The Mythology Manual is a guide to fairies, shamans, and deities based on actual mythology, which is meant to be integrated with 5e and Pathfinder games. This preview includes the introduction to the book; as well as part of the Chapter on Good Folk, the playable faeries. You can purchase this book on Amazon at;
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1718630786/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_16wFCbYW4VC29
Ragnarök is coming!
Ragnarok, the
doom foretold to the gods by a human
shaman, is a time when the giants, traitor deities, and armies of the unclean
dead will invade heaven and earth to destroy everything. The belief in an
apocalyptic show down between good and evil, such as Ragnarok, would likely
have a profound influence on faeries, deities, and shamans in any fantasy world.
Even if your game doesn’t have a prophecy about an end of the world, per say,
the idea of a Ragnarok of sorts would be there. Faeries and deities are old
enough to have watched mortals invade and conquer the world, watched cities
rise and fall, and watched cultures be destroyed. They know all too well that
if they let their guard down for a moment, everything they care about can be
destroyed. Thus, the threat of Ragnarok on a lesser scale is there.
An immortal/magical
character would usually work to oppose or aid the forces seeking to destroy
what is, because unlike mortals they cannot put this danger out of their mind
because they’ve seen it, or know those who’ve seen it, firsthand.
The world doesn’t
just end in evil and chaos, however. In many mythologies,
the world began with dangerous and evil beings that the deities had to defeat.
This is why many of the greatest sagas are about deities and shamans. There are
a number of sagas about gods fighting the
evil in the world; such as Thor
journeying through the vast wilderness to defeat the monsters that were
threatening to destroy the world, and Takemikazuchi-no-kami, a Japanese Kami
who had to fight to bring order to Japan. These are the types of stories that
inspired Tolkien to write his fantasy novels
and are the root of almost all modern
fantasy.
Unlike most
role-playing game (RPG) based books, this book seeks to accurately use
mythology, blending it with the 5e system so that you can play and meet the
deities, shamans, and faeries in the way they existed in mythology. Rather than
seek to replace your existing campaign and cosmology, which are often very well
developed, I seek to add new dimensions to them. This means that certain
aspects of any given faerie, deity, or shaman within this book can be altered
to fit the rules of existing 5e campaigns. I will strive to be as accurate to
the mythology as possible. What’s more, unlike most books, I will provide
actual information on the mythology surrounding each aspect of this book, so
that you can understand the shamans and fey of myth.
Adventures in Faerie Land and the
Other World
Descriptions of
heaven were often taken from people’s ideas about Faerie Land and the other
worlds. But so were descriptions of Hell. In the shaman Nisan’s journey, she
crossed through lands that were like heaven and hell within the same plane.
Faerie Land is at once far more beautiful, and more terrifying than anything in
the Mortal Worlds. Still, a game in Faerie Land is similar to your current
game. Faerie Land was recognizable to the people who entered it. There were
different classes of faeries, from peasants to kings and queens. There were
villains, wars, farmers, and gossip. The difference is that a game in Faerie
Land should evoke a sense of wonder and magic. The players should feel like
they are experiencing unseen and mysterious worlds, where nearly anything is
possible. Characters should understand that they are stepping from the drab
Mortal World into a place of such stunning beauty that people would believe
that it was heaven.
Within
this book I include;
The nature of fairies
This book will include a mythological summation of what people
believed fairies were, and what they wanted.
Faerie Races
This book will include faeries that are semi-balanced for play.
Obviously, playing something as magical as faeries is going to be a bit
different than playing one of the mortal races.
Fairy Creatures
This book will include a bestiary of different fairies from
mythology.
Deities
This book will include information on the deities of mythology
who went on adventures, and an example template to apply to deities the players
encounter or play.
Shamanism/Cunning Folk
This book will include information on playing shamans and
cunning folk.
Character classes
This book will provide new character classes and archetypes for
you to include in your game.
The Cosmology of Mythology
This book will integrate the cosmology of European mythology
into the cosmology of most 5e games.
Additional Feats and Spells
This book will provide numerous new feats and spells connected
to faeries and specific myths and lore.
