u/JFritz2308

The following is summarised from the writings of many Llaeffi'r scholars on the origins of this world.

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It is no easy thing to speak with certainty on the creation of Ashagon. That it was created is, of course, indisputable; from the fertility of soil to the vigour of wind evidences abound of this world being a living thing, and all that lives must once have been born and will one day die. Models of an eternal Ashagon, without beginning nor end, describe a static and dead world so absurdly alien to reality that any philosophies arising from it may be dismissed in their entirety as foreign heresy.

Yes, that this world was created is indisputable, agreed by most peoples of Ashagon. There is sadly much less consensus on who created it. Again evidences of their nature can be found in common observation of the natural world, but they are sadly open to misinterpretation (wilful or otherwise) as seen in the many differing faiths of Ashagon's peoples misattributing the Great Creation that is this world to lesser and even false deities.

Fortunately, Faeries do not have to rely on mere observation and intuition alone. Llaeff- She Of Many Faces, She Who Cares for the Small and Underdog, the divine patron of all Faeries- is the only party involved in Ashagon's creation still residing within it, and so an objective source on its nature. She walks amongst the many people of Ashagon wearing many faces and personas, and it is from her teachings as Saint Aethrawes that Faeries credit most of their knowledge on Llaeff's divine brethren, the Crwydoedd.

The Crwydoedd collectively created Ashagon. This is a truth affirmed by basic intuition; the greatest mortals creations require the work of many artisans, so it should not be any surprise that the greatest of creations, Ashagon itself, is the fruit of many divine hands. From Saint Aethrawes scripture we know that though the Crwydoedd of divine power, they are possessed by the same motivations as us mortal peoples. They created this world, and indeed many other worlds, for the multitude of reasons any who create do.

Ashagon is the product of both competition and collaboration. Its great mountains are the outcome of playful boasts on who could raise the tallest peak; its sun a united effort to make something shine like no other. This world's peoples range from the products of careful design and frivolous fancy, but all of us were made with intention and in some small way deemed to improve Creation. Saint Aethrawes emphasised above all else that the Crwydoedd's creation of Ashagon was a joyous one.

Eventually (the time impossible to measure, as Ashagon's time was something created during this era), the Crwydoedd deemed they had created all they could within Ashagon. The Crwydoedd are innately travellers- Ashagon was neither their first world nor would it be their last. To add more to this world would only be to muddy what had already been made, and so they departed for a fresh canvas.

All departed, except Llaeff. She who was the youngest and most curious of her siblings, who had crafted the moon and lakes and countless more, chose to remain here in Ashagon. Saint Aethrawes did not speak on if it was common for Crwydoedd to linger in the worlds they created, but given how strongly she described the Crwydoedd's nature to roam Llaeffi'r doctrine has inferred Llaeff's choice to be a deep act of love. Ashagon is likely unique among all the Crwydoedd's worlds for it.

Many Faerie saints have spoken at length on why they stayed on Ashagon even as their brethren left. Llaeff had grown attached to this world and its peoples. She wished to experience the world the Crwydoedd had created as their creations did, to cloak herself in our forms and walk Ashagon as we do. Unlike the rest of her brethren she did not believe that the potential for new stories had ended just because the era of creation had. She would work to ensure it had not; guiding us in our times of uncertainty and challenging us when we became set in our ways.

If life is one thing it is dynamic. It exists in motion, in change, in its potential to be different and greater tomorrow then it is today. Llaeff remained to witness and encourage that growth.

NAME: The Faerie Court of Cwmyteg (kum - eh - teg)

FLAG/SYMBOL: A crowned willow tree against the full moon, its roots descending into a dark lake to draw forth the magic coalescing in the depths.

https://preview.redd.it/ifdqehedrqxg1.png?width=2400&format=png&auto=webp&s=3a8cbc2a5821ed6fd40e14f80bdd6e0693e92ecd

LOCATION: The Faerie Court asserts control over the continental valley between Ashagon's great north-western lakes, and the islands that float above it.

GEOGRAPHY: Cwmyteg encompasses the temperate valley between Ashagon's two greatest lakes; Llyn Babn in its north and Llyn Maem its south. It is a pleasant land of forests and meadows, much of it still wild and unexploited. For much of their history Faeries had no need for agriculture, and since its institution the relative sizes of produce to their slight statures means that Cwmyteg is comprised of much less farmland compared to other nation's of a similar size. For the same reason, even the grandest of Faerie cities possesses a relatively small footprint.

