The Fair Folk: Difference between revisions

''Elves are terrific. They beget terror.

''The thing about words is that [[From a Certain Point of View|meanings can twist just like a snake]], and if you want to find snakes, look behind words that have changed their meaning.

 

 

 

The original terms for these (at least, in [[Celtic Mythology|Scottish]] lore) were the Seelie (vaguely goodish) and the Unseelie ([[Exclusively Evil]]). In Ireland, they were called ''sidhe'' ("shee") and would sour milk, kill animals, and [[Changeling Tale|swap people for changelings]]. Boys were dressed in girls' clothes until the age of 5, because otherwise the sidhe would [[Invasion of the Baby Snatchers|steal them]] for their armies. Building anything near a fairy fort was very bad. Going alone into a marsh was an invitation to get entranced by [[Cold Flames]] into their halls. Even if you were allowed [[Year Inside, Hour Outside|to leave their kingdom]], you could find that [[Year Outside, Hour Inside|centuries have passed]], and [[No Immortal Inertia|crumble into dust]]. Their [[Dances and Balls|dances]] would catch any human passerby and make him dance to exhaustion at best.

 

 

 

 

Their society and customs, if they even have the inclination to associate, are often [[Deadly Decadent Court|extravagant and elegant but amoral and inscrutable]], sometimes even for [[All of the Other Reindeer|some unfortunate Fairies]] themselves. It's by far not certain what degree of loyalty or compassion they feel for their conspecifics.

 

 

 

Ever wonder why Fairies are called "the Fair Folk" or "the Good Folk"? It's because calling them an ''unkind'' name is a good way to bring down their wrath upon your head. Especially [[The Wild Hunt]]. In addition, simply using the word "fairy" is considered insulting. (It's not clear why. The popular theory is it's like calling a human an ape.) On the subject of names, there's a 90% chance that a named fairy leader will be called Oberon, Titania or Mab. Other fairies are just as likely to have names drawn from ''A Midsummer Night's Dream''.

 

 

In a manner of speaking, the old version of the Faerie has been replaced with [[Alien Abduction]]. In both cases, you have [[The Greys|creatures]] who are ineffable and don't understand humanity, who randomly abduct humans, play with them, and return them with [[Year Outside, Hour Inside|Time]] [[Year Inside, Hour Outside|Loss]] and occasionally [[Touched by Vorlons|strange powers/afflictions]]. Periodically, there are tales of those who have dealt with them and benefited, but for the most part, mundanes are merely their playthings.

Luckily, much like [[Our Vampires Are Different|vampires]], fay traditionally have a few [[Achilles' Heel|weaknesses]] that can be exploited, including:

 

* [[Can Not Tell a Lie]] - Sometimes. Note that they ''will'' exploit and [[Ambiguous Syntax|twist]] this for all manner of deception, but a trickster hero can take advantage of this.

* [[Magically-Binding Contract]] - Related to the above. Any deal with the Fair Folk ''will'' be upheld from their end, though they tend to respect only the [[Exact Words|letter]] of any deal they make. God help you if you fail your end of a deal. (God help you even if you don't!)

* [[Pride]] - That bit up there about how they demand to be called the "fair" folk? They're ''all'' like that. To a one, they are proud creatures, concerned primarily with their own grand schemes.

Often found in concert with [[Grimmification]].

 

 

 

{{examples}}

* The Diclonii from ''[[Elfen Lied]]'' are heavily influenced by the Fair Folk and are in fact the "elves" from the title. They reproduce by secretly altering humans so that [[Changeling Tale|any children they have will be born as diclonii]] and they are all very beautiful or handsome. In feudal Japan they used to live like nobles ruling over normal humans until they were hunted almost to extinction. They are not particularly evil, but when they grow older they develop telekinetic abilities with which they almost always accidentally kill their human families and only survive by becomming deadly killers. Except the only remaining queen Lucy, who can give birth to pureblood diclonii and has the unstopable instinct to [[Kill All Humans]].

* [[Kaori Yuki]]'s ''[[Fairy Cube]]'' is probably best example of this trope being used properly in manga. From the protagonist's [[Fairy Companion]] debating whether or not to eat him in the beginning, to a Tuatha Dunann being weak to a pair of scissors (and being unable to cross fresh water), to the presence of ''changelings'' replacing children, a lot of classic fairy-lore is involved. Granted, some of it is modernized (said fairy companion is played as more of a non-romantic [[Tsundere]], for example), but the effort is easily appreciable.

* [[Berserk]] plays this trope dead straight with Rosine, a fairy-like Apostle who likes to carry kids off in order to turn them into her creepy little pseudo-elves in a rather twisted version of the [[Changeling Fantasy]]. The real Elves of the series, such as Puck, are more the benevolent version.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* As mentioned above, ''[[The Sandman]]'' by [[Neil Gaiman]] pretty much reinvigorated this trope for the modern era. ''[[The Sandman]]'' directly crosses over with a number of other comics, meaning that nasty elves also play a part in ''[[The Books of Magic]]'', ''[[Hellblazer]]'' and several other [[DC Universe]] series.

* The female fairies in ''[[Proof]]'' look like cute little green people, but act like ferocious predators with huge appetites (e.g. after mating, the butterfly-sized female eats the male, who's about as tall as a house). Fortunately, these fairies are non-magical and an endangered species.

** Said changeling, seeking vengeance against Hellboy, becomes the driving force behind an army of fae seeking to restore the glory days. Restoring the good old days, or going out with a bang, they don't seem to be picky. Resurrecting an ancient sorceress named [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|the Queen of Blood]] to lead the army basically adds destroying the world to the list.

* In [[Marvel Comics]], the fairy residents of Otherworld are similar to the DC versions. In particular ''Wisdom'' and ''Captain Britain and MI-13'' feature Oberon's daughter [[Shout-Out|Tinkabelinos]] (yes...), who resembles a foul-mouthed cross between Boudicea and a punk rocker.