World Building with Faerie Lore
This book will include a large section dedicated to world
building using actual lore and myth.
The English woman clutches her feverish child close as she runs up the
side of a hill. Just a few hundred feet from her village is a rock with a hole
in it. This rock is home to a hob she hopes will cure her child’s illness. On
the far side of Europe, a teenage girl, who is being chased by a vampire, runs
into her bathhouse and calls out “Grandfather Bannik, come save me.” At which
point the bunnik who took care of her
mother while she was being born in the bathhouse, and who has taken care of the
girl her entire life, jumps out and tackles the vampire. Perhaps the most
important thing you need to understand about fairies is that they were a whole
host of different beings that were humanity’s neighbors. They might care about
or hate us for a number of reasons, but the most important faeries in stories
didn’t live in some distant land, they were all around us.
When a farmer in Wales wonders
why his cows are sick and dying, a little man dressed in red comes and tells
him he needs to be more careful when throwing his slop out, for they are going
down his chimney. The farmer is confused by this, as he is simply tossing his
slop into an empty part of his backyard. To which the little man responds;
"Put your foot on mine, and then
you will have the power of vision, to see clearly."
…he saw that the slop thrown out of his house, did actually fall down… the chimney of a house which stood far below,
but which he had never seen before.
In this story, fairy world is just outside the farmer’s door. He cannot
step into it, but he can throw garbage into it. What’s more, the faeries can
hear the farmer’s family going about their daily lives, and come to love or
hate them as a neighbor would. There is a tale from Brittany France about a margot (female faerie) who lives under a human
family’s home, and over time, comes to care about them, even though she doesn’t
like most humans. The fact that they lived close to humans is important to the
fairy’s motivation. For some fairies wanted to live in a good neighborhood,
which meant making the humans they lived near happier, while some wanted to
drive them away and sometimes even kill them.
The words fey and fairy at
their core mean fate, for people once believed that nearly everything, good or
bad, happened because the fairies and deities wanted them to happen. They would
help inspire artists, cause cows to grow ill or produce lots of milk, change
the seasons, and more. The word fairy refers to a whole host of magical beings,
which influenced the fate of humanity. It should be clear from this that
fairies and deities were not distant beings who ignored humanity, but creatures
that lived close at hand. They were our “Good Neighbors,” who in helping and harming people showed that they
were interested in us. For a long time, the people of Mari-El were more likely to pray and make offerings to the spirits
that lived in the trees near their village; in the lake they got water from,
and in their homes, than they were to their highest god. While in Scandinavia, people made sacrifices to the alfar (elves) on the hills where they brought
their cattle. Even at the beginning of the 20th century, there were
still people in Ireland, France, and throughout Europe who would leave
offerings to fairies as if they were little deities. The people who were
responsible for communicating with these magical beings went by many names such
as cunning but are typically now known as witches.
The Circle of Humans, Deities, and
Fairies
In many myths, humans, fairies and ancient deities are all interrelated
beings, such that it is often difficult to tell whether a story is about a
human, a fairy, or a deity. There is debate among scholars whether the original
Arthur was a deity or a human. In many stories, Arthur was the king of what are
obviously Welsh deities, such as Gwyn, who was also king of the fairies,
winter, night, and the forest. The Finnish hero Väinämöinen is the grandchild
of the primal waters and the sky. He is very much like a deity, yet at the same
time he is very much human in character and must do battle with what are very human-like
people. Zeus was raised by his aunt, who was a nymph. In some myths, his aunt
was also the mother of humans, making us Zeus’s cousins and the children of a
fairy/deity figure.
The biggest difference between humans and immortals is knowledge and
power. Indeed, in many myths, a human who ate the food of the gods became
immortal, and the gods who failed to eat this food became mortal. Further,
humans could achieve a level of knowledge and power that would make them seem
divine. Deities of mythology often lived side-by-side with humans and fairies or at least walked the earth with
regularity. These deities weren’t necessarily cosmic powers but needed humans to fight for them, even as they feared
humans. In the Yupik, villages I grew up in, I heard tales of Raven, the
creator of the world, being driven away by villages of angry people. In Japan,
the Mountain Kami, who made the plants grow, and to whom people prayed for
success, often asked human hunters to protect them from some horrifying
monster. In Irish lore, the humans actually defeated the deities and fairies,
driving them underground, while in Greek mythology, people such as Diomedes injured the god
Ares. What’s more, Zeus often acted as if he was afraid of humans growing too
powerful, which might be why he restricted humanity’s knowledge of things like
fire. Also, the spirits of deceased humans could, and often did, become gods in
their own right.
