Faeries, the Fey

These creatures are the ones spoken of in legends. Without their magic they look like smaller, thinner drab elves, but their magic is something that they are very rarely without. Rather than specific spells or spell-like abilities, faeries have the ability to create glamours, extremely powerful illusions and phantasms. These glamours are real enough that they can inflict damage and support loads. Anyone seeing such an illusion is affected as if it were real. If the illusions can be shown to be false, such as through true sight or by any disbelieving, they will stop affecting the disbeliever, who can attempt to convince others. Attempts to disbelieve are made at a -4 penalty in Arborea and a -12 penalty in the faeries' realm itself. Glamours are permanent unless disbelieved or dispelled (either through magic or the will of the faerie). Glamours of living things are usually easy to spot over time, as they act too much like their creators, are based on what little the faerie knows about the race and individual imitated, and are unable to learn new skills or facts. Inanimate objects created by faeries tend to show no wear and never get dirty, which makes them very valuable among those who don't the true nature of the objects.

Faeries are mischievous and take insult very easily but repay any debts as best they can, given their lack of knowledge of how other races value goods and services. They always appear in full glamour as radiant, charismatic elfin humanoids. Dispelling or publicly acknowledging the false nature of an illusion is a sure way to get on the black side of one of the fey, and it is for their ability to recognize illusions as such that the Sign of One is so disliked by this race. They are extremely skilled at all fine arts, but are unable to master the baser arts, such as carpentry, and will often trade for manufactured items. Creativity fascinates them and they value poets and artists far above kings and rich men. Part of this stems from their inability to create truly new things despite their artistic skills, and part from their love of beauty.

The faerie realm is perhaps almost entirely constructed of glamours, and anyone visiting here attempts to disbelieve at their own peril. All physical laws are alterable here, and literally anything is possible. Artists can alter themselves through their arts, growing wings or gills if they'd like to, and sometimes these changes are permanent when they leave the realm. The realm lies on the layer of Olympus, and moves around often. Time flows differently in the realm, and guests are cautioned never to accept gifts or eat or drink anything in the realm, lest they be forced to repay the giver, and such repayment may be more than a mortal can bear.