Question time! Toby Daye trivia is fun.

Zombie faerie - is such a thing possible?

But seriously...
What passes for mythology amongst the fae? Do they tell stories of non-magical accountants, counting the world into existence? Do they have even more elaborate stories of other lands - perhaps some that are closed off to them? Are there stories of Oberon's father? Blah blah blah...

I also casually wonder if a fetch can have a fetch, but I'm willing to see if that plays out over the next few books.

Cool, I can wait for those.

But I suppose, in general, I was wondering more if their "mythology" is recognized by them as "myth" and "parable", in the way the Greek Myths are to humans, or if their long life means that they have enough history to account for the cosmology.

When Fae children ask "Why are there humans?", do they get a made-up story, or do they get a history lesson? That sort of thing.

OK, Seanan, here's the question (started on another thread): what is the relationship between energy and magic? For instance, if a fae has telekinetic powers, what does it cost them to 'push' something to a speed or to lift it? Do they get this energy (or most of it) from somewhere else (local environment, other people, their home area, some 'other' magical field (like the Force), etc.)? Does this depend on the type of fae (compare, in some fantasy worlds, witches who get the energy from themselves versus sorcerors who steal it from others)?

If the fae can take energy from somewhere else and translate it into Real World(tm) energy, does this give a possibility of one being enslaved by mortals for the power (the mortals would see this as "something for nothing", nothing which bothers them anyway)?

Are we ever going to find out where Oberon is? What a deus ex machina, no, I suppose it is just deus, his dropping in would be.

Please explain a bit about knowe management. How do most knowes support themselves? Do they have industry/trades? How do they feed themselves? Do they farm? Get all food and supplies from the human world? Trade amongst themselves? Do the staff/vassals get paid? In what currency? I expect whatever Toby does with Goldengreen will be somewhat or vastly different than the norm, so I'm curious what the norm might actually be.

This question is actually from a friend who doesn't have an LJ, but I'm also curious so agreed to pass it on :-)

What is the job scope of a King of Cats, when not fighting succession fights? And why does Tybalt always claim to be busy whenever he disappears?

The last time we see Danny in Late Eclipses is at Amandine's tower with the Queen's guards closing in, if I remember correctly. What happens to him?

Are there diseases specific to the fae? I'd imagine that they use magic to stay hale and hearty (or whatever the equivalent is for the various sorts of fae), but I would imagine that there would be equally magical ailments that would strike them. What are they like? Do they attack changelings and humans differently, or at all? Have the fae dabbled in bio-magical warfare? Poison has been mentioned, disease less so.

If fae in general think little of humans, rarely bother to interact with them and don’t think much of changelings, then why do they interact with them?

I have been thinking - an act often thought of as dangerous - and I got to wondering about the immortality of the fae and the longevity of changelings. Clearly my mother has just the faintest trace of fae inheritance, because she is 90 and going strong.

Fae can heal from injury, so their cells must be able to divide. Either they divide in a magical way that doesn't shorten the telomeres, or else they have a burst of telomerase (or magic) after cell division to rebuild the telomere. Either way, they must be immune to transcription errors or else they would suffer from cancer, sooner or later.

Extending that reasoning, maybe past its breaking point, how do changelings live longer but not for an unlimited time?

Several ideas occur. The most obvious is that they are not *quite* immune to transcription errors, and maybe exposure to carcinogens can eventually cause problems (For example, afaik the benzene molecule is about the right size to fit inside the double helix and cause errors - which is one reason why unleaded fuel is not an improvement in all respects.)

In that case the main cause of death other than injury, for changelings, would be cancer at a very great age. One would expect them not to show much sign of age until close to the end of their lives.

Or, maybe the magic that rebuilds the telomeres, or that prevents/repairs transcription errors if they are rebuilt using telomerase, only works a limited number of times. In that case, again, one would expect changelings to retain a youthful appearance and health until, eventually, they start to show signs of age at the rate the rest of us do.

Strangely, this makes me think of The Doctor and regenerations.

Whatever, the two most obvious ideas I thought of suggest that changelings show few signs of age until they have a normal human lifespan or less remaining.

Does this make sense?