A few thoughts on Thonia and the fey
by Mark HowardOne of my favourite book series has long been the “Bitterbynde” trilogy by Ceclia Dart-Thornton. A couple of general things stand out for me about the setting; firstly the idea that outside the protection of the large cities, the lands are filled with all manner of creatures, magical and non-magical, hostile and non-hostile, many related to the fey-realms; and secondly, ships that fly, kept aloft by magical metals, and powered by the wind. So far, so good.
As for Thonia, I was thinking of something fairly overarching that would make the land hostile, and keep population largely penned up in towns and villages, even though they had once more widely populated the lands. Then I chanced upon a copy of the “Shadow Rift”.
So pulling these threads together (and these are ideas very much in development), we have: 3000BC – Great Rain of Fire. The part of the Fey realm ruled by the Frost King is in “alignment” with this part of Skothar at the time. It and all the fey residing in that part of the Fey realm are ripped away and trapped in a locked shadow plane. This has had a couple of effects; as they are no longer linked to the Fey realm, they are no longer reborn if their physical bodies die; the influence of entropy and chaos in the shadow plane has caused the sidhe trapped there to change, and their form is now determined by their personality. The Frost King develops a deep and abiding hatred for humans (for causing the GRoF) and elves (for allowing it to happen). Over time the trapped sidhe begin to call themselves the “irith” (the “changed”).
Some of the magic imbued in the land of the fey realm washes back into the lands of Skothar. Where it interacts with silver deposits it creates something new, elithirium. When refined elithirium naturally levitates, and is the basis for the windships of Thonia. Elithirium itself is only allowed to be owned by the noble houses, so it means they can travel freely around Thonia, whilst their subjects cannot, and they effectively control trade as well.
1000BC (?) – A Thonian mage, researching the planes accidentally breaks the magic blocking the irith from leaving the shadow plane. Slowly they discover this and are now able to move between Thonia and their shadow realm. They cannot return to the fey realm as the link is irrevocably broken.
The deep hatred of many of the irith for humans and elves, can be directed as malicious mischief, or even outright violence. They will spoil food stuffs, scare off livestock, they will confuse men lost in the woods, or they may just slit the throat of a man as he sleeps by a tree.
As the irith are no longer reborn if their physical bodies die, they are fearful of death, and will often act through others, entering individual dreams to torment them or charming lone travellers in the woods. Other irith have become so fearful of death they have found ways to become undead. These powerful creatures haunt the forests and moors of Thonia.
Rowan wood repels the irith, and they are unable to cross rowan fences or enter doorways with a rowan surround. All Thonian settlements have rowan pickets attached to the top of their walls, and rowan door and window surrounds are very common.