fae_wildest | TDM #1 - Welcome to the Fae Wild, Winter Edition

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TDM #1 - Welcome to the Fae Wild, Winter Edition

'You find yourself wandering through a forest of strange colors. The last thing you remember is a strange ring of mushrooms in a riot of shades, singing to you in ethereal tones, tempting you and telling you to step in the midst them to discover riches beyond measure. As you do, a bright white light flashes before your eyes. When your sight returns, the forest of bizarre trees and plants looms before and around you.

As you step forward, laughter—deep and menacing and also light and tinkling—follows your footsteps. Yelling, questioning, gets you nowhere. Only a narrow path of stones allows you to avoid the foliage that seems to want to eat you alive. If you step off of the path, you find vines wrap around your legs, dragging you into the dark interior of the forest, until you wake up later, your body covered in strange symbols that will disappear after a few days. For those wise enough to not tempt fate and stay on the path, soft blue lights—fairies of indeterminate sex—appear, and beckon you to follow them down the path through the trees. A few hours of walking brings you to a village of stone and wooden thatched houses that appear as if they're both brand new and ancient at the same time.

A creature that at once appears to be monstrously beautiful and hideously decrepit steps forward to greet you, holding out a small silver hand mirror with a smile that makes your blood run cold (if you have any sense). "Welcome to the Fae Wild, child. This is the domain of the Handmaiden of the Sidhe Queens. Come with me. The others are waiting. All will be explained once we are gathered." It is then that you see the others spoken of, people that look almost.... normal and just as confused and angry as you are.

Dare you step forward to learn your fate?'

☙ Arrival ☙

So, you’ve survived the trip down the path and made it to the village that is the heart of the Fae Wild. The Handmaiden and her helpers, mostly pixies, brownies and some sylph and dryads, are handing out silver hand mirrors to all of the newcomers. Once you’re all gathered, the Handmaiden will explain that you’ve been brought here with the promise of riches and treasure through the magical fairy rings. While you’re here, you will be expected to assist the fae creatures in the activities the Handmaiden has picked for you to do.

If you agree to it, you will be richly rewarded. If you refuse? Well, how much do you enjoy the thought of being put under a cloche jar for a while? Don’t worry. You’ll be able to breathe in there. It wouldn’t be good to have someone die on their first day after all. After securing your agreement, your mirror will flash five times, and tapping the surface shows a letter-type of message in flowing script, telling you how to reach your new cottage during your stay.

Questions to the fae may or may not be answered, but never fear. They want you alive. For now.

☙ Winter Proofing The Realm ☙

As the first frost strikes the land of the Fae Wild, all the pixies and brownies are running around to make sure that the cottages, huts and communal buildings are ready for the blast of the Winter Queen’s Full Power. The sylphs and dryads are plucking flowers and bringing in as many fruit trees and bushes inside so that they can continue to provide food for the upcoming season.

Hunting parties are being arranged to stock up on meat. Other groups are being formed to fish in the lakes. (Beware of the kelpie. They bite.) You can also offer to chop wood, check all of the buildings for any repairs that need to be done, and preserve some of the more delicate foods. Just because this is a land of magic doesn’t mean that they’re immune to the change in the seasons.

Player characters are highly encouraged by all of the faeries to join in during this time. Anyone who does will find themselves given three times the berries during this particular activity.

☙ Glimpses of the Winter Court ☙

As the Winter Solstice approaches, glimpses of the Winter Sidhe (faeries of the highest order) can be caught as they travel around the whole of the Fae Realm. Frost Trolls that look like walking chunks of ice that only a mother (and maybe the Winter Queen) could love are currently pushing out the remnants of the dryads and sylphs to make room for themselves and their kind. If you look carefully, a tall horned man leading a pack of dogs and being followed by a lot of vicious looking creatures has begun to prowl and the nights are filled with the braying of His Hunting Party as they look for prey.

Asking the normal denizens of the Fae Wild will win you the name of Der Erlking and his Grand Hunting Party. Anyone caught out after dark alone will find themselves picked for the “special honor” of being prey or asked to spend the night as one of His hounds.

Occasionally, a beautiful, pale woman strolls around. She is never alone, as her entourage of grimalkin (large, black cat-like beasts) are always in attendance. Sometimes, she appears melancholic and at others, she is regal, cool and distant. Anyone foolish to try to approach her will find themselves face to face with the largest of the grimalkin who calls himself Cait Sith. And he suffers fools never.

