Overview
Fae Folk are the beautiful, cruel kin of the shifting forest. They are bound by promise, and they consider a bargain the only honest thing in any world. Nothing they say is free, and nothing they give is free either.
Habitat
Fae Folk live in Glimmerwood, a forest that does not stay in one place, where the paths move and the bargains are kept. They need three things: a forest that moves, a promise that has not been broken, and a stranger who is worth the bargain. They are settled in holds around the shifting-rings, with bargain-lines across the mapped current; a fae who has not kept a bargain in a season is called "the one who forgot the forest."
Appearance
The fae silhouette is the tall, narrow, beautiful shape — heavy through the cheekbone and the smile, with the head sitting a little too high on the body, like a word that is waiting for a name. Males stand 1.52 m to 1.83 m, tall and narrow, with sharp cheekbones, mismatched eyes (one green, one black, always), and a smile that does not reach the mouth; they are the bargainers, the ones who offer, and the ones who remember exactly what was asked and what was given. Females stand 1.52 m to 1.83 m, leaner, with the same mismatched eyes and a longer memory for oaths; they are the bargain-keepers, the ones whose word is iron, and the ones who decide which promises are worth keeping. The base skin is a pale, winter-light, the color of old forest-snow seen through a dark glass, with a faint pattern of deeper, sea-black patches along the cheek and a clean, deliberate bone-white at the lip and the finger-tip that is the fae line's most persistent claim. The eyes are the mark: one green, one black, always mismatched, with a slow, deliberate blink and a depth that makes them look like they are reading the bargain — and in most cases, they are, and the reading is the point. The head is the mark: a long, narrow skull with a pair of true, pointed ears set high on the head, and a short crest of hair that moves without wind, which is the fae line's most persistent claim. The glamour is the mark — the beauty, always clean, and always pointed at something, the fae line's most persistent claim. Under the glamour: too many joints, too-bright eyes, and a cold that you can feel from across a room. Males carry the line in the smile and the offer; females in the word and the memory. Elders are marked by a skin gone a deep, dull forest-slate and a crest gone pale silver — an old fae bargains slower and holds the promise longer. Everyday wear: a wrap of woven forest-silk at the waist, a single bone bead at the throat, and no armor, because the glamour is the armor and the forest is the home.
Behavior
Disposition: clannish, cunning, territorial, honor-bound. In peace, fae are watchful, deliberate, and absolutely certain of the forest — they have the bargain, and they let the surface know it. In war they fight as the bargain fights: the offer first, the word second, the patient, precise holding of the promise third. Strangers on the surface are either a bargain or a lesson, and the lesson is usually the one that is learned too late. The social unit is the hold, 10–30 strong, around the shifting-rings — no hold follows a bargainer, it follows the bargain-keeper whose word has never been broken. Two signature quirks: a fae who is being lied to will not call it out — they will simply keep the bargain for the lie and wait, because the keeping is the point. And they keep the name for a lifetime: a name the forest has kept is a debt, and the debt is paid in promise.
Warfare & Markings
Tactics: the ambush of the bargain — the fae line does not fight in the open current; it fights as the forest fights, with the offer, the word, and the long, deliberate patience of the one who has already kept the promise. Armor: none, by choice — the glamour is the armor, and a fae who wears metal has already decided the forest is not enough. Weapons: the pointed ear, the word that is not a weapon but is used like one, and the promise that is not a weapon but is used like one. War markings: the Bargain-Notch, a deliberate chip in the left ear for every bargain kept, worn as a record of the long forest; the Glamour-Knot, a single knot in the hair for every hold oath kept, in sea-black; and the Name-Brand, a small, deliberate mark on the inner wrist — the first name the wearer ever kept, worn as a mark of the beginning. Post-battle: the dead are carried to the forest, their names spoken over the bargain, and their words laid across the threshold — a fae buried without their bargain is buried as a surface.
