I thought to share a little player facing information (depending on Faerie Lore ability) I put together for my own campaign - which is quite heavily into various faerie factions. My players needed something more tangible as they progress (some things here are red herrings, so don't take it all too literally as canon).
Happy to take suggestions and discussion.
Faerie Lore
The Faerie Lore Ability measures your character’s capacity to comprehend the complex motives of faeries, negotiate with them, and predict the likely outcomes of faerie interactions. Some characters master Faerie Lore by studying and cataloging countless legends or historical anecdotes in which faeries have intervened, while others rely on the intuitive knack born of direct encounters. Another approach involves the application of intricate models—treating faeries as if they obey certain "equations" or theoretical constructs that can forecast their moods and reactions.
A character who worships faeries as gods, and learns Faerie Lore from the sacred texts of his religion, is just as capable of predicting what faeries will do, and negotiating with them, as a character who views them from a more worldly perspective. In part, this may be because faeries deliberately modify how they respond to humans to suit the human’s attitude toward the fae.
Regardless of whether one views faeries as minor deities or elusive beings from a parallel realm, all these methods converge on the same fundamental ability: the capacity to perceive how faeries operate and how one might successfully parley with them.
Faerie Lore, therefore, represents both an intellectual discipline and a deeply experiential understanding of faeries’ intentions, social structures, weaknesses, and perplexing mystique. Rather than being a mere list of trivia, it constitutes an expansive framework for interpreting faerie behavior in the field. By meticulously comparing local tales, verifying rumors, and collecting personal observations, a practitioner of Faerie Lore gradually pieces together the subtle patterns binding faeries’ unpredictability.
Characters with Faerie Lore learn the vital protocols of faerie courtesy, so they may discern when an area or an encounter suggests a fae presence. This awareness surpasses raw fact-gathering; it demands an ability to parse the semiotics of myth and legend, unveiling the deeper significance of certain symbols or events in a faerie’s domain.
Gaining even a modest proficiency in Faerie Lore can allow a character to sense which forms of address might appease a fae chieftain, which offerings might curry favor, and which personal behaviors might provoke retaliation. By the same token, misreading a faerie’s signals—or, indeed, not recognizing them at all—can trigger calamitous results.
Basic Competencies in Faerie Lore include
• Recognizing Faerie Signs: Spotting subtle footprints, unnatural plant growth, or eerie lights that suggest a fae presence.
• Common Folktale Guidance: Recalling simple cautionary tales—don’t eat fae food, don’t stray from the path in a haunted forest, avoid calling faeries by direct names.
• Minor Etiquette: Understanding the importance of humility or politeness toward “the good neighbors,” such as leaving small tokens or ensuring you never say “thank you” to certain fae.
• Localized Myths: Knowing the popular legends of your region—like the trickster brownies of the barn, the water-sprite in the millpond, or the lost huntsman rumored to appear at midnight.
Expanded Competencies in Faerie Lore can include
• Pinpointing Faerie Demographics: Identifying the local subtypes of faeries, their breeding grounds, and seasonal patterns of emergence, along with recognizing which fae prefer isolated wilderness vs. those who mingle with mortal towns.
• Complex Court Hierarchies: Understanding the roles, hierarchical structures, and protocultural norms of faerie courts—especially helpful when encountering regal or aristocratic fae who uphold elaborate traditions.
• Dangerous Taboos: Diagnosing taboos or “words never to be spoken” that, if breached, grant faeries the moral or magical right to punish the offender, as well as knowledge of obscure token-offerings that may restore goodwill.
• Illusory Dissections: Unraveling illusions or glamours that defy normal perceptual logic, often by recognizing repeated motifs or inconsistencies in the environment, or by testing illusions with cunning illusions of one’s own.
• Paths & Hidden Portals: Identifying natural or hidden routes to faerie regiones, as well as safe passage or departure rituals that reduce the risk of captivity or unwitting transformation.
• Negotiation & Bargaining: Navigating the peculiar traditions around deals with faeries, including how to phrase conditions and how to avoid inadvertently granting a faerie excessive power.
• Localized Legendary Cues: Recognizing that certain folkloric themes or regional ballads might correspond to a specific type of faerie manifestation. Using those stories to predict which behavior or offering may yield a more peaceful encounter.
• Mutual Favor Systems: Learning how some fae circles reward particularly clever or respectful mortals with unique boons, forging an ongoing exchange of gifts or “debt-based” magic that can prove pivotal in larger mythic conflicts.
