Fey
Essentially, Fey in Dis are mostly localized in the Vaean Hegemony which has practiced a form of eugenics for 4000+ years-- they cracked genetics about the same time they figured out agriculture and it’s been a non-stop marathon of bad ideas about it ever since. Blame the Jade Demiurge.
They’re matriarchal, but it’s not as excessive as say, Faerun’s Drow, (respect to mister Greenwood): power just defaults to the gals because they control the means of reproduction and inherit the property. Thing is, they have the same narrow window of acceptable femininity: it's just wearing the crown now.
This is explicitly a Bad Ideology.
there are 6 Hegemonic castes. High to low, it’s Oligarch Caste , Synod Caste , Gigas Caste, Secutor Caste, Prolus, Nosferata Caste . There are one for each D&D ability score if you want to remember it like that. In order, Cha, Int, Str, Dex, Wis, Con.
Solemn provides the mnemonic "Oh Shit Gray Sluts Proceeding North" Fey don’t typically marry, and those that do are a very small minority. Offspring are an explicitly political matter with a lot of paperwork involved. Twins and triplets are incredibly common, which is a big part of a reason they figured out genetics so fast. Kids are raised in creches run by their extended family. Love for each other has little to do with it, but Fey are famously extremely attentive to their offspring. Reps at the Long Faire inclued one of the bottom caste are Nosferata, essentially expendable Morlock drudges. Nosferata handle all the hazardous labor, including specialized smith castes, which includes Solemn. and Gigas Tiberius Thanadeus Val'Saturnans, the war-caste, which has a chain of command that goes all the way up to rubbing elbows (and occasionally breeding) with Oligarchs.
Solemn provides the mnemonic "Oh Shit Gray Sluts Proceeding North" Fey don’t typically marry, and those that do are a very small minority. Offspring are an explicitly political matter with a lot of paperwork involved. Twins and triplets are incredibly common, which is a big part of a reason they figured out genetics so fast. Kids are raised in creches run by their extended family. Love for each other has little to do with it, but Fey are famously extremely attentive to their offspring. Reps at the Long Faire inclued one of the bottom caste are Nosferata, essentially expendable Morlock drudges. Nosferata handle all the hazardous labor, including specialized smith castes, which includes Solemn. and Gigas Tiberius Thanadeus Val'Saturnans, the war-caste, which has a chain of command that goes all the way up to rubbing elbows (and occasionally breeding) with Oligarchs.
Basic Information
Anatomy
While broadly analogous to most other humanoids in anatomy, they differ from humans most noticeably in their skin color: Fey have gray pigmentation, with skin varying from ash white to onyx black.
Fey eyes are diverse, with minor trace elements in the iris causing broad variations in Fey eye color. Silver, blue, gray, black, red and yellow are the most common but purples, greens, hazels and oranges are not unheard of, and in fact some Fey gens are defined by their exotic eye colors.
Fey ears have pointed cartilage, typically extending an extra inch or two outward from the head. Ear shape is highly varied, and has been selectively bred for aesthetic purposes They can wiggle them..
Beyond this, due to the influence of the Germline, Fey have highly varied morphologies.
Oligarchs are usually tall and hypersexualized, with males being broad shouldered and narrow-hipped, and women being curvaceous and wasp-waisted. Both sexes typically feature long legs and either incredibly fair or pitch-black skin. Oligarchs tend to have high interpersonal intelligence, and have exceptionally efficient kidneys and livers, making them highly resistant to toxins and disease. However, the quirks of personality that give Oligarchs a magnetic charisma often degenerate into dementia with age.
Synodes are usually gangly and fragile. Many lineages have signature deformities of the skull and limbs that are thought to be linked to enhancements to the intellect, or simply an unfortunate cost for a brighter mind or defter hands.
Giges are massive creatures, generally averaging over eight feet tall and possess abundant body hair, sunken and fierce eyes, square jaws and hypertrophic musculatures. Males often grow large, proud beards.
Secutores look like evolutionary throwbacks, long-limbed and agile, usually well adapted to the place of their birth. Lithe and acrobatic, they are hunters of beasts by design, and many now hunters of men out of circumstance.
Nydae are generally stout of body and tend to quickly mimic each others' actions.