* ''[[Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things]]'': the eponymous girl lives in a [[Lovecraft Country|strange neighborhood]], where [[Changeling Fantasy|abducted children]] are sold by goblins to the rulers of the [[Magical Land|Twilight Kingdom]].

* A late issue of ''[[Shade the Changing Man]]'' focuses on a group of actors filming the type of Disneyfied, Bowdlerized fairy tale made for children, shot on location in Ireland. They get together at a pub to express contempt for the film and the irresistible amounts of money that compelled them to take part in it, and the older Irish natives talk about the terror and brutality of the ''real'' fairy tales they grew up with. When Shade arrives and enters a fairy ring, his madness amplifies the effect across the entire country, with results deadly and deranging. The madstorm also wipes out the entire film production, to the relief of the surviving actors.

* The Fair Folk pop up from time to time in [[Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose|Tarot]], although the miniature pixies/goblins are more common. Notably, they don't seem to have any of the weaknesses listed at the beginning of this article.

 

* Even though she's usually called a witch these days, Maleficent, of [[Disney Animated Canon|Disney's]] ''[[Sleeping Beauty (Disney film)|Sleeping Beauty]]'', is actually a "wicked fairy".

** To quote ''[[Discworld|Nanny Ogg's Cookbook]]'': "How hard is it to invite her along, give her plenty of drink and a plate of ham rolls all to herself, and keep her out of the way of your posh auntie? Play your cards right and you could be ahead by an extra good wish."

*** Also note the spells they throw after Maleficient's raven turned it into [[Taken for Granite]]. Given Maleficients reaction when seeing this, it's not reversible...

** While the previous games had gone with the sorceress description, [[Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep]] rightfully lists her as a fairy.

* While we're on the topic of [[Disney Animated Canon]], in ''[[Beauty and the Beast]]'' the prince is turned into the Beast and his household servants into animated objects because he wouldn't let a disguised fairy stay the night and laughed at her payment of a rose.

** Note that said fairy was disguised as a poor old woman in the dead of winter. The prince's lack of hospitality and compassion would have been a death sentence if she'd been what she appeared to be. Her punishment was designed to correct his character flaws, never mind that his staff didn't deserve it, or that the prince was so young.

*** It's been mentioned by the staff that it was also their fault that the prince turned out the way he did.

**** But he's also between the ages of six and ten at the time going by the narrative.

* Aisling from ''[[The Secret of Kells]]''. Though she turns out to be much nicer than how the Fair Folk are usually portrayed, she still doesn't take kindly to those who intrude in her forest and initially even threatens to set her wolves on Brendan if he doesn't leave.

** Not to mention [[Magnificent Bastard|Jareth himself]] and his Goblins; the film is essentially a changeling tale.

** And the Fieries. They're playful rather than evil, but they have unfortunate gaps in their understanding of human physiology...

* ''[[Were the World Mine]]'', a musical adaptation of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', about an outcast gay kid cast as Puck in the school play who ends up {{spoiler|making a magic flower and causing people to fall in love with people of their own gender, essentially becoming Puck}}, often in musical sequences that are vague about whether it's a fantasy or not. The English/drama teacher, as well, is {{spoiler|implied to be a fairy, complete with magic that makes the townspeople bend to her will. Granted, this is to give Puck/Timothy a chance to fix everything, but it's still not quite right from a human perspective}}. Overall, the fairies depicted are very sympathetic, but there is definite selfishness and laughing at the trouble being caused to mundane people going on.

* Del Toro does it again with [[Don't Be Afraid of the Dark]]. No wings or sparkles here, the creatures [[All There in the Manual|(officially known as Homonculi)]] look more like [[Our Monsters Are Weird|evil hunchbacked lemurs.]]

* The creature in [[Absentia]] is actually a {{spoiler|troll}}. Many of the characteristics of the fae are present in the movie, such as the strict adherence to trading, [[Jackass Genie|the rules of which you'll have to figure out on your own]], living in another dimension, torturing people seemingly for shits and giggles, [[Nothing Is Scarier]], and abducting people. The movie is actually a good example of how to make the faeries terrifying to a modern audience.

 

* In ''[[The Once and Future King]]'', the Faeries appear, led by Morgan Le Fay. While it was an [[Unbuilt Trope]] at the time the book was written, the Faeries are much more the alien and malicious type. Although [[It Makes Sense in Context|Robin Hood and Maid Marien]] argue whether they are Faeries or not.

* [[Arthur Machen]] went back to the earliest folklore and legends and created a particularly nightmarish version he called the Little People. They appeared in his famous stories "The Shining Pyramid" and ''[[wikipedia:The Three Impostors|The Three Imposters]]''.

* Certainly, [[Brian Froud]] belongs at the top here. Modern audiences must have had a shock when his collaboration with Alan Lee, ''[[Faeries]],'' hit the shelves. It was one of the first books to include as many scary Fairy stories as nice stories. Froud has vocally emphasized that, while there are indeed evil Fairies and good Fairies in mythology, the vast majority of them are neutral. He actually apologizes, in the introduction, for the self-contradictory title of his follow-up book, ''Bad Faeries/Good Faeries''.

* In [[Aaron Allston]]'s ''[[Doc Sidhe]]'' the Fair Folk are just as morally varied as humans are. Furthermore, the Fairy World has advanced at the nearly same rate as the human world, so fairies in the 1990s have 1930s level technology, mixed with magic (which is no longer called magic because it can be studied scientifically). And they've interbred with humans so many times as a result of changelings and other visitations that most are nearly human height. And one of the fairies is a [[Captain Ersatz]] of [[Doc Savage]]. It's a lot [[Better Than It Sounds]].

* [[Poul Anderson]]'s ''The Queen of Air and Darkness'' riffs on this trope by having telepathic aliens on a frontier world use the legends of Faerie against the human settlers, right down to kidnapping children to use as changeling warriors.

