(no subject)

[shadowroads]

Player Information:
Name: Chloe
Age: 25
Contact: swevene
Game Cast: Alcuin no Delaunay (virginprice) and Professor Randolph Lyall (cravats)

Character Information:
Name: Tybalt, but he will be using the alias Rand Stratford
Canon: The October Daye series
Canon Point: Between Late Eclipses and One Salt Sea
Age: He was 20 in 1666, which puts him at approximately 365
Reference: Series landing page

Setting:
The setting of the October Daye novels is split between a modern world similar to our own and the magical world known as Faerie. Our world doesn’t require any explanation—the levels of technology are identical, there are no changes in countries or cultures—but the world of Faerie is as alien as its inhabitants, the fae.

The nature of Faerie is extremely difficult to understand, and impossible to explain. It is basically another dimension that can be reached from ours with magic. There are many lands in Faerie, connected by magic, but most of them have been lost or locked away, since its creators (sometimes known as the Big Three, Oberon, Titania, and Maeve) vanished. The only one that remains is known as the Summerlands.

Many fae live in what are known as ‘knowes’, structures built in the Summerlands and connected to both the Summerlands and the mortal world. They tend to be extremely complicated and easy to get lost in, responding to the ruler of the knowe most easily. There are also ‘shallowings’, which are dug out of the space between this world and the Summerlands and are anchored to both. Islets are similar to shallowings, but larger and more stable. This is an extremely loose description, because the differences and intricacies of all the different types are left pretty vague.

It is (via Word of God) impossible to know how many different kinds of fairy there are. They are all descended from Oberon, Titania, and Maeve, either in combination or singly (the Undine, for instance, were formed from Maeve’s tears and have no other parent, while the Daoine Sidhe are descended from both Oberon and Titania). The children of Oberon, Titania, or Maeve are known as the Firstborn, and they may give rise to one or more races.

All fae look to the Big Three as the ultimate authority, and follow the laws that Oberon set down for them before the three of them vanished. The most important of these laws is a ban on murdering other pureblooded fae (though killing in self-defense, in the sovereignty battles of the Cait Sidhe, or in war is permitted). When someone mentions ‘Oberon’s Law’, this is generally the law that they’re referring to. The system of fae governance was also set up by the Big Three, but it’s pretty complicated so it will get its own section.


General Fae Facts

Pureblooded fae will not die from old age, which is what is meant by immortal in the Toby Daye series. They will remain young and impossibly beautiful (or impossibly terrifying, if that’s how they roll) forever—or until the day they are killed by other causes. Violence will kill them. It is possible that sickness may also be able to kill them—unlike some varieties of immortal, the humanoid/mammalian fairies such as the Daoine Sidhe and possibly other races as well are capable of getting infections which can endanger them.

One thing that deserves to be spelled out is that fae are not human. They do not think like humans, they do not react like humans. When you’re immortal, different things matter to you. When you have the ability to do almost anything you want with magic, you want different things. They are temperamental, whimsical, and their motivations can be very obscure. Generally speaking, the older and more powerful a fae is, the less human they are, but even the young fairies seem strange to mortals.

Despite their myriad differences, the fae races share a few things. Iron is inimical to their magic (and no magic exists that does not come from the fae) and thus it hurts them very badly. Some races are more vulnerable while other races are less so. Skinshifters such as Selkies, for example, are nearly immune to iron if they leave their selkie skins behind when they go to touch it. On the other end of the scale, iron will burn an Undine who touches it like acid. While most fae will die to things like blood loss or strangulation, iron is an excellent way to make sure they’re dead—and to make sure that it hurt. Most normal metal fae weapons are hardened silver rather than steel.

Another similarity is that all their minor magic will be negated at dawn—dawn is ‘the death of magic’, and even powerful spells will be weakened over the course of many dawns. Small spells such as the illusions that disguise the fae from human eyes will vanish entirely and have to be remade. Additionally, since fairies are themselves magic, it can hurt a lot. This is obviously a vulnerable time for the fairies—if a fae is outside in the mortal world, there is the risk of exposure. Fairies have lots of bad memories of being hunted by humans—in the long years that Faerie and the human world have been intertwined, the humans have done a lot of damage. One of Oberon’s laws is that anyone trapped outside of their home during the dawn may take shelter, even in someone else’s territories. Although it’s never explicitly stated, being away from the morning light may be enough to keep the spells intact.

