Meadow Sprites

Meadow Sprites are playful friendly Fey found on meadows, plains and grasslands. They are curious beings checking out anything and everything that seems out of place in their homelands. An off-shoot of the Fairy branch of Fey, they show a more outgoing type of personality, and friendly disposition to other species.

Culture

Major language groups and dialects

Sylvan, and most know Elvish and/or Common (usually one of these: Brythonic (Welsh, Breton, Cornish, Pictish or similar), Gaulish, Godoilic (Irish, Scottish, or Manx), Saxon / Anglo Saxon, Old Norse, Frankish, Westphilian, Friesian, or other Germanic language).

Culture and cultural heritage

As Fey, they are heavily influenced by the Feywild, though will take in slight elements of the local cultures of the meadows & plains they inhabit.

Common Dress code

Lightly dressed even in winter, the Sprites use a gossamir material to construct their clothing. Light & loose enough to aid in movement, it is useful for flying too. They sometiumes use leather scraps & metal off-casts for armour as & when available or needed.

Art & Architecture

Sprites prefer to modify old dens of animals for their own use, and will regularly share the dens with the animal itself. They create burrows in such ways to give the animal it's own space while living in modified areas attached to the animal's living quarters that better suit their needs. Rumours persist that whole villages & towns are carved out by the Sprites deep in the earth with many entrances & exits through multipe animal dens. Many of these can hold tens or even low hundreds of Sprites.
Many Sprites will incorporate wood and gossimer into their homes, each carved or sown in such a way to act in different ways. Some help strengthen the homes & tunnels, others to cover entrances or private chambers. The wood alone is carved or grown a certain way to give a natural look along with being lightly stained with naturally occuring pigments from the earth and plants. The gossimer is the same when dyed, and appears to be grown more than weaved.

Foods & Cuisine

Fruits & vegetables as well as some flowers are common foodstuffs of the Sprites. Sometimes made into stews, soups and bread are common. Salt, herbs & spices are sometimes added for flavour. Most are took from the wild, and small personal gardens in their hidden groves are used to grow a percentage of what is needed. They rarely take to much so as not to unbalance the natural order, and to allow others to enjoy the bounties of nature too. It is also partly for the fact that the Sprites themselves do not need too much themselves for nourishment. They do enjoy a spot of alcohol and will brew their own alcohol usually from starchy & sugary plants, and flavoured with a spot of honey too if they can source some without damaging the beehive. Most communities of Sprites will have their own recipes for beer and/or wine made from specific plants, honey source, and herbs & spices.

Common Customs, traditions and rituals

Sprites follow the belief in nature found in many Fey, and worship gods & goddesses related to nature , animals, plants, and fertility. They regularly practice feasts & honour the deities during the solstices & equinoxes, while following the same local customs of humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes & halflings. This will include animal sacrifice if needed to prevent further damage to their natural surroundings down the line. They sometimes approach Druids or Germanic Clerics depending on region to take part in mystery rites honouring the 'Little Folk' or honouring the deities in other mystery rites.

Common Taboos

Actively desecrating places of worship & nature are anathema to Sprites. Also, despoiling corpses for any reason is forbidden, whether eating meat / flesh or more neferious acts. Deliberately harming any living being except in defence or if they pose a great threat is frowned upon. Dark magic is also frowned upon, especially Necromancy & destructive spells as these are linked to death and disrupting the spirit in the afterlife as well as the chance of summoning far darker entities that might cause irreparable damage to the natural order of life, death and the cycles associated to this.

Ideals

Relationship Ideals

Sprites have a tendency to be open & friendly with each other, and carry this over to their interactions with other species. They expect others to be the same. They usually avoid interacting with evil beings believing that they don't have the same outlook on life.

"They are a friendly bunch but beware how you act. Act aggressively or underhandedly they will possibly attack, or carry out some 'prank' to drive you off. Otherwise, they're like any of the Little Folk."
A nameless farmer outside Hamburg, Old Saxony.