History of Earth and Faerie

[Rissa O'Sullivan]

Note: it's recommended to read the fae information first.

Faerie

Faerie... the colors are more vibrant, the air just a bit more crisper, the water fresh, the animals just as long-lived as the fae. There are two moons and two suns, and time in Faerie passes quicker - a day in Faerie is only an hour in Earth.

Around 5,000 years ago, the fae discovered weak spots in the walls of reality that led to other words. Earth was just one of many, but it was the first world with (somewhat) intelligent life that the fae found. And, to date, it is also the only world with life other than animals. As early as 4,950 years ago there are records of fae slipping over to Earth. Some fae played mischief with the poor humans of the time, and some came over for the natural resources that Earth contained.

Before such happenings were banned by both the seelie and unseelie courts, it was actually quite common for fae to take a human lover. The child born was neither human nor fae, with a bastardization of the fae abilities. Instead of manipulation via song, these fae-blooded children began to show signs of special gifts after puberty.

It wasn't until around 2,000 BC that such laws were enacted, and in the time before that some fae began to be known as gods among the humans. They fit the myths of the time, and even after the laws prohibiting fae/human unions were passed, some continued to play as gods to the gullible humans.

It wasn't for another 2,000 years that the fae stopped playing so openly with the growing human race. They had their own wars to deal with, and the vicious Rose Wars between the two factions of fae lasted for well over a hundred years. The end of the conflict saw complete change for Faerie - the fae lost nearly a quarter of their total population to the wars, with the light fae losing the most people.

Though there have been smaller conflicts since then, nothing on the scale of the Rose Wars has ever been seen. It took decades to rebuild their cities, and at the end of the Wars both courts were in agreement on one thing - open traveling between the worlds was forbidden. It was best for all that humans forgot that the fae existed, and the last 2,000 years saw a drastic decrease of the number of fae who traveled to Earth.



Earth

The history of Earth is pretty much like real history, except that instead of there just being regular people, there have always been shifters. Throw in some wars based on shifter subrace vs shifter subrace, instead of Russians vs French, and you get the idea.

Most of the world never knew that Faerie actually existed. Humans are a short-sighted bunch, whether normal or shifter, and they’ve always been too busy with their own wars and conflict to pay attention to the strange goings-on in the world. But a small percentage not only knew – they were fae. Or part-fae, at least.

It’s estimated that in modern times, as much as perhaps ten percent of the population has fae blood in them, though only about one percent of the population have abilities from their ancestors. Those abilities mostly show up in the form of special powers, whether it be elemental manipulation or telepathy or such.

Back in the old days, thousands of years ago, it wasn't uncommon to claim that your family was descended from the gods. The gods were such a large part of society, whether they were just myth or fae pretenders, and some of them indeed were descended from "the gods." Though those gods were not gods at all, but fae. Less common was actually showing off your gifts, if you had any, but it wasn't unheard of.

Once the fae stopped coming around, the myths started to die out and it became more of a hassle for those who had the blood. The families of fae-descendants kept their lineage quiet, but the myths never quite went away in Ireland and Scotland. The oldest family lines carried on the truth, passed down in stories from generation to generation.

They eventually became the foundation for a secret group which catered to the fae-blooded. It helped them cope with living with their secret, provided aid in learning and controlling their abilities. Over the years, the Helping Hand as it was known moved into a little-noticed abbey in the hills of Ireland. They invited those who wished to stay within their walls, and quietly gathered knowledge of all things fae.

Among those who knew about the fae, not only did the Helping Hand spring up, but other things sprung up as well. For all that


The Collapse

About 10 years ago, an unseelie lord was convicted of the most horrible of crimes, and was sentenced to what the fae considered the harshest punishment. He wasn't killed - instead, he was stripped of what made him fae and outcast to live on any world but for Faerie. Unable to use song anymore, and with a normal human lifespan, it was thought that he would die within a short time on Earth.

But he didn't die, and he ended up in Dublin, Ireland. There he began to formulate revenge. It was two-sided: revenge against the court of the light fae, who had sung the curse to strip away his fae identity. And revenge against the humans, who were squandering away a world that would be ripe for unseelie picking. No more would the dark fae have to live side by side with the seelie.

Over the years he quietly began building a support base, using a small, unknown rip in the fabric of reality to move between the worlds. In late 2010 he began to move fae over to Earth, teaching them the ways of Earth and infiltrating them into all levels of job sectors. None of his supporters breathed a word, and none on Faerie were the wiser for his actions.

The fae-blooded living in Dublin were the first to notice something strange, several months before All Hallows Eve in 2012. There were strange fae, glamoured to look like anyone else, living in all parts of the city. Fae who killed anyone who saw through that glamour. But they couldn't figure out what was wrong.

At exactly midnight on All Hallows Eve, the moment when the fabric of reality is thinnest, the dark fae directed his army on Faerie to sing a curse. A curse that would unwind the fabrics between the worlds. There was no stopping it once it was started, and both worlds shook and groaned with the strain. As soon as the worlds collided, the dark fae began their attack on the humans. Dublin was the first, with other major cities falling quickly. Overnight nearly a billion people were killed.

Within days, the light fae had gathered and began to help the humans push back the dark fae. But the fae weren't the only dangers to humans - creatures from faerie had also crossed over, the most dangerous of which were Shades. Shadowy creatures that couldn't stand the touch of light, they were non-discriminant feeders that devoured human and fae alike within seconds. Whole blocks fell to the Shades.

Within a week, the outcast dark fae was dead. Most of the army still fought, but they were stretched too thin and began to congregate instead in Dublin, the stronghold of human and light fae resistance. And, as the next week followed, it quickly became apparent that Faerie was dying. No one could figure out why, but whole areas were filled with poisonous air that was deadly to breathe. Plants shriveled and died, animals began dying off in droves.

For a society that was not quick to change, the events of the four weeks between Collapse and present were a shock. The curse that ripped apart the walls was killing Faerie, and nothing the fae sung was stopping it. After the first month, the first of the fae realized there was nothing else to be done. For better or worse, they had to begin moving to Earth.



Present Times

The conflict didn't end with the defeat of the dark fae army. The humans were hurt, scared, and angry at the fae. Many of them hated the fae on sight, and by extension hating the fae-blooded who had come out at the start of the conflict. Others didn't care what happened to the fae, so long as they weren't on Earth.

Once the fae began moving to earth permanently, the issue got even more complicated. That's only gotten worse, and it's looking to be a years-long conflict. There are factions slowly starting to form out of the chaos, though as of yet none have leaders. Many of the fae royalty were killed, and that's adding to the chaos. No one knows where this is headed, but the only thing for sure is that both species are irrevocably changed by the actions of one person.

And that's just the politics of the situation. As for what it's actually like out there? It's still pretty bad. School of all levels has been cancelled ever since The Collapse, the government is trying (and failing) to run from a temporary building on the outskirts of the city, electricity still flickers or goes out completely every know and then, and there's a shade infestation that no one (not even the fae) can get rid of.

Different parts of the world are better or the same as Dublin currently, but as the weeks have passed most of the conflict seems to be settling in Ireland, with Dublin the front lines. Worldwide just over two billion lives have been lost, with close to a hundred thousand fae dead. And that number just keeps climbing as the months drag on.