The Hell Keys

There are numerous minor realms in the Shadowlands. None of them are so well established as the Realms of Fair Folk. Their realms connect to all the major realms and the liminal realms. And the doors to the various demenses in this realm are the Hell keys.

An expanded look at the Fair Folk

The Greater Magi of the Shadowlands - also known as the Demons

The Fair Folk are the mythic beings that wear human forms: Sheedr and Faidr and Gnomon. They are the keepers of Magick and will be teachers and patrons to human sorcerers. Often mistaken for Gods, the difference is that Fair Folk need no worship or offerings. The Fair Folk will normally trade or barter for their favor or their instruction. The Fair Folk may appear most human like, but they are not human. Like the Elders they are sympathetic to humans in the Shadowlands. But also like the Elders, their minds are alien and they do not see things as humans do.

Deal with Devils and not with Gods.

For Devils will bargain for your soul, 

while Gods will demand it for free.

The Aelfen

These fair folk look noble but are treacherous. The fair folk come from the future and feed on the present. They can provide prophecy for a price.

Sheedr

The fair folk of the Dark. Beautiful, regal, treacherous and cold. Rumor says that they come from the future and feed upon the present.

The Darkened Court

Tales of the Magus of Dark Solstice are many. Tales of his Court are told in whisperers. There is more to this solstice than stockings and gifts.

• The Magus: The Wondermaker
• The Four
  • The Caretaker: The Lady of Icy Waters
  • The Messenger: The Blind Dark
  • The Mediator: The Wild Huntsman
  • The Scholar: The Cold Wind
• The Fortuneteller: The Keeper of the Seed

Faidr

The fair folk of the Waning, said to be of the future. They whisper that harvesting the present is necessary to keep wheel of time whole.

The Twilight Rebels

The Court that is not. Day and night imagine themselves as a dichotomy. The changing of light rebels against such clean labels.

• The Magus: The Purifier
• The Four
  • The Caretaker: The Sheltering Wind
  • The Messenger: The Guardian of the Gate
  • The Mediator: The Mountain Beast
  • The Scholar: The Ascetic
• The Fortuneteller: The Summer Storm

The Kobalen

The goblin folk look vile and scary but are just and kind. The goblin folk come from the past and give to the present. They will take messages to the past for a price.

Gobn

The fair folk of summer. They defend the present, sending aid from the past. It is said they can undo past mistakes.

The Midnight Court

They guard the night during its weakest point. The Solar Solstice is their great siege. They preserve the cycle for another year.

• The Magus: Walker of the Crossroads
• The Four
  • The Caretaker: The Hearthkeeper
  • The Messenger: The Cryptwalker
  • The Mediator: Child of the Rainbow
  • The Scholar: Watcher on the Wind
• The Fortuneteller: Lady of Grace

Bogn

The fair folk of the Waning. Shriveled, squat, ugly, joyous and friendly. Hailing from the past, feeding past to present to bring the harvest.

The Noonday Court

Bright, shining and glorious. One would never guess the nature of these splendid arch devils. Who knows what emerges from the cocoon?

• The Magus: The Splendid Peacock
• The Four
  • The Caretaker: The Walking Worm
  • The Messenger: The Resurrectionist
  • The Mediator: The Giver of Libations
  • The Scholar: The Lightbringer
• The Fortuneteller: The Remover of Obstacles

The Gnomon

The Gnomon are the Fair Folk of science present moment and of science. Xaokn are researchers. Saign are Educators. The Gnomon are always willing to help but tend to be oblivious to consequences and will help Locust forces just as readily.

Saign

The Gnomon of Education. Closely aligned with the modern mind. They help, but they help everyone, tribe and city alike.

The Bone Shrine Court

The Bone Shrine Court teaches insights from the Bonelands. Remember how large is the universe. Remember how small is the human skull.

• The Magus: The Sage of Motion
• The Four
  • The Caretaker: The Sage of Time
  • The Messenger: The Sage of Descent
  • The Mediator: The Sage of Radiation
  • The Scholar: The Sage of Orbits
• The Fortuneteller: The Safe of Lightning

Xaokn

Gnomon of science. The Xoakn are dedicated to research, But they provide their research to the Locust just as readily as to you.

The Bonewood Court

Hidden in the Bone Forest. The court whose magick peers into the Bonelands. Magick ends and Science begins when we seek to prove ourselves wrong.