In
mythology, the deities and fairies were protagonists of the great sagas that
inspired stories like “Lord of the Rings,” and were
beings that even the human characters regularly encountered and had to deal
with. This book will discuss how to include and play these powerful characters in
your game.
Fey vs. Faerie
Most
5e games already include creatures, which while only barely based on mythology,
are considered faeries. These are the fey. Fey aren’t faeries, however. Faeries
in mythology were related to both deities and humanity. Some were the ancestors
of the deities, some were descended from the deities, and some were deities themselves.
Fey in most of the 5e books were created by deities (and presumably the
faeries). The fey live within faerie land and are often so close to the faeries
that they even join their courts. However, the fey don’t have the ability to
manipulate fate the way faeries do. Nor are fey closely related to mortals the
way faeries are.
Faeries and Deities vs. Spirits/Genii
Genii (genius singular) are spirits in Roman lore that dwelt in
everything and helped with everything. There were genii who helped a baby cry,
and there were genii of the house, of locations, and of the cities. The idea
that everything had a spirit was an important one to the religion of ancient
Rome and ancient Europe in general. According to Jinyu Liu, Genii were, in
fact, the most wildly worshipped gods in all the Roman world… All kinds of
things, places, people, and institutions had their own genii.
Collegia
Centonariorum: The Guilds of Textile Dealers in the Roman West
People made offerings to the genii. Some were made in private, such as
to the genii of the house, but others were publicly worshipped, such as the
genius of the Roman people.
Many
of the beings we consider faeries are a manifestation of Genius Loci – that is
spirits of a specific location. Spirits of trees, rocks, hills, fields, or a
simple piece of land could all sometimes be considered faeries. So, what is the
difference between a faerie and a spirit? I would argue that the difference is
primarily in physical manifestation and their involvement with humanity. While
Rome depicted many spirits as being serpents, people, or other animals, most
didn’t manifest to interact with people. Faeries are faeries because they have
a physical form, which interacts with mortals. This means some spirits, such as
nymphs or dryads, are also faeries. But not all faeries are genii, for while
some faeries such as Elph, pixies, or Sidhe might have a genius within them,
they aren’t spirits.
The
Romans certainly believed that spirits which they called genii (plural of
genius) inhabited everything; from things like doorways and families
to powerful things like volcanoes and seas. These genii had divine power, which
could be called upon for help. Even deities had
their genii, and some genii were deities. A person’s genius, wasn’t exactly
like their soul. People made offerings to and celebrated their own genius,
especially on their birthdays. What ’s more, the people didn’t worship the
Emperor, who was just a man, but they would pray to and make offerings to the
Emperor’s genius and the Numen (a sort of spirit power) that dwelt within the
Emperor.
There
seems to be very little difference in Celtic and German lore between the spirit
of a tree and the spirit of a person. For the spirits of the dead in these
places could enter rocks, trees, and lakes. Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother, in
the German and Russian version of the tale, was actually her mother’s spirit
living inside a tree. The spirit of her mother likely manifested itself, not
only as the tree giving gifts but also as
the bird, which pecked out the eyes of the Wicked Stepmother.
Having
so many genii or spirits becomes problematic within the game. After all, an
infinite number of mini-deities protecting people and essentially spying on
people should make it impossible for evil to happen. Most genii, however, are
formless beings who do a single minor task for those who respect them, but for
the most part, they stay out of the business of mortals, and even each other.
This means that one cannot simply ask genii to tell them what someone has been
up to without a powerful magical spell. Even in Faerie Land where more genii
take an interest in the comings and goings of mortals, as represented by
talking trees, needles, lakes, etc. within fairy tales, most genii don’t seem
to pay too much attention to people’s comings and goings.