Nosferates look like Morlocks, with cloudy, shoddy eyes, upturned noses, wide, batlike ears, and hunched over frames with mottled hides. They often have a sheen of sticky sweat over their bodies, which assists in their tremorsense.
Biological Traits
Lifespans vary by caste. Fey babies are even more helpless than Human children but their fast rate of maturation means they hit puberty at about the same time as Humans when everything slows down a little. They are mostly developed at fifteen, fully grown by their twenties.
Oligarchs can live past a century and age like a fine wine.
Synodes are sickly and a solid fifth of the caste never sees their thirtieth birthday. Those that survive can live to a very crotchety sixty- or seventy-something. There is intense pressure to write everything down when you might drop dead tomorrow and it shows: Synodes view immortality and adventure as achievable through literature. Agoraphobia is worryingly common.
Gigas who don't die violently retire around forty, but can live to their fifties or sixties before their hypertrophic body starts breaking down and old wounds catch up with them. They are incredibly good to their veterans.
Secutores have the same problem, making it to about forty before wear-and-tear catches up with them. Many Secutors are famous for carrying the capacity to go truly beyond their limits for days before dropping into a sometimes-lethal coma. They are scary when wounded or cornered.
Nydes can live into their seventies, and often are sustained past that by the community who value their wisdom as an elder.
Nosferatae are tough as nails and can survive extreme trauma. They can live past a century, though few do given their usual occupations. Many die young from a sudden failure of their organs, but the disposability of a Nosferata means there is far less pressure to figure out how to "fix" it.
Where a Gigant lineage might pivot over generations to improve something as simple as eyesight, many Nosferata Gens carry disabilities in their genes, but have nonetheless prospered via workarounds of incredible ingenuity. Pragmatism is tremendously desirable for any Nosferata looking to procreate.
Where a Gigant lineage might pivot over generations to improve something as simple as eyesight, many Nosferata Gens carry disabilities in their genes, but have nonetheless prospered via workarounds of incredible ingenuity. Pragmatism is tremendously desirable for any Nosferata looking to procreate.
Genetics and Reproduction
Fey don't marry, and instead pair off based on a complex mechanism of multigenerational favor-trading, peerage, and genetic providence. Ideally, this system produces a relatively consistent network of specialized clans, with hereditary characteristics aligning with the hereditary jobs of the clan. Most villages barely manage something close.
Fey copulate just as humans do, but generally birth in clutches of 2 to 6 children. Twins are common. Fey pregnancies are long and arduous, bordering on debilitating near the end of term.
Fey within their community are expected to take to supporting mothers with enthusiasm and reverence out of sheer necessity: feeding a half-dozen additional rugrats is not a job for a Nuclear Family.
Fey can produce offspring with other races in the Homo genus, albeit with a small probability of success. Even if it works, the offspring are predisposed to all manner of bizarre health problems and exclusively sterile.
Additional Information
Social Structure
Fey are most famous for their caste system, which is founded on their unique means of reproduction. Fey do not marry, nor do they raise families. Instead, Fey maintain a complex hierarchy of eugenic peerage called the Germline, which is used to discern who must couple with whom in order to have the best odds of producing children who will meet the needs of the community. Healthy children are surrendered to be raised in 'creches' after being weaned, where they are raised and watched over by older members of their caste until around age 10. After a ritual and trial they are apprenticed to their 'closest' genetic relative according to the results. They live and learn with that relative until they are considered adults at age 15.
Particularly sickly or deformed children are exposed in the wilds as a mercy; those who perish (or disappear) out there are said to have been returned to the world for another go at being born hale and healthy. It's supposed to make it the Kid's fault (they are said to have "stumbled"), and allay blame from the mother, but some regressive societies place some onus of guilt upon the mother and her family.
Fey find safety in numbers and crave belonging. Rogue members are swiftly ostracized.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Nadrys.
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
Fey, as a whole, observe a trinomial nomenclature, with a Praenomen, Nomen, and Cognomen, broadly defined as "Person, Family, Clan".
From broadest to narrowest: the Cognomen comes last, and identifies the Fey's clan-- called a Gens-- which may number in the hundreds of individuals, and traces back to a famed ancestor that defined or redefined the clan's purpose. The Nomen identifies the Fey's Stirpes, a genetic "branch" linked to their intended purpose or defining trait, stirpes aren't always fluid, and a Fey might be affiliated by name to an uncle or aunt instead of to their parents. Finally, the Praenomen is a personal name that identifies the Fey as an individual.
