favored male for months, even years, until the clueless male finally realizes… oh my…she wants… YUK! (whereupon he flies away). The situation is made more complicated by the fact that female Pixies are the greater fraction of their population.
It is a most fortunate thing for the Pixie race that all this has absolutely nothing to do with where baby Pixies come from. That is magic, and that is another story entirely.
**Partly as a result of the Seelie/Unseelie war, the Fey lost control of most of this forest world, retreating west to Armorica (where the party is now) while leaving pockets behind. One of these pockets is the Yvelines Forest, home of Mestenon, where Rita, Culann, and Bryon currently are.