Note: There are certainly many differences between the
spirits that different people’s believed in. This book attempts to merge the
different European spirits with ideas that will work within the structure of
the d20 games.
Spirits/genii are the soul of an object or person, which gives it
vitality and magical energy. This makes them vital to anything, but also makes
them separate from it. A person generally has three souls; one, which belongs
to the deities; one, which is a part of the 9 Realms; and the genius, which is
reborn into another person or enters a tree or rock when they die.
Within Faerie Land, the genii are much closer to the surface, and even
ordinary people can occasionally hear them whispering or trying to talk to
them. Of course, they almost never simply speak to people. Those with the Experience
in Faerie Land can ask for help navigating to places they already generally
know the location to, and so are able to get around the mutable nature of
Faerie Land. In other places, the trees might chat with each other loudly enough
that a perception check (DC 12) will allow a character to hear what they are
saying. These trees are more likely to chat about squirrels and other little
animals than they are about the faeries or humans.
The First
Encounter
Fairies were the first ones to dwell in any land before the humans
came. Many of them had built vast civilizations and castles, while others had
lived as the spirits of lakes and trees. When humans first entered a new land,
they would often ask permission to move into it, sometimes offering bits of
cloth or food to the fairies in return for the right to live in the new land.
There are even stories about hunters rescuing nymphs and mountain kami, and so
gaining the right for their posterity to live in the area. Not all first
encounters were so peaceful. Sometimes humans would invade a new land,
violently driving the faeries underground. There is a story from early Japan
about a village, that was trying to drain a lake, being attacked by
serpent-shaped kami. Eventually, a representative of the Emperor was dispatched
to deal with these upstart kami. Having the authority of the Emperor and the
Heavenly Kami, he ordered the lesser kami to be cut up and tossed into a fire.
In Ireland, the Tuatha de Danann defeated the original inhabitants of Ireland,
and then were defeated by humans, and driven underground. These defeated beings
became the later fairies, forced to live on the margins of human society.
There are two ways to look at these early encounters. The first is that
the humans, who entered a new land, often did so because they were starving to
death. As a result, the fairies who had refused them access to the land were
sentencing them, and their children to death. At the time, there was an
expectation that fairies should share the land with humans, one that was
mandated by heavenly deities. There are tales from Korea, Mare-El, and the
Komi-Perm about people being angry that they were starving because the spirits
were too cruel to share. From this point of view, humanity’s takeover of a land
was in keeping with the natural order of things. This is reinforced by the idea
that the tutelary spirits, the deities of the land, would typically help humans
build their cities, and protect them from magical dangers, such as faeries.
From the fairies’ perspective, the humans slaughtered them, stole their
land, and drove them into hiding. Neither of these stories is completely cut
and dry, nor does either apply everywhere, as again, many humans moved in and
formed a good relationship with the fairies of their land. Further, after
thousands of years of living side-by-side, their feelings towards each other
has evolved.
Note:
In your game, all the mortal races were likely involved in the war against the
fairies, this would include elves, dwarfs, halflings, humans, and whatever
other races you use. This is one reason why faeries don’t simply live with any
mortals.
Yeats said that
the Good People were filled with “caprice,
their way of being good to the good and evil to the evil. Of having every charm
but conscience – consistency. Being so quickly offended that you must not speak
much about them at all, and never call them anything but gentry or the daoine maithe
(Good People), yet so easily pleased, they will do their best to keep
misfortune away from you, if you leave a little milk for them on the windowsill overnight.”
From the pixies
of Cornwall to the elphs of England and the sidhe of Ireland, the good folk are the largest societies of faeries. They are
the “others” that people see dancing on the hills above their villages or hear
below the ground. They live very much like humans, except in a land of magic
and eternal youth, and of nearly constant dances. Theirs are the stories that inspired Peter Pan, for they too never quite
seem to fully mature, even as they get older. Instead, they often live
as if they are in an eternal slumber party without any parents. Even their
kings and queens, who so often become the gods of mortals, have something
childish in their nature. King Arthur, Lord of all the fairies and gods of
Southern Britain, laughs with youthful abandon as he fights giants and powerful
monsters. The sith of Scotland do summersaults as they run over the hills of
heather, and a zwerg king throws a
tantrum when a child refuses to give him their toy.
