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I can't remember which thread it was, but it got me thinking...

I went back to the rulebook, flipped through, and then re-read the section detailing the Fey and the fact that their souls are no longer being reborn.. something like "almost no new births have taken place in over 800 years." (Revised, Ed. p196)

And, as I said, it got me thinking... Why?  I know that it is my game now and I can do whatever I want.  Obviously.  But that's not what I'm asking.  I'm curious to hear what others have thought about this.

Does it have something to do with the religions of man?  Could their strength, and human predominance, on Weyrth be interfering with this.. like the traditional situation with the Irish/Welsh/Saxon/etc viewpoint concerning the slow disappearance of the Sidhe?  As humans increase, the world changes more and the Sidhe no longer find they have a place in this reality...

Or, could it be a situation akin to that woven by J Michael Straczynski, the creator of Babylon 5, that Minbari (Sidhe) souls are now being reborn as human?

Or...?  Perhaps Uglub really is the Great Betrayer and he's been "eating" Sidhe souls (yum!) as a means of building his power/refreshing himself.  Perhaps it's just taken him this long to finally manifest himself on this plane of existence (similar to how Sauron was only able to manifest in Morder as a flaming eye... Uglub has bypassed that).  Maybe, should Uglub be destroyed, the souls would be "released"?

Any comments, or other ideas/possibilities?

Chris

I've been hoping this would come up. It's one of my favorite parts of the Weyrth mythos.

Jake

Hmm... lessee...

Originally, the natural magical energies of the world flowed naturally.  One of the expressions of magic were the enchanted races, of which the Fey are but one.  When Xanar rebelled against the Thayr gods, killed Methusdal the Wise, and gained power by contacting demons, he broke the balance Triumph Forger God created for his patron, Eimekal.  Since then, the world has been slowly breaking.

The 'streams' of magic that flowed into the Fey have been drying up.  Instead, magical essence builds and builds until there is an event of great creation, and a new moon is born.  When the moons eventually destroy Weyrth, Eimekal will emerge from the tidewater of creation and build Thayrth again.

Some of the oldest sects of Thayrism know this fate, as well as a relic which can either accelerate the apocolypse, sustain the Fey and maintain the world, or accelerate the Fey's destruction.  Not all Thayrists or Fey agree on what to do, however, and a secret war has begun over whether it is better to maintain the world or start again.

Sorry, I forgot to comment on your possible answers.  My bad.

Of the three, the one that IMO bursts with the most campaign concepts is Uglub being the 'Fey eater.'  But then, I love the set-up of Gelure going on the war-march.  It shoves half of Mainlund into a very terbulent time, where plenty of story hooks exist.  Making Uglub live up to his claims puts a different light on things.  

The second one, about souls being born as human ones... the immediate question I ask is do the Fey know.  And if they know, what is their reaction to it?

As for the idea of human expansion, its standard, which is not necessarily good or bad.  I think its the easiest answer of yours to let fade into the background, however.  It'd be harder to find out as an aside in a campaign that Uglub is the Great Betrayer and feasts on the souls of Sidhe than it would be to hear that the age of elves is passing.

My current campaign isn't likely to get all that deep into the metaphysics of Weyrth, but I kind of liked the idea that occasionally, Fey souls are reborn into human bodies. There is no set pattern to that, but it is what causes humans to be gifted - gifted are literally those who have an ancient fey soul within them.

This is all very well and good, and has continued for many thousands of years. Letely, however, Uglub has been convincing many gifted humans to move to Gelure to "get away from all that prejudice". Given that they're hated and mistrused anyway, nobody notices if a few of them (actually, a lot of them) go missing. As Chris hinted above, Uglub is <doing something> with those souls, and as such they are not beling released upon death to be reborn back as Fey again.

That's not perfect, and doesn't really account for the total lack of Fey deaths (and Uglub hasn't been around as long as the Fey have stopped reproducing) but that's the bones of something I'll flesh out if it ever becomes important.

Brian.

Quote from: Brian LeybourneThat's not perfect, and doesn't really account for the total lack of Fey deaths (and Uglub hasn't been around as long as the Fey have stopped reproducing) but that's the bones of something I'll flesh out if it ever becomes important.

Brian.

Hey now... all we know is that Uglub hasn't been in charge of Gelure for very long.  We know nothing about what he did before leading the revolt against the Gelurois nobility.  He could have been around quite a while before 'going public' :)

Alternatively, who know what Uglub really serves...

