The Fey: The White Lady

The White Lady is the acknowledged Sovereign among the fairy and woodland creatures of Sylvaeon.

She is generally benevolent, but her ire is something to be avoided. If the Balance is threatened, her subjects are treated cruelly by the servants of the Corrupter or trespasses against the Fey realm are perpetrated by foolish men, the consequences will be dire. Some things are to be feared more than evil and death... the wise White Lady knows how to teach lessons to those that need to learn respect for things beyond their ken.

The White Lady, the Queen of the Aeternal Realm of Sylvaeon, is truly beautiful, but there is a wild side to her, as there is in all of the fey.

(poster created using The Motivator http://bighugelabs.com/motivator.php )

Queen of the Fairies

Queen of the Fairies

Like many ancient myths, there is no clearcut or authoritative version of just who the Queen of the Fairies is and what her nature is like. The name of the Queen of the Fairies changes according to different adaptations. She has no name in the oldest times, but has been associated with Morgan Le Fey in Arthurian legends and Shakespeare called her Titania. Oberon (also spelled Auberon) is often considered her consort and the king of the fairies in medieval and Renaissance literature.

William Blake's Oberon, Titania and Puck With Fairies Dancing

Titania. Come, now a roundel and a fairy song;

Then, for the third of a minute, hence;

Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds,

Some war with rere-mice for their leathern wings,

To make my small elves coats, and some keep back

The clamorous owl, that nightly hoots, and wonders 

At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep;

Then to your offices, and let me rest.

(A Midsummer-Night’s Dream, Act II. Scene II. Another Part of the Wood)

The Queen of the Fairies is a beautiful, cunning and commanding Fey creature of great magical power, able to assume any shape she pleases. She is sometimes said to ensnare mortal for her purposes, as in the Queen of Elfen legend of the Scottish Lowlands. Humans ensorcelled by her sometimes become a "tithe to hell", which reflects the conflict between Christianity and Paganism in those days.

In a sylvan setting in an RPG campaign, she could be a figure that lies behind happenings or has agents among the woodland creatures and her various subjects. She appears to mortals only when she desires to be seen. It would be very difficult to trap or threaten the Queen of the Fairies, as her own realm is one of particularly fey magic and possibly a dimension all to itself, where she is in absolute authority. She seems to be favorable to whom she will and as equally capricious.

Certainly the Queen of the Fairies is a fascinating and mysterious figure for any campaign, the mythology of whom has only been scratched here.

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,

Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,

Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,

With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:

There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,

Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight;

And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin,

Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in

The Darker Side of the Fey

now back to our regular programming...

The Darker Side of the Fey

When it comes to the magical Fey, there is rarely a type one could call truly "good" or "bad". The creatures of Faerie, from which Sylvaeon sprang, are guided by their own ethics and customs, which seem strange to mortal men.

Humans are the late-comers to Sylvaeon and are often at best seen as a nuisance to the Fey - or at worst the target of faerie ire and malevolent pranks of retribution. Humans are loud, they and their animals trod upon Fey dwellings and sacred sites, they cut Fairy trees down without a care and many other offences against Faekind. These things and more make most humans seem foolish to the Fey and to be pitied by those that know better.

Fairy ire against a humans or livestock may be fatal! "Elf-shot" are magical flint darts or arrows that are fired against the worst offenders. If struck, a creature must save vs. magic and poison seperately or slowly lose their strength at 1 point per week (A fail of either saving roll causes the curse to go into effect, otherwise the shot does .5 Damage).  Death is the ultimate result of this, unless the wrath of the fairies is appeased. This is just one reason why the Folk try to stay on the good side of the Fey. If the fairy(s) are not appeased, the only way to lift the magical strength-sapping curse is to perform a Curse Disease ritual on a night of the full Silver Moon.

Goblins, Hobgoblins, Kelpie, Phooka, Brownies, Orculli and Trolls are perhaps some of the most vicious Fey creatures. Even these are shunned by most others of Faekind. Any human that encounters these is surely in for trouble!

Several  "dark" tactics of Sylvaeon's fairy creatures include:

• luring travelers to an unsafe area, such as a cliff or river, etc. to meet their demise. Lorelei and Merrow are examples of those that do such things.
  
• Elf shot, as previously described.
  
• theft of valuables perceived as precious to humans. This can be annoying or even fatal!
  
• "fairy terror", which is a kind of mental attack causing confusion and panic. A humanoid that does not save vs. Charm (note: elves are immune to this) is struck confused, may lose time or be overcome with maddening fright. A frightened person will flee in any random direction away from the faerie being.

In game terms, the Fey are simultaneously revered, feared and misunderstood - or perhaps even disbelieved in by some, especially city-dwellers. While there are innumerable kinds of Fey, some appear again and again in various guises and names. They tend to take on the language, customs and culture of those they live near, which has baffled many sages.

Some are benevolent, some are tricksterish, but all are driven by their own particular behaviors. Either way, one should never underestimate the wrath of a disgruntled fairy!

My New Blog!

Aeternal Realm of Sylvaeon is going to be some of the same and a bit different from my first foray into Old School Gaming blogging. I learned a lot in that brief stint. Real life intruded, but I will not allow that to happen again! I will keep my posts to a manageable number (2 or 3 a week - more if I feel like it or have something I really need to say).

Over at Retro RPG, I stated my reasons why I made the switch. Switching to Blogger was a huge decision and I am just getting used to Blogger, so please bear with me ;)

Goals of this blog:

1) To flesh out over time aspects of my home brew OD&D campaign, aptly named the Aeternal Realm of Sylvaeon.

2) To continue to provide OGL content for use for gamers. While "Sylvaeon" and certain names and concepts are my intellectual property, just like it is in Swords & Wizardry and any other Open Gaming License material, I enjoy providing OGL things for my fellow gamers. So, I am going to continue to do that!  :D

3) To have fun!
I don't want this to be a pressure, so I am going to just be natural and have a good time blogging again. Life is stressful and "The Game" is a major outlet for stress and for creativity - I want it to stay that way.

4) My Fey Project will now begin in earnest here. While Sylvaeon is not ONLY Fey in  nature, it does, at its heart, contain many things Fey, so my project shall move in the light of Faerie, where it belongs :)

More to come soon,  thank you for stopping by!

P.S. If you want me to subscribe to/follow your blog, please leave a comment and the URL...
good free advertising for your own stuff and it gives me things to read and enjoy that you have created.

May the peace of Sylvaeon be yours,
Jeff