*** One of his story inverts much of this trope: an iron-allergic member of the Fair Folk pretends to be an alien emissary to infiltrate and destroy the Real Alien Multi-Species Conspiracy who have infiltrated and are abusing human society - using a nonferrous spaceship barely able to make orbit as his Alien bona fides. Oberon et al. show up on the last two pages.

** Played totally straight with both Peter and the inhabitants of Avalon in Brom's adaptation of the Peter Pan story, ''The Child Thief''. Only [[All Trolls Are Different|Tanngnost the troll]] comes off at all sympathetically.

** Interestingly the Unseelie court is shown to work to the benefit of humanity: as the sacrifice every seven years binds all unaffiliated fairies in Unseelie territory to the Unseelie Queen's rule, it means she can control the Free fae and stop Kelpies and Redcaps and the like murdering people on a daily basis just because they feel like it. One Kelpie specifically says "We, who are not the rulers, we must obey those that are. Mortals are a treat for the Gentry, and not for the likes of you and me. Unless, of course, they are willing."

** Even the Summer Fae have a [[Blue and Orange Morality|rather alien outlook]] on things like morality. Aurora thought it was a good idea to {{spoiler|let the Courts destroy one another for the sake of breaking the balance between them, despite the massive destruction and death this would cause, because it would mean the end of fairy meddling in mortal lives forever}}. Titania has no problem {{spoiler|ordering her soldiers to destroy Dresden even while she is technically indebted to him, purely for the sake of preventing Dresden from saving Marcone on Mab's instructions; from Titania's perspective, if Mab wants Marcone saved, she wants him not to be saved (although there is also the fact that she has little enough love for Dresden in the first place since he killed her daughter, even though she was trying to destroy the Sidhe)}}. The best way to sum up the Summer morality is that while it can ''include'' kindness, it is by no means defined by it.

** Among the Winter Court... Well, sure, the Leanansidhe wants to turn her poor beleaguered godson into a dog, but that's because as far as she's concerned he'd be much safer and happier as one of her hounds than he is at the moment. ([[Hurting Hero|She might have]] [[Iron Woobie|a valid]] [[Being Good Sucks|point there]]) And Maeve once {{spoiler|ordered monsters to attack Chicago}} as part of a [[Batman Gambit]] because she was worried that {{spoiler|the Faerie Courts hadn't moved against the Red Court because of Mab's bizarre behavior}}, leading to a chain of events that saved a significant portion of the White Council. As Harry says in Changes Even in Winter, the cold isn’t always bitter, and not every day is cruel.

'''Jace''': ''All right?'' By which I take it you mean we survived?

'''Simon''': Well...

'''Jace''': Look, it's easy to outsmart a [[Our Werewolves Are Different|werewolf]] or [[Our Vampires Are Different|vampire]]. They're no smarter than anyone else. But faeries live for hundreds of years and they're as cunning as snakes. They [[Can Not Tell a Lie|can't lie]], but they love to engage in creative truth-telling. They'll find out whatever it is you want most in the world and give it to you -- with a sting in the tail of the gift that will make you regret you ever wanted it in the first place. They're not about helping people. More harm disguised as help. }}

** In a twist to this portrayal of the Fair Folk, (the following is a HUGE spoiler, so don't read this if you wish to enjoy the books) {{spoiler|the main character falls in love with the Faeran High King, who is anything but cruel, yet still adheres to the "Our morals are different" mantra when the mortal maiden questions the actions of his kindred}}.

** There are other magical beings in the books, collectively called Wights. These fall into the Seelie (benevolent to mankind) and Unseelie (malevolent to mankind) categories, but the Faeran have no such distinction.

* Unsurprisingly, Fairies tend to be pretty unsympathetic in modern day versions of "[[Tam Lin]]", such as [[Pamela Dean]]'s ''Tam Lin'' and [[Diana Wynne Jones]]' ''[[Fire and Hemlock]]''. In Dean's version, the Fairies are described as absolutely alien: "like linear A. They look as if they ought to mean something, but you can't tell what it is."

* The Others in ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' are a cross between elves, vampires, and cold elementals. The children of the forest are a diminutive, woodland folk with great power. Although they warred with mankind, they eventually made peace, then dwindled away as civilization swept through the continent.

* [[Tad Williams]] seems to like this one, as he uses variants on it in several of his works:

* ''The Chronicles of Fairie'', a series by O.R. Melling, fits this trope nicely. The trope is subverted, though, in that fairies you meet are sympathetic...to a degree. They're willing to go to almost any length to get what they want.

* [[Andre Norton]] examples:

** However, while they are powerful and cruel, they tend to be thick and unable to learn, and aside from the Queen and select Lords (and even they tend to be highly unimaginative), seem to be almost incapable of forming much original thought.

{{quote|'''Granny Weatherwax''': You call yourself some kind of goddess and you know nothing, madam, nothing. What don't die can't live. What don't live can't change. What don't change can't learn. The smallest creature that dies in the grass knows more than you. You're right. I'm older. You've lived longer than me but I'm older than you. And better'n you. And, madam, that ain't hard.}}

** Winged fairies seem to be fairly mindless and vicious creatures, somewhere between insects and the more aggressive kinds of songbird.

* Terri Windling's ''[[Border Town]]'' anthologies have a mashup of various fae types. There are elven street gangs, half-elves, fae wannabes, fae-touched, and so on. And their behaviour toward humans varies accordingly. The Bordertown actually exists on the border of genuine, under-the-hill Faerie, and the river running through it is called the Mad River, because to humans one sip is instantaneously addictive and insanity-generating {{spoiler|though it is possible to recover from Mad River addiction -- Tick-Tick helped Orient get off the water}}.

* [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s ''SERRAted Edge'' series, and a whole host of other related works, are set in a world where the Seleighe and Unseleighe Sidhe are very real, both dwelling "Underhill", a sort of parallel dimension that is imbued with magic and touches on our world at "Nodes." They were driven there by the increasing preponderance of iron (which is hazardous to them) in the world, but some have adjusted and made a comeback.

* The fair folk from [[Jack Vance]]'s ''[[Lyonesse]]'' isn't downright malicious, but tends towards the whimsical in negligent or destructive fashion. Fear to tread...