An important note on fae society: Promises and favours are extremely important. Promises are considered binding (and can be magically binding as well), and breaking one is a fairly heinous action. Favours are uncomfortable, but necessary. Nobody likes owing a debt to anyone else, and holding debts over people’s heads is considered rude (but is sometimes strategically sound anyway). On that note, saying the words ‘thank you’ is considered extremely rude except under very specific circumstances. It implies that the thanker believes the one being thanked owes them beyond what the thanker is thanking them for. Thus, it is only used by a liege lord to one who owes them fealty, to someone who owes you a debt, or between courting couples—once you start courting someone, you’re obligated to finish it.

Changelings
Changelings are an aspect of Faerie that a lot of fae would rather forget. They are the half-human children of fae who play ‘fairy bride’ and fall in love with a mortal. Pureblooded fae children are rare, since most fairy races aren’t that fertile, and it’s common to have a baby with a human just because you want to have a baby… of course, eventually that baby grows up and it might not be quite so much fun anymore, because changelings are subject to the Changeling’s Choice.

The Changeling’s Choice is given when their instinctive ‘baby magic’ that prevents them from being recognized as other than human stops working. This can happen as early as three or as late as the early teens, but whenever it happens it’s an important turning point: the child must choose between a human life and life in the world of the fae. Unfortunately, a child who chooses the human life is still a threat to Faerie: they could cause the exposure. They’re not human, even if they choose that life, and that means their lives are very short. The fae can’t afford to let them live. If they choose the fae, they retreat into the Summerlands with their fae parent, who can never see their lover again. It’s a painful thing to do, but the fae keep playing fairy bride.

Changelings are largely looked down on and disliked. They either have less power than their fae parent, or they have much more power and are erratic (or flat-out dangerous). Whichever way they go, Faerie doesn’t want them, but sometimes it needs them, especially as the world continues to develop. They can handle iron and the innovation that comes with modern technology a lot better than many purebloods. This makes them less expendable than they used to be, but it doesn’t improve their social status much.

The Cait Sidhe are one of the few who do accept their changelings. They have changelings that are both part-human as well as part-cat, and either kind is welcome in their courts.

Reasonably Common Fae Magics

Note: Each fairy has their own personal magical scent—a ‘signature’ to their magic that consists of one or two notes. For instance, the protagonist Toby’s magic smells like copper and cut grass, while Sylvester’s smells like dogwood and daffodils. What exactly the scent consists of is not entirely clear. In some ways, it shows your heritage. Other factors seem to be personal identifiers that say something about you. Plant notes seem to be the most common.

Illusions
Illusions or glamours are the most common forms of magic, and practically every race can create them. They are what permit the fae to walk among humans, allowing impossible features to be hidden with blunted ears and bone structure, dulling the vivid colours, and generally making them look less like refugees from a sci-fi show.

The other common forms of illusions is the don’t-look-here, which veils a person or object from sight. Otherwise, illusions can be used in the way illusions usually are—to disguise objects, to make your clothes look different if you’re stepping from the mortal world into a king’s court, and generally to make sure that things are seldom as they seem.

Wards
Wards are protections. They can range from alarm spells to barriers to misdirection spells—again, most races can do some form of these. Some have more skill with them than others.

Shapeshifting
Shapeshifting is the ability to shift your form. Some races have access to unlimited shapeshifting, able to look like anyone at all. Some can only shift between certain forms. This is different from an illusion, because the shape is actually being changed.

Skinshifting is similar, but actually involves taking a skin on and off.

Teleportation
Teleportation is a less common skill. It can either involve opening gates between one place and another or simply disappearing from one place and reappearing in another one. Generally, the distance that can be teleported is difficult.

