The Fae Encyclopedia
(For Curious Humans)
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Eastusa
Elves
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Faeries
Florida
Fringe, The
Glamour
Internet
Kraken
Land of Faerie
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Money
Pandora Event
Pixies
Spells
Summer Court
Wendigoes
Westusa
Winter Court
Winterhounds
Witches
Glamour
In the Faerie Court, appearance is everything. It stands to reason that you can raise your social standing considerably if you LOOK like you're more impressive than you really are -- when you have the magical means to do so, to turn an ordinary tunic into a glittering vest of ermine fur and inlaid with rubies, then why the hey not? And when your neighbor does the same thing, well, you turn your spell up a notch and add sparkles and diamonds, maybe make it emit the scent of perfume when you move, if you're really good. And then they increase their own glamour spells, aaand...
...needless to say, it's an arms race. May the gaudiest pile of attention whoring eye candy win.
Truthfully, though, there several layers going on here. You've got non-magical folk, unable to look good without a lot of time in a makeup chair and some expensive clothes. Then you've got magical folk who are like a kid in a candy store when it comes to tuning up their appearance... over the top and down the other side. And finally, at the uppermost echelons, you have people adept at using glamours WITH natural beauty WITH an actual fashion sense. Those ones are devastatingly beautiful.
I mean that both in exaggeration and in literal description. There are glamour spells which actually have a mild psionic effect, drawing attention and forcing a hazy cloud of admiration into your brain. If I hate ordinary glamours because they're pretentious, I hate these because they're cruel and unethical. If I want to like your fancy new dress I'll like it on my own terms!
Sadly, these glamours are quite common, particularly used by Fae women looking to attract suitors (or just hog the spotlight). By and large Fae men rarely care, as if they enjoy being wooed in such a way. You ask me, those strumpets ought to be stripped of their spells so everybody can see how homely they are!
EDITOR'S NOTE: I really dig a good glamour, you know? I knew this one girl who was so good at the stuff it was like an artform... she never wore fancy clothes because her body was her canvas, and her imagination her brush. Emily just thinks it's all lies and scammery, but a well applied glamour, one with heart and soul, ahhh... it's a thing to behold.
Emily thinks you should look how you look and anything else is being some kind of con artist. I say, hey, I wanna change my hair color one morning, I do it! If I want to add some sparkle to my skin, sure thing! Humans change clothes all the time, and Faeries can change so much more than that, so why draw a limit? That seems arbitrary to me.
Lately, though, I've been more interested in human fashions. A lot of the young Fae are. The new generation's finally breaking away from tradition, since we were born in your world, and don't have any lingering memories of the Land of Faerie to keep us mired in the past.
Me, my favorite clothes are reproductions of vintage concert t-shirts. All the originals have rotted away by now, but photographs of what they used to look like are still around, and if you get a really good silk-weaver-spider artist on the job they can create a terrific facsimile. My Rolling Stones Steel Wheels tour shirt is my favorite. Yeah! Start me up, baby!