☙ Here Comes Santa Claus ☙

Winter has definitely arrived with the first snow. Plenty of elves in striped stockings and funny shoes with bells on their toes are running around the village, demanding that all the buildings be covered in holly and evergreens. Others are hastily baking as many biscuits and cakes as they can. Player characters are not immune to the assumption of assistance. Anyone caught resisting them will find themselves suddenly about the size of a five year old, wearing the very familiar garb of ‘Santa’s Little Helpers’ and being pushed by one of the elves that calls themself The Taskmaster.

If one asks why the elves are doing this, they will find out that they’re making preparations to keep Santa Claus out of the Handmaiden’s domain. These particular elves are escapees from Santa’s sweatshop in the Winter Court, where he forces them to slave away making toys for human children with no pay, no insurance, and with only gruel to eat for every meal year round. The only way to keep him away from this area—since he’s such an important member of the Winter Queen’s Court—is to decorate it with plants of the season and to leave a gift outside the houses. It can be food, berries or shiny objects, but the Big Man must be appeased.

Of course, should you choose to not help, come the time of the 25th of December, Santa might just come and visit your house.

Welcome to our first Test Drive Meme! We encourage you to please play around and have fun. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask here. (Or elsewhere!)
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[Despite her small frame, she shows that she's fully capable of moving the very large paddle and the massive amounts of linens in the cauldron with ease. And she watches him as he works. Wood chopping was always done by Lurch or Thing back home when her grandmother decided it was time to do things like this, so Wednesday has never really bothered to get very close to learning it. Why should she when she has Pugsley to properly torture?]

That makes you smarter than most people. And there are plenty of things in the woods that hunt people and not for food. It's a waste, really, but I suppose they leave the bodies of their victims for other creatures to devour.

[Wednesday, why are you like this? She considers his trade for a moment before she nodes.]

They're fey creatures and vicious hunters. Supposedly, the serve the queen of the Winter Fae or the Unseelie Court of Fae. [She switches to ask her question quickly, not even blinking.] How did you lose your eye?

[Fey. That’s a new term. He files it away to look into later. And it gets derailed by her question. He blinks, then he grins. Kids never fail to be kids. He motions for her to let him resume stirring and will return to that station if allowed.] Well, it’s a bit of a story.

My grandfather lost his at sea. He was a pirate. My father skipped that family heirloom but, I happened to be unlucky. We think it skips a generation.

Or the more ambitious get the God’s ire. Hard to say, but. It was a battle. I didn’t dodge the right way.

And yes, there are a lot of things that hunt people for food and kill them anyway. I do hope we don’t have to deal with slimes here. They’re a pain without magic to slow them down.

[She knows only what's available, and how much that applies to this place is unknown. All of it or none of it could, but isn't that how life works?

She listens to the explanation before nodding thoughtfully.]

A lamentable mistake. I suppose now you'll remember to dodge. Perhaps that's God's punishment?

[Not that Wednesday believes in any god, but that doesn't mean she doesn't think there's some irony in that thought. Benevolent gods that punish by making one losing their eyesight.]

I suppose there's some comfort that you were able to find an acceptable eyepatch and appear to have adjusted well to it.

Yes, quite lucky I’m exactly like grandfather. [He tugs on the strap with his grin still on his face. But not enough to move it. No one needs to see the eye under it.

The damn thing is still the same color it was. More’s the pity.] Hold on. God? Do you only have one where you’re from?

[He looks at her curiously. That’s interesting.]

I suppose that depends on what your grandfather is like. [She's still against turning into her mother, despite Morticia's machinations and Gomez's weakness to his wife.]

I suppose it depends on where you are. There are many religions that believe in only one god and there are others than have multiple gods. [Her tone of voice should make it obvious what she thinks about both.] Of course, you don't need a god or gods for fanatics, but some of the more dangerous things are always done in the name of religion.

[He stirs the laundry around with the pole. He lifts it to check and nods to himself. The pole goes back in the water.]

That’s true. I don’t know if gods and spirits walk your world like they do in mine. But, it was the war for the seven seats of Archon that led to a great deal of Teyvat being reshaped or changed.

Every nation has shelves of books on what happened to gods and their followers. Or to the lands cursed by that ancient war. Literally. Places like that make anyone without some kind of protection very sick.

[Wednesday looks around for whatever they're using for soap, spotting a bucket filled with some sort of lye-based product and a spoon. Carefully, she uses it to dumb more of the "soap" into the water to help with the cleaning process. If she's going to be stuck here, she might as well do something useful.

She's not helping him, per se. She's keeping herself busy.]

Where I'm from, people don't need gods to destroy the world. We have nuclear weapons.

Although, I suppose radiation poisoning is a bit like a curse and plague upon the land.