Bloodwork
The most common form of blood magic is known as ‘riding the blood’ and is performed by a bloodworker tasting someone’s blood to read their memories. Blood contains all the memories of the person it comes from, and it can be done after death to determine the cause if the dead person knew it, though there is the risk that the strength of the memory may carry the bloodworker off with it and kill them. There are also rituals that involve blood, and they’re generally pretty nasty.

A Few Important Fae Races

Cait Sidhe
Tybalt is a Cait Sidhe—a cat fairy. They are shapeshifters, equally comfortable in the shape of a housecat (never a big cat like a lion or tiger) and a humanoid fae. The Cait Sidhe are unique in several respects. First, they have access to the Shadow Roads which makes them able to travel between any shadows that haven’t specifically been locked against them. Secondly, they have their own government. The Cait Sidhe were brave enough to ask Oberon to be allowed to rule themselves, and their request was granted. This makes their system of governance a great deal more direct than in the other courts.

To be a King or Queen of Cats, you need to fulfill all the requirements, which is very rare. You need to be able to shift forms completely, without any undesired traits leaking through from one form to the next, cast basic illusions, travel the Shadow Roads and bring others with you, open courts in the Shadow Roads, and open doors from the deepest courts to the Summerlands, command loyalty, and die and come back. Most Cait Sidhe can shift, cast illusions, and travel the Shadow Roads (though not all of them can), but the dying and coming back is a lot rarer. A smart King or Queen never tells anyone how many lives they have, since that would render them vulnerable—and if they’re killed on the Shadow Roads, they won’t come back, no matter how many lives they have.

The Cait Sidhe are a great deal more vicious with each other than most other races. They are ruled by might: a King or Queen takes their throne by defeating the last one in combat. Sometimes this is done with the consent of the last monarch, but vicious fights to the death aren’t that uncommon. Additionally, a King or Queen has very physical control of their Court. They will deal out punishments violently if their authority is challenged or if one of their court misbehaves.

Cait Sidhe often have fur-tipped ears and tend to sport hair and markings that match their housecat form—grey and white tabby stripes, for instance. Their eyes will come in any range of cat colours, too, and since they don’t heal quickly, they are capable of being scarred.

Daoine Sidhe
Daoine Sidhe (Daoine for short) are the children of Oberon and Titania, superb illusionists and also strong bloodworkers. They rule a great deal of Faerie, having both the skills and the desire for power. Many of the fae seen in the series are Daoine, including major supporting characters Sylvester Torquill and Quentin. They frequently crop up as antagonists as well, their hunger for power pushing them to be nasty.

They tend to have very vivid colouring—Sylvester has ‘foxfire red’ hair and golden eyes, Quentin’s is bronze, and another Daoine is described as having ‘eyes the impossible dark blue of midnight; she had hair that wavered between black and purple, with highlights of pink, orange, and blue, like an aurora’. They are also impossibly beautiful, with faces ‘like the last, perfect work of a dying sculptor’. Their ears are sharply pointed.

Dóchas Sidhe
The Dóchas Sidhe are a very rare race, with only two known to be alive. They are primarily bloodworkers, even stronger than the Daoine Sidhe. They are claimed by Oberon, which is rare—most races are claimed either by Titania or Maeve and are thus identified primarily with them. Their other parent is unknown. Their ability with blood includes being able to ‘rebalance’ the blood of a changeling, making it more human or more fae. Presumably this could also work with mixed-breed fae, shifting the balance towards one race or the other. This ability is apparently unique among the fae.

Other abilities include a strongly-enhanced ability to track magic by smell, as well as a healing factor a great deal stronger than anything else that’s been seen—able to recover quickly from near-gutting, stabbings, and a lot of other damage. A Dóchas Sidhe has been described as looking like a bleached-out Disney Princess, but they’re fairly superficially similar to Daoine Sidhe—close enough to pass for them, in fact.

Politics

As previously mentioned, the government of the Fae was organized by the Big Three themselves, and that means it hasn’t changed much over the centuries. The people have changed, but the system remains the same. Most important—except for the Big Three—are the High Demesnes, ruled by High Kings and Queens. These are very large, the size of a continent or two (such as North and South America). These High Demesnes are divided into a patchwork of smaller kingdoms, ruled by a king or queen, and those are divided into various fiefdoms. The fae nobility share titles with the mortal feudal system. The Cait Sidhe, of course, are largely exempt from worrying about the politics of the Divided Courts, as they’re known, though they’re not entirely unaffected.

