Is there a specific type of inspiration for Fae Smilk?
Thank you for the ask!
The inspiration for Fae Shadow Milk comes from many different places in Celtic Myth, depending on the interpretation you are referencing. Long story short, I still can't give away too much about the Glamour of the Fae Shadow Milk since I still wanna get back to it once I am done with King of Beltane. However, I can reference for now that he at least claims to be 'Fae-Touched'. This is my own defining term for a mortal that has been magically influenced by the Fae. This can be through accidentally eating their food, being kissed by one, or being owned by one after a deal has been completed or broken. They are usually marked with longer lives, having special attunements with magic, and can see and communicate with the Otherworld and its denizens. The downside is that they are seen as freaks by both mortals and Fae alike since they are in this in-between of mortality and immortality. It's all based on real accounts where villagers and farmers were usually ostracized for being affiliated or having claimed to witness the Fae. It's a lonely and cursed life.
KoB Shadow Milk is very different. He is mainly based on the real figure of the Amadán Dubh, also referred to as Amadán Mhóir or Amadáan-Na-Bruidne (The Dark Fool, The Great Fool, The Fool of the Fairy Mounds). This fairy has been one of the most feared/powerful in early Ireland, known for causing permanent madness with a single touch or completely paralyzing his victims by playing his reedpipes. I didn't want to completely name him Amadán Dubh, so I changed it to Amadán Dorcha, which is the same thing but a more modern translation of Dark Fool. Invoking a fairy's name tends to summon them, and accidentally naming someone after an actual Fae could bring you some bad luck, and I ain't risking anything. (Though the mental image of both Shadow Milk and the real Amadán Dubh showing up to steal my soul after I've written their name a bunch of times, only to aggressively point at each other, is a hilarious mental image.)
Though he has the same power to corrupt minds, Shadow Milk also has some control over the putrification and aging of the wildlife, produce, and cookies around him. As for him being a tree, that'll be explained in further installments of KoB. (I've always headcanoned the Amadán Dubh's hat being part chicken, but no one has a really detailed version of what he actually looked like.)
