The Darker Side of Fey

[GSHamster]

It's traditional that the fey cannot lie. As you may expect, this makes them extraordinarily good at shading the truth.

 

[Celebrim]

1) Many have a taste for raw human flesh.
2) They like to steal children. Often they mean no harm, they just happen to like children since children think a lot like they do. On the other hand, they have no understanding that mortal children have different needs than they do.
3) They have no real understanding of the concept of mortality, so they don't know much about growing old or dying. They don't understand that mortals have a limited time to be alive, and perhaps might not want to spend 20 or 40 or 80 years doing the same thing.
4) "the fey are not very much like Tinkerbell": Tinkerbell was a very very scary fey, who repeatedly tried to kill Wendy and who helped Peter Pan 'cull' the lost boys when they got too numerous. As J.M. Barrie noted, Tink was too small to hold more than one thought at at time, so when she was angry or jealous she was all anger without check or balance.

 

[Aeolius]

Tinkerbell was a very very scary fey, who repeatedly tried to kill Wendy and who helped Peter Pan 'cull' the lost boys when they got too numerous. As J.M. Barrie noted, Tink was too small to hold more than one thought at at time, so when she was angry or jealous she was all anger without check or balance.

Beat me to it... Don't mess with Tink.

 

[Quickleaf]

It's often less of a lack of concept of "No" than it is a lack of care that someone is saying it.

And on being bound by word; loopholes. If there's something in an agreement that can be exploited, it probably will be.

Yeah this ties into the http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.p... first to bring TV tropes I to the thread? ;)

 

[Hand of Evil]

They bowl and make people sleep their life away.

They make crazy deals and then turn them around where they are tragic.

 

[gamerprinter]

What are the darker aspects of the fey and the lands of Faerie? Throughout history, and in fables such as Grimm's Fairy Tales, the fey are not very much like Tinkerbell™ at all.

They dominate people, steal/exchange babies, make people dance until they die of exhaustion.

What else are they known for?

What are some good sources of fey stories--gaming books and others?

Just noticed the next post, because I was going to google-fu Ravencrowking's threads (but now I know they are deleted).

One thing RCK mentioned in his threads is that faerie food (fruit, etc.) is addictive to humans, yet provides no nutritional value whatsoever. Once you eat faerie food, you won't desire human food ever again (treat this like a drug, make a daily Con check, if you fail, you refuse to eat normal food seeking only faerie food.) Of course, eating faerie food leads to starvation and death.

Faeries, despite being 'chaotic', have strict rules of politeness that they expect when humans deal with them. If you lie, steal or cheat from them, insult them, treat them harshly - they will punish you. Its OK for faeries to trick you, because that's what they do, but if humans do that to them, you will be sorry...

One of the best sources for faerie lore is Katherine Briggs, An Encyclopedia of Fairys, Hobgoblins, Brownies and Other Supernatural Creatures.

 

[Voadam]

Sources of Fey from RPGs

Fey Folio for Pathfinder.

Unseelie Court same ones for 4e.

Classic Fey for 3e.

Complete Guide to Fey for 3e.

Encyclopaedia Divine Fey Magic for 3.0.

Fey Folk for 4e.

Courts of the Shadow Fey for 4e.

Indomitable Fire Forest Of Inenno for 3.5.

Faeries for 3.0 (includes a fey Baba Yaga).

Imperial Age Faeries for d20 Modern.

Stone of the Daoine Sidhe for 3e.

Hero's Handbook Eladrin for 4e.

The Faerie Ring for Pathfinder.

Medieval Bestiary Monstrous Guide for 4e.

Finwickett's Bestiary Along the Fairy Path for Pathfinder.

Mythic Menagerie Fairies of the Fringe for Pathfinder.

Changeling the Dreaming for old World of Darkness.

Changeling the Lost for New World of Darkness.

Autumn Nightmares for Changeling the Lost.

Night Horrors Grim Fears for Changeling the Lost.

Dark Ages Fae for Dark Ages WoD.

Urban Fae

Memoirs of Auberon of Faerie for Castle Falkenstein.

Exalted the Fair Folk for Exalted 1e.

At the Edge of Dreams for 3.0.

Adventurer's Guide to Pixie-Fairies for Hackmaster 4e.

Geasa.

Undying Lands

Fairy Meat.

Fae Noir

Grimm.

Once Upon a Time for d20 Modern.

Once Upon a Time for Pathfinder.

And a ton of monster books with individual dark fae entries.

 

[Nellisir]

Raven wasn't the only one posting in the "Faerie Encounters" thread.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-legacy-discussion/86637-faerie-encounters.html

Here's a similar thread:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/195582-sell-me-fey.html

 

[Eric Tolle]

A common element in a lot of the folktales I've read iso that the fair folk are very gullible; tell them the pope will be at your wedding, and they'll believe you. In fact, generally fae aren't all that bright- I guess when you have powers you don't need brains.

 

[Jhaelen]

A common element in a lot of the folktales I've read iso that the fair folk are very gullible; tell them the pope will be at your wedding, and they'll believe you. In fact, generally fae aren't all that bright- I guess when you have powers you don't need brains.

I don't think calling them 'gullible' does them justice. Their minds are too alien, too different from humans' to grasp certain 'basic' concepts, that every human being takes for granted.
If they appear childlike (or gullible) it is because like children they tend to take things literally and believe in the power of words. That's particularly important to keep in mind when making deals with the fey.

For the fey, reality is malleable; using glamour they can basically create whatever they want (at least the more powerful fey), which is why they have a completely different concept of wealth. For them illusions are indistinguishable from the real thing.

The fey love stories and art, because they're incapable of original thought or creation. It's their prime reason for abducting people to their realm and/or not wanting to let them leave again.
They're fascinated by everything humans do and imitate them without really grasping the reasons for their actions.