In short, Faerie Lore prepares a character to enter Faerie regiones or parley with fae beings using patience, subtlety, and imagination; mitigating the risk of being cast into an endless fairy-tale loop or bound by a promise unwittingly made. Ultimately, by channeling the cultural wisdom gleaned from Faerie Lore, a character can avoid unnecessary calamities and even seize magical or social advantages through respectful, albeit cautious, interactions with these ever-shifting denizens.
Specialties
Here are some additional Ability specialties for Faerie Lore:
• Faerie Nobility: Focused on the roles and responsibilities of kings, queens, and aristocrats in fae courts, as well as the rules governing their lineage.
• Etiquette: Skilled at navigating faerie expectations and diplomacy, from greeting lesser fae to impressing faerie royalty.
• Arcadia Travel: Familiar with paths, symbolic keys, and safe passage protocols in the Faerie Realm.
• Trickster Fae: Experienced in spotting illusions and double-dealing among mischievous brownies, pixies, and shapechangers.
• Dark Faeries: Knowledgeable about sinister or malevolent faeries that feed on dread, illusions of horror, and warped mortal hopes.
• Rural Fae: Expertise in local farm sprites, field guardians, and household spirits that interact with villages or homesteads.
• Bargaining: Specializes in forging pacts, circumventing taboos, and avoiding pitfalls of fae gift-exchanges.
• Seasonal Phenomena: Well-versed in how equinoxes, solstices, or harvest times affect fae manifestations and their powers.
• Taboos & Customs: Knows the unwritten rules regarding taboo words, gestures, or rites that anger or appease the fae.
• Fae of a Specific Region or Mythos: For example, focusing on Celtic sidhe, Norse aesir or Eastern European rusalka traditions.
• Weaknesses: Certain characters hunt, enslave or destroy faeries. This specialty applies to knowing or figuring out specific faerie vulnerabilities and weaknesses. For example: Garlic, silver, iron, specific wood or herb, certain folk charms, burning brooms etc. This can include the specific hermetic Form.
Faerie Lore 1+
With a Faerie Lore Ability of 1, a character can form somewhat likely predictions of faerie behavior in given circumstances. They also gain a broad sense of different faerie categories and local fae known in their home area, and have awareness of the following:
Naming Taboo: Faeries must generally not be addressed by direct names. Instead, use euphemisms like “the good neighbors,” “the fair folk,” or “the gentry.” Never draw their attention, because once noticed, mortals may be woven into their stories, emerging forever changed.
Association with Humanity: The fae generally appear close to human-inhabited areas, especially on the periphery. They rarely inhabit the true wilderness unless it was once populated. Faeries seldom dwell in Dominion auras, and if they do, they match that site’s themes. Ancient sites of epic events or pagan worship often seem to have faerie auras.
Etiquette: Proper courtesy is crucial when dealing with faeries. Humans should avoid breaking faerie taboos, which often involve hospitality, the use of iron, ownership of objects, the exchange of payments or favors, the expression of gratitude (never say "thank you"), religion, and any invitation for physical or mental influence. Avoid the edges of dark woods, respect authority, and follow social norms—otherwise, the faeries will come.
Beware the Bargain: Faeries have a special etiquette all of their own around bargains. While they can be quite beneficial, it's critical to understand what the Faerie actually wants out of the deal and that any bargain struck will give the faerie power over you.
The Faerie Realm: The realm of Faerie is as diverse and strange as those who inhabit it, and as with all faerie things, appearances can be deceiving. After dawn breaks, a pile of gold may prove nothing more than old leaves, while a single oak leaf can hold within it more magical power than the enchanted staff of a mighty magus.
Faerie Lands: Areas inhabited by faeries have faerie auras, distinguished by heightened emotions (which vary). Characters with Faerie Lore or Hermetic Magic can identify such auras. Faerie regiones typically arise in these auras more frequently than regiones tied to other realms. Note that Faerie Lore alone does not grant the ability to detect a regio’s entrance (which might require Magic Sensitivity, Second Sight, Faerie Sight, or similar abilities), but those with Faerie Lore can potentially recognize subtle signs and figure out how to enter once they know it exists.
Aura Effects: Hermetic Magi normally get half the strength of a Faerie aura as a bonus or penalty, but some, notably House Merinita, can learn to harness it fully.
Possible Origins of the Fae
Scholars of the Order of Hermes and other learned individuals lack a definitive explanation for the origin of the fae or what the faerie realm is, though several theories are widely discussed.
The two most popular views of the relationship between the four realms in the Order are inspired by Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy respectively:
-
The Platonic view sees the Divine realm as the source of light and being for the universe. The Magic realm is the first emanation of the Divine realm, pure light as emitted from the divine being. The Faerie and Infernal realms both arise from the interaction of the divine light with human beings. The Faerie realm is the reflection of this light from the minds and souls of humankind, while the Infernal realm is the shadow cast by humanity. Thus the Faerie realm tends to make the stories and dreams of humanity real, while the Infernal contains all of humanity's flaws made concrete.