[He stirs the soap into the water, working it with the familiar rhythm. It’s not what he does on a day to day. But he used to help…

He tucks the memory away.] A long, long time ago there was a nation of machines and human ingenuity. It is possible they had that. But supposedly they dug into other realms and pulled abyssal energy out of it to fuel their rise towards the heavens.

Ruins of their civilization lay scattered about the world. [He stares at the water. It’s one little tidbit. Gauging how a world of people without tangible gods might receive it.] People can be worse than gods. Some gods were felled by their followers themselves.

[Look at them both trying to be good and helpful. How wonderful, right?]

I'd say that sounds like crap, but the Roman Empire exists on my world. They might not have dealt with magic, but their egos as the "rulers" of the rest of the world blinded them to the fact that the "barbarians" were gathering to conquer them in return. It's call Hubris.

I don't believe in Gods. People are terrible enough without adding any supernatural beings into the mix. Of course, the Outcasts are hardly better. They're just as short-sighted as the humans we have to deal with.

Outcasts? [He pauses, visibly sorting the information away. This is all new and yet, it is a lot like the history he learned.]

A lot of beings can be short sighted. Even dragons. Though, the think the ones in my nation are not as old as the ancient dragon in Sumeru. Or Nathlan. The later dragons and humans live together.

They have for a long time.

Witches, seers, Hydes, Sirens, Vampires, Werewolves, Gorgons. There are a lot of different kinds, but the normies all throw us together under the label of Outcasts.

[She tosses that out, letting him try to figure what sort of nightmare monster she is. It's not like she's going to tell him.]

I've never met a dragon, but all of the stories about them say that they suffer from hubris as much as any person.

They do. I can tell you some of the tales some time. [He visibly files the new information away. She is whatever she is and if she won’t tell him. That’s her business. He continues his task as he says,]

Witches exist for us. One of my fellow knights mother is a witch. By your definition…None of the magic users are home could be considered normies. We all do things normal people can’t. Physically and with how much of reality we can perceive.

[And by the definition…he is an outcast. He stuffs that thought away.]

I wouldn't say not to listening.

[That's the closest he'd get to having her say she's interested in what he has to say. When he continues talking, she turns her head slowly to take him in.]

I wouldn't say that you're a normie either. You look like you at least have something interesting about you. Most of the normies I've met are... very boring. They all look and sound the same in the end.

[Tyler didn't count. He was an Outcast by birth. And Laurel... Well, she was a Crackstone, a fanatic. The rest of the normies near Nevermore or that she'd had to face before were just so uninspired.]

I wouldn't have pegged you as a witch. Maybe more of a vampire or a mer. Maybe even a well kept werewolf.

[Well kept werewolf? He looks at her and the light from the flames makes his diamond shaped pupil all the more obvious. There is a faint well-hidden panic in his expression.

Someone has been carefully hiding all the ways he stands out. A bit like a werewolf might.] I imagine people from home would be fascinating to you. Any of us who wield an element…stand out quite a bit.

Even the tamer ones. I bet you can already guess mine.

[She notices the odd shape of his pupils, but that doesn't really change anything she's said, considering her classmates at Nevermore. But there's a way that he holds himself that she figures that she's hit the nail on the head with one of her guesses. So, she'll have to observe him more to figure out which one was correct.

Of course, the werewolf she knows the best is Enid, since she doesn't deal with the rest of the flea-bitten slackers.]

I wouldn't say that people who are different are fascinating. Very few people are truly fascinating. But different is at least not boring.

[She takes a look at the cauldron and sets the next one to boil for the next step. Grandmother Frump would be proud to see her in action.]

You're good at this. I didn't think people still knew how to boil clothes clean.

It is a requirement when I was growing up. We had to understand the efforts of others. So we never took it for granted.

[He checks over the clothes carefully. He knows what he needs to see.] When I became a knight apprentice we were assigned rotating chores like this. The kitchens, the laundry. Helping maintain the city, etc.

Knights assist with whatever needs more hands. We had to know to better serve the people. Master Crepus’s insistence on our knowing all kinds of things served us well.

So, you weren't just given a position of power and expected to not abuse those you had power over?

[Sounds fake.]

My grandmother comes from the Old World. She prefers to do things the same way she did as a girl. And she expects my mother and I to also know how to do them. As well as all the other things that interest us.

Ah, I know the type. [He nods and looks to the drying racks set out. He puts the pole on a hook on the edge and walks over to the rack.

He braces himself and shifts it a few inches closer. Satisfied, he returns to his station.] There, it will benefit from the heat. Anyway, no.