There are sectors in which this is changing, however. Areas of Cwmyteg's south have been deforested to supply the lumber for the Faerie's signature wooden mechs and airships, while the western hills have seen a series of mines established to in service of the Order of the Flying Fish's experiments in steel mechs.

The most famous feature of Cwmyteg are the Helyg Teg, great willow trees that grow only from Ashagon's deepest waters and release an incredibly potent magical pollen. When the world was rich with magic there was multiple groves populating Llyn Babn, but following the Blight all that survived is Llyn Maem's sole small copse.

BIOLOGY/ETHNICITY: The Faeries are among Ashagon's smallest peoples. They average just 30cm (1ft) in height, and are proportioned with much more slender limbs than the standard human build. Faerie eyes are akin to those of insects- large and dark in appearance, capable of 360 degrees of vision inclusive of ultraviolet light but in turn granting much poorer resolution. Supplementing their sight, a Faerie's greatest sensory organ are a pair of moth-like antennae, sprouting from the top of their forehead, looking much like slender fuzzy antlers.

Also mothlike in appearance are a Faerie's wings, which have opaque patterns evocative of eyes. No two Faeries' wings will possess identical patterns, and there are subsequently scores of folk traditions for divining one's personality and fortune from their wings. A Faerie's wings alone are not enough to grant flight; also required is the magic dust-like pollen produced by the Helyg Teg. Since the implementation of strict rationing necessitated by the Blight the vast majority of Faeries will never come into possession of faerie dust and their wings are in effect vestigial.

The Blight has also had consequences for the Faeries average lifespan. During the era faerie dust was abundant they were known to live hundreds of years, but following its production being reduced to a trickle each successive generation of Faeries born has experienced a shorter and shorter average lifespan. The estimates for the most recent Faerie generation places their lifespan at just over 40 years. Optimistic scholars believe this to be the plateau.

HISTORY: In the days the world was rich was magic, the Faeries were among its richest. Faerie dust flowed so plentifully that each and every Faerie was able to avail themselves of it, and in doing so was blessed with long lives, flight, and the ability to work great magic. Food could be conjured easily and in abundance, and so by consequence large scale agriculture and the peasantry as a class did not exist in Cwmyteg.

Given the individual Faerie's self sufficiency and magical power, the Faerie state of this time was an extremely decentralised one. Its primary manifestation was in the faerie courts, loose affiliations of faeries centred around a copse or grove of Helyg Teg. They served to organise the distribution of faerie dust, and settle disputes within the community. Aggrieved parties would each present their case to their peers, who would then debate the issue until a unanimous judgement was reached. Rulings had to be this overwhelming given the incredible power an individual faerie could wield, but by consequence matters of the faerie court were often argued for days if not months.

In Cwmyteg, the fading of Ashagon's great magic took the form of the Blight. The Blight was a creeping sickness that spread across Llyn Babn, killing its Helyg Teg and leaving only their petrified husks. Llyn Maem was unaffected, but it possessed only a single small copse producing a fraction of Cwmyteg's prior faerie dust. The resulting instability was unimaginable.

The Cwmyteg that emerged from the smoke was by necessity one heavily centralised around the Church and the only faerie court still stewarding faerie dust. The victorious religious doctrine taught that the Blight was a punishment of their god Llaeff. They had become decadent and arrogant; indulging in wanton luxury, ignoring if not causing the suffering of their neighbouring peoples, thinking themselves superior to the world of which they were but a small part. The Faeries had abused Llaeff's blessings, and so she had revoked them.

SOCIETY: Faerie society was radically reorganised in the aftermath of the Blight. Farming went from an idle curiosity to an imperative in a very short period of time as the majority of the populous ceased to be able to just conjure food at will. The Faeries were also suffering psychologically from the knowledge they had lost the favour of their god and needed to atone for their hubris. The Penance was the solution elected to both of these issues.

The Penance was to be applied to the entirety of Faerie society, for it was the entirety of society that was at fault and the entirety of society that was in need. It mandated that each and every Faerie would give a portion of their lives to work the land to produce what was needed for the survival of their people. Great collective farms were established, increased central management all but required for a people 30cm tall to grow produce at scale.

