The Heraldric Courts of the Fey Folk
As varied as the mortal world, the Fey could never be crammed into one box. They have lived for millenia, ruling their courts as humans ruled their lands, and only now have we begun to learn more of the inner workings of their societies.
Winter
Symbol: a cracked heart
Colours: white, pale blue, blood red
Monarch: Titania 'The Frost Beneath Giants'
The Winter court represents many things within its aspects. Fragility, inevitability and death. The ever-present threat that no matter what grows, lives, and thrives under the other courts, can still be brought down by the icy touch of Winter that ends and restarts the cycle.
As a people, the Winter court appears distant and likely to dampen a mood, but are the court most likely to deal in the pacts of intense and intimate love, and the understanding that all good things come to an end.
It is tradition that a Winter court member does not truly have a name until gifted one by a loved one. The phrase "may I take your name?" is a carefully worded declaration of love, whether familial, romantic, or platonic.
Court members' fashions tend to embody this, frequently resplendent in warm, pale furs, the embrace of which they're more than ready to offer lovers — fey, human or otherwise — a trait that has filtered down from their Monarch.
Monarch Titania frequently tells of being stabbed through the heart by a human lover, and alludes to it in attire. Titania's outfits include some form of patch, brooch, or other glittering piece hanging on the left side of their chest.
Whether a loosely tucked handkerchief, a trail of red pearls, or an elaborately crafted symbol of their court, they flaunt their embittered love for all to see.
Spring
Symbol: an acorn
Colours: green, lilac, pink
Monarch: Mab 'The Dancer within Dreams'
Like the seedlings that sprout during their namesake, the Spring court has a love of abundant growth, and a cut-throat streak to their competitiveness. Frequently misrepresented, they're pricking thorns and strangling roots as often as they're delicate blooms. It is from Spring that the more memorable Fey bled into the stories of human culture. Duplicitous, playful and dangerous, Spring Fey appear childlike in their presentation in the light, and chaotic in their machinations from the dark.
Spring wear tends to flow with movement, obscure the form of the wearer, and can be heavily embellished at its core.
Monarch Mab is just as mercurial as any other member of their court. They're as likely to offer hospitality as to take a lifetime of freedom as payment for it, if the visitor is not sharp enough to play their games.
There is rumour that Mab's position is a trick of its own, and some other member of the court rules from a deep shadow, a puckish grin etched across their face.
Summer
Symbol: Celtic Hallstatt long sword
Colours: yellow, blue, gold
Monarch: Oberon 'The Hammer Before The Sun'
Boldness, and direct strength are the main aspects of the Summer court, embodying the pride in overcoming adversity, the test of a well-tailored challenge. By the same measure, the Summer courts feel they are above things they consider lesser, to the point of lofty hubris.
Summer court members are hardy, brash, and raucous, but not to the point of wanton violence. A practical population, Summer fashions and attire tend to be form-tailored, simple, and designed for ease of movement. Outfits are just as likely to be worn in formal and informal scenarios.
​
Monarch Oberon is rumoured to be undefeated, a strong claim in a climate in which any slight can result in public trial, if only for entertainment. Oberon has, at best, a belief that humans will continue to suffer in their inferiority, and barely considers them sport, whether in War, Court or entertainment.
​
It is common for members of the Summer court to talk to humans, in combat or conversation, in the way that one might talk to a child, or even a pet.
Autumn
Symbol: two spear-shaped leaves, one pointed up, one pointed down
Colours: amber, orange, burnt umber, brass
Monarch: Balor 'The Change above the Loom'
The Autumn court's aspects include decline, quiet contemplation, preparation, and the intertwining of contrasting concepts.
Autumn appears more guarded than other courts, its members quick to offer threats, but slow in their delivery of the outcome. Believing that the fruit always drops when it's ripe, they're ardently against the human concept of 'forced harvest'.
The human hubris is deciding when the Apple should be picked, rather than letting the tree release it. To Autumn, pacts, lives, and revenge come to fruition when they are ready, and impatience is the sign of a fool.
Autumn fashions tend to be fluid and adaptable, their attire designed to be reworn in different styles, featuring kilts, long skirts, and flowing capes. This can give them a simpler look compared to the other Courts, with their penchant for a different outfit for every occasion.
Monarch Balor's consistent item of clothing, their amber four-ways cloak, is ever-present, pinned in place by the brass spear-leaf symbol of their court.
Balor keeps track of all of those that have wronged their court, an ever-growing list threaded through their loom, creating their animus tapestry. To be added to the weave is considered a death sentence by all Fey. It's just a matter of time.
Wild
Symbol: bell (specifically hawk bells)
Colour: black, sickly green, silver
Monarch: Alfher 'The Dragon among Pentacles'
The Wild Hunt, until recently, was no more than an arm of the courts. An ancient court, its name and bloodline long lost, they wandered the Green and the Earth to find a successor, terrorising mortal, fey, and everything in-between at the behest of the courts.
With the discovery and ascension of Monarch blood, the Hunt cast aside its nomadic and mercenary practises, and reformed as The Wild Court, with Monarch Alfher donning the once-abandoned crown of blades.
The millennia of travelling and scouring the land has given the Wild a more unified structure than the other Courts, as much governed by strong family ties as they are a military-esque hierarchy.
Alfher is spoken about in hushed whispers, a new Monarch for a new age of the Fey, a ruler and their court both shaping each other's savagery in endless feedback loops. The Wild Court once again gives those who survive in the Wild Woods reason to be afraid of the dark.