The October Daye series is set in the Kingdom of the Mists, also known as northern California. The Kingdom of the Mists is a region in the High Demesne ruled by High King Aethlin and High Queen Maida Sollys, directly administered by the figure only known as the Queen of the Mists. There are at least three duchies in the Kingdom of the Mists—Shadowed Hills, ruled by Duke Sylvester Torquill and his Duchess Luna, Dreamer’s Glass, ruled by Duchess Treasa Riordan, and Saltmist, the underwater duchy ruled by Duchess Dianda Lorden—though Saltmist may claim fealty with the Undersea king instead. There are also at least two Counties, Tamed Lightning (ruled by Countess April O’Leary) and Goldengreen (ruled by reluctant Countess October Daye). An assortment of independent knowes is based out of Golden Gate Park, including the Court of Dreaming Cats (ruled by Tybalt)—at least nominally. The Cait Sidhe Court tends to move around more frequently than the others.

Tensions in the Kingdom of Mists tend to run high. There’s an unhappy suspicion that the Queen of the Mists is insane, and some of her rulings seem to point to that. Dreamer’s Glass is expansionistic and untrustworthy, and Tamed Lightning is the site of one of the most deadly fae serial killers recently known. Additionally, the daughter of Sylvester and Luna Torquill recently attempted to murder her mother, succeeded in killing an Undine who held a fiefdom in Golden Gate Park, and disappeared.

Personality: Tybalt is a cat, through and through. He isn’t a human or anywhere close, and that means that it can be hard for those of us with purely human brains to get a grip on his character. Another factor that makes it difficult is that he tends to keep his reasoning and emotions to himself. The feelings we do see are all filtered through a fairly unreliable narrator, and that makes it even harder to interpret.

What we do know is that he can be smug, sardonic, violent, unpredictable, and generally kind of an asshole. He’s also a good ruler with a well-hidden squishy core, and a reliable support for Toby (the narrator) when she really needs him to be. For a human, his bad qualities might outweigh his good qualities, but for a Cait Sidhe none of those are bad qualities, except maybe his loyalty to a changeling from the Divided Courts.

Being a cat seems to come with a healthy dose of self-confidence, and Tybalt practically radiates it. You don’t often see him unsure of himself, and when you do it’s a sign that something is gravely wrong, or that something has seriously thrown him off-course. This means that he can definitely come off as smug, especially when he’s absolutely certain that he’s right, or when he’s just being an asshole. When he moves beyond ‘smug’ to ‘bored’, it means things are going to get dangerous. According to Toby, “a cat that looks bored is a cat that’s getting ready to pounce.”

His tendency towards sarcasm and need to be clever only enhance that impression. It’s rare that he doesn’t have some kind of sardonic comment to contribute, especially towards Toby. Even his more innocuous statements tend to be verging on snarky or critical. He can even be petty, occasionally, but he doesn’t hesitate to put pettiness aside when he has to. Much like when he’s being unsure, being sincere is something that only happens when things are very serious indeed, whether that’s due to outside events or the emotions that Toby inspires in him.

The life of a Cait Sidhe is a violent one, and Tybalt is no exception to that. He gained his throne by killing his father, Ainmire, and he’s kept it by fighting any challengers for it. His subjects are largely kept in order because they know he can win in a fight against any of them, and he is entirely willing to punish them physically if they cross him. He’s open to hurting people outside of his courts too, if he sees a need—he nearly strangles the seneschal of Tamed Lightning over worries about Toby and the cats who lived there. Violence is often going to be his first response to a threat or a problem. He’s certainly willing to consider others, and he’s not opposed to political maneuvering despite the fact that he’s not part of the main governmental structure of Faerie. However, living that way means that he understands the cost of violence in a way that many other fae (who live lives distant from violence or death) don’t. For one, he’s aware that it isn’t glory and honour, and that it has consequences—as he says, every cut leaves a scar. For anything less than a war, though, they’re consequences that he’s largely willing to live with.

