Oppression Aware Podcast, Fairy Tales, and Games

Indigo-blue illustration of a slender woman with pale skin and long hair standing in a grassy field looking up at the stars. She is shown from the back, wearing a long, flowing dress. Trailing lines of tiny, sparkling lights wrap around her body and float off into the air, like streamers gently blowing in the breeze. This art piece was created by Larisa-K.

Overview: Fairies are the physical embodiment of dreams, giving many fairies enchanting and monstrous forms, an urge to revel in emotion and imagination, and a willingness to embrace fluidity and change. They often have wings and their sizes vary widely, ranging from tiny to large. In addition, while each fairy is different, most look like humans that have several animal or plant traits.

Physical Description: Their connection to dreams means that most fairies have an enchanting form that is evocative of good dreams, a monstrous form that is evocative of nightmares, or both. An enchanting form is appealing in some way, but it doesn’t have to be conventionally beautiful. For example, it could be vibrant, adorable, compelling, or fascinating. Similarly, a monstrous form is off-putting in some way, but it doesn’t have be conventionally ugly. In fact, a monstrous form can be extremely beautiful, as long as there is something unpleasant, frightening, or disturbing about it.

Most fairies have enchanting and monstrous forms that look like humans with two or three animal features, such as rabbit ears, antelope horns, spider eyes, cat teeth, heron beaks, lamprey mouths, lizard crests, butterfly wings, porcupine quills, jellyfish tentacles, hawk talons, deer hooves, koi scales, peacock feathers, hagfish slime, and squirrel tails.

Some fairies have plant traits in addition to, or instead of, animal ones. For example, they could have heads crested with leaves, hair that grows flowers, backs covered in thorns, skin patterned like variegated leaves, shoulders that grow mushroom frills, lichen-spotted arms, and bark-covered legs. In addition to these animal and plant traits, fairies can also have hair, eyes, or skin of any color found in nature.

Fairy sizes are even more diverse that the rest of their appearance, ranging from tiny fairies a few inches to large fairies seven feet tall. Another important type of diversity is wings—while many fairies do have wings, quite a few don’t.

A fairy’s magical nature is usually evident in their form in some way. For example, those with enchanting forms may have an iridescent shimmer, be surrounded by dancing lights, sound like tinkling bells when they move, or constantly smell of baking bread. Meanwhile, those with monstrous forms may be wreathed in smoke, have shadows clinging to their skin, sound like scraping leaves when they move, or constantly smell of rot and mold. The exact form the magic takes depends on the individual fairy. Continue Reading »

Tags: Character Race, Character Species, Crossroads, dream, enchanting, fae, fae species, fairy, faries, fay, fey, Magic Goes Awry, monstrous, nightmare, People, person, sapient, species