#lore canon

The Vogelweide

Perhaps the single most terrifying anomaly to cross paths with in the Schwarzwald is a thing known simply as The Vogelweide. One of the more humanoid anomalies, similar to Oma, it is something that appears to fill a specific role.

The Vogelweide is the only known something in the Schwarzwald that is allowed to show signs of greed and arrogance without punishment. This is due in part to the hypothesis that it is made of the greed and selfishness stamped down throughout the whole of the Zone by its more mortal inhabitants, taking shape in the idea that when enough of an emotion or trait is withheld from being expressed, it manifests in some way as something else to give it an outlet. As such, The Vogelweide is the conglomeration of the withheld feelings of greed and selfishness, a means for the Schwarzwald itself to exhaust such built-up emotions without worrying about it, something that still falls into the mechanics of Equivalent Exchange and so, is still part of the rules.

The Vogelweide manifests at random, appearing as a tall slender young man with white skin, bright blue glowing eyes, and translucent golden hair. His limbs and fingers are abnormally long, as is his smile. He appears clothed in the garb of a travelling minstrel and currently carries a mandolin or lute with him, depending on how he feels. 

He drifts from hamlet to hamlet, demanding a week-long feast with food, drink, and general debauchery in exchange for his music and stories. Regardless of whether or not one actually enjoys his music or stories, they are still expected to engage and show their enjoyment for his presence. Doing otherwise will bring misfortune on the entire hamlet, so his plate and cup are filled, his presence with adoring fans, and his audience always entertained by him. 

When he is ready to leave, he tests the mettle of his host by growing taller and more distorted, his details turning black and oily and dripping ichor from his distended body. His eyes are still visible and he continues to carry his current instrument of choice, demanding a local woman to accompany his song in a duet. Usually, the song is a recognizable tune as written and performed by the original Walther von der Vogelweide, a well-known Germanic poet whose music is a cultural staple and much beloved. If the song is performed to his liking, he resumes his more amiable form and takes his leave with many thanks to the relief of his hosts. If the chosen cannot sing with him for any reason and no other volunteers can step up to match, he becomes angry and will devour the hamlet’s Oma, thus severing their bond to the Schwarzwald and bringing about the downfall of the hamlet. If there is no Oma to eat, he will devour the original chosen and brings misfortune and downfall to the hamlet.

Katya's full Aspect of War is defined by her ten arms, each of them fully armed as in her stories and anecdotes, she is shown as the wrathful defender of the boundary between the Gods' Realm and all intruders. Usually, those intruders were Asu, demonkin trying to infiltrate the lush endless gardens of the Gods' Realm and devolve it to chaos, so having ten hands carrying the implements of war was beneficial to the war goddess protecting it to keep such a powerful threat at bay.

There are many many different tiers of faeries in the South Tropics. Most are what you would expect, lesser nature spirits of varying degrees of sapience. Some can be reasoned with, some cannot be reasoned with, it's fairly simple to tell which is which based on how they act around mortal folk.

For example, it will be easier to reason with a changeling rather than a kelpie. Changelings are sapient, conscious of themselves and of others, and capable of intelligent communication due to this. Kelpies are feral creatures, born strictly to guard and guide waterways and swamps and while they may be intelligent, they have a sapience of any other animal of their caliber. That is to say, sapience is not a thing with kelpies, they cannot be reasoned with at all as all they are are walking stomachs and a lot of teeth and the persistent instinctual drive to use both. You can talk to a changeling and strike a deal or contract with it, you cannot talk to a kelpie in any capacity.

Spirits are above the lower tiers, more attuned and more powerful with strong roots in elemental forces. Each of these is sapient and capable of being reasoned with, and depending on where you are location-wise, you deal with one or more on a regular basis. There are only four major spirits, the lesser fae may draw their power from any base element but aren't strictly bound to it, whereas spirits are bound strictly to the element they are born to conduct. Harpies are aether spirits, born of storms and flying over the stormfronts that herald monsoons and white thunder. While they are ravenous insatiable creatures, they are clever and devious. They are also incredibly vain and can be distracted with calling them pretty. Eefreet are spirits of fire, found near lavafields and volcanic activity. They are fairly reasonable considering, but their temper is short and their wrath devastating. Behemoths are earth spirits, found in places where mountains form. Sturdy and tempered, these are the easiest spirits to get along with and the hardest to anger. Boons are easier gotten from Behemoths. Leviathans are born of the water. They are reclusive and isolationist spirits, preferring more to lurk in the deepest depths of the ocean and be left alone. Every so often, one can spot a flicker of their bioluminescent patterns or their eight eyes, and though they do not like the company of mortalkind, they are not afraid to devour any who enters their domain.

