Sup Veeky Forums. Can you tell me about your fairies/fey/spirits of nature?

Sup Veeky Forums. Can you tell me about your fairies/fey/spirits of nature?

How do you like them? Mischievous? Playful? Evil? Above mortal comprehension?
Also, post some fairy pics, I need 'em

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tessafarmer.com/
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All three, and even the ones that don't make sense.

Small plant based beings. Their wings are modified leaves, their apparent heads are blossoms (with the petals making a face) and they drop pollen everywhere.

Kinda like a flying mandrake

Forest cops who always get the job done, no matter how dirty

will do sir, will do
True Fae for Changeling are my favorite kind of fairies : mad, playful, stuck in their own idea of reality and fun, completely overwhelmed by ADHD.

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In my setting fairies are lesser spirits that guard their anchor, which allows them to go from the grand forest to realty. Slowly more and more fairies use the same anchor until a society starts and grows. They usually cap at like two hundred since anchors can't handle the constant coming and going of magical creatures and breaks standing fairies in realspace to be killed off slowly by it's dangers.
I overthought this haven't I?

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I actually like that alot, and am tempted to copy some of it.

Go ahead, I can't stop you.

Spirits of Harmony, that represent the world as it is and has endured, and are opposed by the disruptive powers of Chaos who come from worlds realities that don't exist but could if things were different.

The Fay, as some call them, live in the timeless Immanent Realm, which to the layman is some kind of parallel spirit realm but the mystics who study these things insist it's just the everyday material world viewed from the right angle (ie, from outside time). You can travel to the Immanent to converse with the spirits of mountain or stream, but you're not addressing any separate entity from the geographical feature you're already familiar with, you're just presenting yourself on a scale it can perceive.

There are races of people who've developed ways of living that are more in tune with the Immanent, usually in deep woods or within the embrace of hollow hills. It grants them long life from most perspectives, but people who make pacts like that are bound to nature and less in control of their own destinies than the common human. It has to be done with care as well - there are countless folk tales about young people who run off to live with the forest folk and then come back to their homeland a century later, unchanged, but wither and die when they set foot on its soil.

tessafarmer.com/

Like cruel children pulling out bugs wings because no one told them to cut it out. When someone hurts them they cry and spout and promise to be a good girl. They are so unpredictable and capricious they sabotage all their own plans and anger all the mortals who eventually commit flushing them out and putting them down. No matter how powerful and mysterious they are, eventually they get ground down or make a mistake This is the reason why only ancient and unspoiled forests still have them.

They dont reproduce anymore as the ambient mana levels of the world have dropped too low millennia ago.

In my setting, the fey have been enslaved by humans. The ultra rich fellow who owns all of the large Cold Iron mines is an antagonist.

I'm not sure, why are you asking when you could be awakening the crystals?
You really should go awaken the crystals! It's important!

Bio-mechanical beings created by an AI designed to intereact via nanomachines with nature to influence and control the flora and fauna of an area as part of a terra forming project.

The fairies are drones who perform such tasks as spreading the nano-pollen or performing maintence and refuse collection where they take objects that normally can't be broken down and use it to fuel their hives.

Since the central AI core has gone wild and without human input for hundreds of years the drones have had a chance to develop personalities and have picked up speech and certain habits and knowledge from irregular contact with humans and other beings.

DEVILISH.

In my setting, Elves in general use a lot of transformative magic (not furry shit, like putting on a decapitated bull head and becoming a minotaur). Fairies are made when a child is lost / orphaned in an Elven community. They attach hummingbird wings to their back, which stops the growing process, because reasons, so they'll never need much food to survive. This also makes them retain their youthful mischievousness, curiosity, and naivety. They can helpful, but also as troublesome as you can imagine a child to be.

Some are benevolent, some are malevolent, most are basically neutral. The trouble with them is there's no consistent way to tell those categories apart and they're all odd folks.

10/10

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Creatures that live in the wild, away from society. Each fae varies by region. Mostly found near flora. Uses telepathy as a means of communication, defensive, will not hesitate to use lethal means to keep from being discovered or captured. Fire kills them instantly.

Some are in relationships with small animals.

classic.
patrician taste

>How do you like them? Mischievous? Playful? Evil? Above mortal comprehension?
Sexy.

That thumbnail looked horrifying, like some sort of skinned toucan.

Neat.

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>Implying you wont start from the best parts of the puzzle

The outside edges?

