Locations

Fairy Kingdom

• Danger: High
• Sub zones: Nemyra's palace, Kortiki town, Sunfall thicket, Chikito lake , Muroyo library,
• Inhabitants: fairies, dryads, echydins, deerataurs, genies, ghosts, gloomglows, magic elementals, eliocanthes
• Characters : Lily, Aya, Temi

The fairy kingdom is a huge zone situated west of Negav. It's very noticeable for the wide and seemingly bottomless chasm encircling it. According to ancient scriptures it was created millenniums ago by the Earth Elemental Queen Thanjayuur and the fairy queen Nemyra in order to protect the kingdom during the The Era of Mirages. There are several bridges and passageways spanning over the pit and connecting the kingdom to the rest of Felarya, although the handiest way to reach it remains to travel by air.

The Fairy kingdom is an enchanted and dense jungle of untold wonders but also of ever-present peril. It easily stand as one of the most dangerous areas to humans in all Felarya. Fortunately it's easy to avoid and you can't exactly stumble there by error.

Once you step in the Fairy kingdom, you immediately get the impression that you've somehow walked into another world or maybe a dream. The sheer beauty of the place is awe-inspiring. Small glowing spores and tiny specks of lights can be seen drifting slowly in the wind. The ambient light is slightly blueish, as is the vegetation, some of the laws of physics are altered, and the air feels... different. To any magic users, it immediately becomes clear the place is literally saturated with magic. it's everywhere; in the air, in the ground, in the trees, coursing through each leaves or blade of grass. As a result, the unique and colorful fauna of this place is comprised of many creatures that evolved into innate magic users, able to either cast spells, deflect magic or use it to sustain themselves. Even some plants followed the same strange evolution, such as the Lagorn, a small ivy whose yellow flower will enchant whoever come to close with a minor confusion spell. For an alchemist, the Fairy Kingdom is like a paradise, as many plants, fruits and seeds can be gathered and used as precious ingredients for various potions and formulas.

As its name implies, the Fairy Kingdom is teeming with fairies of all varieties. They are deadly predators, widely known on Felarya for their voracious appetite. For an human, encountering a fairy means in most cases being shrunken, played with and eaten. Aside from the fairies, lots of spirits and ghosts and elementals wander the land, seemingly attracted by the magic. The zone is full of portals, wormholes and warp zones of all sorts. Most of them are of the wild type though, constantly popping in and out at random, lasting for only a couple of minutes, sometimes seconds.

Kuwuni Bridge

The Kuwuni bridge links the kingdom to the Chordoni waterfalls region. It's a vegetal bridge, made entirely of thick, interlaced vines. Large and beautiful flowers grow on it, as well as a couple of carnivorous plants.

Bridge of eternity

A bridge made of pure magic. The Shard river flows on it and over the gap, giving the impression of a bridge made of pure water, a breathtakingly beautiful spectacle. Many mages marvel at the power of the spell that was required to create this bridge; a spell that has endured for millennia, and could apparently last for a couple more.

Grey Bridge

A huge bridge linking the kingdom to the northern coastal region. It's also called "the bridge of war", having been used a long time ago by a tribe of fairies to invade that northern region, according to a legend. It looks like the petrified and hollow trunk of a very ancient tree that has been carved with small embrasures along its side that were probably used to fire arrows or magic missiles at the enemy from safety.

Bridge of the huntress

A curious bridge made of Eidoron rocks. It looks more a cloud of floating stone platforms than a bridge. Each Eidoron rock slowly drifts at random, sometimes rotating around a larger one, or back and forth at different heights. For wingless people, jumping from one rock to another can prove a hazardous affair, a miscalculation possibly proving fatal. The bridge leads to the Forest of whispers.

Ceiciel Bridge

A bridge not too far from Kortiki town and leading to the south. The reason why it was named after the Ceiciels is unknown.

Tasenya Bridge

A bridge from the Sunfall thicket leading to the west toward Akaptor desert. The name Tasenya is that of a powerful ghost who used to rule and terrorize the region and who was defeated by the fairies long ago.

Places within the Kingdom

-Chikito Lake

Danger: Very High
Inhabitants: fairies, pixie floats

A large and beautiful lake, situated in the northern part of the Fairy kingdom. It stands at the foot of a small mountain range and is fed by two majestic waterfalls. The place gives a sense of peace and wonder, with colorful flowers and lush vegetation covering its bank, filling the air with their sweet and fresh aroma. The water of the lake is surprisingly warm, and the difference of temperature sometimes creates a fine and delicate mist floating on its surface. The place is also saturated with magic and small sparks will sometimes appear, before drifting slowly and vanishing in the mist. Chikito lake is the favorite place for fairies of the kingdom to gather, and the whole area is literally teeming with them at any time of the day. They are everywhere, playing, bathing, relaxing, and having fun. For a human however, the place is probably among the most perilous of all Felarya, and going there is literally begging to be eaten!