-
The Aristotelian view sees things slightly differently. The Divine is pure actuality, ultimate existence. The Magic realm is the process of coming into existence, and thus always below the Divine but always getting closer. The Faerie realm is the actualization of the imagination of human beings, while the Infernal is the process of going out of existence.
Faerie Lore 3+
This section provides information typical of someone with Faerie Lore 3 or higher. It may refine or contradict earlier knowledge.
Faerie & Magic: The Faerie realm closely resembles Magic more than the Divine or Infernal. Like Magic, Faerie is usually neutral in terms of morality and immorality. Faerie auras do not penalize faeries, and in fact grant them benefits. Many traditions say that magical and faerie beings once waged epic wars—Olympians versus Titans, Tuatha De Danann versus Fomorii, Aesir and Vanir versus the Jotnar—possibly splitting an original realm in two. Definitive proof remains elusive.
Faerie Mutability: Faerie creatures can take any imaginable form. This includes appearing as better versions of mundane animals, but also includes giants, chimerae, and humans with animal features. Since faeries arise from the stories of humanity, it is not uncommon for legends about a magical place to give rise to a faerie copy, more closely matching the beliefs that people have.
Faeries are Real: Although faeries arise from the beliefs of people, they do not always go away or change to match changing beliefs. Once the faeries exist, they are just as real - and dangerous - as any other creature, and can, with the help of humans, develop in unexpected ways.
Human Relationship: The special relationship that faeries have to humanity means that all faeries are interested in people. They need humans playing out their stories, because faeries gain energy, called Vitality, when this happens. A most crucial insight is that faeries consciously and unconciously tailor their responses to the assumptions and attitudes of mortals, exploiting or reinforcing the roles humans place upon them.
What Faeries Want: Faeries are irresistibly drawn to human passions, creativity, and changing lives. This intangible spark, called “vitality” by Hermetic magi, lets faeries feel, grow, and progess their story. Some faeries are fully aware of their need for humans, while others lack this cognizance. Human vitality can be intangible (often through worship), captured via offerings (bread, milk or sacrifice) or directly stolen (through feeding on blood or devouring people). It’s said humans have heightened vitality during emotional peaks or transitional life stages.
Glamour (Grammar): Faeries appear to be governed by an inner set of rules—what they call “Grammar.” The term “Glamour,” used commonly in English lands, stems from a mispronunciation of “Grammar.” Faeries cannot break their own rules. A faerie failing to fulfill its role fades away or withdraws into Arcadia until ready to resume.
Faerie Right of Way or Admittance: Faeries do not need permission to enter an area when they have the “right of way” — the ancient right to travel through a locale. This is often recognized in local folklore, and can mean that the faerie can traverse a road, or enter a locale at certain times or when certain events occur. There are rumored tales of this "Right" having worked even through through a strong Aegis, but most magi scoff at the notion.
Appearance & Intent: A faerie’s current outward look—whether lovely or hideous—often signals its disposition at that time.
Faerie Taboos: Each faerie abides by restrictions embedded in its glamour. Breaking these taboos can drive them to vengeance. For example, if you thank a faerie after receiving its help, you may provoke its wrath.
Faerie “Abilities”: Faeries achieve certain effects that mimic mortal skills (like cooking or blacksmithing), but do so via magical talents termed “Pretenses.”
Faerie Offerings: Eating faerie food makes a human the host’s guest, effectively imprisoning them in the faerie’s court until permission is granted to leave. By consuming the host’s faerie food, mortals partially absorb the faerie’s power, binding them to faerie society under that host’s authority.
Epic Events: Sites where epic events have taken place often have faerie auras, especially if they're recorded in popular tales.
Faerie Places: Faerie auras wax and wane with the seasons. Faerie regiones are ubiquitous within these auras, often more extensive and simpler to enter than regiones of other realms. This accessibility is rumored to stem from faeries’ desire for human visitors. Regiones typically offer repeated scenarios or themes, although personal experiences might differ from one visit to another. Arcadia, the Faerie Realm itself, is far more fluid and contradictory in nature—reportedly changing its laws, shapes, and features depending on who visits.
Arcadia: The Faerie Realm is sometimes subdivided by scholars into distinct regions (e.g., Arcadia, Elysium, Eudokia), representing new stories, myths made real, or personal narratives, respectively. Boundaries in the mundane world—forest edges, old gates, or hidden grottos—often serve as gateways to Arcadia. Many Hermetic magi suspect Arcadia is woven from raw glamour, forever mutable, and shaped by the stories within it.