I like my fairies to be weird (pic related is a fairy), but not to the point of lolrandom. the most unifying trait amongst fairies should be the fact that they operate on an entirely different set of rules from humanity and friends. they're not evil, they're just different. they have the capacity for evil, but they might not understand _why_ their actions are evil (case in point: summer knight from the dresden files). what fairies do makes sense to fairies but not humans, and the reverse is also true. Being beyond comprehension is a two-way street in that regard (see also: bloodborne and its Old Ones who want to help humanity, but don't know enough about humans to avoid disaster ).
fae creatures are innocent and ignorant of what we consider to be proper, which leads to a lot of fairies saying "just a prank, bro," yet they could fly into a murderous rage if someone accidentally upstages them or does something as innocuous as mix the "wrong" spices together in a meal or puts ketchup on a turkey roast.

desu, the pokemon series has a great interpretation of fairies. They're all cute, cuddly, and weird, but they all have something incredibly "off" about them, creating an interesting hybrid of tinkerbell-esque fairies and monsters straight from the brothers grimm. to name a few: clefairy are literal aliens who seem to worship the radioactive moon they allegedly come from and are empowered by it, gardevoir is obsessively overprotective of its master and capable of launching "threats" through black holes on a whim, slurpuff is blind and uses its sense of smell to see the world around it and has a diet consisting of sugar and dragons, mimikyu wants to kill and replace the object of its obsession, and shiinotic likes to lure people to their deaths so they can drink their blood.
there's a lot of variety between them and their actions, yet they're all still fairies, and that's how fairies should be written.

I always start at the corners.

Come to think of it, you're looking for 2 pieces either way.

From the reflection, it looks as if the fellow in that picture is handling the fairy using a glovebox in addition to a (surgical?) mask and goggles.

That's a pretty darn toxic fairy.

I don't quite see it. The reflection on the glasses?

Hammerspace.

If there is a completed version of this image or a source, I need it right fucking now.

>or a source
Did you trying searching the title?
If the name right under it didn't tip you off, that's a cover.

goofy little shits that charge up on the forces of nature, sometimes resulting in hilariously dangerous accidents

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between 30cm and 1 meter tall
varied wings that range from the typical butterfly ones to bat wings to weird stuff like translucent cape or giant cogs
Tendency towards being evil and sadistic. Said to be pathological liars, but its just untrue rumours
Super strength, with their small size they are capable of carrying stuff that a normal sized human could with the same ease, like greatswords
Can fly relatively slowly (pace of human walk) usually reach speeds and altitude similar to a sparrow. Exalted fairies can reach much greater altitudes and speeds, up to a falcon's

best thing is that the creature in the pic is not even lying

I made a couple of the miscellaneous trash monsters in d&d affiliated with the fey, but distanced enough from them that magic that targets the Fey creature type doesn't work on them.

Goblinoids, Ogres, and Trolls mostly were different forms of shit-tier goons that the super hot fey generals of the courts fielded in battle. Bugbears were shocktroops cuz they're literally boogeymen.

Both of the courts were horribly evil, just in different ways. Summer fae did terrible things and said it was for the greater good on such a scale that not even elves couldn't grok it, and winter fae did terrible things for at least the honest reason that they enjoyed it.

Would you care to enlighten us, friendo? I'm eager to learn about fairies.

oh, there are many types of faeries if you take it as "fey creatures"

the etymological origin is uncertain, but to not make a boring as fuck wall of text I'll keep it brief: magical creatures of the forest can be fairies. In traditional folklore fairies are ABSOLUTELY EVIL, the reason they look so cute and innocent is to lure children deep into the forest for them to never be seen again, either to be their food or to be transformed into one of them.

With that in mind, suppose that a bunch of chads enter a magical forest, shit all over the place by littering and throwing trash around and generally angering the spirits of the place. Fairies wouldn't take their cute form because they aren't dealing with children, they would assume the terrifying form of that picture to either devour the fools or, most likely, scare the crap out of them so they never set foot in their forest again, since adults aren't as tasty as kids (specially kids who misbehave and do not listen to their parents, those are specially delicious)

you get the idea

Fae folk are all beings closely related to primary trinity of deities. Whether through ancestry, begetting, or even their natural influence. Back in the age where gods walked on the planet their presence would stain the ground they stand upon. Centuries after the gods left, no traces of their time on earth remained. However, some places still feel otherworldly. The plants seem alive, the ground itself doesn't seem dirty, animals appear to betray their nature and it seems like little "somethings" are watching you from the corner of your eye. These "fairies" are the closest beings to the old gods on the planet, born of their sheer presence that's affected their ancient dominions. Fairies personalities varies, reflecting the innermost disposition of the gods they were based from. Regardless, they are indeed very pure and good-natured. However, having little power of their own, they can be easily twisted. Sometimes becoming mischievous, cruel, angry, and dangerous due to external influences. Stay on the path, and don't walk the forest at night. You never know what kinds of fairies may be waiting.

