Fey Feuds

Feuds and their outcomes constitute serious matters among the fey. To be on the losing side of a feud is to watch all of your allies, one by one, desert your family. To be uninvited to celebrations and court events. To lose your status with the queen, to hear the room grow quiet as you walk in, to know that other fey talk about you in hushed tones. To the proud fey houses, this is a fate worse than death.

In the Unseelie Court, feuds can indeed be a matter of life or death. When the insult is felt deeply, a fey family may retaliate with an untraceable poison, sudden attacks by marauders from another dimension, unexplained magical mishaps and other demises that can never quite be traced. In instances where a feud could endanger the life of a newborn, a fey mother may take her child to another realm for safety, leaving the child with a mortal family. In other severe cases, younger family members may be sent off to adventure for several centuries in other realms or dimensions in hopes that distance will enable the young folk to escape use as pawns, or that the feud may resolve during the youths' absence. At best, the exile returns powerful with skills, wealth, magic, and allies to add to their family's forces.

Feuds stem from a variety of causes, some seemingly inconsequential and others much more serious in nature. Forgetting to invite a fey to a christening, toying with the affections of a favorite cousin, or giving a thoughtless gift can often start a feud. The small feuds caused by these slights can last several hundred years, but they tend to be more of an amusement, containing no true hostility. Serious feuds are caused by deliberate attempts to discredit kelirs, such as stealing important magic items, sabotaging a visit by the Royal Court or injuring a member of the family. A member of one clan killing a member of another clan frequently starts a vendetta.

Feuds can last hundreds and even thousands of years. If the feud is mainly motivated by individuals, a matriarch may try to arrange peace by gifting the opposing matriarch with a special artifact or a choice piece of land. But if the whole house is involved, one of the houses may have to be destroyed before it ends. At other times, drastic circumstances may bring ends to feuds, such as a member of one house saving the life of a member of another house. In rare instances, a queen's edict will end a feud (or at least the outward manifestations of one, with heavy punishments for anyone found continuing it).

While the queen enjoys the intrigue of feuds, on rare occasions she may step in to end them if the families are both valued members of her court, or if her consort belongs to one of the houses. Arranging to become the queen's consort is a powerful but potentially risky move. While she can be exceedingly generous to her lovers, she will react violently if she believes she is being manipulated.