#fwmagic

>KORRIGANS

It is easy to dismiss the korrigans as a small and simple folk. A single squash out of a korrigan farm is enough to feed several families; they quarrel with squirrels for control of acorn supplies; their scouts train to protect their people from hawks and owls. However, underestimating any of the fae is a mistake you'll not want to make. It's my opinion that men have a great many things to learn from the generous and peaceful culture of korrigans.

Of course, unless you oft travel through the foothills to the south or veer far off the roads, you might imagine whatever you please of a korrigan. Let go of your prejudice: whichever hellish thing you have been told of their visage most certainly is not true. Their most apparent divergence from human form is their size, for korrigans stand no taller than fourteen inches (and no smaller than four an a half). The average range I have observed is approximately five to nine inches tall.

In their youth, the center of a korrigans face is punctuated with a small, sharply pointed nose. As they mature and grow old, their nose continues growing: it might become large and bulbous, long and drooping, or as pointy and upturned as the shoes on their feet. Their hair is most often wispy and fair, rarely falling a shade darker than auburn red or acorn brown (of course, the colorings on foreign korrigans will be much different than ours in Masmara). There are some lucky few korrigans who possess bug-like wings. However, due to the size of the wings compared to the weight of the korrigan, past adolescence the wings are useful for little more than lengthening jumps, climbing trees, or crossing brooks by stone. They are considered a sign of beauty and sought-after in choosing a lifelong mate.

Most often korrigans live in villages solely populated only by fellow korrigans. Of course, there are a great many yet that dwell in integrated elfin-towns. However, as elfin-towns are the melting-pots of elfinfolk culture, I'll only briefly discuss the living conditions of korrigan-only villages.

Korrigan villages are small tight-knit communities. They cultivate vegetables in community farms, homes are occupied by three or more generations at a time, and everyone knows eachother by name. On Saturdays, the entire village congregates on the green space to eat, run amuck, put on plays, or play braves' chess. Children go to school together to learn music, basic defense, religion, korrigan history, mathematics (up to long division), language skills, and magic. Afterwhich they rotate chores such as harvesting quail eggs from the coops, cleaning up after meals(which are always taken comunally), etc. Korrigan merchants trade with humans and other fae for items hard to obtain for a people of their stature.

Each village exists among a cluster of nearby villages so that considerable threats may be met by a combined force of braves. The existence of braves is something of an anomaly among fae cultures: elfintowns employ a force of guards, fairfolk are often solitary, and brownies need not worry themselves with security, for they rarely own a home of their own. Korrigan braves are separated into four ranks: footmen, frogmen(frog cavalry), fliers(flying cavalry), and moles(messengers). Both men and women are accepted into brave ranks, and they perform a range of jobs outside of combat. Fliers harvest hard to reach nuts and fruits, footmen hunt, frogmen patrol the village, and so on. All this being said, korrigan citizens are not entirely helpless without the protection of braves. When all the world but a mouse is larger than you, it helps to keep good sword-arm and sharp aim (and wit to know when to flee).

There is much more to these elusive peoples, however I don't desire to take much more of your time. I part with a final warning: Never refer to a korrigan as mannikins in their presence, or at all. The fate of those who dismiss this warning lies in the hands of Anaorlar.