The Folk

The Folk are hard to describe. As time goes by, more and more humans who've never seen the Folk simply don't believe they still (or, to some, ever did) exist. Even to those who believe, most common people rarely meet one and if they did they might not know...or remember. They are masters of disguise and hiding in plain sight, which only further serves to confuse the issue. The only places you might know to find them with any regularity are their homeland, the continent of Saman, and Galanthis. All "common" knowledge of the Folk comes from stories and tales.

Biological Characteristics

Appearance

There is no standard appearance for the Folk. They range from tiny pixie-like creatures to hulking giants. Almost every Folk has both a natural form and a human-like disguise form. In some rare cases, an individual will become stuck in one form on the other, usually through trauma. This duality has also led to the Folk being described in some lore as shapeshifters. For the most part, the Folk are humanoid and bipedal, though this is not a hard rule.

Magical People

The Folk are a very magical people. They are known for both everyday magic and feats of great magic. However, they are also known as a frail people with a lot of physical and mental weaknesses - the greater the magic, the more likely they have debilitating weaknesses.

Genetics and Reproduction

To the common person, not much is known about the genetics and reproduction of the Folk, but according to the stories they are capable of creating offspring with other species. There are also plenty of tales about changelings and stolen children. The Folk themselves struggle to reproduce with other Folk, with low rates of successful conception, low rates of children successfully carried to term, and high rates of infant mortality. In contrast, the stories say that half-fae children are incredibly strong and easy to produce and carry to term, and their physical traits often breed true though their magic may be diluted.

The truth is somewhere in between. It is true that the conception rate amongst full-blood Folk is low, and the stronger the person's magic, the harder it is for them to conceive. When they do conceive, fae-folk have difficult pregnancies and births that usually result in a single or twin birth. The child's human-disguise form will follow the natural law of human genetics in appearance. The child's true-form may take after a single parent or be a mix of both parents.

Growth Rate and Maturity

The Folk are slow growers, and according do some stories don't ever totally mature. Their lifespans are not well known but they live at least a hundred years and the rumor is some of them live for millenia.

Mannerisms & Social Structures

According to the tales, and the so-called "experts", the Folk govern themselves in loosely-related social groups called Courts. Each of these groups is ruled by a single individual or a pair of individuals known by titles such as King and Queen, Lord and Lady, etc., and with some system of defined ranks below them. The Courts themselves can be comprised of Folk who share type characteristics, live in a common area, or share interests, and they name themselves accordingly (i.e. the Deir Court in the Deir mountain range, the Night Court composed of Folk who are primarly nocturnal, or the Giant Court for a settlement of giants). Some courts may owe or swear fealty to a higher court, and thus some Folk may belong to several Courts. Courts are often antagonistic towards each other.

Raising Young

Though they live incredibly long lives and mature slowly, the Folk also have some trouble producing offspring, so children are rather valuable commodities, and precious to entire communities.

Expatriots

There are few openly known expatriots, but as they are known for hiding in plain sight, the true number is fairly high.

Interspecies Relationships

Relationships are hard if you don't really exist. That said, according to the stories, the Folk find other species and people fascinating and form enemies and friends on an individual principle rather than a species-wide one.

Origin of the Folk

The Folk have been here long before the humans were - before, also, the other native species of the planet (the Marelis, the Dracanis, and the Vasati). They are the true natives of the planet. In fact, the other three native species are actually human-folk true-breeding hybrids from the First Immigration of humans. The humans from the First Immigration died from a mysterious illness that rarely affected hybrids and did not affect the Folk, leaving behind just the Three Races and the Folk.

The Fourth Race

The people of the Faedin were human-folk hybrids who shared more physical characteristics with their human parents (appearance and shorter lifespan) but had more of the magical characteristics of their Folk parent - in fact, they were often even more powerful than their Folk parent. They were also a true-breeding hybrid like the Three Races, and had settled most of the continent now known as Austra. They were known to others as High Magics. They did not, at first, seem to contract the illness that affected the human descendants of the First Immigration - but it was later discovered that most of them had become infertile, and there were not enough individuals left to propagate a new generation. Those few who remained were reabsorbed into the Folk society, and they became something of a myth even amongst the Folk.

History of the Folk

For all of their other strengths, the Folk are terrible keepers of history. They keep few written records, and those they do are often embellished or skewed. They prefer songs and stories, but those invariably become changed over the course of retellings. As a result, the history of the Folk is more of a general outline than anything concrete and detailed, and the history of the First Immigration is likewise almost entirely lost to time, because the Folk generally only bothered to keep up with the bits most relevant to themselves - or most entertaining.

The Folk

---

Also Known As

The Other Folk
The Other People
The People
Fae (plural)/Faerie (singular)

Scientific Classification

Not Human

Average Lifespan

Centuries to Millenia

Average Height

2' to 10'

Geographic Distribution

Saman
Free Territory of Galanthis
Hidden Worldwide

Related Ethnicities

--

Genetic Descendants

• Dracanis
• Faedin
• Marelis
• Vasati

Related Organizations

• The Veil