We are required to take a number of tests and serve as apprentices for several years before we even dare be given the rank of junior knight. It is because of abuses of power from those in authority that the knights of Favonius Ordo were created.

And a certain favorite game. [He moves the laundry from the cauldron to the next step and loads the cauldron with more of the load that needs cleaned.] I can tell you the tale.

That sounds like a fairy tale. I doubt that everyone if that order is as naive as you. Or as good-hearted. People rarely are.

[Cynic? Yes, absolutely. Tell her why she shouldn't be. All signs point to doubting everything everyone says without actual proof.]

I'd like to hear this tale. [She'll even take up the rinsing cauldron and put more soap into the cleaning one to help him, in exchange for it.] If nothing else, it will help to pass the time.

It’s not without its failings. We can and will fail to handle everything. Some things will get far enough to do harm. And did four years ago.

Because of it we lost my predecessor. [He goes through his work for a moment and says,] Records of before the calamity five hundred years ago are hard to find, but everyone agrees that a thousand and plus years ago the nobility of Mondstadt took over running the city. They put themselves in place as the absolute authority. The family that truly claimed to rule were House Lawrence.

[His smile falls away. This isn’t a happy tale at the beginning. Nor for most of it.] Anyone who protested was silenced. With our records so dodgy of those times we don’t know all their names.

The Lawrences were ruthless about their traditions among themselves. Any child that couldn’t perform them was discarded and disowned. And they turned this tone on our city nation. This went on for decades. Protestors and rebels were used as entertainment in their arena. Anyone who offended them was the same.

[He stars off into the distance. Then continues.] There are a number of factors that shifted the tide. Rebels began to borrow little bits of magic to hide as objects. They became harder to find. Nobles of other houses who hadn’t participated in the coup grew restless.

But, the catalyst of the rising rebellion was a music troupe. They came into town one day and enchanted the Ragnvindr heir. He was a gentle man who kept out of things. He was as complicit as anyone and he buried his head in the sand about it.

The heir of the Lawrence clan decided he wanted her. She refused him. He sent the entire troupe to the arena. [He shifts and looks at her.] She spoke before the fight. I wish we had records. But what she said can be summed as thus. You’re not free either. Allowing suffering is cutting off the feel of the wind.

She fought well. Her swordwork was a beautiful dance and the Ragnvindr heir and others hearts were stirred. And they were furious when the troupe were cut to ribbons. For you see the rest of her group we’re not fighters and she fought to save them.

Those moved by her words turned on their occupiers. The rebellion began. Ragnvindr, Gunndir, Fredrick Lawrence. Nobles broke from their houses and sided with the people. But this powder keg wasn’t fully lit.

A clan from Nathan came from the east. One of them came into the city to get food for her clan. And pissed off the heir because she stood up to him. He put her and her entire clan in the arena.

[He snorts. What a damn idiot.] Nathlan is a land of fire and dragons. They fight for their lives, especially then. That is not to say they all do. But this clan was a clan of warriors. So the Lawrence heir, determined to make Someone an example, put a wyvern into the arena and put her entire clan in there as punishment.

It didn’t go his way. Seeing that he was getting desperate to hold power. The rebellion exploded into a firestorm that hit the entire city.

All of some noble houses turned away from the Lawrences. And to make matters worse for him, our god that had been asleep woke up. He was quite angry. Barbatos’s tale of the archon war was fighting a tyrant and while one could argue that his going to sleep encouraged another to show up.

He aided the rebellion and backed the lady we know as Venessa. It is hard to say how long things took. But, Mondstadt was ripped from greedy hands. Venessa’s clan were looking for a new home. Those who led the rebellion didn’t want the nobles back in power.

And no one wanted a formal government. City of freedom and all that. The peacekeeping order, the Favonius Ordo was born. Venessa became our first grand master.

House Lawrence tried to disown Fredrick, but the records made sure to name him a Lawrence. That house has been telling their own story of the past for years. They see the city as theirs and stolen from them. Those of their house that disagree quietly talk about it. And the house as whole is pissed one of them sought to serve the city. And does. Other noble houses settled into service and trade. The story goes to make up for letting things occur. Who knows.

Those who sided with the rebellion became knights of the order. Not learning his damn lesson, Barbatos is supposedly been asleep for a while. But rumor is in recent events he has been sighted or at least, his influence. Gods and spirits in my world actively walk the earth with us.

People might be drinking next to him and not know. I suspect this is true. The present head of Ragnvindrs is an honest man who serves his nation faithfully. He would sacrifice himself in a heartbeat if it meant peace for us. [Maybe he sounds a bit worried now. He shakes it off.]