They're really just both good and evil in traditional folklore. They might clean your house, or they might steal your children to eat them. Usually it's just a matter of following the proper etiquette to stay on their good side, though their idea of etiquette may be something like never touching them while you're angry or saying a certain word or whatever. It's kind of dishonest to say that originally all fairies are child eating monsters though

oh no, I was just explaining the lore in my setting like OP asked

No one asked about a particular setting

FUCKING SORRY THEN
I GUESS I OFFENDED YOU
are you happy?

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Oh, come on, don't be that rude. It doesn't matter if it's folklore or setting, I want to know about fairies.

And calm down, omae. It's wrong to discuss anywhere on the Internet.

>And calm down, omae

your comment was mean

That wasn't a sardonic "NOBODY ASKED, ASSHOLE", just a "why did you think that?"

ah, my mistake then

sorry, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings

Caps can cause confusion, you know. It screams "loud voice" to me.

But I didn't post in caps

Now, let's not get off topic, alright?

I read somewhere in /x/ that fairies are scary af, but I don't remember much. /x/ is not to be trusted, though.

Yeah, you don't fuck with fairies, I hear they're the ones behind MKUltra

OP did.

of course not, they fairies, they do not exist

I've been thinking - wouldn't fairies make a pretty interesting playable race?
The size and flight dynamics would be fun to play with, they have an unlimited potential for a mage and rouge type classes and even some interesting although limited melee fighting. Plus, by definition they can have pretty much any kind of alignment and motivations.
Was it done before in anything?

Dungeons the dragoning 40k

Technically a homebrew race, but one of the best, fitting really well in the setting

My first choice is otherworldly, ineffable and airy.
Tiny buggers who perform as magic glass canons are also fun, especially because they are quite rare.

In Earth Dawn, the latter is actually an option. They're called Windlings. Last session I made a tiny noisy punk riding on a wildcat. He's a ton of fun to play.

Therefore: please post more mounted fairies.

Thank you.

The idea spawned from the idea of a magi-tech ship that crashed on a planet (and if you havn't got it already a lot of the inspiration comes from xenogears) the magi-tech AI in charge of life support and ultimately terraforming was one of the the systems that managed to survive the crash but was severly damaged. In it's desperate attempt to make sure the planet to could host life for humans it spread it's roots throughout the entire planet identifiying key biomes and releasing it's nano-machines from special sprouts (inspiration based on Sakuya from Okami) however, doing so drained the AI so much that it could not maintain control of the individual sprouts and each one began to develop their own personalities some being hostile and others being benevolent.

Druids are essentially implanted with these nano-machines and that allows them to have limited forms of administrative control over nature even as their bodies are being transformed by the nano-machines

Clinically batshit insane. We're talking "reciting limmericks as they swing tiny axes" psycho here.

And yeah one of them had an actual tiny axe to swing, hacked through necks, bit the nerves to paralyze its victim and comfily nested here for weeks while overdosing on the sweet, sweet arterial meatjuice.

Linked with plant life. Able to change size at will, either flower sized, to tree sized, passing by human size. Playfull but can be a bit crual without realising it for what is game for them can be VERY real for other races. Have variety of color skin, from green and purple to blue, very big wing, can fold them around themselve.

They have normal hair, appart from the color, but with plant life in it, like flower growing in it.

They are creature of nature, living like any other creature, but so connected to live, than when they die they become lesser spirit of nature, who do thing I guess.

Oh hey, someone is talking about my homebrew. It's been ages since I did that one.

