Fey Speaker

People who ensure fey and mortals can live peacefully in an area.

Career

Qualifications

Fey speakers are taught on a master/apprentice basis, with each fey speaker expected to train and prepare their replacement.  This system helps both the local fey and mortals get used to the new fey speaker well before they need to start working together.
Apprentices learn about all the different kinfs of fey creature, rituals to placate an entertain them, and the language of the forest and meadows so that they can comunicate with the fey.  They also learn about charms and wards that can be used to hold back the fey as not all of them are friendly.  Most fey speakers also teach their apprentices about another craft to help support them when their settlements gratitude is running thin.

Payment & Reimbursement

Fey speakers in rural communities are usually supported by those communities, though many also have other jobs such as being the village herbalist.  In places where fey speakers are less respected they are usally forced to rely on selling charms or charging for placating fey who have been offended.

Perception

Purpose

Faries, sprites, and other fey creatures can be a blessing or curse to a mortal settlement. Fey speakers are mortals who dedicate their lives to finding ways the two sides can live peacefully side by side. Part counsellor, part diplocmat, and part teacher, the role requires intelligence, common sense, and boundless patience.
When mortals want to expand a settlement, or start logging a forest it is up to a dey speaker to find any local fey and seek their permission for the activity to go ahead. Sometimes this permission is easy to obtain, but at other times they need to provide commitments about the scale of the change and what their fellow mortals will provide in return. When fey encroach on a mortal settlement the fey speaker is sent to deal with them before any agressive action is taken, and when fey creatures feel aggrieved they seek out the local fey speaker.
Communities without a fey speaker are often find themselves suffering from a run of bad luck, especially after clearing part of a forest for farmland.  Depending on the level of development, this bad luck can increase to the point where the settlement seems cursed as the fey vent their displeasure on the community.

Social Status

In many rural settlements fey speakers are well regarded, as the skills that make them good at their job also make them useful advisors or comunity leaders.  The further a settlement is from nature the less respected fey spekaers are, and they are dismissed as charlatans and fools in many larger towns.