This is only one
side of the story, however. For as with everything fairy, good folk are nothing if not contradictory. Fairies are
ancient, and even their young have wisdom
about them. A homeless fairy child, forced to live among humans, impressed them
with his maturity and wisdom. People wondered how he’d been able to learn so
much without going to school. Of course, there’s a good chance he was far older
than he appeared. That his school was among the other fairies, hiding on the
margins of society.
Emotions
Like all faeries,
the Good People are highly emotional. What’s more, their emotions don’t seem to
fade due to boredom. Unlike humans, which eventually grow bored of Christmas or
similar celebrations, the Good People truly can try to make every day Christmas
without the joy of the day fading. The world doesn’t cooperate with them, however,
which can be extremely frustrating.
History of the
Good People
Victory
Although the
histories of the Good People vary from one location to another in mythology, it
sometimes begins with them driving some enemy out of their land. This enemy
varies from one region to another. In the game, this enemy is the demons,
devils, daemons, and giants, which inhabited the earth and Faerie World early on.
Faeries are especially masterful at defeating such outsiders, and so were able
to conquer land from them.
The Peace
The demons,
devils, and daemons can never be defeated entirely, and they continued to
linger at the edges of faerie society, always threatening to destroy it. Even
so, the faeries went on to build civilizations so much like those of humans,
with kings and queens, peasants and heroes, that it’s sometimes hard to tell
whether a story is about an ancient fairy kingdom or a human one. Were it not
for the fact that magic is such a common occurrence with their court, that they
hardly bat an eye when someone turns into an animal. These are the stories of
Camelot, and King Arthur, whom Green argues was a British Deity. The beauty of
his court, like the beauty of all faerie courts,
far exceeded anything mortals could ever hope to build. During this time there
were Good People adventurers traveling the world, defeating the vestiges of
evil that remained and battling the other nations of faerie.
Defeat
Then came the
mortal races. Given the gift of fire, iron, salt, and other strange magic by
the gods, the mortals were able to defeat the Good People in battle and drive
them into Faerie Land. This happened both because mortals had magical powers
that were uncanny to faeries, but also because the tutelary spirits and deities
sided with the mortals who were better equipped to fight evil outsiders.
Because the good folk are immortal, or
nearly so, for the oldest of the Good People resentment over this isn’t
something of their ancestors, it’s a part of who they are.
The Hiding
The Good People
dwell primarily in Fairyland now, the portals to their villages are in hills,
the foundations of their old forts, rock formations, and similar places. The
locations of these portals are all they really have left in the Mortal World,
and so they zealously protect these spaces. Those who violate them are likely
to suffer the fairies’ wrath. Good People have been known to kill not only the
person who violated them, but their cattle, their farms, and their families.
Most of the time, however, they merely content themselves with causing trouble
for humans who violate their land.
If one built a
house over the fairies’ home, the fairies
tended to haunt the house, to cause no end of trouble to the people inside. The
fairies would frolic over the furniture and floor, and dance about the house.
If one were able to sneak up and open the door to a room they were playing in,
they might be seen scampering off into the rafters and other hiding places.
At the same time,
the Good People needed humans. They needed protection from other Kingdoms of
Good People, dragons, and worse things that stalked the world. Giants were
hunting the zwerg when the humans came,
and so they now use human knights to protect themselves against these monsters.
The Tylwyth Teg were being attacked by monsters (demons) they could not defeat.
So, they called upon a human king to save them.
The Good People
both love and hate the mortal races and as
a result, it makes it difficult to tell exactly how an individual good person
will react to their human neighbors. Each court, and indeed, each individual,
has a unique way of dealing with people.