The Cognomen is always prefixed with Val' (eastern) Vec' (Western) and Tir' (Clannish) prefixes to the surname. In each language, the contraction is referring to the outmost wall, intended to be evocative of the individual as the outermost emanation from a particular lineage.
For example, Vania Coeurlia Val'Procellia is Vania, of the Coeurlia family, from the Procellia gens, and is probably from somewhere in Vigensia Magna.
Beauty Ideals
Fey have a long and complex history of cosmetic use. "Composed" and "Natural" beauty is one of the favorite fights Western and Eastern fey like to pick with one another when politics is a non-starter.
Oligarch beauty regimens are the stuff of legend, with access and effort declining sharply as you descend down the Germline.
Abroad, exaggerated tales of one mad oligarch's vanity make their way into fashion magazines and human visitors to the Hegemony often return with scandalous claims of some extreme a baroness resorted to to maintain her legendary beauty. This is to say nothing of the actual vampires that walk openly in Fey courts.
Gender Ideals
Fey are matriarchal, and practice fairly strict and extreme gender roles. Men accentuate their physical size; broad shoulders, hardened features and cock-sure audacity, while women accentuate their chest, hips, legs, softness and cunning.
Transgendered, Nonbinary, and Asexual fey exist in a contentious position in Fey society, as the onus to perpetuate the Germline demands they produce some kind of offspring. Many Fey simply grit their teeth and fulfill this obligation, and then are generally let alone to act as they please. However, easy access to Alchemic methods to alter the body means that a Fey so inclined to alter their anatomy can easily do so with little fanfare or pearl-clutching from society at large, even if they disappoint their parents.
Contrarily, individuals who have lost- or never had- the ability to reproduce hold a privileged position in society and while divorced from their families, they are regarded highly as advisors, elders and people of learning. With no 'stake' in the Germline, sterile individuals are encouraged to undertake scholarly pursuits where neutrality is key: recordkeeping of kinship and biography, arbitration of disputes between families (especially custody), bastards and pairing rights.
Courtship Ideals
Fey never marry for love, however the process of figuring out how to pair off is a complex and arduous one, and certain pairings call for lifetime partnership, though staying together is a completely companionate matter.
The process of wooing involves as much the individuals as both families, and is generally instigated by the woman and generally involves demonstration of their most desirable traits in feats of strength, skill, or cunning. It is not uncommon for Fey of age to undertake (or be pressured to undertake) a quest, journey or other arduous task in order to draw the attention of more distinguished families and provide bragging rights and prestige to the family's scion. There's a lot of paperwork involved. A typical Fey will produce one or two series of offspring out of familial duty, but despite this, Fey love is fairly free. Fey practice sex for pleasure, and are generally considered to be pansexual, with exclusive Homo- or Heterosexuality considered unconventional. Although they don't marry, Fey do experience sexual desire and love. Outside of maintaining the Germline, will mate for pleasure (usually enthusiastically and often), and have used an herb called Devilscandy as a contraceptive for centuries. Some of these relationships are monogamous by choice and those with particular affection of the other's company can stay together for years or a lifetime in a coupling roughly cognate with marriage.
The process of wooing involves as much the individuals as both families, and is generally instigated by the woman and generally involves demonstration of their most desirable traits in feats of strength, skill, or cunning. It is not uncommon for Fey of age to undertake (or be pressured to undertake) a quest, journey or other arduous task in order to draw the attention of more distinguished families and provide bragging rights and prestige to the family's scion. There's a lot of paperwork involved. A typical Fey will produce one or two series of offspring out of familial duty, but despite this, Fey love is fairly free. Fey practice sex for pleasure, and are generally considered to be pansexual, with exclusive Homo- or Heterosexuality considered unconventional. Although they don't marry, Fey do experience sexual desire and love. Outside of maintaining the Germline, will mate for pleasure (usually enthusiastically and often), and have used an herb called Devilscandy as a contraceptive for centuries. Some of these relationships are monogamous by choice and those with particular affection of the other's company can stay together for years or a lifetime in a coupling roughly cognate with marriage.
Average Technological Level
Fey are generally slow to adopt alien technologies, but quick to innovate on their own.