My current iteration of pixies (specifically the small tinkerbell fairies) are a horrific mishmash of all 3 traits

Nobody's entirely sure where they come from other than the woods outside of the village. You'll be wanting to keep your children close if that's the case mind you. They aren't hostile, they won't enter human dwellings. They're just as scare of your big ones as you are of theirs. The little ones however

Pixies like to play and dance the day away, children are prone to thinking the little dancing merry making sprites are cute, the dumb ones follow, best to forget about them now, save yourself the heartache. Merriment is a full time job for the things you see, and children tend to fall behind rather quickly. Then the goading starts. They'll be pricked and poked to continue dancing. Their hair pulled and pushed over by the swarm if they try to leave. None of this is malicious mind you. Not yet. The little things just don't understand why the kid isn't having fun. Come on then dance, keep dancing, why would you want to leave, this is great fun come on now perk up

Another thing they tend not to understand is food and drink for anything other than the joy of flavours. With their size they tend not to be able to gather enough to feed the child, they won't even try if it doesn't make its hunger pretty obvious. Then it will cry. The fairies only understand this as far as it ruins their fun with loud. So they use their dust to make the child happy again. Time for a dance of sleep and dreams. This continues until the child wastes away. Scavengers tend to keep clear of the remains

If it gets to that point. You see, children can be just as capricious as the little buggers. They can be violent little shits if poked and prodded. It isn't uncommon for a fairy to get hurt, even killed by a child during the whole "I want my mommy I want to go home"" phase of the encounter. Fairies don't know death

They don't handle it well
Like japanese hornets coated in ghb dust

could you use the bottom one as a handgranade?

Personally, I'm a big fan of the way Pathfinder does it. Fey are what happens when souls pass up through what's called the First World and the extra soul energy gets stuck or accumulate into a sizable portion to beget a fey entity. Since First World was the prototype testing ground for the mortal world, its regions are often strange and could be considered in many ways half finished.

Fey in the mortal world are transplants from the First World who came through a breach where the two planes are close. Regions of wild nature often connect the the two planes together, creating regions of stability in the First World, and regions of wild fertility and strange happenings in the mortal world.

As to types of fey, some is stolen from mythology the world over, inspired or reworked to be more interesting or simply be more fun. From Glaistigs and Leprechauns, to Satyrs and Nymphs, to Huldra, to Miengu, to Rusalka and Domovoi, and so much more. While others fill in niches not covered by real world myth.

Of course they have their leaders who also happen to be their "gods", the Eldest. The Eldest are made up of the the nine most powerful fey entities, beings who rule over great swaths of semistable regions of the First World, in many ways being personifications of certain aspects of this proto realm.

This gives me a great deal of things to work with in any campaign, from having the adventurers come across a powerful fey lord who gives them a quest or task, to the ability to steal just about any fey-like spirit or nature themed being from myth to use as an enemy.

Pic related is a fey entity of inevitable death and decay that is sometimes metamorphosed from a caterpillarlike fey creature of rebirth that goes around killing things and reincarnating them.

Each fey is connected to a part of the season: I have one who is basically the embodiment of late summer harvest, another who is the first buds of spring, autumn just as the leaves start to color, etc.

My personal favorite is Old Man Winter. Not necessarily evil but mean as shit if anyone gets too close to his personal slice of the Feywild.

I'm thinking of making a setting where they're the magical equivalent to the holy based Angels and Gods, with a few of the elder Fairy Kings and Queens being on par with the Gods of the setting.

I really like the idea of a group of mechanically-inclined fairies with an almost compulsive desire to fix and improve things, even if those things don't need to be fixed or improved.

Or maybe healer fairies with an almost compulsive desire to fix and improve people.

>'improve' people

I like them closest to "real" fey and fair folk, that is like more attractive Delves with preternatural powers and at best cause lots of mischief

>In traditional folklore
traditional CHRISTIAN folklore
you could argue they became evil because the traditional offerings that pagans made and respect for their homes was lost after conversion leading faeries to become very aggressive and hostile as humans had become to them.

places like Iceland where folk traditions are still strong treat fair folk with more respect and thus have a better image of them rather than completely sinister forest devils

So in a magical roaring 20's flat earth world I've been working on I came up with a different spin on the fairy.

Game setting is all about exploration and less than practical progress.

Fairies are a purely aetheric phenomenon a universal afterthought if you will. Will power is the physics of this world and faires are born from unattended will. Imagine a mana potion that if you cast with it, it gains the emotional properties of the spells you've used it for. Then that emotion becomes physical. Now you have a fairy.

You cast a fuck ton of destructive damaging spells?
Gonna get an angry little shit.

You cast buffs and healing?
Gonna get a buddy.

Either way they're a fleeting and temporary phenomenon that feed upon their very essence to exist. Technically there are purely natural no spells involved variants, but they don't exactly make themselves known.