Additional Theories on faerie origins
Angels who neither fought for God nor rebelled alongside Satan: This idea casts faeries as a "neutral host"—celestial beings who observed the rebellion but remained undecided, eventually falling into a realm that mirrored Creation without truly taking sides.
Spirits of dead pagans: These wandering souls might have refused final judgment. Through power of belief, they forged ephemeral bodies in mystical locales, continuing ancient rites and feeding on the energies of mortal worship.
Souls of unbaptized children: Common in local folklore, this emphasizes the tragedy of their limbo existence. The ephemeral youth wander the borders of reality, seeking to regain a lost innocence.
Ghosts of those who died in the midst of travel or transitions: If a traveler perishes far from home or during a life-changing moment, their half-finished story turns them into a fae entity bound to the place of their demise.
Manifestations of human dreams, nightmares, art, and vision: Rooted in the ephemeral substance of creativity and emotion, such faeries could vanish if people stop imagining them, only to resurface when the story revives.
Predatory spirits draining human spiritual essence: This darker theory likens them to parasitic entities, feeding not only on awe or worship but on more visceral energies—like fear, devotion, or even lifeblood.
Humans become faeries through prolonged contact with the faerie realm: A subtle metamorphosis can occur, especially if a mortal remains in Arcadia for years. Over time, they absorb the realm’s glamour and may forget their mortal past entirely.
Surviving Old Gods or primeval nature spirits: In many Celtic, Norse and Greek accounts, powerful deities or once-great spirits declined when mortal faith shifted. Now they endure as faeries, altered in scope or purpose but perhaps retaining scraps of divinity.
Illusions conjured by watchers beyond the Lunar Sphere: An esoteric belief that suggests unknown powers manipulate illusions in the mortal world as a grand experiment, and faeries are "probes" that test human responses to wonder and terror.
Incarnations of primal Chaos or leftover illusions from a pre-Adamic epoch: According to a few radical (and heretic) Bonisagus scholars, the fae predate humanity, weaving half-remembered shapes from a time before structured reality. The creation of Adam overshadowed them, yet vestiges persist in the hidden corners of the world.
Ephemeral reflections of mortal souls’ unfulfilled desires: Certain theologians posit that whenever a mortal denies some profound longing—be it love, revenge, or redemption—it may crystallize into a faerie. Over time, these embodied yearnings develop distinct personalities, playing out the incomplete arcs of their mortal creators.
Faerie Lore 5+
This section describes knowledge for Faerie Lore 5 and beyond—rare expertise generally limited to House Merinita.
Mutability of Faerie Experiences: Faeries reshape themselves to suit the observer. Even if multiple people observe presumably the same fae or fae location, their individual accounts often vary. Experiments by Merinita magi have revealed that if two researchers visit a faerie site or parley with the same fae individually, they can later compare notes and find significant inconsistencies. A key problem for researchers is that faeries will provide confirmatory evidence for just about any theory, at least if it will lead to further research.
Desire Matters More: Faeries don’t seem to care whether stories are told accurately or not, provided the stories still engender heightened emotions and traditional gifts. Desire that the story be true seems to matter more than that it actually be true.
Human Intervention: It seems that at least the non-cognizant Faeries must have the aid of a creative human to change their glamour at all. Once the faerie has opened its glamour to the human, it must accept the changes the human makes. With skill, it may be used to ones advantage and may include changes to the faerie’s motif, attitude, or memory - perhaps even without the faerie noticing. Faeries do not tell humans this.
Faeries Unobserved: Whether faeries behave as a cohesive culture when humans aren’t watching is hotly debated. Their reported actions frequently reinforce or contradict any particular theory. Some examples:
• Faeries have permanent identies and live in a structured Arcadian society and merely hide it behind contrived stories.
• Faeries act autonomously when unobserved but assume roles that fit their audience once humans appear.
• Faeries re-enact the same story, endlessly looping, until mortals intercede.
• Faeries cease to exist when no one is watching, re-forming only once humans return.
• It’s never truly the same faerie each time; new faeries adopt old roles.
Faerie Auras & Regiones: Faerie auras arise where faeries flourish. A dominant faerie with the power to extend its Glamour may be responsible for anchoring the aura. More than one such faerie in the same location can result in conflicts or seasonal “faerie courts” vying for dominance, reshaping local auras.