* The ''[[Mercy Thompson]]'' novels make this very clear in the third book, which features a kelpie that tries to eat Mercy. Not to mention the Grey Lords who consider killing Mercy for poking into their affairs, and only back off {{spoiler|when they learn that killing Mercy would anger the Marrok and start a war with the werewolves}}.

* The third book in Kate Thompson's [[Switchers]] series, ''Wild Blood'', features fairies like these. As the series was intended for children, the fairies aren't ''too'' malicious, but there are threats of violence towards the main characters (also children).

* In ''[[Tales of MU]]'', elves historically fell into this trope and some wild adolescent elves still live there. Faeries exist, too, and are the only thing that [[Badass]] elven hunter is afraid of (apart from [[Everything's Worse with Bears|bears]]).

* [[Gene Wolfe]]'s ''No Planets Strike'' has the Beautiful Ones of the [[Recycled in Space|planet Sidhe]], who allow unlimited immigration in (supplemented by luring sailors off trading spaceships) but won't allow anyone to leave once there, kill those who try, and horrifically torture those who otherwise run afoul of them.

** In ''Sir Orfeo'', the fairy king takes people at the moment of their death and keeps them in his kingdom as they were then:

{{quote|''Then he began to gaze about''

* In [[John Ringo]]'s ''[[Council Wars]]'' series Elves, who are actually a product of genetic engineering are portrayed as holding themselves apart from humanity, including the eponymous wars except for one who is shown as good if mischievous and she's a different subspecies from the others. It's often hinted that the origin of Elves might be even older than thought and outright said that it's a good thing they hold themselves aloof, because if they ever chose to interfere in human affairs we wouldn't have a chance.

* ''[[Coraline (novel)|Coraline]]'' (again by [[Neil Gaiman]]) strongly hints that the Other Mother is one of the Fair Folk, with one of her victims saying her true name is the Beldam (a possible play on ''La Belle Dame Sans Merci'', a poem where a knight is cursed to suffer eternally after having relations with a fairy maiden, although it's also just an archaic word for "witch").

* [[Charlaine Harris]] in her ''[[The Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries]]'' series would have it both ways with Claudine and Claude. The former aspires to be an angel and tries to do good whilst the latter is amoral at best but both chose to live amongst humans. Then there is Niall Brigant, {{spoiler|the grandfather to the two and Sookie Stackhouse's great-grandfather}}, a fairy prince who has a benign but distant regard for humanity yet sees the benefits of tapping into human industries. Others of their kind have a distinct hatred for humanity and all that it represents. This tension over human contact {{spoiler|and interbreeding leads to a civil war and some use mankind as its fodder}}.

** Don't forget the fairies that {{spoiler|drowned Sookie's parents}} and later {{spoiler|kidnapped and tortured Sookie by cutting her up and biting off chunks of her flesh. Yeesh.}}

** Felurian in [[The Wise Man's Fear]] is closer to the [[Fair Folk]] classic trope. Essentially a leanansidhe or succubus figure, she's a creature of desire, almost like an [[Anthropomorphic Personification]] of seduction. She is described as innocent but caring little for right and wrong; she seduces men who pursue her into Faerie, takes them as lovers, and when she eventually tires of them they die or go insane for wanting to be with her. While sympathetic, something of a mentor figure, and certainly a strange and wondrous being, she is ''very'' dangerous, not out of malice but simply out of being so different.

*** And then there's the Cthaeh who is omniscient and always tell the truth. Problem is it enjoys telling the truth that will hurt the listener the most (it's omniscient so it already knows all of the listener's reactions to anything it says) and cause grand-scale disasters.

* Fairy lore plays a part in Tana French's novel ''In the Woods''. The mystery of {{spoiler|what happened to Rob and his friends in 1984}} is deliberately left ambiguous, but one valid interpretation is that {{spoiler|the Pooka took the kids}}. In the sequel, ''The Likeness'', it's hinted that Whitethorn House {{spoiler|may have been a fairy stronghold and that the family at some point coupled or intermarried with the Fair Folk}}. (It's also possible that this is just nasty local rumor, in part meant to justify the village's ongoing dislike of the family.) Cassie is also spooked by unseen things scuttling around in the fields at night.

* ''[[Sea of Trolls|The Land of the Silver Apples]]'' by Nancy Farmer. The elves kidnap toddlers, put them on leashes, and when they get tired of them, leave them for the wolves to eat.

* ''The Stolen Child'' is founded in the myth of the changeling found in European folklore (wherein the Fair Folk/fairies/hobgoblins/sidhe steal a human child and replace it with one of their own). The fairies/hobgoblins of ''The Stolen Child'' are not evil, per se, but they are wild and uncivilized creatures, given to theft, vandalism, all manner of mischief, and of course stealing human children.

* David Brin's [http://www.davidbrin.com/thoseeyes.htm Those Eyes] has faeries as 'aliens' who do traditional mischievous faerie and cow-mutilating alien things. {{spoiler|Who are being driven to extinction by humans being more skeptical, seeing through their glamour}}.

* Kiersten White's [[Paranormalcy]] plays this trope pretty straight. The Seelie Courts are the 'good' ones and the Unseelie are the 'bad' ones and they are all weak to iron and some extent silver... and get drunk on soft drinks. Neither side can resist a [[I Know Your True Name|'Named Command']] but both [[Exact Words|twist]] [[Literal Genie|the]] [[Jackass Genie|words]] [[Loophole Abuse|of]] the command into something they like and don't obey the same laws as humans ([[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|"physical, social, emotional, traffic"]]) and only work towards their own designs. The only difference between the two appears to be that the Unseelie will kill people for no reason, while the Seelie have some sort of [[Disproportionate Retribution|justification]]: however neither side appears to have any problem with {{spoiler|creating prophecies that predict the death of tens of paranormals (possible all of them) and creatures (Evie and Vivian) to carry out these prophecies and steal souls JUST TO SEE WHO WINS}}! Don't worry if you have trouble telling the difference between them, Evie thought {{spoiler|her ex-boyfriend Reth}} was Unseelie. It's a very understandable given that {{spoiler|he manipulated her, stalked her, kidnapped her, burnt her arm, stalked her some more, let a serial killer into the IPCA where it killed her best friend, held her new boyfriend hostage so he could get a new name, kidnapped her again}}, and then explained, vaguely, what was going on. And even he thinks the [[Complete Monster|Unseelie are horrible]].

