Virtually every fey creature that appeared in mythology has appeared in Dungeons & Dragons at some point or another, sometimes as Medieval Europeans imagined them, sometimes as Disney imagined them, sometimes somewhere in between. The list of fey monsters is vast indeed, and includes: In fact, St Agustine was once asked how they fit into the Genesis Creation story (which would actually be a really good question, come to think of it), and he responded by saying that they can worry about that once their existence had been definitively proven. Of surprising note is the fact that folks would often report "Fey abduction" encounters that had all the same characteristics as modern "Alien abduction" accounts just replace the Greys and Reptiods with elves and goblins, and the spooky spaceship with some spooky cave or forest.Īlso like abducting aliens, most medieval people didn't actually believe in them. Usually, the stories make it very clear that under no circumstances should you offend them because the Fey's version of mercy tends to involve a lot of pain and suffering. There are many tales were mortals make bargains with one of the Fair Folk, only to get screwed over because they worded their request badly.
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That being said, much like devils or to some extent djinn, the Fair Folk in the stories tend to follow strict rules, placing great value on oaths and agreements, but tend to follow things to the letter and not the spirit.
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As otherworldly inscrutable beings who did with mortals as they pleased, benign ones were uncommon and benevolent ones rare. The various fae were generally Chaotic Neutral at best and Chaotic Evil at worst, doing stuff like abducting your newborn child at night and replacing them with their own or burning your crops to the ground for the lulz. The image actual medieval Europeans held of the Fae (or "The Fair Folk" as they also called them so as to not earn their ire, hence the word fairy) was nothing like the glittery friendly gits that Disney raised you on.