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Post by Lorekeeper on Jan 21, 2007 15:58:13 GMT -8
The Seelie Court
Seelie fae often believe in maintaining magic and beauty through the status quo. They work to uphold the hierarchy as a smooth and noble institution and try to cultivate long and meaningful relationships with mortals. They are the wise rulers, the pining troubadours and the ever faithful knights of the changeling world.
1. Death before Dishonor - Chivalry still lives. Honor is the most important virtue, the source of all glory. Personal honor must always be kept stainless. Sometimes death is the only path that can erase a mark of dishonor.
2. Love conquers all - Love lies at the heart of the Dreaming. True love transcends all and epitomizes what it means to be Seelie. Courtly love expresses love in its highest form, although familial love and love of companions are also valued embodiments of that exalted virtue. Anything is permitted in the name of true love.
3. Beauty is life - Beauty is a timeless, objective quality that, while it cannot be defined, is always recognized for itself. Beauty is the muse of creation, the ultimate flowering of the Dreaming. Once found, it must be protected, for it is both eternal and fragile. To die in the service of beauty is an honor and a privilege.
4. Never forget a debt - One gift deserves another. The recipient of a gift is obligated to return the favor. Likewise, a curse should be returned in kind. An oath of friendship should be answered with a corresponding oath. Never refuse to aid anyone to whom you are indebted. Never forget a kindness...or a cruelty.
The Unseelie Court
Unseelie fae see the world as needing to always create itself anew. Love, beauty, hell, anything maintained looses it's shiny and eventually falls apart. These fae are for giving the wheel of change a good hard spin and then jumping on. Maybe they'll even sharpen the edge while they're at it. Unseelie fae make up the mighty leaders, scandalous lovers and dark heroes of tale and legend.
1. Change is good - Security does not exist. The slightest of circumstances can transform a king to a peasant. nothing is certain in a world where change is the only constant. Embrace change or be destroyed by it. Chaos and discord rule the universe. Adapt or die.
2. Glamour is free - Glamour is worthless unless used. Hording Glamour makes no sense, since it is an eternally replenish able resource. So long as humans exist, there will always be dreamers -- hence, there will always be more Glamour. Acquire it by any means possible, and you will never be without.
3. Honor is a lie - Honor has no place in the modern world. It is a fairy tale constructed to hide the essential emptiness behind most traditions. Truth can be attained only through enlightened self-interest.
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Post by Lorekeeper on Mar 20, 2008 21:55:09 GMT -8
Seelie and Unseelie
Summer and Winter, Day and Night, Fire and Ice. The two courts of the Fae once changed their seasons with the turn of the year, Seelie ruling the Summer days and Unseelie the winter nights. The dance of seasons played out in each fae soul as well, Courts changing with death and rebirth.
While in many respects the two Courts have "made peace" during the Interregnum, there remain essential differences between the Seelie and the Unseelie soul, more differences even than between Noble and Commoner. After all, the differences between Seelie and Unseelie is more than merely political.
Changeling society is like a complex symphony of several movements, harmonies and measures, throughout which run these two distinct themes -- the concepts of Seelie and Unseelie. The influence of these states reverberates on all levels of social interaction, and they are as ubiquitous as light and darkness.
More than simply political affiliations, the states of Seelie and Unseelie are ways of being and philosophies of existence. Each manifests in a Court, and although all Kithain have qualities of both Seelie and Unseelie, one always holds sway and is embraced over the other. The nature of each Court is widely known; they are not secrets or little-known truths.
One's Court -- the nature for which a changeling has a predilection -- marks one in many ways. These marks are impossible to define, but are keenly felt and affect all Kithain social interaction, regardless of any rational thought. A Seelie always mistrusts an Unseelie. An Unseelie always holds a Seelie in contempt. They may mask these feelings, but some small degree of prejudice always exists. Such is the dual nature of the Kithain.
At one time the Seelie and Unseelie fought incessantly on the battlefield, but this is no longer the case. While there are still some who mindlessly disparage or even war against their inimical court, members of the two generally tolerate each other. Open bigotry is a thing of the past.
All that can be said for certain is that the courts are rivals and that they are different from one another.