-Muroyo Library

Danger: High
Inhabitants: fairies, magical books, ghosts, fishbrats

Most of the time called the "Big Old Library" by fairies, the Muroyo library is a strange and dangerous place. Like the rest of the Fairy Kingdom it's saturated with magic, and it contains a very large collection of books. Because of that combination, many books have become alive and are inhabited by spirits, flying all around the place, flocking, flapping their pages, and behaving more like animals than actual inanimate objects.

While the access to the library is not forbidden per se, it is highly unadvised for fairies or any visitors to wander too far among the large and high bookshelves, unless they have a solid grasp of magic and they know what they are doing. Indeed, there have been countless cases of reckless fairies vanishing forever there, with the book they were reading having more pages afterwards, or displaying an illustration that wasn't there before, of a fairy strangely similar to the one who just disappeared. In general, reading books in Muroyo Library is an unnerving business. Readers first have to tame the book they want to read, and afterwards have the strange and unpleasant sensation of being read by the book themselves. The power of a book also depends on its content. A book called "How to make tissue paper flowers with your friends" will generally pose much less of a threat than one called "Theory about primordial chaos magic by Yogul-Shanak". Despite its dangers, fairies come regularly to visit the library, fascinated by its endless collection of books on virtually everything. A little known trait of fairies is they tend to adore reading and form a highly literate species. Sometimes, the best way to get a prankster fairy to keep quiet, or to get one to forget about eating you, is to simply hand them a book!

-Kortiki

Danger: Low
Inhabitants: Fairies, humans, nekos, elves, Tinies
Characters: Mezzus

Under construction

Kortiki is a town situated deep in the Fairy kingdom. It's large by fairy standards and represents a rare exception in Felarya. Indeed, for some mysterious reason, the place was declared neutral ground long ago and thus, even though it's a fairy town, it's a relatively safe place for a human to visit or live in. Theories abound on the reasons for this, but when you ask a fairy, all you will get in reply is that eating a guest is "rude and not nice at all!" You could still end up in the belly of a fairy if you do something very stupid though, such as committing a crime or stealing the wares of a merchant for example. But as long as you don't act really foolishly, the risk of being eaten is very low. Some humans and nekos have been living in this safe haven for dozens of years without any problem.

The town is a peaceful, colorful, noisy, and beautiful place. Nature is everywhere with some houses built directly inside hollow trees and lianas and vines creeping their way inside. Many fairies seem fascinated by human architecture and some have tried to build vague replicas of the houses the human inhabitants of Kortiki have built for themselves. Some fairies take an even easier route and decide to elect permanent residence inside a human's house, often much to the dismay of the owner. If a fairy moves into your home, you can expect things to get lively and "fun" very fast! Some fairies have taken a liking to domestic appliances, and unaware of (or disregarding) their original purpose, prefer to live inside chests of drawers, clocks, or even pianos.

The Kortikian culture is an odd and unique blending of the original fairy culture and of that brought by humans over the years. Artists of all sorts are highly regarded in Kortiki and the city is full of painters, poets, and musicians. On some rare occasions, rosic nekos coming from the other side of the continent make their way here as well. Kortiki is also a great place to visit if you seek old, rare books as fairies are fond of reading and the town possesses several libraries.

Living among fairies

For a human, neko, or elf, living right in the midst of fairies is a strange and sometimes unnerving experience. One would have to be pretty open-minded and patient for sure, and holding a certain fondness or fascination for fairies in the first place will also help you to not turn crazy. Fairies have very little sense of privacy and won't hesitate to invade your home and play pranks. You also can't completely shake the feeling that those friendly creatures remain fearsome predators and that, should you have met them first in different circumstances in the wild, many of them would have seen little wrong in shrinking you and happily gobbling you down as a snack. It's interesting to note that on the fairy side, some of them find it highly difficult to live alongside humans on a daily basis as well. They find their materialism hard to cope with, making them eager to spend more time away in the forest than in the town in some instances.

On the bright side, fairies treat their "guests" well and they are probably the best revelers in all Felarya. A big fairy party is something you'll never forget! Overall, living among fairies makes for a relatively good life and most humans inhabitants seem content with their condition. Unions between humans and fairies are not uncommon either. Moreover, after years of spending time with them, knowledge of how their mind work, their quirks and little details are second nature to humans from Kortiki. Thus, they would be much less helpless when encountering a fairy in the middle of the jungle, than say a Negavian, as they naturally interact better with them. Even if far away from Kortiki or the Fairy kingdom, they would have a real chance at talking their way out of trouble and even get the fairy to help them.

That relation is mutually beneficial. Non-fairy inhabitants live in safety, while they can help fairies solve some of their problems. For example, a group of humans would have no trouble whatsoever in clearing a bush of feyweed, while fairies would be likely to suffer casualties. It's interesting to note that fairies don't really see sizes as relevant, so they will deal with tinies in Kortiki just as they do with its humans inhabitants. If, for whatever reasons, a human wishes to leave Kortiki, they are free to do so, and to use a portal leading to central Felarya in the Forest of whispers. If they had friend among fairies, they could easily ask to be escorted to safety.