* [[Robert E. Howard]] wrote several stories, the best known of which is the [[Bran Mak Morn]] story "Worms of the Earth" featuring a race that lived in Britain before first the Picts, then the Celts drove them literally underground where they mutated from their already unpleasant orginal selves into [[Reptiles Are Abhorrent|reptilian abominations]].

* The Aelfinn & Eelfinn (Snakes & Foxes) of [[The Wheel of Time]] are very much the (unnamed as such) Fair Folk, complete with otherworldliness and Seelie & Unseelie division.

* The Phanfasms in the [[Land of Oz|Oz book]] ''The Emerald City of Oz'': Sadistic, creepy, illusion-slinging shapeshifters {{spoiler|[[The Starscream|who have every intention of turning on their allies as soon as their mutual enemy is dealt with]]. [[Oh My Gods|Thank Lurline]] for the [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|Fountain of Oblivion]]}}.

* Where to even BEGIN with how thoroughly this trope is used by Paul Kidd in his novelization "Descent Into The Depths Of The Earth". Faeries are ancient, powerful, decadent, insular, isolationist, supremacist, given to truly byzantine machinations to get what they want, and most of them think PHYSICAL REALITY is beneath them.

* A mostly benign version appears in Lloyd Alexander's ''[[Chronicles of Prydain]]''.

* Played almost painfully straight with the world of Mark Chadbourn's ''[[The Age of Misrule]]'' and subsequent series' in the same world. [[Above Good and Evil]], [[Black and Gray Morality]], [[Blue and Orange Morality]], [[The Unfettered]], [[Pay Evil Unto Evil]] abound in a [[Crapsack World]], and thats just the Tuatha Dé Danann. Their [[Evil Counterpart|"evil" counterparts]], the [[Eldritch Abomination|Fomorii]]... are worse.

* In [[Devon Monk]]'s ''[[Age of Steam|Dead Iron]]'', LeFel is an exiled fairy and will die soon if he doesn't get back. He's extremely unscrupulous about means.

* Dennis L. McKiernan likes to demonstrate his [[Shown Their Work|knowledge]] of fairy lore in his Mithgar series as well as his Faery series.

 

* The Fairies from the ''[[Torchwood]]'' episode "Small Worlds," who would think nothing of drowning the world beneath a flood to get their hands on ''one'' little girl.

* The Sidhe in ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' transformed two of their own into mortals as a punishment. They require the death of a mortal prince before they'll change ''one'' of them back.

* The Black Lodge people from ''[[Twin Peaks]]''.

* The Fairies in their true form on ''[[True Blood]]''.

 

== Music ==

And the cholic for jest }}

 

 

* ''The Stolen Child'', by [[William Butler Yeats]], is about a child lead away by the fairies. While they might be doing him a favor, as it's implied that he's unhappy (although he might just be overwhelmed by the misery around him), they show no sign of telling his parents or family that he's alright.

* [[Goethe]]'s ''[[The Erl King|Erlkönig]]'', along a very similar theme to the above. In this poem the "Erl-King" is a Faerie creature who wants a boy he finds pretty to come with him, but when the boy refuses, he seizes the boy's soul by force, killing him (though an alternative interpretation [[Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane|holds that the ill boy was feverishly hallucinating]]). The name ''Erlkönig'' is often anglicized as Erl-King or Alder-King, but it is ultimately a corruption of the Danish ''ellerkonge'', which in fact means Elf-King.

* The Fair Folk (appropriately enough) of the tabletop RPG ''[[Exalted]]'', who are [[Cosmic Horror|shapeless chaotic beings]] who feed off of the emotions of mortals, often leaving them zombified husks. They don't typically have driving motivations so much as drives they adopt because they seem dramatically appropriate, and would like to see Creation as a whole dissolve into the Wyld because the very concept of something operating by logic disgusts them.

** Well, not always. Quite a [[Incredibly Lame Pun|fair]] amount of them have moved into Creation, losing the "shapeless" part. God help you if you find one of [[Cosmic Horror|the]] [[Eldritch Abomination|Unshaped...]]. There's a certain pathos to these; they're still scary monsters from the perspective of Creation, but to themselves they're magnificent nobility stranded on the edges of an alien world who cannot return home (since scarier things await them...)

* ''[[Changeling: The Lost]]'' paints Fairies as powerful incomprehensible alien entities that regularly abduct humans and take them off to their homeland, where they are [[Involuntary Transformation|warped]] to fit their masters' perceptions of them. The Changelings of the title are humans who've managed to escape back to Earth, but who've been [[What Have I Become?|changed]] by their time in the world of the Faerie and are trying to avoid their former captors at all costs. Notably, ''Changeling'' also directly correlates the modern concept of [[Alien Abduction]] with the Fae, explicitly invoking such standbys as lights in the sky, strange experiments, and Keepers taking the form of [[Little Green Men]] or [[The Greys]] in a number of places.

** It is explained later that the True Fae need conflict to prevent themselves fading away into the random background chaos of Arcadia. As a result, [[Foe Yay|the closest thing they have to friends among other Fae are their sworn enemies, as by fighting they're keeping each other alive]]. They can also be inanimate objects (Props), legions of lesser beings (Wisp), and entire self-enclosed universes (Realms) in addition to their normal forms (Actors). With enough Titles, they can do the aforementioned simultaneously!