Unpredictability is a double-edged sword. Sometimes Tybalt shows up just when he’s needed the most, but nobody’s expecting him… and sometimes he disappears for months at a time, coming back with little or no explanation. He doesn’t seem to feel a need to explain himself very often, partly because he likes the mystery and partly because he keeps a lot of secrets. It’s a sign of his regard for Toby that he is there so often for her—it seems unlikely that anyone else would get the same consideration. Cats aren’t fond of acknowledging responsibility, and being where you’re expected to be is a responsibility.

Of course, Tybalt has other responsibilities. He cares about his subjects, willingly asking for help for them when he can’t do it himself—in a culture where debts are serious weights to carry, that’s not a light choice. He mourns when they are hurt (such as in a case of mass poisoning in Late Eclipses) and he keeps them in order. He shows his kindness in some smaller ways too, like allowing his heir, Raj, to stay with his parents rather than adopting him as his own and refusing to allow his parents into his court, as was done by his own father.

Tybalt’s one real weak point is a particularly annoying changeling: the eponymous October Daye. He doesn’t want to like her—he’d much prefer to hate her—but he can’t stay away from her and he can’t help his feelings. They’re present even in the first book, when as far as Toby is concerned, he hates her… but he’s willing to go out of his way to let her know, and that usually signals something more. He does his best to keep his feelings from her (one of those secrets he carries), but they’ve grown increasingly obvious over time. The connection is clear when the Court of Dreaming Cats is poisoned during Late Eclipses—that could only have been done to get to Toby through Tybalt. It’s not surprising that after that event he seals off his court and doesn’t see her at all for a time. Being in love with a changeling is not a wise move at all, especially as she’s a changeling from outside the Cait Sidhe. He can’t change his feelings, though… even if it’s likely that he would have if he could, at least before the emotional ground started to shift between them and Toby began to clue in.

Tybalt probably won’t be happy on the turtle, or at least he won’t enjoy it. Cut off from other fairies and the Summerlands, he’ll have to spend a lot of time hiding or else risk betraying the existence of Faerie, which is unthinkable for any fae. On Earth, Tybalt has very little contact with mortals, preferring to stay within the Court of Cats or with other fairies. Associating with humans and other mortals so much will be stressful, especially since it will feel like he’s abandoned his duties. Additionally, he’ll miss Toby, and others of his acquaintance. He’s used to existing in a liminal space, the Shadows, so being between worlds won’t seem that strange to him. It’s everything else that goes along with it.

Appearance: Tybalt has three separate forms. There is his humanoid fairy form, his cat form, and his mortal disguise.

In his fairy form, he is tall and lean, with a very athletic build (the kind that would come from yoga or running). He has tousled brown hair with black tabby strikes, malachite green eyes, and sharp teeth. His ears are pointed. He also has retractable claws in the place of fingernails. He is, apparently, ridiculously attractive with an animal magnetism.

His mortal disguise makes his hair entirely black, dims his eyes down to hazel, blunts the points of his teeth and his ears, hides his claws, and makes his bone structure more human. He’s still way too gorgeous for his own good, though.

His cat form is a burly brown tabby cat with green eyes.

His PB will be Luke Evans

Abilities: As mentioned in the Cait Sidhe section, Kings of Cats must have a certain set of skills. Tybalt, as a king, has all of them.

He is capable of shifting from one form to the other without any non-human or non-cat traits—this can be done very quickly, and he keeps his clothes when he changes. He has an excellent sense of smell in his cat form, and excellent hearing in both of them, as well as greatly enhanced speed and strength. He is capable of casting basic illusions—his human disguise and don’t-look-here charms, mostly, so that people can’t see him and definitely can’t see his real form. He can also cast wards, including a spell that keeps himself dry referred to as a ‘warding spell’.