In fact, it is not unknown for Kithain to change loyalties from one Court to the other. However, this is not just an idle affectation. When a changeling embraces her opposite nature, she makes a tremendous choice that alters her very existence and place in Kithain society.
While once the Courts Warred incessantly, during the Interregnum, after the days of the Shattering and after the sidhe had vanished from the Earth, the two Courts trapped in the Clay World put a temporary end to their eternal rivalry in order to assure the survival of the Dreaming. This has led to some odd juxtapositions within changeling society. Occasionally a freehold's lord will belong to a different Court than most of his members, and an oathcircle will sometimes contain both Seelie and Unseelie members, all of them bound by oaths that transcend their different outlooks.
Although neat pigeonholing of the differences between Seelie and Unseelie Courts is almost impossible, there are a few general distinctions that differentiate one from the other. Seelie are associated with light, summer and daytime; Unseelie belong to darkness, winter and night. The Seelie Court represents orderly traditions and lawful behavior; the Unseelie Court is notorious for breaking old traditions, devising new ones and, in general, urging constant change. These are not always the hard-and-fast descriptors for determining a changeling's Court. Occasionally a Seelie changeling fosters radical notions, while a veteran Unseelie knight holds extremely conservative attitudes. What is certain is that the two Courts exist and are locked in an endless cycle of rivalry. Together they embody all that is both good and bad, light and dark, static and dynamic in changeling society.
On rare occasions a changeling switches from one Court to the other, usually as a result of some great personal transformation in her life. Changing Court is not done lightly, for in order to do so a changeling must forswear her old nature and surrender to the other half of her personality, taking on her Seelie aspect if she was formerly Unseelie or vice versa. This choice alters her place in Kithain society and transforms her perceptions of herself. Accordingly, changing Court usually takes place only at certain symbolic times of the year, such as during the Samhain or Beltaine festivities.
- From the on-line excerpt of Changeling: the Dreaming by White Wolf.
The Seelie Code
Death Before Dishonour Chivalry is not dead. Honour is the most important virtue -- it is the source of all glory. Personal honour must not be stained. Sometimes nothing but one's own death can cleanse the mark of dishonour.
Love Conquers All Love is the soul of the Dreaming. True love transcends all and is the perfect expression of what it is to be Seelie. Courtly, romaintic love is considered the highest form of love, but familial love is pure as well. Anything is permitted in the name of True Love.
Beauty Is Life Beauty is a timeless, objective quality that cannot be described, but is recognized whenever it appears. Beauty is the muse of creation, the ultimate flowering of the Dreaming. Once found, it must be protected. Many heroes have died protecting beautiful places, people and things. True beauty is eternal.
Never Forget A Debt One gift deserves another. If you receive a gift, then you should give one. If you are subjected to a curse, then you should intone one. One oath of friendship deserves another. Never forget a kindness ... or a slight.
The Unseelie Code
Change Is Good Security is a falsehood: it does not exist. Embrace change or you will be lost in its wake. Chaos is the ruling force of the Universe. Adapt or die.
Glamour Is Free Glamour is worthless unless used. Hoarding it does no good, so fill the air with its power. There will always be more dreamers and more Glamour; dreams or nightmares are no difference. If you are clever enough, you will always have your fill.
Honour Is A Lie Honour is a fairy tale, and a poor one at that. It has no place in this cold, bitter world. Honour is a lost thing from a lost past. Only through enlightened self-interest can any truth be reached.
Passion Before Duty Passion is the truest state. Follow your instincts. Live life to the fullest. Have as much fun as possible before your youth is gone. Liev well now -- tomorrow you may die.
The Seelie have always been known as the guardians of tradition. They keep the peace, foster love, protect the weak and maintain the ideals of chivalry. They are the Keepers of Old Dreams, trusting those traditions over new ways. Most Seelie desire to reunite themselves with the Dreaming, and will do so at any cost. For the Seelie, the worst crimes are oathbreaking, treason, cowardice, and dishonour. In their own eyes, they are bringers of justice, providers of stability, keepers of tradition, paragons of chivalry and disciples of truth. They hold beauty, true love and honour as their greatest virtues.