Legendary Sites: Places famed for epic deeds often draw faeries, who feed on the legend’s resonance - rather than the events imprinting themselves on the landscape. Magi have noted the event might not even have to be real, just believed or expected to be real. This process can produce multiple “versions” of the same story. For instance, multiple “Camelots” exist in Stonehenge Tribunal, each with different details but all referencing King Arthur. However, it's uncertain if there is a possibility one of them is the "real" one or not.
Changing Regiones: A faerie regio is typically controlled by a singular chief faerie who defines its essence. Should a different faerie (or a human) defeat the ruler, the region’s nature changes. The aura’s strength may also fluctuate, reflecting the ruling faerie’s status.
Traveling Auras: The role of certain mighty faeries allows them to roam far and wide, carrying a mobile aura of glamour in their wake. As they journey, this enveloping glamour reshapes the countryside, warping forests into crystalline arches or twisting roads into labyrinthine pathways that echo the faerie’s personal motif. Once the faerie passes on, the land often snaps back to its previous configuration—though not always perfectly, as lingering traces of magic or faint illusions can persist for days or even generations, potentially birthing new local legends about entire villages that vanished or changed overnight.
Inherited Faerie Marks: Legendary accounts describe entire bloodlines inheriting mysterious boons or curses from fae ancestors. With Faerie Lore at this level, one might identify subtle birthmarks or behavioral quirks that mark someone as tied to a bygone fae pact, or diagnose atavistic transformations sprouting from ancestral ties.
Open Body Vulnerability: Any “opening of the body”—speaking, especially—renders a mortal susceptible to faerie influence. A faerie’s words could carry a fragment of glamour, enthralling the listener. Conversely, charismatic humans can influence faeries via their own words. Speech thus creates a temporary Arcane Connection to the speaker’s mind. Faeries often stifle or forbid a victim from speaking to prevent them from asserting their own role.
Faerie Lore 7+ and Extreme Situations
Once a character’s Faerie Lore reaches 7 or higher, they can tap into extremely rare truths about the fae. By wielding this expertise, characters don’t merely survive faerie encounters—they may become architects of emergent faerie tales, bridging realms through wit and a deep appreciation for the woven tapestry of mortal-fae stories. At Storyguide discretion, some of these effects may be suitable for very good rolls at lower ability scores.
Arcadian Cartography: Mastery of elusive faerie pathways that shift with mortal narratives.
Subtle Glamour Manipulation: Knowledge of how to sense the underlying “Grammar” holding illusions together. Possible techniques to influence a faerie’s illusions without using Hermetic magic.
Binding & Rewriting Faerie Scripts: Recognize and understand anchor objects or events that maintain a recurring faerie story. Reshape the story by introducing, removing, or substituting a crucial element. Use strategic narrative “interruptions” to invert outcomes or realign roles.
Advanced Taboos & Nested Bargains: Insight into layered, inherited, or evolving taboos among certain fae lineages. Learning to impose or revoke a taboo via symbolic acts or coded incantations. Strategies to unravel labyrinthine bargains that span generations.
Arcadian Symbiosis: Some rare faeries feed on more than human vitality—e.g., devotion, confession, regret. Understand how to exploit or heal those “emotional leylines” linking faeries and mortals. Potentially, how to channel that energy yourself, for better or worse.
Syncretic Myths & Migrations: Identify how certain faeries appear under different names or myths in distant regions. Trace the transformation of an ancient Celtic spirit into a local guardian of harvest. Possibly reveal how a “new” faerie is a reincarnation of an ancient one.
Faerie Apotheosis: The truth about tales of mortals who transcend mortality and become part of the fae. Understanding how some transformations cannot be undone, while others can. Exploring the threshold between mortal and fae existence, possibly guiding a story of metamorphosis.
Astral-Faerie Overlaps: Some advanced treatises suggest that certain constellations or lunar phases intensify faerie influences. A Faerie Lore 7+ character might foresee rare cosmic alignments that merge Arcadia with the mundane sky, opening ephemeral star-bridges or bestowing heightened powers on lunar- or star-associated fae.
Narrative Convergence: In ephemeral “convergence zones,” multiple faerie stories collide, creating tangles of contradictory illusions or ephemeral timelines. Characters can learn to detect when a region is about to “converge,” preventing or harnessing the chaos for significant advantage.
Morphic Tokens & Masks: Ephemeral relics can allow a mortal to briefly adopt a faerie’s identity, unlocking unique abilities or immunities tied to that role. Masterful Faerie Lore practitioners not only gather these objects but also know how and when to wield them with reasonable safety.
Reversion of Twisted Fate: Some Faerie Lore experts learn rites or myths that permit rewriting a tragic destiny, though at a steep price. Doing so may involve enlisting a potent fae’s aid, persuading it to revise the story’s ‘script,’ or cunningly substituting the destined victim.