** White Wolf also published ''Dark Ages: Fae'' which is "officially" considered to be a prequel to [[Changeling: The Dreaming]], but is so radically different it can also be run as a full [[Alternate Universe]]. In it fairies are divided into The Firstborn; who are true fae without need for that pesky mortal shell. Inanimae; beings whose bodies are based on natural elements, as well as artificial constructs. And Changelings; who in this setting are different from both the above. Being human children spirted away and raised as faeries, faerie children raised in the human world, or true [[Half Human Hybrids]]. The fae are divided into 5 courts based around their preferred powers and attitude towards humans. All four of the primary courts, the fifth simply being the neutral group, quite easily come across as this trope. It's been remarked that the difference between good and evil faeries isn't over whether they ''should'' rule over humans, but rather how they should go about it. The Spring Court wants to learn about "modern" humanity and use that knowledge to revive the fear and reverence that they once received. The Summer are the harsh traditionalists, and intend to punish humans for breaking their ancient, and forgotten, oaths, and restore the old order. The Autumn Court, like the spring, wish to learn more about humans and work with them, however rather then outright respect they wish to manipulate the course of history from behind the scenes. Finally is the Winter Court, which isn't actually [[Exclusively Evil]], but they do their best to appear so to humanity. The fact that characters tend to have very alien and unique systems of morality is one of the games major themes.

* The Elves in ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'''s Lorwyn set are horned and hooved, supposedly to remind you of deer and satyrs, but... They are also aristocratic, ruthless, and predatory, and have built a society with castes based on cunning and physical attractiveness. The Castes range from Faultless, Immaculate, Exquisite, to Perfect, the top of the pack. Eyeblights, which includes non-Elves as well as ugly or disfigured Elves, are scum and can (or must) be killed.

** Flavor text for the original Alpha Llanowar Elves: "One bone broken for every twig snapped under foot." Pretty brutal for 1/1 druids that give you green mana.

** There are also Faeries in the Lorwyn setting; they're mostly mischievous and disrupting, if not outright evil. Though they went from being simply mischievous in Lorwyn/Morningtide to being outright evil in Shadowmoor/Eventide. The [[Big Bad]] for that block was {{spoiler|Oona, Queen of the Fae}}. And [[Game Breaker|exceptionally overpowered]].

** While elves are often described as being close to nature and the fey, they are still typed as humanoids; fey has its own type, and includes a very wide array of very strange creatures. In 4E, you may notice that there's not a single good-aligned fey among them...

** 4e consolidates previous editions' elves into three main groups: the Eladrin (4e's High/Sun/Moon/Star elves), Elves (4e's vanilla/Wood/Wild elves), and Drow (the same ol' dark elves). The Eladrin were given the fey-subtype and elevated to the position of masters of the Feywild (4e's Faerie). The Seelie and Unseelie courts can be found in The Manual of the Planes supplement as the Summer and Winter courts respectively, as well as several other courts.

*** The Elves are [[Our Elves Are Better|as beautiful, shiny and powerful]] as they usually are. However, even the "good" ones [[Fantastic Racism|strongly believe all other races to be inferior]], though a few tolerate the better (and, ahem, most handsome) humans (but never [[Elves vs. Dwarves|dwarves]] or [[Exclusively Evil|monstrous humanoids]]). A neutral Elf will kill anything he perceives as a potential threat to the Elves or their forests without a moment's hesitation. The less said about the Elves who are ''actually'' evil, the better.

** In The [[Points of Light]] setting of 4e, in addition to the Eladrin, there are the Fomorians, a race of hideous, evil giants who universally have the powers of "the evil eye" and have the eternal allegiance of all the cyclopses.

** In [[Ravenloft]], the Arak or "shadow fey" range from meddlesome to [[Exclusively Evil]] in temperment, and don't limit themselves to stealing infants: if you have a talent or skill that appeals to them, they can sever your shadow, reducing you to a soulless automaton going through the motions. Your shadow becomes a construct that'll compliantly work for them forever. Even Good-aligned Arak insist they're ''doing them a favor'' when they practice this technique on mortals.

*** Even the conventional "sylvan fey" of the Land of Mists can be nastier than elsewhere, due to the ambient influence of the Dark Powers throughout the setting.

** ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' used to have few true fairies, but in ''[[Counselors and Kings]]'' Unseelie are presented as one of the very few things that can truly scare Drow, as opposed to irritate them or cause to back off for now.

** In ''[[Pathfinder]]'', a game based on a modified version of D&D 3.5, elves are aliens.

*** Though it is is the ''gnomes'' who are the Fey-connected people with a more alien perspective on things. The elves may have their quirks, but in comparison their mentality tends to be a tad bit closer to humans (as befits a race native to a Pulp Venus analogue).

* The Elves of Ios in the ''[[Iron Kingdoms]]'' are xenophobic isolationists who have [[Hidden Elf Village|closed off their nation's borders to outsiders]]. Of the few Elves that do leave their homeland, a fair proportion are assassins who have dedicated their lives to hunting down and killing human wizards and [[Magitek|mechanika]]-users. They do this because they believe that human arcane magic and mechanika are draining the life from their last remaining [[Physical God]], thereby dooming the Elven race to extinction; whether or not this is actually the case has never been conclusively addressed.

** To say nothing of the Nyssian Elves, who are enslaved body and mind to a [[Cosmic Horror]].

* The Elves in [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]] Fantasy. You get either [[Fantastic Racism|arrogant bastards]] (High Elves), xenophobic bastards (Wood Elves) or [[Complete Monster|murderous bastards]] (Dark Elves).

** The Wood Elves in ''Warhammer Fantasy'' well qualify: they are extremely xenophobic and generally act more like a force of nature than a civilized people. This is especially true with their king, Orion the Hunter, who every spring [[The Wild Hunt|goes on a rampage around the woods and nearby area]] with a host of spirits and wild hunters.

* The Fae are... generally decent in ''[[Scion]]'' (at least the Irish ones). But they have their rules, and if you break them, it's your ''ass''. The Erl-king (mentioned above) shows up as well, and is a fairly powerful, nasty sort.