He has been acting off lately, choosing words different when a certain bard comes into his bar.

[Wednesday is quiet and attentive as Kaeya tells his story. She still works diligently, making sure that she stirs all of the soap out of the clothes that are in the cauldron and then taking them to the stream set up to fully rinse them out before they're put up to dry. In a way, it's just like helping Grandmother Frump while getting a family history lesson.

In a few ways.]

Gods often tend to sleep when man thinks they need them the most. Such is the way with the gods of my world. If they even exist. I am surprised that your gods move around and interact with you. There are stories in many religions that this happens back home, but credible sources are nowhere to be found to verify it.

We're better off assuming that the gods are dead and we're on our own. [She grimaces as she thinks about Joseph Crackstone.] Of course, there those who foolishly cling to the most small-minded interpretations of even their own religion and try to get rid of those that don't fit their small world view.

[He continues his side of the work. As he continues to talk.] I’ll give you further details of the gods to help color this in a little. Each nation is ruled over (or not) by their Archon. Those archons are those who won one of the seven seats of Celestia in the Archon War.

Man spirits and gods died fighting for those seats thousands of years ago. The people of Liyue to the west of us once consulted with their Archon every year to learn the ways fortunes were turning. To the north, Sumeru’s people turned to study along side their own Archon of nature and wisdom. They have the most complete knowledge of our world.

In Fountaine, just beyond Liyue, the people watch their Archon of Waters perform on stage or stand in court rooms while their Chief Justice just as ageless sits in judgement of cases.

Nathlan dances in battle with humans and dragons fighting against the remnants of the calamity. While Inazuma remembers how to be part of our world now that their Archon at the top of their government has stopped clinging so hard to the past.

[He pauses for a moment. Might as well keep going.] The people of Snezhnaya move to the will of the Archon of Cryo. The Tsaritsa‘s heart is said to have changed with the loss of her beloved during the Calamity. She has no love left for her people, or the world.

Her soldiers, the Fatui and those called the Harbingers are enacting some kind of plan and spreading across all nations. What it is they are doing? It hasn’t been good for others so far.

[He flicks his fingers. Then he pauses. She spoke of outsiders. Some part of him, a tiny child that was once so damn lonely is why he continues. He takes a breath and says,] One nation doesn’t have a god or a place on the surface.

[Gods. It’s hard to start especially. There is a pause before he says,] The ruins of their forays into the sun are all over Teyvat. Once they were a glittering technological marvel of a nation. With eyes like stars and a longing for knowledge.

Khaenri’ah fell when its king went mad and the madness spread as the darkness came in. Terrible creatures came from the darkness beyond the world that they had been exploring. From their nation did calamity spread. All the world was affected.

All the world bled. No one who lived in those times escaped the terror of it. The highest of heavens, Celestia responded and hit the nation below with a blow it could not recover from. The glory of Khaenri’ah was shattered.

The people cursed. They are the omens of doom. The signs of arrogance. To be their descendant is to be a possible plague. Tales told spell those who were under the sway of no religion or god, endless explorers…as arrogant fools.

[He falls rather quiet. This place doesn’t hold the same sway over him. He can speak up. But saying it all felt…loaded.] It is said the rulers of Khaenri’ah felt like the night had come to the people when they drew near. Shedding darkness the way stars shed light.

[Not unlike that woman in the woods. Nay. Exactly like her.]

[Wednesday listens as she works. In a way, it's all just a story to her, a recitation of the Greek or Roman gods that her father was so fond of reading out loud while they practiced fencing and her mother wasn't around. She finds it interesting, in a distant sort of way. Perhaps that's the author in her or just the fact that she's so far removed from everything.

But to him, while it might be a different world from where they both are currently, it's his world, his history, his experience. And it won't cost her anything to let him talk. That's something she learned back in Nevermore, after all. Eventually, people give something actually personal away.]

And from which Archon and country do you come from? To which do you owe your allegiance?

[He turns to her and the light reveals his pupil is a diamond shape. His face is unreadable.] I live in Mondstadt where Barbatos of the winds refuses to rule. I wasn’t born there.

[He looks out at the forest again. There she is, just a glimpse. He focuses on that flash of movement like a cat spotting something colorful. Then he tears his gaze as way and sets about hanging up clean clothes to dry.]

I’ll build the fire up a little higher. These need a bit more heat.

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TDM #1 - Welcome to the Fae Wild, Winter Edition

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Noticed autocorrect corrected Gods to God’s. Damn thing

But misconceptions are fun?

True true

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