While these lesser fae and the spirits can be engaged all over the South Tropics, there is a different kind of fae that resides in the warm oceans and scattered nations. Though it is hard to categorize them as truly fae, they are not quite spirits either.

The Tuatha [pronounced too-ah-tah] of The Autumn Twilight are raw natural energy given form. Unlike spirits, they do not anchor to one elemental foundation and instead, can embody them all at once. Unlike the lesser fae, they do not need to follow rules of their elemental base, they simply use it unrestrained and leave trails of inexplicable overgrowth wherever they move. Compounding so much natural energy into one form has done things to how they perceive a solid form and so seeing Tuatha is startling as they simultaneously look like they are supposed to, but also everything is wrong in some way. What they are supposed to look like, however, no one can logically answer as even with the strange faerie fauna of the South Tropics, they look like an amalgamation of everything and nothing. However, it takes a vast amount of energy to maintain these unstable forms and so, they are known for eating everything they can, including each other if weakness is shown.

Tuatha are capable of speech and of reasoning, which makes them sapient. However, another thing that differs them from their lesser fae cousins is that they are capable of lying and deception. Much more like mortalkind than others of their kind, and it makes entering contracts dangerous. None moreso than the 'Faerie Queane' herself, Titania, who has been known to extend one of her many hands in friendship before devouring the limbs of the other party, figuratively and literally. It's believed that though they can reason, they don't tend to use it much and follow their stomachs instead.

Tuatha are, by nature, reclusive and tend to stay on their island cluster somewhere in the southernmost tropics. They are distinctively territorial, but cruel in the way they protect their space. The Tuatha enjoy the thrill of sport, telling visitors of any circumstance that if they can escape the wild ferocious tangles of their islands with them in pursuit, they are free to go their merry way. So far in the modern era, there have been no documented survivors of these sport hunts. As they do not share the same weakness to pure iron that their lesser fae cousins do, visitors find it hard to deter them and survive the predatory onslaught.

Spring in the South Tropics happens around the same time the north is experiencing autumn. In the same vein as their own autumn festivities, spring is heralded into Sidhe culture and the Three and Ten by a week-long holiday festival, the Festival of Color. As expected of most Sidhe holidays, they do nothing small or quiet.

It happens right over the threshold between winter and spring, characterized by perhaps the only time of the year the general citizenry shows their warrior foundations in the open. City centers and village squares across the archipelago are designated public battlegrounds. The largest of these coloring fields is in Muhrti, the capital of the Harbor Isle, where the central marketplace is converted in the week leading up to the start of the holiday into the largest coloring field in the Sidhe nation.

A broad spectrum of colors in the form of powdered dyes are provided and upkept by district councilors for each public field, produced en masse over the course of the year to make sure all who wish to participate can. The more popular colors are red, yellow, and vibrant blue, but other colors in between still manage to mix into the fray. While the vats of powders are provided to the public side of the holiday, shops still sell the dyes to other celebrators for private use over the course of the month the holiday is happening. While public assailment is allowed only in the designated coloring fields and prohibited in the streets surrounding, private use on one's own property is permitted by the owner.

On midnight of the first day of the holiday, prayers are had for family, friends, and patron deities before bells near the designated battlefields are rung and fireworks set off to announce the opening day. The chaos that ensues afterward is part of the holiday, patrons trying to hit one another with handfuls of powdered dye in symbolism of helping spring explode through winter. Days see the most participation while night dwindles down, however due to the sheer concentration of people in any given area of the Three and Ten, nightly numbers are still surprisingly high. Over the course of the week, it isn't uncommon to see colored haze hanging over the largest social centers that are participating in the public event, a fog that dissipates slowly over the few days following.

Markets are still in full swing during this, set up outside the designated coloring fields to provide relief to those participating in various ways, and business to those who are not. Despite the seeming warlike nature of the event, the feelings are those of joy and affection. It marks the only time the citizens themselves will ever see war in any way in peacetime.

Of course, there is a patron deity associated with the holiday, as with all Sidhe holidays. Several, in fact, but one whom the festivities are geared more toward.

Radi, the Goddess of Affection, holds sway here. Renowned for her love, it is believed that the energy of it draws her near, and so this is also known as the Lovers' Festival. Participants in this side of the holiday use the powdered dyes in their favored colors to smear across those who have their affection.