He can access the Shadow Roads easily, and bring people with him—this is not pleasant for the people he brings, as the Shadow Roads are very dark and cold enough to freeze your lungs if you breathe, for anyone but the Cait Sidhe, though it still takes effort for them, with additional effort if someone is travelling with them. Accessing the shadows involves opening them through some special Cait Sidhe magic, and he does need a fairly good-sized shadow. I am guessing that he will be able to travel the shadows on Tu Vishan but he won’t be able to leave the shell, as though the shadows that would lead off of it are warded against him. This is primarily just a much faster method of travel—it can take a minute or two to travel for miles.

Related to this, he can form Courts out of the shadows and hold them open. This might not happen too much on Tu Vishan, but it basically creates a small (and temporary) pocket dimension out of lost places (places that did exist somewhere in the mortal world, but have been forgotten or lost), something like the inside of a TARDIS—a series of rooms that is accessed through the shadows. These are quite livable, unlike the Shadow Roads. He will probably not be able to access the Summerlands from them, since that would mean he can leave Tu Vishan. He also may not have access to any lost places on Tu Vishan, depending on if any dwellings or buildings have been forgotten.

He can also die and come back if necessary. It’s unknown how many lives he has (see the note about smart Kings and Queens) but he has lost at least three lives over the course of the series. He’s not going to be wasteful of the lives he has, but as long as he dies outside of the Shadow Roads he won’t be permanently killed—it just takes a few minutes for him to wake up again. It’s not a particularly dramatic resurrection.

Commanding loyalty is less supernatural—he is very charismatic, and even the plain old housecats he meet seem to listen to him easily. And yes, he does command—and he’s not afraid to beat a little loyalty into his subjects, either.

Beyond that, Tybalt is an absolutely terrifying fighter. He’s been an official King of Cats for several hundred years, and he fights, apparently, like a Mixmaster, in a whirl of claws and teeth that moves too fast for the mortal eye to follow.

Inventory: Basic clothing—work boots, jeans, a plaid shirt, and a leather jacket. Nothing beyond that.

Suite: Three stories in the Wood Sector. He’s a king, he deserves space, and the trees will give him lots of high places to roam around on.

In-Character Samples:
Third Person: Tybalt carefully moved along the peak of the roof he had climbed, looking over the city below him. He was exploring the Fire Sector tonight, first on the ground in his human disguise, and now more comfortably, seeing what could be seen from the heights. It was strange: for once, his cat shape was the more conspicuous one. He’d met no other cats on Tu Vishan. After several brushes that were far too close for comfort, he’d been forced to ascend to the rooftops. Mortals still rarely looked up, even in a city like Keeliai.

Though strictly speaking he didn’t know if the kedan were mortals. He knew they weren’t fairies, but what they were was beyond him. He hadn’t yet had a chance to speak to the Emperor they all deferred to, but he intended to. He would demand answers, monarch to monarch. He wasn’t foolish enough to try to depose her yet, though his claws itched to make an attempt—he could play at diplomacy for now.

He gathered himself and leaped for the next rooftop, landing with an almost-noiseless thud. It was one of the suites granted to the foreigners, and he had to wonder which unfortunate soul slept under this particular roof. It was no business of his—he could find out if he pleased, nipping into the suite and back out—but he didn’t care enough to do so. The strange trees of the Wood Sector were within sight and that meant he was nearly home. It was strange to live in a house that would suit a Dryad better, but he hadn’t bothered to establish a Court—why should he, when there were no other cats to rule?—and the suite served well enough. It would be a place to hide from the dawn, and that was coming soon. It would be best to turn his path homeward before he risked exposure.

Network: [Hello, Keeliai. You are being graced with the presence of one incredibly bored-looking but extremely attractive gentleman, sitting with boneless grace in the chair in front of the computer console and picking his nails. He looks up after a moment, allowing a small but not very sincere smile to cross his face.]

If I can pry you all away from what I’m sure are ultimately fulfilling lives for a moment, I’d like to know if anyone’s seen a woman by the name of October Daye. You’ll know her by the disasters that happen in her immediate vicinity, and by the utter stupidity with which she chases after them.

[He pauses, then shrugs and continues with the next question.] Does anyone know when the next chance to chat with this so-called Emperor will be? I asked our hosts, but they didn’t seem to be all that forthcoming.