• The Magus: Eldest Teacher
• The Four
  • The Caretaker: The Teacher in the Library
  • The Messenger: The Teacher in the Observatory
  • The Mediator: The Teacher in Miniature
  • The Scholar: The Teacher in the Garden
• The Fortuneteller: The Teacher in the Cage

Locust Touched Fair Folk

Not all of the Fair Folk retain their independence in the face of the spreading conquest of the Hungry Empire. As it devours everything, either assimilating or destroying whatever it encounters, many of the Fair Folk who once were are no more. And many more Fair Folk now hold forms unrecognizable to what they once were.

The Sold Ones

The Hungry Empire expands across the land, spewing new gods and conquering lands and Denizens, people and stories and mind, The Sold Ones are Fair Folk corrupted by the Locust.

• Wheat Goblin
• Rice Spriggan

The Broken

The Broken are the Fair Folk, beings who were once part of the great Courts, corrupted and twisted into incomprehensible forms by the corruption of the Grey and the Locust King.

• The Grey Locust
• Falsenight

The Court of Eternal Summer

The Conquered Court. The Demon Servants to the Locust. Magick caged like a songbird

The Court of Eternal Summer is the Captive Court of the Locust King. They celebrate The Whore's Holiday (Valentine's Day), The Chimney Sweeper's Rest (May Long Weekend), The Worker's Holiday (Labor Day), And Black Market Day (Nov 1). These holidays are commercial mockeries of Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh and Samhain. They serve the Grey and Falsenight. They are the keeper of consumption and immortality and absolute right and wrong.

• The Magus: The Lord of Lords and Builder of Cities (The Broken Bird)
• The Four
  • The Caretaker: The Lady of The Bloody Fountain (The Martyred Mother)
  • The Messenger: The Lord of Extermination (The Caged Huntsman)
  • The Mediator: The Lady of Unification and Conquest (Captive Citizen)
  • The Scholar: The Oracle Skull of Knowledge (The Toy in the Glass Tower)
• The Fortuneteller: The Quintuple Lords of Misfortune (The Curse of Cities)

The Broken

The Hungry Empire expands across the land, spewing new gods and conquering lands and Denizens, people and stories and mind. The Broken are the Fair Folk, beings who were once part of the great Courts, corrupted and twisted into incomprehensible forms by the corruption of the Grey and the Locust King.

The Grey Locust

The Locust Spirit is not villainous alone, twisted by addiction and fear. A plague of hunger and paranoia devours those it does not convert. The Grey Locust is some bizarre gestalt form, a minor spirit empowered by one of the fear touched Elders, latched parasitically upon a nameless lost Magus of a long forgotten Demon Court. This strange legion of beings is what transformed the youngest of the Seven Siblings from the Archetype known as Lion, into the Archetype now known as the Locust King.

Falsenight

An oily smoky skeletal fossil powering dark ambition with stolen fuel. This is what powers the Hungry Empire's Expansion, a forgotten Fortuneteller from the same now nameless Demon Court that birthed what become the Grey Locust. To give his captured Demon the power he needed, the Locust King bonded this captured demon with corrupted flesh stolen from the Great Serpent. But Falsenight needs tribute to provide its power, and the tribute must be paid.

The Sold Ones

The Hungry Empire expands across the land, spewing new gods and conquering lands and denizens, people and stories and mind, The Sold Ones are Fair Folk corrupted by the Locust.
 
The Wheat Goblin
(A Corrupted Gobn)

A small yellow goblin with a beard of wheat stalks and huge long floppy ears that look like leaves on a stalk of wheat. It can shapeshift but will always have a long braided beard or braided hair and it will always have it's ears. It tries to sell or offer freely wheat cakes that, if eaten, will render the victim unable to survive on anything but the wheat cakes or (just barely alive) on normal wheat products. Easy to fight and kill, they are not warriors.

But the wheat cakes will give temporary strength and speed to the Wheat Goblin itself and others who eat it. Foolish warriors will occasionally become willingly addicted to the wheat cakes.

The Rice Spriggan
(A Corrupted Bogn)

An amorphous spirit that lives in any stagnant water, but especially loves rice padi water. It can form a body out of the muck and vegetation and fish bones in it's home to fight if it needs or wants to do so. However, it's preference is to use fish teeth and bones to cut curse sigils onto the exposed feet and ankles of people who tread in the padi water.

The sigils render the victim week against cholera and malaria and Typhus spirits that will attack the victim every night for weeks (depending on the strength drawn for the curse and the strength drawn for the spirit itself). A Rice Spriggan can only be destroyed by draining it's watery home or purifying the water.