Ideas for the Fey

I just wanted to run some new ideas past you lovely folks, to see if you had some feedback that could fuel my imagination.

So I thought up a possible origin for the Fey in my story--they were originally human. I think I mentioned here how some people in my story-world are born with more magic than others. So maybe, long ago, some children were born with magic so powerful that it made them “mutants”. These mutants would be shunned and cast out, so they would only have children with other mutants. Eventually, they would become a separate race/species, with magic to aid the process of natural selection.

I was also thinking–maybe people who work magic for a while start to grow horns (my Fey have horns). Perhaps the longer/more numerous the horns, the more powerful or experienced the magic-user? They’d also start to acquire more physical Fey traits, such as ashen skin and long, claw-like hands, and probably mental traits as well, becoming more emotionally unstable and capricious. So not only would that make powerful magic-users visibly different from normal people, it would cause others to possibly shun or fear them, as they would the Fey. That's kind of the angle I'm going for.

What do you guys think? Any ideas or suggestions?

 

I drew most of my inspiration from the Tuatha De Danann, the old gods/Faeries of Celtic myth. Some of their cultural aspects are based on early tribes of Europe during the Stone and Bronze Ages. The rest is just my imagination.

 

Bad, skip, very bad. Go sit in the corner.

I was waiting for someone to say it...

 

For the most part, I've kept the horns small--just short nubs that sprout slightly above the temples. They're easily covered by hair or a headband. And yeah, I've thought of ways a mage could get rid of them, the number one method being acid. In the real world, it's used on goat kids to remove their horn buds when they're a few weeks old.

 

Nope. Actually, to tell you the truth, I thought their concept for the Fey was kind of, well, lame. They focused more on what we think of as the "traditional" traits of the Faeries, which were established mostly by Victorian fairy tales. I prefer the mythical Fey, because they're more alien and frightening than those we're familiar with in fairy tales.

 

Hey! Sorry I forgot to answer your questions. The thread's a little old now, but hey--better late than never, right?

In regards to how the Fey view humans--I actually took some of my inspiration from X-Men, with the Fey having a general fear and hatred of the human race for how they were--and still are--treated. Humans for their part both hate and fear the Fey as well, because of their strong magic, and for how they seem alien yet familiar. The origin of the Fey is largely forgotten, as it happened in the distant past, but it lives on in various forms within the legends of both the Faeries and humans.

The Fey usually ignore magic-users, regarding them as humans just like the rest, unless their Fey characteristics are so advanced as to make them only partly human. Then the Fey take an interest in them (as they do with part-Fey humans), as they have the potential to be fully transformed into Faeries. They can then assimilate into Fey society and bolster the Faeries' declining population with new bloodlines. Unless their minds have begun to take on Fey traits, most human magic-users cling to their attitudes about the Fey, and struggle to reject what they are becoming.

You're right about this being a great opportunity. When I stumbled upon these ideas, I was thrilled. There are so many possibilities opened up for worldbuilding, character growth, and plot points!

 

Thanks for the suggestions! I approach worldbuilding from a very scientific perspective most of the time. Even though I love Tolkienesque fantasy, where everything is explained through the work of gods, oddly I always want a solid scientific basis for my worlds.

In this instance, the emergence of the Fey is not purely natural selection--magic certainly helps it along. All the humans of this world have the potential written into their DNA to become Fey, and working magic unlocks that potential. Additionally, the Fey aren't a truly separate species from humans, as the two can interbreed.