Humanity’s
Neighbors
Teasing is one of
the most common ways for Good People to deal with mortals. Every one of them is
likely to cause some form of mischief, like children who egg a house. The Good
People find this behavior fun, amusing, and a cathartic. Even so, many of The
Good People have come to accept humanity as their neighbors, and wishing to
live in a Good Neighborhood, have decided to reward moral people and punish
immorality. In one story, a man was beating his wife when “the place grew quite
dark, and thunder rolled over their heads, and the door flew wide open with the
great earth, and in walked two strange women, with a red cape on their heads
and stout sticks in their hands. And they rushed at the man, and one held his
arms while the other beat him till he was nearly dead, while crying out; “we
are the avengers,” they said; “look on us
and tremble; for if you ever beat your wife again, we will come and kill you.”
Perhaps more than
anything else, they love hard work. This may be in part because they benefit
from the labors of people. The more food and fabric there is, the cleaner a
person’s house when they sneak in at night, and the better off they are. Thus,
they punish lazy people, while rewarding hardworking people.
As our neighbors,
“The Good People” are also prone to theft. They steal axes, food, and
occasionally people, leaving behind changelings, and non-functional fakes in
their place. Typically, they do this using stealth. There are some, however,
who have turned to outright banditry.
Marie Kirstan was visiting a
trow’s wife when she saw the trow rolling
up something to resemble a cow. She threw her keys into this, and when she got home, she found her cow dead. She cut it open, and there were the
keys. Whenever the trows take something,
they always leave something which resembles the stolen item.
The Good
Neighbors complex relationship with humans is defined by four primary points:
1-As their name
implies, they are our neighbors, which means
that just as with human neighbors, they can love and hate us at the same time.
2-The Good
Neighbors need humans. They need human food to be healthy, and human strength to win their wars with the other
faeries, as well as the demons, devils, and daemons, which are the real
threat.
3-Fairies are
afraid of humans. We are unpredictable, and what’s more, we betrayed them and
drove them underground.
4-Some of the
spirits of dead humans become members of these fairy courts, and other humans
are taken to live with them. The fairies often marry these humans and spirits and have children with them, who
sometimes return to the human world. Because of this, these fairies are often
related to the humans of the land they live in or have a friend who is related.
Like all fairies,
the Good Neighbors spend most of their time hiding from humanity. They are,
however, still likely to go and ask for a favor from the humans, such as to
borrow the use of a stove or a teakettle or ask for some milk. They are also
likely to care about the successful harvest of the crops in the human land
closest to theirs. This often leads them to war with other fairy clans, as they
will often steal the fertility from the fields of a foreign people to put into
the fields of the people of their own land. The sidhe
are especially known for doing this, while the pixies tend to help human
farmers by aiding them in bringing in their harvest and planting their crops
directly. Regardless of their method, each tribe of Good People depends so much
on human food that they all try to ensure the humans are successful in
harvesting it.
A man wished that his field could be
shorn before the cold ruined his crop, even if it cost him his best ox.
The next morning the field was shorn by
the trow, and
his ox was dead.
Dangers from the
Faeries
Wars between
humans and the Good People have become extremely rare because the Good People
have already lost so many of them. When the Good People are upset with their
human neighbors, they are more likely to
spread enough just illness, blight, and bad luck to hurt the humans, without
sparking a mass war. Typically, the biggest danger humans face from these
fairies is from banditry. Because many of these fairies are poor, or angry at
humanity, they will turn to banditry and theft. Some of these bandits become
especially vicious. There are elves and sidhe who become vampires, drinking
human blood and crushing the life out of sleeping people. There are stories of
Fairy Kings eating human brains, and Elf Knights seducing women and cutting off
their heads like serial killers.
Dangers of
Encountering Humans
Faeries have lost
every war they’ve fought against mortals, yet it’s nearly impossible to
maintain peace with such fickle creatures. Because of this, the faeries have a
lot of laws about how many mortals are allowed to learn the faeries’ secrets.
Thus, only about 1 in every 300-500 mortals can join the Faerie Courts.
The Good People
have many stories about the dangers of encountering humans. In Brittany, a
farmer hits a fairy over the head, killing them. In another place, a man might
kidnap a fairy to force her to be his wife, while in Cornwall a fairy child is
kidnapped. Moreover, humans are prone to stealing things from the fairies, whether it be capturing one to force them to give up
their money, grabbing a fairy cow, or taking some more magical item.