Access

Reaching Kortiki is very difficult and perilous, as it is situated deep in the core of the kingdom. You have little hope of making it there through normal means if you don't know a fairy who can transport you there. There is however a portal leading directly to it in the Forest of whispers, situated west of the Lake of illusions. It's well hidden though and a canopy fairy dwells on top of it, just next to a Dryad. Their job is to guard the passage and eat any trespasser who doesn't know the password. The fairy usually lay some belly traps just before the gate, while the dryad can communicate with another dryad in Kortiki so they are warned when people are expected through and the traps can be deactivated. They can also quickly close the portal if necessary.

Trade

Kortiki is little known across Felarya. In many places, the mere notion of a city where fairies and humans live together in harmony, would be ridiculous and quickly dismissed as mere tales. However Kortiki do engage in trade with a few other settlements, and this includes Negav. Of course trade with Negav is very low-key and discrete as Negavian authorities would look very dimly on any form of contact with a fairy town, at least officially. However, a quiet rumor among traders suspects that some of the magiocrats do know of these activities, and that they turn a blind eye to it. After all, Kortiki offers a wide variety of interesting commodities, such as rare plants grown only in the fairy kingdom with a variety of uses from alchemy, potion crafting, or even just for rare and exotic dishes. It largely remains a secret though. As for the Negavian traders, they know how fond of books fairies are and will mostly trade them, along with various intriguing trinkets.

Thus, every now and then a caravan from Kortiki will quietly settle in the jungle relatively near Negav. From there the Kortiki traders will meet with their contact in the city and invite them to the caravan to conduct the trade, usually as a barter, under the protection of several giant-sized fairies who are here to prevent any outside interference. The goods are then transported back to Kortiki, with the help of those fairies.

Kortiki trade mainly in plants, seeds, dyes

Organization

The city is headed by a sage on the fairy side. She acts as a mayor of sorts, but her role is rather informal. She gives her opinion on various matters and the fairies usually follow her guidance. Disagreements are handled like fairies do : by an open and frank discussion. Non-fae species are represented by an elected leader, most of the time human as they are the most numerous in the city after fairies. The two work together to keep things running smoothly.

Kortiki have a few apparent guards who patrol the place rather nonchalantly, mostly for dissuasion and to give a sense of security to the non-fairy inhabitants. Their presence is largely symbolic though. Should the necessity arise, the real defense of Kortiki is handled by a group of volunteers of all species who are well trained and would instantly drop whatever they are doing to come together and defend the place.

Technology in Kortiki is low level and the magic ability among humans from Kortiki is more prevalent than in most others places. Firstly because the Fairy kingdom is a region highly saturated in magic in general but also because using magic is seen as common practice; so it encourages people more to develop it themselves. The close relationship with fairies can also result in hybrids who are natural magic users.

-Sunfall Thicket

Danger: High
Inhabitants: ghosts, magic elementals, phantom elves, dusk nymphs, earth mouths

The city is headed by a sage on the fairy side. She acts as a mayor of sorts, but her role is rather informal. She gives her opinion on various matters and the fairies usually follow her guidance. Disagreements are handled like fairies do : by an open and frank discussion. Non-fae species are represented by an elected leader, most of the time human as they are the most numerous in the city after fairies. The two work together to keep things running smoothly.

Kortiki have a few apparent guards who patrol the place rather nonchalantly, mostly for dissuasion and to give a sense of security to the non-fairy inhabitants. Their presence is largely symbolic though. Should the necessity arise, the real defense of Kortiki is handled by a group of volunteers of all species who are well trained and would instantly drop whatever they are doing to come together and defend the place.

Technology in Kortiki is low level and the magic ability among humans from Kortiki is more prevalent than in most others places. Firstly because the Fairy kingdom is a region highly saturated in magic in general but also because using magic is seen as common practice; so it encourages people more to develop it themselves. The close relationship with fairies can also result in hybrids who are natural magic users.

-Nemyra's Palace

Danger: Legendary
Inhabitants: Unknown

Nemyra is the queen of all the fairies of Felarya and a guardian as well, meaning that she is a being with tremendous powers. As you would expect, her palace is a very, very mysterious place. Nobody has ever entered it through the front door without being invited, although intruders have entered it via other routes. Even finding the palace is difficult: it is hidden somewhere in the fairy kingdom and is actually tiny, no bigger than a doll house. To enter it you need some size-changing abilities, which usually means being a fairy. The inside of the palace is infinitely bigger than its outside dimensions, and this is just one example of the crazy and absurd rules that govern this place. Various mythical and dangerous creatures guard the place, which actually looks more like a world than a palace. Indeed, the palace in Felarya is actually just one of the numerous entrances to Nemyra's personal universe.

The place is alive and infused with the will of Nemyra herself. You don't quite know what to expect when opening a door, and intruders are in for very bad surprises everywhere: your worst fear could suddenly come to life and appear in front of you, or you could suddenly begin to age as you walk down a hallway, or you could enter a room only to end up inside the stomach of Nemyra herself! Or more simply: find yourself forever lost in this ever changing labyrinth, with no hope of escape.

Credits to Stabs for ideas to develop Kortiki town and to the forum for fleshing it out.