* ''[[GURPS]] Technomancer'', a modern-day fantasy setting, has fairies taking the place of [[The Greys]] - Seelie and Unseelie encounters involving abductions, lights in the sky, traumatic repressed memories, and rumors of two Seelie being captured near [[Roswell]]...

** Although the Code does specifically prohibit dealings with the Infernal, it's usually because there's just no way to win against Demons and that kind of thing breeds diabolism (and ends up being what got House Tytalus in trouble). But they tell you ''do not molest the Fae'' because although they ''can'' be dealt with fairly and can even have good relationships with other denizens of Mythic Europe (as House Merinita can attest), ''they do not forget being slighted, ever'', and they ''will'' carry grudges, and they have ''very'' creative ways of expressing them. The (usually high-point-value) Flaw "Faerie Enmity" can be taken without actually providing a specific reason: your ''great-great-grandfather'' you never even met might've offended some faerie at some point and that's the only reason they need.

* In the history of the game [[Fairy Meat]] humans at one point existed (and still may, but they aren't relevant any more) and were taunted by the Fae, but that time has long since passed. Now all fairies are more busy trying to rip each other apart so they can [[I'm a Humanitarian|have some lunch]].

* [[The Laundry Series|The Laundry RPG]] brings faeries into the universe of cthulhoid "information entities." Like the series' demons, they're made up of information strung together through an electromagnetic field, explaining why iron messes them up so badly; similarly, it's said they appear rarely in modern Britain, given how the nation is wired to the gills. They do take children, however, and changelings are explained away as a class four [[Glamour]] placed over a poppet made of twigs and string to make it look like it's a real child. And the kids? They're [[Body Horror|turned into biological computation matrices]] in order to sustain a field that will keep the faerie in our world.

 

* The fae of ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'' are actually an early aversion, much as one might expect from [[Shakespeare]]. They are portrayed as close to human and Oberon's interference with the lovers is actually benevolent although, of course, [[Hilarity Ensues|things go awry]].

* Another aversion by Shakespeare is Mercutio's speech in [[Romeo and Juliet]]. In it he talks about how Queen Mab flies around at night giving people happy dreams, but also sometimes causes mischief and nightmares but these are no worse than minor tricks.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

*** A cat can be a bat can be a hat can be a demon... WABBAJACK!

** The same world also has Spriggans, half-plant half-woman things who are not too fond of visitors to their forests...

** The zone of Croatoa, where the Red Caps run fierce, also has the Fir Bolg, weird pumpkin-headed scarecrows, and the Tuatha de Danaan, who aren't so much the Celtic gods as, well, "wookie moose." And then there are the black sprites that hover around Eochai (the Giant Monster of the Fir Bolg) during the Halloween event, which are called, of course, The Unseelie.

*** It is revealed that the Fir Bolg and Tuatha de Danaan are ancient enemies of the Red Caps, who transformed them into those odd forms to torment them even more.

** This trope is referenced by Justin Augustine at the beginning of his Task Force: "Far out in the center of this region is a place called the Chantry. It's supposed to hold all kinds of vast and ancient secrets, including a powerful being the natives only refer to as 'The Kind One'. Now, a title like that can mean a lot of things in folklore, like trying to placate something monstrous." (Though Faathim the Kind does actually live up to his name, and has a Task Force of his own.)

** Is it just me, or does that sound like a [[Deconstruction]] of ''Zelda''?

* In the ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' games, where [[All Myths Are True]], there are Fairies and Elves around too, of course. And while they're certainly both cute and pretty, that doesn't mean they won't kill you just for being there.

** Or Puck could side with your rival who tries to [[Love Potion]] you to abandon the quest, but accidentally ''get'' your female party member (the funniest scenes ensue in ''[[Shin Megami Tensei II]]'' because of this).

* The pixies in ''[[Fable]]'' are malicious childlike buggers with raspy voices and a penchant for human sacrifice.

* The fair folk from ''[[A Tale of Two Kingdoms]]'' are not downright malicious, but tend towards nasty pranks against humans (particularly but not limited to the player character). The powerful and beautiful fairy queen turns out to be {{spoiler|not so benevolent as she tries to permanently entrap you in the fairy world}}.

* The Folks in ''[[Folklore]]'' pretty much want you dead with a few small exceptions. The "Faeries" are simply the denizens of a realm of the Netherworld created when people dreamed of an afterlife of paradise...but that still doesn't stop the "paradise" from being filled with dozens and dozens of deceased souls that turned into angry Folks that want to kill you.

** Also played with in the first game, where the hero can be forced to dance with fairies to the point of death.

* Averted in the ''[[King's Quest]]'' games. There are wicked ones (Lolotte, Malicia), inscrutable ones (Mab, the Fate Sisters), and benevolent ones (Genesta, Oberon, Titania, and Edgar). Certainly, they can wield magic and have a strange logic on how things should run (The [[Fan Sequel]] ''[[The Silver Lining (video game)|The Silver Lining]]'' also depicts that they prefer to be outside, no matter the weather), but they aren't much different than humans otherwise.

* ''[[Touhou]]'''s actual fairies don't really fit beyond being mischevious; they're universally stupid and weak. On the other hand, some of the [[Youkai]] come pretty close, most obviously [[Reality Warper|Yukari]], who is beautiful, mysterious, and [[Boss Subtitles|the one behind the spiritings away]].

* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' has two races of elves: Night Elves and Blood Elves. Night Elves, members of The Alliace, tend to be more benevolent as they're mostly nature lovers, but they are also very fierce warriors who aren't fond of outsiders. The Blood Elves, members of the Horde, are downright evil for the most part as they're very vain and derive their magical power from an imprisoned alien. There are also High Elves, who were the closest to Tolkien's elves, but there are very few left as most of them became Blood Elves. Also, Sylvanas Windrunner, a former High Elf, became a banshee after she died and founded the undead Forsaken, another Horde race (who are arguably also evil by nature since they are undead).

