Children of the Night
Culture
The Children of the Night were a dark and twisted group of beast-like fey. Unlike the Summer Court who reveled in song, dance, drink and music; the Winter Court enjoyed snuffing out life and violence of any kind.
I remember the first time we laid eyes on them. It was on a summer night, and there was a dune that rose high above our citadel to the east. You could see them from all that distance - they were these massive things, taller by far than any man, covered in black and grey matted hair, all over their bodies. They were like… like if someone described a man to you, but they had never really seen a man themselves. Their eyes glowed in the dark, and they just… stood there, shoulder to shoulder, maybe fifty of them in a row. We tried to approach them and communicate, but they just stared at us. They made this… this horrible noise, like a child giggling, this half-chattering inhuman laughter, and they would sing these… these eerie songs, in high pitched voices. My master was the High Magistrate, an extremely powerful figure in his own right, and he went out to disperse them, and they… They just… they pulled him apart. Like he was a toy, they just grabbed him, slowly, and they weren't… they weren't affected by his magic at all. They just started pulling on him, and laughing, and they pulled him apart. Now, this is where I decided to flee, but you couldn't run from them, either. They were faster than any man, and stronger than any man. They couldn't be pierced with a spear, they weren't bothered by arcana. They seemed to dislike fire but they weren't harmed by it. They rounded us all up and bound us in these black chains, and then they dragged us back to their ships on the coast. I… I only survived by laying over the body of an old farmer, who begged and cried for three days straight. By the time we arrived he had gone still, and when I flipped him over everything left inside him fell out — the earth had reduced him by half, like pine against sandpaper. -Methuselah the Arcanist, in The Blood Wood Tree.
History
When Ya'zwen begane to raise the first life, many of them turned into the Fey lords and ladies of the summer court, including their leader Titania. However some of them were tainted by the Chaos of the universe and became sick and twisted. Instead of enjoying life for its existence, they enjoyed life for its ability to end.
Disbandment
Nearly all of the Winter Court was killed on 53BS, during what is known as The Day the Flowers Bloomed.
Divine Origins
When the first group of humans split from the Feywild and left Ya'zwen, they fey took this as a slight and disproved of the Humans doing so. It's believed that their ill-wishes towards them is what manifested the children of the night, as they were prone to hunting the broken off sects of humans and brutally killing them.
DISBANDED/DISSOLVED
Dissolution Date
11th of Gricel, 54BS
Type
Religious, Druidic Circle
Alternative Names
The Winter Court
Leader
Parent Organization
Related Species