True Fae

The True Fae. The Strangers. The Others. Keepers. The Good Cousins. The Fair Folk. Kindly Ones. The Gentry. These are the solipsistic, godlike creatures who play Their games in Arcadia and steal away humans to serve Them as changelings.

Abilities

All Names may change their form at-will, use magic freely, and make magically-binding pledges _{(see below)}. Every Title has access to one Regalia (an entire category of magic), and can split itself off from the Name and its fellow Titles.

Pledges

In order to enforce a promise made by another, a True Fae must swear on things it calls its possessions (servants, trinkets, and tokens) ; if the promiser follows through, They must give up this possession. In order to swear an oath (of enmity or alliance), A True Fae must swear on their Name or Title; breaking the oath takes the Title's power away, and It can then be killed permanently.
If a True Fae wishes to make a two-way bargain (both parties do something agreed upon in advance), It must swear upon its own true Name. If It fails to follow through, It is permanently destroyed by the Wyrd itself.

Life Cycle

Gentry are completely incapable of producing young, or indeed, anything truly separate and independent from Themselves.
A True Fae begins its "life" as a Name that declares to Arcadia that It will exist. Through fate and fortune, this Name makes deals with aspects of the Wyrd or consumes other Gentry to gain Titles. Titles come with a myriad of rules and powers that define the mercurial Fae; with Its first Title, This True Fae become capable of owning a piece of Arcadia and filling it with Themself, turning it into a Realm the Title who made it has complete control over.
But an empty Realm craves company. The True Fae will send one or a combination of its Titles to invite fellow Gentry, abduct hobgoblins and humans, or hire Huntsmen to abduct hobs and humans. Gentry who hold humans captive are called Keepers _{(and the specific Titles that crave to possess humans are called Keeper Titles)}, and they twist their captives through magic, training, and abuse into changelings.
Throughout all this, the True Fae doesn't stop hungering for Titles; it will continue to deal with the Wyrd and consume its fellows to gain more, for eternity.

Death

A True Fae who has their Titles taken and Name destroyed ceases to be — but if even one of its Titles lives on in another Fae, the Name could return one day. So, a Gentry-killer-to-be must destroy all of the Name's Titles. But if the Title is killed by something that doesn't consume it (like a changeling), the tangle of oaths that made it include a clause that it must exist — and so it will eventually return.
So how do you kill a god? As many fairytales suggest: trickery. If the pledges that made the Title are broken, the Title ceases to exist; it cannot be claimed by another Gentry. Tricking a Gentry into breaking these pledges is an arduous task that will probably take the undertaker's whole life to accomplish — but some changelings feel their Keepers are so bad that they are willing to dedicate themselves to it.

Iron

It is said that long ago, the Gentry all swore a contract with Iron — then broke it. Iron breaks all Fae magics, and cold iron (iron from meteorites or iron hand-forged by humans) burns the Gentry to the touch and saps Their strength.

Lifespan

immortal