** Hell, the playable [[Our Elves Are Better|elf races]] in ''Rift'' have their Fair Folk traits. The high elves spawned House Aelfwar (a bunch of Greenscale cultists), and the Kelari have a cultural [[A God Am I|divinity complex]].

* Played straight and subverted in the ''[[Gretel and Hansel]]'' series. While most of the creatures and spirits in the games try to kill Gretel and Hansel, the actual fairies they meet in the second game become their allies.

* The Hidden People, the extremely creepy [[Our Gnomes Are Weirder|Gnomes]] from the ''[[Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent|Puzzle Agent]]'' games.

* In [[Dragon Age]] people ''think'' the Dalish Elves are this and treat them accordingly. Which is unfortunate, given as they are for the most part simply nomadic hunters who just want to be left alone.

* ''[[King Arthur the Role Playing Wargame]]'' features both Sidhe courts (Seelie/summer court and Unseelie/winter court) as prominent factions you can ally yourself with if you follow the Old Faith. The Seelie mainly operate on [[Blue and Orange Morality]] and are described as honourable and honest 'in their own way' (being Old Faith and Righteous), while the Unseelie are fairy, err, ''fairly'' malicious (Old Faith/Tyrant) and [[Deal with the Devil|and bargains with them usually involve giving them your subjects' children]]. Allying with either court allows you to hire [[Changeling Tale|children the sidhe have "whisked away"]] as soldiers for your army.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

** Penchant for mischief belongs to the ''[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=332 cute]'' part.

** Chapter 36 revisits Foley House, where former fairies and other Gillitie Wood creatures go, specifically the class of those four ex-fairies we have seen in Chapter 15. [[Spirit World|Etheric side]] of the classroom is effectively one crazy playground, and inhabitants generally are childish, but so adorable and hilarious that Annie puts up with their manners (or rather lack thereof) and joins the fun... not that everything was so simple, of course.

** The setting also contains fairies closer to the [[Lighter and Softer|cute and friendly version]], who only interact with the material plane to drop glowing rocks in small circles, inside which living creatures occasionally hear the sounds from another dimension trickle over.

* ''[[Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures]]'' may or may not invoke this trope; while the fae seem mostly good on the surface, at worst being strange and random, it has been shown that {{spoiler|Mab, one of the title characters, has secretly been manipulating her friends for her own (unknown) ends for an indefinite length of time. What she has been doing so far seems to be to their benefit, but only as far as we know...}}

* Fey in ''[[Code Name: Hunter]]'' seem to be mostly a combination of the Scottish and Irish traditional fair folk. Including kidnapping of mere mortals in order to pay tithe to [[Hell]].

** Max once lampshaded the "Disney" idea most Americans have of fairies. [http://www.codenamehunter.com/archive/comic/2011/11/14 "Trust me, a person would have to be desperate to go through a fey gate"]

* Sandoval, the Xoan Ambassador from ''[[Oglaf]]''.

* ''[[Spina Cage]]'' has had a single faerie appear so far. He tries to eat the main character.

* ''[[Eerie Cuties]]'' has a few. The named ones include ice fairy Cessily who generally is not malicious, but ambitious and prone to devising [[Zany Scheme]]s which tend to land her and her ditzy [[Playing with Fire|ifrita]] friend in the middle of a trouble they started - the "Elemental Duo" generally act as resident clowns. Oh, and she also is good at using her ice-morphing power for lockpicking. Her even more hyperactive twin sisters Sorbet and Neige are "best friends" both with the teen vampire [[Cuddle Bug|sharing their taste for hugs]] and generally not acting her age ''and'' with her "arch-enemy", the demon kid who addresses them as "minions"... because her magic prowess gives them more opportunities for mischief (on their own they can't crash a party via teleporting circle, for one)... and because they can beat her in a game to decide who does dishes today.

** ''"(Seriously, we could have died. We probably still will. Faeries are tricky.)"''

* In the [[Whateley Universe]], the Faerie are an ancient race who think of humans as pets raised (originally) in a garden world. They apparently feel the same way about werewolves. Fey, one of the protagonists, was changed into her current appearance by an ancient Faerie spirit who now resides in Fey's head. While Fey is inhumanly beautiful, in "Ill Winds" her true form is a luminescent energy form that isn't remotely human.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* The "Third Race" from ''[[Gargoyles]]''. Especially the episode when Oberon and Titania were out to capture Xanatos's son Alexander for the Gathering. Goliath thought it was so vile that he actually ''sides'' with Xanatos to prevent Alexander's capture.

** Oberon is consistently depicted in the series as capricious, vain and arrogant, [[Screw the Rules, I Make Them|making and breaking edicts on a whim]]. Sure, he'll say his magic will never harm you and yours, and it won't... until he wants it to.

*** Interestingly, [[Word of God]] has said they used to be a whole lot worse. After being banished from Avalon most changed considerably; besides Oberon who, at the time, was mature and compassionate in comparison. And don't even get started on his [[God Save Us From the Queen|mother]].

*** Titania, his wife, seems to be of the other type thankfully, and is more than capable of controlling her husband. {{spoiler|Unfortunately, she's the instigator for the incident with Alexander. And then also the instigator for the interference of the Gargoyles}}.

*** On the other hand, Puck {{spoiler|is Owen}}.

** Also, the April Fool in "Fools Day Out" called causing the Earth to go into an Ice Age by hitting several planets and stuff is a "prank" or "joke".

** One episode also has "Scary Fairies". A state brought on by a fairy being stuck in pitch black for too long, who compulsively desire to eat their Godkid. {{spoiler|Fortunately it's all just a practical joke on Timmy.}}

* Brian Froud's ''Fairies'' was adapted as a half hour animated special in the 1980's.

* A lot of the spirits from ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''. Most notably Koh, a giant centipede spirit who delights in [[Face Stealer|stealing people's faces....]]

 

----

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Otherness Tropes]]

[[Category:Cyclic Trope]]

[[Category:Elven Tropes]]

[[Category:Urban Fantasy Tropes]]