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Kroashent: Marie's Bestiary - Tuatha de Danaan
🕑 Added 2021-08-04 20:12:25 +0000 UTCPictured: Female and male Unseelie Tuatha de Danaan of Naoned, Letha.
The Tuatha de Danaan, also known as the Eladan, are a Sidhe race hailing from the Fortunate Isles. Similar in size and morphology to the Bediz, the Eladan can be identified by their sharply pointed ears, which extend outwards from their heads, as well as unusually vibrant eye and hair colours. While the Eladan do not "age" their appearance can vary between that of a child to an elderly person, with most falling in the middle. Most Bediz would describe Eladan males as androgynous.
The Courts of the Seasons
The Eladan are divided into two factions or groups: The Unseelie, or the Court of Winter and the Seelie, the Court of Summer. These divisions generally inform the temperament, magical affinity and appearance of an individual. For example, the skin of an Unseelie Eladan is cold to the touch, as if they have been standing out on a winter's night, and are magically associated with Winterrule, night, death, ice, and cold. The Seelie are the opposite, associated with Summerrule, daylight, light, growth, flora, storms and warmth. Twice a year, political control and magical strength switches between the two groups as the season changes.
Marie's Notes: Association with a particular court, and its related attributes, seems to stem with a one-time decision made by an individual at some point in their lives. It is here that the lack of Eladan comprehension about causality makes research frustrating. All indications describe an explicit choice clearly happened at a point in the past, but even the most helpful Eladan I've spoken to don't seem to understand the question, merely confirming whether they are Seelie or Unseelie.
Habitat of the Eladan
The Tuatha de Danaan live in similar locales and climates to the Bediz, but exhibit a wider tolerance for extreme weather, operating without issue in areas that would be deemed inhospitable to their mundane counterparts, such as ice fields or mountaintops and they are often found in liminal spaces, existing between two states of being (E.G. mountains (between land and sky) and islands (between Land and Sea). They make ample use of extra-dimensional pockets, creating structures that are larger in their interior dimensions and complexities than their outward appearance and dimensions would seem to allow. It is not uncommon for a Sidhe dwelling to outwardly resemble a one room cottage, city alleyway or earthen tumulus, only for an entire mansion or even city neighborhood to exist within.
Marie's Notes: I have an acquaintance, an Eladan Arkanist, who rents a small room, (or as she insists, a door) in the roof of a boarding house in Naoned. I was invited to visit her and was shown into a massive, two story library rotunda, with a kitchen, a dining room and several sitting rooms and bedrooms. I've even heard a waterfall somewhere in her apartments, though I've never seen it. Her rooms cannot possibly fit within the building. I've opened that door, and know for a fact the room within is barely a meter across, unfurnished except for a wooden bed and stool. .
Naming Conventions
On a cultural level, Tuatha de Danaan revere names as an important concept and aspect of a personality, equivalent in importance to a soul. Names are crucial to the identity and intimate knowledge of an entity, and as such, knowledge of them extends great power over the entity named. This is so important that Fis, an entire branch of Sidhe Arkane is devoted to the knowledge and study of names. The Eladan consider a name to be an evolving and expanding concept. While a small pond may have only a few names, a great ocean encompassing many lands has many, both official and personal, and with those names specific concepts and aspects. An ocean is greater in scope and importance than a pond, but true understanding of it is more difficult. So too it is with the names of an individual. It is common for Tuatha de Danaan to possess more than one name, in addition to bynames, epithets and nicknames, and many will never reveal their true, or at least full name, going by monikers (e.g.The Morrigan), nicknames, or only fractions of their true name.
Gender Ideals
Female Eladan are significantly more common than males, the latter of which are often described as androgynous, possessing features typically associated with females. While markers of distinct biological sex is found in the species, it is unclear that the Tuatha de Danaan had a concept of binary gender, prior to introduction to the Bediz. In Sidhe linguistics, these terms are typically described using Bediz terminology, supporting this theory. Tuatha de Danaan has self-assigned themselves gender, it seems, largely out of convenience in dealing with Bediz and Fomorii. However, they have a firmer grasp of the concept of biological sex than some other Faerie peoples, such as the Poulpiquet Korrigan.
Marie's Notes: There might be some more nuance here. Let's just say, I know some Eladan who have a type, if you know what I mean...
Common Etiquette Rules
A majority of Tuatha customs are based on a concept of exchange and debt, with strict rules about what can and cannot be given or received. For example:
- Upon being introduced, a Tuatha de Danaan must respond with an equivalently formal name to that given. For example, a nickname merits a nickname in response, while a given name and surname prompts the same in response. Interestingly, a false name given does not trigger this response, allowing an individual Tuatha de Danaan to identify this fact and respond accordingly. A Tuatha de Danaan will never supply their own name first, under any circumstances.
-A Tuatha de Danaan cannot provide gifts or services without receiving something in return. While this has given them a reputation as mercenary and selfish, it is enforced with an ere-hud and is treated as being of the utmost importance. Likewise, they should not be thanked for a service freely given, as this creates an imbalance of debt. Acknowledgement of their kindness is appreciated, but thanks are seen as diluting their altruism and may create the appearance of imbalanced debt. This imbalance, called a "laying" is considered a grievous insult, often worthy of shunning the offender or exacting retribution.
- The exchange of goods is to be conducted on concepts of equal value, defined on a subjective basis. In Tuatha de Danaan economics, a gold coin is worth less to a wealthy man than a starving peasant, while a loaf of bread is worth more than a golden coin to the peasant. This metric, precise to the Tuatha de Danaan, comes across as arbitrary and demanding to Bediz observers. However, The Eladan consider that what they are giving must be equal in value, even if that is not clear to an outsider.
Marie's Notes: I cannot stress how important these concepts are. It does not matter how genial, patient or kind an Eladan is, these rules are iron-clad and taken very seriously. A person may have the most sympathetic story, eliciting tears from all that hear it, and an Eladan will ask for compensation upfront. Unbalanced debt is a deeply serious affront, and can trigger violent or vindictive behavior. Seriously, this sort of thing leads to duels. On a side note don't bring a gift to an Eladan if they don't have anything for you. At best, she gets very upset, start to cry and won't talk to you for a week. Purely hypothetical situation of course.
History
Marie's Notes: That seems to merit its own entry, honestly.
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Read more at the Kroashent Wiki: https://www.worldanvil.com/w/alvez-kroashent
Learn more about the Tuatha de Danaan here: https://www.worldanvil.com/w/alvez-kroashent/a/tuatha-de-danaan-species?preview=true
Kroashent Marie Faerie Fae Bestiary Gwae Gwaeron Sulime Dethemir Gilles Carrier tuatha de danann Eladan Elf
