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Sidhe HTML
The Sidhe
Alternative Names: Tuatha de Dannan, Daonie Sidhe, the Gentry, the Fair Folk, the People of the Hills
General Information:
* Genetically related to elves, but HATE being called that!
* A great variation in appearance, skin/hair/eye colour can be anything (red, brown, blue, purple etc.) and some sidhe will
have a few odd feathers, scales etc.
* There are two courts of Sidhe
* The Court of Light an Illusion, also known as the Seighlie, is where the ‘good’ sidhe abide. Here is laughter
and light and parties galore! These are the fey that are known to kidnap mortals and pass years y partying down with them
before returning them to their own world- sometimes hundreds of years later. They see themselves as the good-doers, the ones
who do no evil though even their gifts often have a disadvantage. To eat anything while at the Seighlie Court is to be bespelled
by their glamour- very, very few people (immortals included) ever get untangled by a full Sidhe’s glamour.
* Court of Shadows and Darkness, also called the Unseighlie, is where the ‘bad; sidhe abide. Here is blood and lust and
everything dark in the world. When a rare baby is born to the Seilghie that does not fit their exacting standard, it is ‘left
for the hounds’- where upon he or she is adopted by the Unseighlie. No one is turned away here. There are no secrets
in the dark, it is a harsh, bleak world where every dark desire is known- and shared. To drink any liquid offered here is
to be ensnared by their Glamour, and there has, in all history, only been three people (immortals, all,) who escaped. Two
were hunted down and killed by the Slaugh.
* The Slaugh are a subdivision of the Unseighlie. They are the darkest of the dark, the things that even the shadows fear.
They are the hunters, and obey only their queen (or king, depending on the ruling entity). Often have twisted minds or bodies
or both, they are the sadists’ sadists. They live for the hunt. Everyone fears the Slaugh, even other creatures of the
dark.
* The Light Court is ruled by King Ean, the Bright Eagle.
* The Dark Court is ruled by Queen Eala Dhu, the Black Swan
* Both have a court of nobles, etc
* court ruled by single most powerful sidhe. NOT a hereditary position.
Nine circles or power:
* Aesir: the 'gods' of the sidhe. RAther akin to Dracula. Have very little to do with "Earthly matters"
* Ruling entity (king, queen- only ONCE was there an Emperor- a ruler of both courts- and he was…dispatched…early
in his reign by the Slaugh) Each court ruled by single most powerful sidhe. NOT a hereditary position.
* Prince/Princess (yes, there are faery Prince(ess)s! Proposed heir to the throne, not hereditary)
* Dark’s Ravens, Light’s Lions- thirteen most powerful warriors in the courts- protect their monarch. Answer
to no one. Different than the Slaugh.
* High Court Lords/Ladies (sidhe with very powerful abilities)
* Low Court Lords/Ladies (with powerful abilities)
* Lords/Ladies (sidhe with no significant power compared to other sidhe)
* Hands (sidhe whose main power comes from their ‘hands’- abilities linked to a single element)
* Weavers (sidhe who can 'weave' dreams and see teh future - often very obscurely. Can only see one possible
future at a time. One web, one dream.
* The sidhe always keep their word. Always. If your oath is worth nothing than you are worth nothing. And the sidhe do not
tolerate dead weight. Still, the oath you think they’ve sworn is often not the oath they’ve taken at all- they are
very, very good at shading the truth- after all, they’ve had millenia of practice!
* Never break your word to a sidhe. They hold others to the same standards they hold themselves.
* Do not eat/drink anything offered when visiting a faery court. Food is generally for the Court of Light, and drink for the
Dark Court, but they do have trading routes, and you wouldn’t want to be the one on whom a new ‘recipe’ was
tried!
* Cannot live without their Faery Mounds. Thre is something there, some kind of adictive magic, that makes the sidhe crave
them. A sidhe can actually wither and die for want of a Mound.
* Cold iron is deadly to the fey. A scratch will not kill, but a deep enough sword cut certainly will. If applied only to
skin it acts as an acid, melting and burning the flesh. Generally, the scars left from cold iron are permanent.
