High Fae

🍄 Overview

The High Fae are a race of humanoid fairies that make up the majority of the ruling class in Folkland. They consider themselves to be the oldest, wisest, and most powerful of the fae.

High Fae can be found in the Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter Duchies, in positions of nobility. The Summer and Spring Duchies have higher levels of High Fae in the general population.There are no High Fae in the Darkwood or the Underwater Duchy.

🍄 Appearance

A High Fae’s appearance is based on a flower. Each High Fae is a unique flower, although there are many different breeds with different subtypes in the Realm. For example, there are many breeds of Roses in the Realm such as a Heirloom rose or Grandiflora rose and High Fae can be created from each of these types. Thus the Realm might have 50 different Rose High Fae.

Design Guidelines

• High Fae are always extremely beautiful, but also otherworldly and even unnatural looking.

• They have long, large fragile and delicate petal shaped wings that may have translucent areas (they do not have butterfly wings). Their wings should be quite large, but can appear smaller when they are folded at rest.

• They have soft petal ears, resembling butterfly wings. These face-wings often flutter gently, and may even flap anxiously according to a High Fae’s mood.

• Their iris and sclera are always coloured (they shouldnt have white scelra unless they also have white eyes). Their pupils are white.

• Their hair is often very long. It is often mostly loose, but a few thin braids adorned with jewelry or flowers is common.

• They have 2-3 eyebrows stacked on top of each other, getting smaller as they go.

• Their petal wings also act as ears and can have small ear holes on the front or back.

• The taller a High Fae is, generally the older and more powerful.

• High Fae rarely have human skintones, they generally have unnatural coloured skin (matching the colour palette of their flower type). Please see the little graphic above. That said, they can have light pink or yellow skin tones that may seem human. It depends on the colour of the flower they are based on (a blue flower like a forget-me-not wouldn't have a human skintone but a pink rose may have light pink skin).

• A High Fae's colouring and colour palette should be based off of the colour of their flower type. For example, if a member chooses a white Heirloom Rose as their Race claim, the design should be mostly white, with other minor colours acting as accents.

• High Fae can have their petal lobes pierced. They rarely have other piercings and don't have tattoos - but may have markings that are based on their flower type.

High Fae Adoptables

Clothing

• High Fae wear long, silken clothing adorned with golden jewelry and small flowers. They also may wear sheer fabric, lace, and chiffon. Their attire is more stylish than practical.

• For martial High Fae, their armour is usually either porcelain or golden.

• Their clothing colours will match the flower type. They should not wear black, grey, brown, if it can be helped, as they are a vibrant, beautiful race and these colours are far too boring and drab for their tastes.

• For High Fae in the Summer Duchy, two piece garbs and shorter skirts are acceptable.

• For High Fae in the Winter Duchy, thick fabrics, headscarves and fur is acceptable. Russian styles are best.

• High Fae usually do not wear shoes.

🍄 Birth, Life and Death

Birth

The High Fae are not born through natural birth, rather they are created by other High Fae. A High Fae who wishes to create a progeny will find an exquisite flower in the realm and imbue this flower with vast amounts of magical power. The new High Fae then grows inside this flower, absorbing it and gestating until they are ready to bloom (this process takes 3 months). They emerge from the remnants of the flower as babies with soft, petal-like wings, and grow to full size over the course of around 100 years, thriving and drawing on the natural magic of Folkland and being fed special fairy foods such as cakes, mead, milk, and edible flowers.

Thus no High Fae can say they are blood related to another Fae. They form families based on Fae that created each other, sort of like Vampires. This has helped the ancient ruling families keep their monarchy going for millennia.

This ritual costs an immense amount of magic power. High Fae often perform this nearing the end of their life, as the magic power it takes cannot be replenished.

Life

High Fae have extremely long lifespan, but they do not live forever. Their lifespan is up to 1500 years. At the end of their life, their magic rapidly begins to leak out of them, returning to the Earth. They will also grow pale and desaturated, and their flower petals will wilt and wither. They can form rot and grow black spot on their petals. It is often around this time that High Fae will choose to imbue the last of their magic into creating a High Fae bulb to carry on their legacy. The immense amount of magic power this takes is why High Fae generally do not have bulb-siblings - other High Fae created the same time by the same creator (though bulbs with different creators can certainly grow up together). 

Death

When a High Fae passes on, their magical essence returns to the Earth, and the High Fae shrinks and shrivels into a dead plant. Often a flower field will bloom where they die. Any bugs that come to rest on these flowers, or even pollinate them, are imbued with a little of the High Fae’s power - this is where fairies (minor fae) come from!

High Fae are buried in a flower field, and often have an elaborate tombstone placed on top. They are buried in a hole in the ground, on a bed of flowers. They are often buried in their armour or rich fabrics, with any spellcasting focuses or weapons.

🍄 High Fae Customs & Culture

Personality Traits

• The High Fae can be vague, haughty, arrogant, emotional, dramatic, condescending and spiteful.

• They are prone to acting on whims. They are a dramatic and unpragmatic people, who have comfortably ruled Folkland for millenia due to power level and racial legacy rather than actual leadership abilities.

• High Fae can be incredibly fickle and there has been many a court conflict caused due to High Fae insulting each other over ridiculous things. They can be childish and immature.

• The best traits of the High Fae are creative, wise, in touch with emotions (they hate strongly but also love boundlessly), dynamic, powerful, and purposeful.

• At worst they have little regard for other races and get so caught up in their own selfish whims that the other races fall by the wayside. This being said, the High Fae consider themselves the sacred guardians of the Folkland realm and when push comes to shove, protect their realm viciously from outsiders and take this role very seriously.

Your High Fae character should have a few of these traits but certainly doesn’t have to have all of them. Please feel free to put a unique spin on it.

Romance, Marriage and Offspring

Romance

High Fae pair for life. Their bonds are deep and intimate, and not always sexual but can be unbreakable platonic or familial bonds. High Fae can technically mate with each other, but they cannot produce offspring. A mental connection is the most important aspect of a High Fae relationship. Culturally, the concept of a twin flame, or soulmate, is sacred. They are a romantic race where deep, sacred connections are extremely important.

Same-sex pairings are possible, and common.

As mentioned, they can mate with each other. We best all mind our business where this is concerned but it involves the word pollination and is not fit for innocent eyes

Pairing with non High Fae is uncommon and very taboo. They are pretty elitist and think only other High Fae are worthy suitors.

Marriage

They marry almost like humans do. When asking to pair with a partner, they offer each other fairy food. To pair formally in marriage rites, a magic ritual is performed and the couple will exchange golden jewelry. High Fae marriages are extraordinary affairs with large numbers of guests, feasting, ritual, and entertainers and party tricks.

Offspring

As mentioned above, they create their progeny out of magic rather than giving birth to them.

They can adopt other High Fae, and occasionally adopt fairies, although the arrangement is rarely familial - more like employment.

Miscellaneous

• High Fae go dormant at night time when the sun disappears and tend to go into a sleepy trance.

• There are no particular naming conventions for High Fae - they should be old European names or fantasy, as with all other races.

• High Fae love throwing parties for whatever occasion they can, whether it be a wedding, festival, carnival, birthday, deathday, bought-a-new-dress, etc.

If you have questions about the High Fae, please ask them in the helpdesk channel on Discord!