Fairies are magical beings and the basis of the book series Emily Feather. They are mentioned in countless myths, legends and fables across the globe.
Description[]
Fairies are supernatural creatures from another world. While they appear humanoid, they are different creatures altogether, made up of pure magic. Some are good and beautiful, others are dark and nightmarish and many are not what they first appear to be.
Despite all their power, fairies are fascinated with humans. To fairies, humans are filled with life and their mere presence fills fairies with life. Unfortunately, the most wicked and ancient fairies seek to capture humans and keep them as pets, so that they may become more powerful and feel younger. In ancient times, these malevolent fairies would steal human children and leave a changeling in its place. These children were kept as pets and even today, some fairies yearn to capture a human. Some humans return but appear drained because of their time with the fairies. This, along with the sharp teeth which are a common fairy quality, inspired the myth of vampires.
Appearance[]
Many fairies have a humanoid appearance but other than that, they vary widely in appearance and colour, with no two fairies looking completely the same. A fairy can be beautiful and as colourful as a storybook princess, elegant and elven with sparkling curls, spritely with cheeky grins and long, long fingers or dark and mysterious. Many have wings which can be feathered like a bird's with glittering patterns, scaly like the colourful wings of a butterfly or translucent and slim as a dragonfly's. Their ear tips are pointed and many have sharp teeth or fangs and a few possess elongated fingers. Many of the more ancient fairies use glamour to hide their still beautiful but ancient and cold looks and other disturbing features. When fairies are born, they can choose what they want to look like. Most choose to resemble their family but others, like wren can make themselves resemble a non-blood relative.
The Fairy World[]
Fairies live in a magical but dangerous and sometimes frightening world of huge forests, enchanted castles and mystical creatures. This world is connected to ours by portals. All portals lead to the enchanted forest which is the source of all magic and life in their world.
To control how many and which fairies went through the gates, fairy portals are all connected to a house in the human world. A royal fairy like Ash guards these portals and stops fairies from causing mischief in the human world and he sends back those who enter either world without permission. However, the fairy world does not cope well with bars and barriers so unknown portals open, ones the king cannot seal.
Society[]
Fairies are ruled by a king and a queen but one can rule without the other. Like human royalty, fairies have courts with ladies and lords who advise the king and rule over other fairies. The current monarch is a widower and many of the fairy ladies yearn for themselves, their daughters, cousins, sisters or nieces to be chosen as his second wife and new queen.
When someone angers the royal fairies or breaks the law, hunters are sent with fairy hounds to capture them. The hounds can only eat what they catch and they will never give up the chase. Once they catch the scent, they will hunt them to the ends of their world. Only escaping to another world will the hunted have any chance of surviving. For their crimes, some fairies are stripped of all their powers and banished to the human world.
Known Types of Fairies[]
Elves[]
Eva is probably an elf as she resembles the depiction of mythological elves and lacks her daughters' feathery wings. If this is true, elves are tall and elegant beings with long, flowing hair. Each strand sparkles with magic and their eyes are larger than a human's.
Nixies[]
Nixies, or water sprites, are water fairies who preside over rivers and lakes. They have silvery skin, webbed hands and feet, dress in watery fabric and have hair of flatish water weed. Nixies are amphibious fairies who can live on land and underwater but they prefer to live in water. Nixies have water magic and they can change into a pure liquid form.
Wood Sprites[]
Sprites who dwell among the trees and woodlands. They are beautiful and otherworldly with wooden, bark-like skin and leafy hair, making it nearly impossible to see them when they are against their trees. They serve the Ladies of the Fairy Court. Human tears burn them.
Brownies[]
Brownies are the servants of the fairies. They are small and child-like with charming faces that could be either boy or girl. Their hair and clothes are brown.
Powers and Abilities[]
Fairies gifted with wings have the power to fly. Younger fairies make use of this ability but the more grand and older fairies are too lazy to fly. Fairies do not get scratches or bleed as their have magic in their veins instead of blood. This magic radiates warmth like the human body and because they lack blood, fairies can sense the blood and life energy of humans.
Fairies can use magic and cast spells. All fairies have to do is wish and their magic will come to aid them whenever they need it. They do not require incantations, symbols, wands or potions. Just wanting their magic to do something is enough to cast a spell, change a window's size, enter a mirror, see through the portals, conjure plants out of thin air and changing how one sees the world. If they try, a fairy can conjure life out of almost nothing like a chocolate mouse or open the portals. Fairies have an ability called glamour which changes how people see things. The Fairy Ladies use it to hide their backwards knees, sharp nails and old age, Eve hid her pregnancy from sight, Lory made her jewels look like flying beetles and Sasha made a bully see herself the way others saw her. However, it requires a lot of magic to keep a glamour going all the time.
A child raised by fairies and surrounded by fairy magic will soak up some of the magic and become a fairy-human hybrid. They are not as powerful as full fairies.
Known Fairies[]
- Emily(half fairy, half human)
- Eva
- Ash
- Lark
- Lory
- Robin
- Sasha
- Wren
- Ladies of the Fairy Court
- Lady Anstis (deceased)
- The Fairy King
- The Fairy Queen(deceased)