Then again, maybe Uglub is actually PRO FEY.  Think about it... he's pro old ways, pro Pagan traditions... pro all those things that humanity did when they still feared the Sidhe and their Courts.  Maybe Uglub himself has a Fey soul, and has decided to wreak vengeance against humanity in the name of the Good Folk.  Uglub, the Unseelie general who finally is fed up with 'upstart' humanity.

heh.  heh heh...  I like this view of Uglub, actually.  It paints him a slightly different color than pure evil.

You could use something similar to what I'm using in the (heavily) revised setting for Mage Blade.

The Sidhe... err, Damnit. You people are messing with me. It's Siehe in Weyrth.

Ahem.

The Siehe are trapped within the world of Weyrth, by causes known only to them. They long ago made peace with this concept, and built a new culture uniquely their own, only slightly derivative of the Arcadian courts. But as time passes, and as humans encroach ever more closely, the older souls among the Fey begin to long for their own world of magic. And it seems that some are finding a way home. It seems a tragic destiny for those who are left behind, and have no explanation for why they are not being reborn with the same frequency as they once were. A quiet terror reigns among the living, but among those who die and find the way home no longer blocked, it is joyous.

So the Siehe are not dying out; they're simply going home.

Quote from: Wolfen
The Sidhe... err, Damnit. You people are messing with me. It's Siehe in Weyrth.

My bad :)

But then a fun question to ask for any possible answer: How would you use it to inform play (characters, plots, etc.)?

Err, well, honestly, I wouldn't. I'd simply use it as flavor text to make the world a little bit more rich. I'm more into the smaller story arcs which don't change the whole world... But that's just me.

For story arcs, your ideas are better, so far.

I never gave it much thought but I was talking with my husband and I was thinking that maybe part of the problem is that the Fey's are simply being reborn into halflings and not into fey. It might make sense. I don't know why but maybe the Fey are tired of being in the background and by being a halfling or human they get to experience more of the world, just an idea. Maybe a silly one but it is interesting.

heres a simple possibility, we don't know for sure that weyrths map in the book is complete, there may be a continent or two some[place else, maybe the fey we know about aren't being reborn as all the souls are going to the bbooming fey population elsewhere, imagine a continent where fey are as populous as men are on the wyerth we know.....

Quote from: Ashren Va'Haleheres a simple possibility, we don't know for sure that weyrths map in the book is complete, there may be a continent or two some[place else, maybe the fey we know about aren't being reborn as all the souls are going to the bbooming fey population elsewhere, imagine a continent where fey are as populous as men are on the wyerth we know.....

That would be cool!

Then the Fey come and invade...Joking!

Quote from: Ashren Va'Haleheres a simple possibility, we don't know for sure that weyrths map in the book is complete, there may be a continent or two some[place else, maybe the fey we know about aren't being reborn as all the souls are going to the bbooming fey population elsewhere, imagine a continent where fey are as populous as men are on the wyerth we know.....

Hmm... Aztec Jaguar Warrior Elves who perform blood sacrifices on their mortal victims?  Or how about Mayan Fey who are masters of astronomy from atop their jungle pyramids?  I forget where, but I think there is one single reference to there being a rumor of a new world among mariners.... Of course, nothing says the New World has to mirror Earth's. :)

Oh, and Shadeling, I would be terrified of a magically advanced Aztec-like Fey Empire landing on the coast of Mainlund.  It'd be hard to pull off as an actual campaign, but if it worked, it would be scary.

Quote from: Nick Pagnucco

Quote from: Ashren Va'Haleheres a simple possibility, we don't know for sure that weyrths map in the book is complete, there may be a continent or two some[place else, maybe the fey we know about aren't being reborn as all the souls are going to the bbooming fey population elsewhere, imagine a continent where fey are as populous as men are on the wyerth we know.....

Hmm... Aztec Jaguar Warrior Elves who perform blood sacrifices on their mortal victims?  Or how about Mayan Fey who are masters of astronomy from atop their jungle pyramids?  I forget where, but I think there is one single reference to there being a rumor of a new world among mariners.... Of course, nothing says the New World has to mirror Earth's. :)

Oh, and Shadeling, I would be terrified of a magically advanced Aztec-like Fey Empire landing on the coast of Mainlund.  It'd be hard to pull off as an actual campaign, but if it worked, it would be scary.

Oh yeah, I would be scared.

Quote from: Nick PagnuccoI would be terrified of a magically advanced Aztec-like Fey Empire landing on the coast of Mainlund.  It'd be hard to pull off as an actual campaign, but if it worked, it would be scary.

Especially if they pulled up on the coast of the genocidal fey-hating Geluroise...

Brian.