Compared to the average Human, Fey are generally more educated and informed. The necessity for Fey to understand their heritage has begat large-scale opportunities to learn literacy, history and philosophy.
Culture and Cultural Heritage
On the shoulders of giants...
The central underpinning of the Fey ethical structure is the collectivist interpretation of the concept of "excellence"-- more acurately Virtue or Arete. Undercaste Fey are far from servile bootlickers or soulless clones reproducing the mistakes of the past. There is no shortage of individuality both within and in opposition to the Germline-- without mutation, how then would we evolve, after all? But Fey thinking views the individual as the tip of a spear of a massive web of interconnecting forces that allow them to excel. Ancestry, clan, caste, hegemon and luck are all, in part, to blame for any one Fey's success, and it is the individual's job to realize it within themselves.
This is the meaning behind the Val' in the Fey's cognomen. They are just the crown of a longer thread of Fey who brought them to where they are today. This notion has more critiques than supporters in the contemporary era, but it remains the starting point of most Fey thought.
Common Taboos
Bastards and "unclaimed children"-- called Spuries-- are heavily stigmatized, and are generally doomed to vagrancy from birth.
Fey are superstitious regarding deformity and mutation, including Cambions, and a Fey Cambion holds an unstable and heavily scrutinized position in any Fey family or society. However, mutation is necessary for evolution and the abundance of stories regarding virtuous mutants who turned their 'curse' into a asset causes a some Fey to hesitate in condemning the strange and unconventional outright. Detractors, however, insist improvement of the germline should be conducted gradually, and sudden divergences from tradition and breeding are little-understood, and thereby dangerous.
Cross-Caste relationships are especially stigmatized, and Mixed-caste Fey (or dead-gods-forbid Half-Fey) are called 'mongrels' and often suffer total and complete ostracism from any society.
Incest is right out, but historically practiced with with predictably disastrous effect.
Spreading rumors of an ancestor being a product of any combination of class-contamination, incest, or hereditary deformity is such a conventional way to conduct a character assassination it borders on gauche.
Common Myths and Legends
The female hero twins Vae (Vae Temenos Hegemonia) and Vix (Vix Parthenos Hegemonia) are symbols of the Hegemony, respectively representing war and peace (among numerous other attributes).
As chronicled in the heroic epic Geminos, they were born as daughters of the Demiorgos Rho-- the Gold and Jade demiurges Temraster and Ziemorme-- and were said to have lead the Fey to their sacred valley, Parthenos-Temenos, of which they named themselves
Once there, with the favor of Gold and Jade they wrested the control of Parthenos-Temenos from the "Bastards of the Valley"-- the indigenous Formoire clan lead by the two half-brother chieftains, the bickersome Balores.
Vae, Vix and the unwed maidens of the Fey took their pick of the Formoire men, with several were paired off with the strongest surviving warriors and workers, forming the basis of the caste system. Vae and Vix took the half-sibling Balores. The Fey say this was a willing engagement of willing submission, but that is likely far from the whole truth.
Vae and Vix then have further adventures to give context to the many other quirks of Fey society, such pedagogy, the roles of men and women, rules of war, and even sexual mores.
They're represented by a double-bitted waraxe (A labrys, if you're a pedant), an oak tree, and sometimes a rabbit.
Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
The Germline's presence in all of Fey society means that Fey struggle to place other species in their hierarchy and their natural clanning instinct means they generally don't leave Fey-dominated territory unless exiled or on a quest.
Where Fey are in the minority, enclaves do exist in small numbers. Lone questing Fey often find themselves among other cultures and species though generally don't stay longer than absolutely necessary.
Fey and Humans mutually regard each other as profligate deviants, with Fey finding Human familial structure alien and chaotic and Humans considering the Germline heartless and rigid. Fey and Din share an appreciation for hierarchy and hereditary obligation and the Din's general xenophilia means that they generally find a way to get along with any species, Fey included.
Humans are seen as a 'whore race', prone to all manner of sexual misadventure. Humans ironically have the same notion about the Fey and common joke across Dis involves a Din stubbing his shin in a bar, declaring "Cousin-fucking whoreson!", and a Fey and Human turn to him and shout "Don't talk about my father that way!"
Genetic Descendants
Scientific Name
Homo Cinereus Sapiens
Origin/Ancestry
Heavened Race
Lifespan
Varies
Geographic Distribution
Related Ethnicities
