Sidhe (Shee)

The Sidhe, are a roughly humanoid race that originate from the strange but beautiful world of Avelon.

Biology

Unspoiled beauty
Sidhe are not born through biological means. Instead they simply appear within Avelon, wandering in from just out of view. They are immediately able to speak sylvan, their own native language, but must learn things such as tool use and control over their innate magic.
Sidhe are seemingly immune to the ravages of time. However that does not mean sidhe are immortal; a sidhe continues living through attachments to the mortal world: by having interests, hobbies or friends. However as they grow older they find the things that are important to them less and less interesting and they find it harder and harder to connect to new people and things.
If a sidhe ever finds themselves in a positions where they have nothing to tie them to the mortal world, if they come to find no meaning or enjoyment in life, a great melancholy will overcome them and they will simply fade away into nothing.

Sidhe have an innate powerful magical talent. They have no need to make pacts with foreign powers. Their magic is a mixture of nature & arcane magic.

The Bane of Iron:
Sidhe react negatively to the presence of iron. It is poison to them, simply being near it causing them physical pain and long exposure will eventually kill them. It also suppresses their magical abilities.

Bound by Avelon:
Due to being creatures of Avelon, sidhe are bound by the laws of Avelon even when outside of it. However Avelon's laws of course do not apply to creatures that do not stem from there, meaning that when making contracts it is the sidhe that has to be especially careful or risk making an agreement they did not intend yet have to uphold anyways. It is Avelon's quirks that allow the sidhe to deal even ephemeral things like names, likes, emotions or memories Still apply so long as it is between sidhe.

Forever Bound:
Sidhe are obligated to keep any promises they made and seem to have a supernatural sense if a preexisting obligation of another person would conflict with their own, or with any new deals and agreements. The sidhe must always uphold the excact word of any contract and agreement they make.

The Death of Truth:
Sidhe are physically unable to lie, ever. That does not however mean they are unable to deceive. Instead they can simply mislead or omit critical information, thus never speaking a lie but still speaking no truth. Many sidhe enjoy word-games and skirting thise rule by technicallity.

History

The Sidhe are an ancient species, but they have remained largely static for thousands of years. This has both limited their expansion and their success, but they are still around while some of their contemporary empires have collapsed.

Creation
Originally the Sidhe were created by the three fairy queens; goddesses that formed a pact to create their own mortal species. They imposed the rules of Sidhe biology upon them, either immediately or after major incidents in the sidhe's history to further limit them.

Expansion
The Sidhe expanded their empire to several adjacent worlds, such as Laumia, where they proceeded to create relatively stable societies. During this time they engaged in warfare both with other empires such as the Jotnar, but also in a constant slow-boil of civil conflict.

Placidity
SInce their expansion the Sidhe have remained largely static for thousands of years, not expanding beyond their borders as they had no need, for their numbers were never allowed to expand by their queens. They continue to fight internally for territory and other more mundane reasons however, they have by no means created some utopia.
The Sidhe certainly do change, but they do so over very long timespans.

Culture

Sidhe culture revolves closely around passions and interests. Sidhe are literally kept alive by pursuing their passions and as such their culture is highly accepting of individuals hyper-focussing their chosen field for hundreds of years, until they get bored of it.

It is not uncommon for a sidhe to focus centuries on masonry, only to spend the next few centuries on perfecting their skill in martial arts and swordfighting. Unsurprisingly that means that the older a sidhe is, the more skills they have accumulated.
Of course, many young sidhe get entranced by dangerous interests such as the study of Dragons or arcane Magic, leading to their untimely demise.
Sidhe are very fond of artistry and sophistication. They prefer to do anything through minimalist effort or through manipulation and guile. The ultimate show of skill would be to defeat a rival by making another person do it for you without either of them ever realizing your involvement.

This has also lead to an generalized acceptance of trickery. Sidhe live for a long time, so tricking another into working for you for a few years through a soul pact is just a minor life-lesson to them. This also applies to having items stolen. Other civilized species often do not understand this, and the sidhe are not quick to explain.

Foreign species:
Despite their inability to lie outright and inability to avoid obligations, Sidhe are not known as honorable folk who keep their word but instead as scheming tricksters that will bend the word of any promise and agreement and are perfectly willing to manipulate others by twisting the truth to their own purposes. Sidhe are known to keep their written contracts but one should always check their backs and triple-check contracts made with them for linguistic loopholes.
Sidhe used to enjoy messing with foreign species by luring those unaware into Avelon and tricking them into terrible deals, unaware as they were of it's rules. Avelon has thus become a cursed place in many a species' understanding and they will cathegorically refuse such an offer even if they do not quite understand why.