The Unseelie have always been known as those who mocked tradition, brought war and change, fostered madness and fear, reviled the weak and upheld freedom and wildness over any chivalric code. They see themselves as radical visionaries, changing with the times and always looking toward the future. The Unseelie hold stagnation, repression, narrow-mindedness, censorship, weakness and traditionalism for the sake of tradition to be the worst of crimes. They see themselves as champions of change, paragons of freedom, awakeners of thought and enemies of inhibition.
[from Changeling: the Dreaming, pp. 63-65]
In essence, the Seelie represent tradition, and the Unseelie adaptation. Yet also there are elements of Summer and Winter, Day and Night, Honour and Necessity, Beauty of Silk and Beauty of Blood.
As regards the Escheat, where the Seelie hold the laws of the Escheat by Tradition and Honour, the Unseelie follow those laws for Necessity. In fact, most Unseelie would add the corollary to the Escheat: "unless necessary."
[The twin Courts made 'peace' during the interregnum - at least the Commoner factions of the two Courts did so. They realized that the threat of extinction was of greater import than the War between the Courts, and so they gathered together in 1353, at the Tara in Eire, to forge a peace. Thomas of Boothby, a boggan of great repute, drafted the Compact which declared a cessation of hostilities between the Courts for as long as both Courts felt it necessary. All among the gathering signed, and in a great burst of Glamour, Thomas and the Concord vanished into the Dreaming. At that moment, all kithain 'round the world knew of the Truce. Then, over six hundred years later, the Sidhe returned. With them, they brought the ages-old rivalry between the Courts. For the sidhe, no time had passed; for them, the War had not ended.
{Fool's Luck: way of the commoner; pp. 22 and 35}.
The Shadow Court.
No discussion of the Courts would be complete without mention of the "Shadow Court." Born at the heart of the Interregnum was a tradition known as the "Shadow Court." Initially established by the Unseelie trapped on Earth as a lark, a mockery of the old division of rule by Season. The Shadow Court became a means by which the Unseelie, deposed as a Court by the remaining Seelie, could retain some of their former identity.
The Shadow Court is called together on the evening of every Samhain. During the festivities, honorary titles are bestowed for the coming Unseelie part of the year. The Shadow Court festival is relegated to a Mardi-Gras-like holiday, a night when every changeling, even the Seelie, celebrates their Unseelie nature. It is a night for celebrating the dark half of the year, a memorial for fallen fae and a time to tell stories and drink. All changelings know about the Shadow Court.
At the same time, rumour runs rampant umongst the Kithain about the "true" nature of the "Shadow Court." Anything Unseelie must have a dark and sinister purpose, after all. Every Seelie childling knows that. And so, the "Shadow Court" has additional meanings, depending upon whom you ask.
To Seelie Commoners, the "Shadow Court" also means the whole host of the Unseelie on earth, no matter their kith or title. The Seelie know after all that the Unseelie must be up to something; they certainly cannot be accepting of the Seelie dominance of Earth.
To Unseelie Commoners and to Seelie Sidhe, the "Shadow Court" means the few Unseelie nobles on Earth. The commoners know that there is no all-inclusive Unseelie conspiracy, however surely the Unseelie nobility have a plan? The sidhe, unlike the commoners, did not have the Interregnum during which to come to an agreement between the Courts. Very few Unseelie Nobles have been seen since the Resurgence. Thus, sidhe reasoning goes, they must be In Hiding, Plotting some Dark and Terrible End. There must be a conspiracy, and if it does not involve the Unseelie commoners, well it must comprise the Dark Sidhe.
To Unseelie Sidhe, the "Shadow Court" means the Samhain celebration of the same name. These fae scoff at the paranoid delusions of the Seelie; but occasionally find such rumours to a purpose, allowing a smokescreen behind which to operate. "If everyone is watching me," think these sidhe, "then no one sees what my lackey is doing." Sometimes useful, sometimes amusing, the Unseelie nobility propogates this rumour as thoroughly as anyone else.
[In game terms, the above are known by any fae with "Shadow Court Lore x0.]
Further looks at the Courts and also on House Ailil are available through the ANST of the U.S.
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