Spring Fey

The Spring Fey are best known for two things: their beauty, and their intellect. They have been described as a thorny people, often preferring using their minds rather than their hearts. Where other Fey may hide their emotions behind masks of calm or playful pranks, the Spring Fey ignore the existence of emotions entirely, seeing such things as the domain of lesser creatures-- and to a Spring Fey, every other being in the universe is a lesser creature. The Spring Fey are considered arrogant, even among other Fey. They believe themselves to be the most intelligent of all the Fey, as well as the most rational and observant. They see everything with a scholar's eye, constantly categorizing, quantifying, and considering. They have excellent memories and an attention to detail. Most importantly, in a society that reveres magic above all else, the Spring Fey are the most magically gifted of all the courts.

What Spring Fey fear most is being seen as foolish or out of control, and therefore, they control themselves rigidly. Of all the courts, the Spring Fey concern themselves most with outward appearances. It is a common Fey trait to seek perfection in all aspects of life, but the Spring Fey pursue both the appearance of perfection and actual perfection itself. It is not that Spring Fey have a beautiful veneer covering a cracked interior-- though that may be true for a few of them-- but that they believe the exterior appearance to be just as important as the inner reality. Whenever a Spring Fey is seen, it is important that they are seen doing everything perfectly. If a Spring Fey performs a ceremony for their deity, for example, they want to make sure that they are making exactly the correct movements at all of the right times as well as thinking appropriately devout thoughts.

Spring Fey are dependable and keep their promises to the letter. If a Spring Fey takes an oath, they follow through no matter how difficult it is, how long it takes, or whether changing circumstances prove the oath to be a bad idea. Spring Fey remember not only their own debts, but also the debts of their parents, grandparents, and ancestors into the distant past. They also remember the grudges of their ancestors and those who once failed their houses.

Spring Fey have no tolerance for failure, either their own or anyone else's. They are highly ambitious and want to rise to the top. They prefer to be at the head of the procession, at the center of the ritual circle, or the one sitting on the throne. That means but succeeding personally through dedicated effort... and, sometimes, seeing to it that others fail. More fey have been banished from the Spring Court than any other court, usually for reasons as simple and subjective as "incompetence".

Neat and fastidious, the Spring Fey are particularly disgusted by filth and ugliness. Their homes, libraries, and laboratories are tidy and well-organized, with books alphabetized and scrolls and potions clearly labeled. They like to keep diaries, chronicling both their own lives and the lives of those around them.

The Spring Fey are curious by nature, and their curiosity manifests itself into a love of experiments. They create experiments to test out new spells, devices, and substances. Animals, lesser Fey, or even mortals may serve as subjects in a Spring Fey's experiments, and they rigorously document everything that occurs. When the experiment is finished, the Spring Fey usually returns the subjects to as near their original state as can be managed, and neatly puts them back where they found them.

The Spring Fey are generally not knowingly cruel-- but since they do not consider either their own or other's emotions worthy of notice, they are capable of great unwitting cruelties. By the same token, however, they are also equally capable of great unwitting kindness.

Spring Fey in Society

The Spring Fey are the scholars and sages of the Fey. They are the architects who design towers of living wood, the engineers who construct gravity-defying bridges through the boughs of trees; they build gardens of thorns and roses with hidden doors and wander through the meticulous hedge mazes of their own making.

Above all, though, the Spring Fey are most commonly the mages and archmagi of Arcadia. Some Spring Fey mages preserve knowledge that already exists, keeping libraries, writing scrolls, and maintaining schools of magic that only the most talented Arcadians may attend. Other Spring Fey create new knowledge, researching new spells and new applications for magic. A number of younger Spring Fey are currently experimenting with the creation of golems and other items that merge the mechanical with the magical.

Many Spring Fey see themselves as the upholders of tradition, seeking to assure themselves that what remains is not lost and that the younger generations of Fey live up to the example of those who came before. The Spring Fey are judgmental of those who do not uphold tradition as "correctly" as they do; they believe they are setting a standard for others to follow. They wish to return Arcadia to the glorious days of old, and it is through primal magical might that the Spring Fey plan to do this.

While all Fey are naturally attuned to magic, the Spring Fey are supremely gifted-- especially the ways of the Artes. Those belonging to the other three courts sometimes become wizards, but the Spring Fey are unlikely to become anything other than a magic user of some variety.