Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: contemplative
  • Music: Taylor Swift, "Long Live."

What do you want to know?

With Late Eclipses approaching fast, I am naturally spending a lot of time thinking about Toby's world, and blogging about Toby's world, since I want everyone to be as excited as I am. So here is your invitation:

Ask me a question.

This has no connection to the current ARC giveaway, which asks you to ask simple, FAQ-style questions that don't require extensive spoilers or flowcharts. What this is connected to is, well, the big questions. Like when I posted about the rules governing fae marriage. The ones that require serious thought, and a genuine desire to know.

How does fae marriage work? Where did the Changeling's Choice begin? What happened to the Roane? Questions too big, and too complicated, to answer in the FAQ. Now, because I apparently wasn't clear enough the first time, I WILL NOT GIVE SPOILERS. Please don't ask me where someone is, or whether someone else is coming back, or whether you're ever going to see Gillian again (a question which has started to make me clench my teeth). Ask me about laws and rules and universe, about etiquette and speciation and trends in fashion.

The five best questions will get full blog posts about them, explaining whatever facet or facets of Faerie they touch on. I get to determine "best," although you're all welcome to weigh in or ask secondary questions.
Tags: common questions, continuity checking, requesting things, toby daye
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  • 70 comments
...go 2 levels up... Expand

herewiss13

February 3 2011, 19:19:34 UTC 6 years ago

Well, that answers my question, which was going to be "How syncretic is the Toby-verse?" I wouldn't expect Djinn and Kappa to pop up in the narrative, but it'd be interesting to know if they existed in other corners of the world. Since (apparently) they don't, how about this one: are the Fae global? How much "local flavor" is there to Baghdad courts or ones in Sri Lanka (assuming they exist)?

And if the Fae are exclusive and non-global, is there an in-universe explanation for why only one folklore tradition is "real" and where all the other ones came from? (the authorial explanation is quite clear. I like mixed-tradition fantasy, except when it's horrible (which is too easy).)

seanan_mcguire

February 3 2011, 19:53:41 UTC 6 years ago

Djinn and Kappa actually both fall under the category of "I can treat these as fae without being disrespectful." Native American, African, Australian...not so much. The fae are global at this point, because they've spread out. They used to live pretty much entirely in whatever regions they originated from.

There's no in-universe explanation, except that the fae assume that everything that sounds like fae but isn't is just the humans getting it wrong again. Since all fae are descended from Oberon, Mab, or Titania, anything with a clear, dedicated "this is where it comes from, no negotiation" can't be assimilated without committing cultural appropriation, and I get yelled at enough for that, just because of characters like Lily and Luna.

InCryptid is much more mixed-tradition, because I didn't have to rely on a single point of origin.

lacewood

June 15 2011, 06:47:07 UTC 6 years ago

These questions are super late because I only found this thread recently, so if you don't reply, I'll totally understand. But I'm still really curious, so:

Does this mean non-Western fae are also descended from Oberon/Titania/Mab? How does that work? Do the trio have different names in different countries of fae origin (so they travelled around a lot, eg. to Japan) or did their offspring migrate around the world from their Celtic origins and then got called different names?

What exactly are defined as "fey"? Human in appearance, with the magic to do different things eg. shapeshift? Would kelpie count, for example? They're Irish, but they're not human looking.

And in any case, how did Oberon/Titania/Mab themselves originate?

seanan_mcguire

June 15 2011, 14:01:53 UTC 6 years ago

In this world, all fae are descended from Oberon/Titania/Maeve; it was the only way to make the cosmology work. So yes, they wandered around the world and had some kids in places other than Europe. For the most part, this cosmological restriction has meant that I had to limit the mythologies and creatures I could play with, because some things will never make sense, no matter how hard I twist.

Again, in this world: anything with magic is fae. Kelpies are fae. So are Kitsune, and Tuatha de Dannan. There are no non-fae supernatural creatures.

Your third question has yet to be answered.