Society

Sidhe live in small communities with low population density, their largest cities are very small by human standards.
Sidhe like being in touch with nature, their cities are often integrated into the surrounding landscape without disrupting trees, rivers and mountains as much as possible.
Sidhe like to avoid crude stone or metals, they only rarely engage in subterranean mining and dont like to use fire. They instead use their own magic to facilitate a lot of the things that other species might have to use fire and force to achieve.

Loyal to the courts:
Sidhe are divided into three 'courts'. They are absolutely loyal to the court they are attached to. They cannot conceive of betraying their court and the only way for them to do so is by way of mind-controlling magic. Sidhe see themselves and their courts as one and the same, and while there is plenty of infighting inside a court, none ever dare inconvenience the monarch. The sidhe themselves operate independantly or as part of the retinue of a sidhe noble that have their own individual territories or agendas but that are all ready to serve their queen at a moment's notice.
Individuals can swap courts, but they can only do so with the persmission of their superior. They mostly do this because their world-view has shifted to align more closely to those of another court. in such cases, a superior will welcome them wanting to leave their court, as they are no longer fit to work with their original court in any case.

The Summer court, The seelie court
The Summer court is also called the 'seelie' court. they are whimsical and playful, though a traveler must take care not to mistake their joy and kindness for innocence.
Summer Sidhe like to portray themselves as being the 'good' Sidhe, but in many ways this is a lie, and the winter Sidhe are merely more honest. Summer sidhe are capricious and whimsical, following their impulses unless they have prior commitments. They have an appreciation of art and beauty and a deep connection to nature, desiring to protect it wherever possible. They prefer to live in the moment and to live for the pleasures in life, for art and good foods.
The Summer court is ruled by queen Titania and her royal consort, King Oberon.

The Winter court, The unseelie court
The Winter court is also called the court of the 'unseelie'. Cold, beautiful and distant, the unseelie believe in survival of the fittest above all.
Winter Sidhe are much more primal and cold, as well as much more ruthless than summer. Winter Sidhe value skill and expertise, as well as strength and passion, with many enjoying a survival-of-the-fittest mindset. Compassion in the Winter court is to send a pack of wolves after you while you sleep, for if you can't survive against them you could never survive in the outside world. Winter Sidhe prefer a direct approach whenever possible and it is said that there are no civilized winter sidhe.
The winter court is ruled by Mab, Queen of air and darkness.

The Gloaming court, the shadow court The gloaming court is the smalles of the three courts and holds dominance in the underwild, the massive caverns under the surface of Avelon. Gloaming court sidhe are varied, though most hold some form of resentment against the surface world. They may despise light and life or may simply enjoy the darkness. The shadow court has surprisingly positive relations to both Summer and Winter
Gloaming court Sidhe are close confidants of the queen of night, Dulcina. They are much more apathetic-seeming than their summer and winter counterparts. They in large part value secrecy and covertness, as well as their own conception of 'decency': anything that draws too much attention or makes too much 'noise' is seen as unacceptable to them.
The gloaming court is ruled by Dulcina, Lady of the Night

Warfare

In warfare the Sidhe use incredibly powerful magic and elite warriors to defeat their foes. They are generally outnumbered by any foe they face, but their individual warriors usually also outperform any adversary they face.
The Sidhe's magic can be used to facilitate invasion, stealth and mass destruction. One of their greatest feats is developing magical great-arrows that can be fired from the back of great eagles in the sky to level entire enemy cities.

Hunting strategy

The Key in fighting the SIdhe is using their weaknesses against them. Sidhe are both physically and magically powerful but they are also burdened b a variety of natural disadvantages.
Primarily one should use iron weapons and armor to both better shield oneself from the sidhe's magic as well as weakening them if they get within striking distance. Grappling a Sidhe while wearing iron armor is also a good way of making them unable to use their magic.
It is unwise to try to match a Sidhe in a contest of martial or magical skill, they will usually be faster, stronger and more magically capable than any human fighting them.
Situations where one could be ambushed by the Sidhe are to be avoided at all costs, as Sidhe are well suited to performing devestating hit-and-run tactics.

If a Sidhe surrenders, they are bound to keep their word and comply with any conditions told to them for the duration of their imprisonmen, so long as those conditions are not so barbaric that the sidhe then decides they would rather die standing.
It is thus advisable to prepare a short script in advance that spells out the terms of surrender to any Sidhe so they cannot escape using some loop-hole. Sidhe make for model prisoners so long as you get them to agree to the conditions of being a prisoner.

Appearance

Sidhe look mostly like humans but are clearly not human, their appearance subtly off. Their skin is too pale, their eyes too large and with pupils like a cat's, their limbs too slender and their mannerisms strange. They are also deceptively fast and graceful.

Sidhe can theoretically live forever, but most live for an average of about 200 years. They start their livesd fully formed and do not get weaker with age.