In Fae earth, the domains of life are less rigidly separated. The sea doesn’t have the strict physical conditions it does here, nor does the air, or the earth itself, and Fae claim much more of their world for their own than we do ours.
We dream of flying because our cousins the Fae actually do fly. We dream of surviving under the water without support, and walking as if it were dry land, because they do.
Is this why we call them fairy tales? Very likely. Our dreams of magic and happily ever after. Also our nightmares of being chased by monsters in the woods, and laughed at in hidden dark places as we trip and stumble.
There are some very monstrous Fae too. We aren’t all good and innocent. Some would eat your brain as soon as tie your shoe laces together. There are two political factions that are really labels humans applied to them. The Seelie and the Unseelie Court respectively, and Fae culture does parallel ours some.
Seelie light, Unseelie dark? Very loosely.
It is a mistake to say good is light and bad is dark. Actually, yes. There are many Fae of the night who actually guide and comfort humans, and Fae of the light who drive humans insane.
The etymology of the word places them in Italy. The word is a derivation of fata/fates as their first place of manifestation. This comes from the observation that nature seems to operate with an intelligent hand even in our world.
For the most part, it isn’t wise to try to interfere with the Fae. At one point, some cultures on our planet shared laws with the Fae and had consciously kept treaties. Taboos that had to be respected, etcetera. But those have long since been broken, and for the most part they aren’t willing to deal with humans much.
What is this about their loathing of iron? Same reason we loath blood. They do not have blood, not as we do, but the resonance of some of the mineral in our earth is either pleasing to them or harmful. Iron doesn’t kill them. It actually just gives them the equivalent of a really bad head ache, and actually only cold iron.
I wonder if there is any correlative to the advent of the iron age. It drove a wedge between humans and Fae. When iron is smelted like we do now, its resonance decays. Steel, like we use in our buildings, doesn’t do anything to them at all. They actually find it quite funny the idea we have of permanence, and some Fae have made it sort of a hobby to toy with our steel things. We have named them Gremlins. They generally prefer the life crafts. This is why they are attracted to farmers and native peoples. It is closer to how they themselves live.
Collecting anything shiny, even just a simple piece of broken glass is like treasure. They collect shiny things because they feed on light. Many of them do.
A dirty piece of gold is less valuable then a shiny clean one. It is even trash. This is why you hear stories of humans thinking they were stealing from the Fae, only to learn the Fae didn’t care. Though often the stolen thing caused another problem for the human.
Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.
Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~