A woman saw some trow
nursing another trow sick with jaundice. She fixed her
eyes on the cap they were getting water from and called Gude be aboot ye.” The trow
fled but could not take the cap with them,
so they used it from then on to cure jaundice.
Entering Human
Homes
The Good People
view themselves as the true owners of the land. As a result, they not only enter
people’s homes at night, they expect that everyone will be in bed, for the night is their time. Those who aren’t in
bed are cursed. They also expect that water and possibly food will have been
set out for them. Those that haven’t done this will be cursed. They expect that
the home will have been cleaned for their arrival. If it hasn’t, those who
failed to clean will again be cursed. On the other hand, those who have may very well be blessed.
Human Servants
and Slaves
Fairies need
humans, and will often hire people to start their fires, watch their cattle,
take care of their children, and the like. Many of these people come away
wealthy, or at least better off than they would have been otherwise. However,
some are carried away against their will to work for the fairies. People often
encountered humans who were working as forced labor for the faeries.
Humans Become
Good People
Humans who die at
liminal times are likely to become faeries, most often a member of one of the
nations of Good People. Within the game,
10-30% of Good People could be the ancestral spirits of mortals. Within the
game, this could be an interesting way to turn your characters into faeries.
A few (actual)
fairy tales about the Good People
An old man kept a
green hillock, near his house on which he frequently reclined in summer, very
clean, sweeping away any filth or cow or horse droppings he might find on it.
One evening, as he sat on the hillock, a little man, a stranger to him, came
and thanked him for his care of the hillock, and added, that if at any time the
village cattle should leave their enclosure during the night, he and his
friends would show their gratitude by keeping them from the old man's crops.
The village in these days was in common, ridge about, and the Fairy promise,
being tested, was found good.
The
fairies are extremely grateful for any show of human kindness. It’s clear that
not all fairies are of equal standing, that like humans they have their
peasants and their nobles, they are desperately poor and they are wealthy.
Because of this, there are many fairies who need alms.
Fairies
and Cows
“A
strong-minded headstrong woman in Kianish, Tiree, had a cow, the milk of which
strangely failed. Suspecting that the cow was being milked by
someone during the night, she sat up and watched. She saw a woman dressed in
green coming noiselessly and milking the cow. She came behind and caught her.
In explanation the Fairy woman said she had a child lying in the smallpox, and
as a favor asked to be allowed to milk the cow for one month, till the child
got better. This was allowed, and when the month was out, the cow's milk became
as plentiful as ever.
That
the Fairies took away cows at night in order to milk them, and sent them back
in the morning, was a belief in Craignish, Morvern, Tiree, Lochaber, and
probably in the whole Highlands. When milk lost its virtue, and yielded neither
cream, nor butter, nor cheese, the work was that of witches and such like
diabolical agencies. When the mischief was done by the Fairies the whole milk
disappeared.”
Good
People Demand offerings
A boy was
sleeping near the hearth when some trow came down the chimney. The two demand that
clean water be set for them and the house
be cleaned in case they visit. None of this was
done. So the angry trow woke the
boy. One trow woman held a beautiful baby
with three eyes. They washed their baby with the drinking water, and hung the baby’s clothes to try on their feet in front of the fire.
The boy knew that
if he kept his eyes fixed on the trow
they would not be able to leave. He listened to them talk and worry and fret,
hoping they would reveal some useful.
Finally the furious trow
heated the fire place tongs and went
towards the boy, the tongs pointed at his eyes. The boy closed his eyes and the trows
fled.