The Penance was established as lasting 50 years. This has become an increasing proportion of a Faeries life as time has passed since the Blight and their average lifespans began to freefall. While there still persists a notion of all Faeries being equal, what has emerged in the modern era is a society in which Cwmyteg's estates are stewarded by Faeries born three generation after the Blight who completed their penance long ago, and worked by 8th generation Faeries for who the Penance is their entire lives.

Traditions of the faerie courts continue to permeate society, but the only court whose rulings matter is the former faerie court of Maem- now synonymous with the Faerie Court of Cwmyteg. The Llaeffi'r Church continues on as a core pillar of society. It is both a spiritual and academic institution, overseeing the worship of Llaeff while also being primary repository of knowledge the natural world Llaeff and her brethren created. Its spiritual and academic functions are united in the purpose of redeeming the Faeries and regaining Llaeff's favour.

CULTURE: Faerie society reveres Llaeff, the youngest of a chorus of gods who collaboratively created the world. When her brethren judged they had made all they could make and took their leave to begin the next world, Llaeff alone remained to both shepherd and challenge us. For a time the Faeries were her favoured people, she who cared for the small and the underdog, but they lost that favour when they grew to no longer appreciate her blessings. This understanding of their disfavoured status has produced strong ideals of humility, charity and asceticism in Faerie culture.

Llaeff is a many faced goddess, understood to walk the world wearing different faces, and the Llaeffi'r Church recognises a canon of saints believed to have been personas of Llaeff.

While the Faerie Court of Cwmyteg is only modern court to wield real power, the traditions of the faerie courts persist in a legalistic culture. Faeries are raised to be particular with their words and adept at arguments, and to value collective consensus.

Even though it has been centuries since the Blight and the loss of most Faeries' flight, it remains a cultural obsession; it is mournful reminder of what they once were, the sins for which they declined, and a hope for what they may be again. That there still remains enough faerie dust for most of the populus to at least once see a Faerie's silhouette soaring across the sky keeps the fixation alive.

OCCURRENCE OF MAGIC: Magic is seen as a pale shadow of what it once was. All works of Faerie magic are possible only with faerie dust, the magical pollen produced by the Helyg Teg. It possesses the magic of life; it can invigorate health, lengthen life, hasten growth and animate constructs.

Scarcity mandates that the limited modern supply is heavily regulated and rationed. The Faerie Court of Cwmyteg is responsible for allocating its distribution, a responsibility equal to and arguably greater than the running of the Faerie state.

The bulk is entrusted to the Llaeffi'r Church, who in turn allocates it between its holy orders. These holy orders are dedicated to a variety of purposes, some serving as miracle workers (minor mages), others technicians on Faerie airships and mechs, others conducting various projects. All require faerie dust for their functioning. The remainder is distributed amongst the Faerie steward class, Faeries seeking to ward off disease that may prematurely end their longer lives. Finally an emergency reserve is maintained for flighted couriers.

FADED WONDER: The Helyg Teg of Llyn Maem are the sole remaining source of faerie dust within Cwmyteg. They are a small copse of impossibly old willow trees growing from the waters of Llyn Maem. Church scholars teach Llyn Maem and Llyn Babn, the two great lakes of Ashagon, gradually soak up the divine magic of the heavens they reflect each night, the otherworldly realm Llaeff and her brethren originate from. The Helyg Teg, created by Llaeff as a blessing for the Faeries, send their roots deep into the lakes, drawing forth and refining that divine magic of creation into a form mortal Faeries can utilise.

Faerie dust is produced in accordance with the lunar cycle, waxing and waning as the moon does. The majority of months its distribution is divided into so many allocations its recipients barely qualify as wielding Low magic, but there are rare occasions on which the Faerie Court rules to prioritise enough dust to work a true High feat of Life magic.

IMPORTS, EXPORTS, & MAJOR INDUSTRIES: The Faeries' cultural fixation with flight has manifested in steadily growing industry in anachronistic engineering. Faeries cannot hope to export anything in bulk, but their small artisans are most prized for intricate clockwork mechanisms. Additionally, the Faerie Court is known to loan advisors on the construction of airships and mechs, as well as diplomats. Their primary input is produce; given the immense labour costs of their domestic agriculture the Faeries run tight margins and focus on staple goods. They prize the trade of luxury foodstuffs they do not locally produce, and appreciate bolstering warehouses so they are less susceptible to poor harvests.