Magic Alignment
Primary domain: enchantment — fae magic is the will, the bargain, the patient, precise shaping of the forest across the shifting-rings. Secondaries: illusion and wild. Named inborns: Forest-Sense (a fae can feel the promise's mood a day before it is broken, and the feeling is not a choice), Glamour-Sight (a fae sees in the dark the way a human sees in the light, and the seeing is not a choice), Promise-Carry (a fae's word carries across the forest, and the carrying is not a choice). Signature power: the Keeper's Word — a fae can speak a word in the forest tongue and let it land on a bargain, and the bargain will keep the word until the promise is done. Limitation: fae magic is spent on the forest; a fae who has spent their keeper's word must sit in the dry dark for one day, and the day is the worst one of the forest.
Religion
Fae Folk keep Lysara, the Sweet Poison as their primary god — the enchantment, the will, the promise that is the forest's own law. The forest is Lysara's garden, and the fae is the garden's bargain. Priestly class: the Bargain-Keeper, who keeps the forest-temple and speaks the word at every rite. Heresy is not blasphemy — it is a word broken in the forest, and there is no rite for that one; the forest simply stops keeping the bargain with the breaker.
Society
Holds of 10–30, led by the Bargain-Keeper, rank decided by the promise — whose word has never been broken. The hold is the whole of the law, because the forest is the only clock and the promise the only law, and a fae who has not kept a bargain in a season is called "the one who forgot the forest," and the forgetting is the only kind the wood remembers. No hold follows a bargainer, it follows the bargain-keeper whose word has never been broken, and the following is the whole of the rank, because a fae does not measure a fae in the years, it measures it in the promise, and a fae who has kept a bargain the hold forgot is the one the forest calls the oldest. Outsiders on the surface are either a bargain or a lesson, and the lesson is the one the wood keeps; a mortal who walks the ring is not a guest, it is a name, and the naming is the whole of the warning — the forest owes a price to the one who asks nicely, and the owing is the whole of the bond. Young are raised at the ring, where the first word is kept, and a young fae who has not kept a promise of their own is not given a bead of their own. The one fact the surface keeps wrong: the forest does not give — it prices, and the pricing is the whole of the gift, and a mortal who is counted is a mortal who is owed, and the owing is the only kind the wood keeps.
Home
They live in Glimmerwood, a forest that does not stay in one place, where the paths move and the bargains are kept.
Relations
The "nothing is free" faction — forest neighbors whose gift is a price, and the ones whose nod is the deal. Deal with them in writing if you can. If you cannot, deal in names, and give them the wrong one. The fae keeps the promise and it measures everything in the bargain, and the measuring is the whole of the treaty. The Elves of Glimmerwood are the surface kin the forest regards as the bargained shape — an elf who has kept a name the fae forgot is the one the wood calls the oldest, and the regarding is the whole of the kin, because the elf keeps the name the way the fae keeps the promise. The Humans of the camp regard the ring-line the way the ground regards the sky, with the understanding that the distance is the whole of the warning, because a fae who has kept a bargain the race forgot is the one the forest calls the kindred, and a mortal who has given the wrong name is the one the wood calls the lesson. Below, the ground-folk of The Forgotten are the banished the forest takes in, and the taking in is the whole of the bargain, because the forgotten are the ones the promise keeps, and the keeping is the whole of the promise.
In the Story
In the current story, the fae are the ring around the camp — the forest Uaellaen writes about when the name is worth more than the gift. The Forgotten keep their distance at the ring-line, and the distance has held for two seasons. This season a fae came up the path with a bargain that was not in the bargain — a bargain that is not in the promise, and the not-listing is the whole of the warning, because the forest keeps its word, and the word has started to move. Bargain-Keeper Lissa the Fair is keeping the bargain, and the keeping is the page the camp has not been shown.
You ask for a gift, and you call it a favor. We ask for your name, and you call it a price. Somewhere in the middle of that disagreement, you have already lost. — Bargain-Keeper Lissa the Fair