* Sidhe feel a strong aversion to metals, except for silver. Silver and gold are precious to them. A sidhe cannot live in
a city- there is too much steel and iron. Their magiks are nullified by cold iron.
* Caffine effects them much like it does half-elves. It makes them very ill, and nullifies ALL their magiks for a very long
period of time but will only kill them in large amounts.
Abilities
* As varied as their appearances. Here is a list and short description of the more common abilities:
* Glamour: EVERY sidhe has this to some extent. IT is the ability to make things appear as they are not, to make people
believe things are as they are not. Sidhe do not use this ability on each other or elves as a matter of courtesy. A sidhe
trying to glamour another side or an elf is insulting the other- basically saying "I can put this spell on you because
you are so weak and stupid". Strong vampires can see through glamour.
* Sniffing: All sidhe has at least a limited ability at sniffing. IT’s the ability to pick up ‘psychic sencts’-
a very weak empathic abilty, at best guess. They can smell strong emotions (Unseighlie- hate, fear, lust, etc Seighlie- Love,
joy, lust etc). tHey can also ‘smell’ magikal powers in a person.
* Geas: A ‘spell’ that makes others do a certain thing until the geas wear off or is taken off. Not a common
ability (thank God). The marriage geas is an example.
* Elemental powers: All sidhe have at least one of these. These are powers pretaining to one of the elements (fire, water,
wind, wood, stone). Often called ‘hand of power’.
* Power Sharing: very rare ability to share power among immortals (vampired, demons, angels, fey, etc) by sharing blood.
Must be sure that the blood-taker is strong enough to handle the additional powers. Only very, very stong magicians are not
killed by the blood sharing. Sidhe blood is very useful for empowering spells, enchantments etc (rather like unicorn or dragon’s
blood)
* Shape shifting: Rare ability. Able to shift into one (VERY rarely two) alternative shapes. ALWAYS one of the following
animals:
- Bird of prey
- Feline
- Canine
- Equine
- Deer/elk
Weaving: ability to 'weave' the future onto a loom- the weaver can read the loom but no one else. One weave, one
possible future. Not all that helpful, actually, and very rare.
Healing: abiity to heal by touch. OFten activated by...ah..."arousing" the sniffing abilities of
the healer. HEaling the almost-dead is very dangerous- the healer cannot stop healing until every would and hurt is
gone- even if it kills the healer themselves.
Reproduction
* Much like humans. Very, very rare though. In the past 700 years only three children have been born.
* Very promiscuous bunch
* Once a couple have a child, they are ‘mated’ and MUST be faithful in all ways. The punishment for adultery is
death. The magik release at conception binds the two together.
* Childbirth is very long, arduous and dangerous. Only approximatly 1/5 of the women in labor birth healthy babies. Usually
the mother dies, the baby dies, or they both die.
* If one partner dies, the other is released from the geas, but even still most widowed partners remain faithful. That is
a very long time to ‘enjoy’ celibacy.
* The Dark Courts idea of seduction is a lot more dangerous than the Court of Light, running basically to S & M.
* When young sidhe require huge amounts of food to stave off their hunger. they cannot starve to death, but their growth
can bestunted or their magik effected by lack for enough nutrition. There is a saying that goes "Young male humans
eat like horses, but horses eat like young sidhe!"
Vampiric Turning: NOT recommended. Fairly easy to Turn but the end results are unpredictable. Generally the sidhe of
the Court of Light die- Vampire magics are too dark to be compatable with their own. The Dark Court sidhe…well. Only
once has a Unseighlie sidhe been Turned and he went mad, slaughtering hundreds of people until he was ‘put down.’
It is theorized that the Unseighlie’s own dark nature combined with a vampires innate bloodlust leads to a ‘darkness
overload’- a void where the soul, or spirit should be. And as everyone knows, nature abhorrs a vacuum, and so fills it-
with chaos. It’s not a pretty sight.
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