Fairies
aid in the battle
On 5th August, 1598, one of the bloodiest
battles in the annals of clan feuds was fought at the head of Loch Gruinard, in
Islay, between Sir Lachlan Mor M'Lean, of Dowart, and Sir James Macdonald, of
Islay, for possession of lands forfeited by the latter's uncle, of which the
former had received a grant. Of the M'Leans, Sir Lachlan and 80 of his near
kinsmen and 200 clansmen were killed; and of the Macdonalds, 30 were killed,
and 60 wounded. According to
tradition, a trifling looking little man came to Sir Lachlan, and offered his
services for the battle. The chief, who was himself of giant frame and
strength, answered contemptuously, he did not care which side the little man
might be on. The Elf then offered himself to Macdonald, who said he would be
glad of the assistance of a hundred like him. All day Sir Lachlan, who was
clothed from head to foot in armour of steel, was followed by the little man,
and on his once lifting the visor of his helmet an arrow struck him in the
forehead at the division of the hair, and came out at the back of his head. It
proved to be one of those arrows known as Elf-bolts. Macdonald was sorry for
the death of his rival, and after the battle made enquiry as to who had killed
him. "It was I" said the little man, "who killed your enemy; and
unless I had done so he would have killed you." "What is your
name?" asked Macdonald. "I am called" he said, "Du-slth" (i.e. Black Elf), "and you were better to have me
with you than against you."
Playing
a Good Person Character
Many of the Good
People crave adventure, and so will strike out with a group of heroes to win
fame, fortune, and do good (or wicked) deeds. Faeries would even team up in lore with mortal humans (typically cunning
folk/shamans) to adventure in both the human and faerie worlds. Any given
person, faerie or otherwise, who was raised by the faeries would be able to use
a few faerie doors to enter and leave Faerie Land in the same way that anyone raised in a city would know a
few restaurants and similar things. This will allow your characters to have
adventures in both Faerie Land and the Mortal Realm.
Being a fairy
won’t give you an automatically positive relationship with the other fairies
you might encounter. Pixies are just as likely to
play pranks on fairies they don’t know as they are on humans. They are also just as likely to hide
from strange fairies who can be potential enemies.
The faeries
weaknesses can make playing them tricky, as their weaknesses make them less
capable in straight martial combat. This
isn’t to say that faeries don’t make good fighters. Rather, it’s to say that
faeries would generally prefer to take rolls that would allow them to fight
from a distance or from the shadows.
Favored
Faerie Classes
Wizard
– Lore Mastery – The good folk frequently specialize in Lore Mastery (from
Unearth Arcana), because of the ability to learn how to manipulate events from
a mile away. The good folk are well known for influencing the outcome of human
battles by casting spells like hold person on one side of the battle, from a
mile away. Other popular spells include Circle of Death, Cloud Kill, Silent
Image and Sleet Storm. In this way the course of some of the most important
battles in history were controlled by faeries who never got within a mile of
the combatants.
Cunning
With
their ability to use arcane buffing spells and perform healing, cunning are
masters of manipulating the world around them through magic, without actually
having to be seen.
Druid
While
using the wild shape ability a faerie isn’t susceptible to the mortals’ natural
evil eye. Making this a popular choice for faeries seeking to travel the world.
Cleric
Many
faeries view it as their task to act as deities – healing the sick and the
like. These faeries often choose to become clerics. Such clerics often do serve
a greater power, however, rather than gaining their powers from their deity,
they gain divine powers from their own internal magic.
Rangers
and Rogues
A
faeries abilities are especially well suited to a fighting from the shadows.
Their ability to manipulate fate can make the especially dangerous rogues.
Paladins
Faeries
have been fighting demons, devils, and daemons since before mortals crawled out
of the mud.
Balancing Faerie
Characters
While
I’ve worked to balance the Good People for play, it’s difficult to balance such
things. Faeries by their nature are completely different from mortals, or
anything else in the game. Faeries are meant to be alien, strange, and most of
all – magical. Mythology gives the faeries debilitating weaknesses, which I’ve
toned down, but this weakness can still make it difficult to play them
effectively, especially in areas where people are prepared to deal with them.
Which people often were. Everyone in Newfoundland carried a piece of crossed
bread (bread with a cross on it) to keep the faeries at bay; everyone in
Ireland knew that they could stop a faerie from using magic if they stared at
them. Faeries also have many strengths that can make them more powerful than
their mortal companions.
Note:
I’ve
included notes on how I constructed each race in the back of the book. Please
feel free to review them to make changes in a way you feel will enhance your
game
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