Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire

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Ask me anything: Toby's world Q&A.

Since I have a book coming out in fifteen days, I figure it's time to once again offer to answer your questions about the world. So...

I will make five blog posts detailing aspects of Toby's universe. Ask me anything! I will not answer every question, but will select the five that I think are the most interesting/fun/relevant, and will detail them to my heart's content. There's a lot to learn and know, and asking loses you nothing.

Leave your questions on this post. I'm declaring comment-reply amnesty for any that I choose not to answer this time, since otherwise, my wee head may explode.

Game on!

ETA: Things covered last two times we did this: inheritance, fosterage, madness, historical records, Cait Sidhe court structure, the Changeling's Choice, locational biology, where fae races come from, shapeshifters, and merlins.
Tags: ashes of honor, math is awesome, party games, toby daye
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Man, I was so excited when I read/glanced that first line, because I thought it was going to be like ... world-general questions, and I was going to ask about string theory in quantum physics. :(
Yeah, see, that would be Seanan Makes Shit Up Theater.

dostehseh

4 years ago

ohari

4 years ago

agrumer

4 years ago

dostehseh

4 years ago

seanan_mcguire

4 years ago

dostehseh

4 years ago

tsgeisel

4 years ago

dragonsally

4 years ago

Are there other land-animal-alternate-form-fae, in addition to cats and foxes? For example dog, horse (not humans-changed-to-horses), or snake fae?

And since I find myself oddly biased towards smaller animals = potential fae, what about buffalo or elephant fae?

Yup. It was actually gone into rather a lot in the shapeshifters discussion.

No elephant or buffalo fae, currently, as there was no way to fit that into the pre-existing mythos without committing massive cultural appropriation.

ladymurmur

4 years ago

vixyish

4 years ago

Are all land fae mammalian (or at least give birth to live young), or are there some egg-layers? I'm assuming some if the water-based species must lay eggs.
There are egg-layers.
Toby is the Knight of Lost Words (IIRC). I can imagine that a landed title comes with the name of the land it's attached to (Goldengreen, Tamed Lightning. etc.), but a knight is an unhanded position. So does the title mean anything -- either a reference to what Toby did, or as a title that can be awarded (a bit like how a professorship might be the Rich Donor Professor of Stuff, instead of just Professor).

Also, anything you can say about fairy craftspeople and making stuff -- I know it was addressed a bit in the second book (especially that the more craftsmen-oriented fae use changelings to handle ironwork), but I like hearing about how stuff gets made. I know to some extent, even a changeling like Toby has to be able to make a decent dress from raw materials and magic, but is there a difference between 'stuff i need right now so I make (and don't care if it turns back to leaves at dawn as long as I'm not still wearing it)' and 'old, well-made stuff'.
I'm totally interested in the making-stuff question too!

But just to note for reference: Toby making a dress from raw materials and magic is her crafting an illusion. It turns back to leaves at dawn because it isn't actually real in the first place. She's still got jeans on underneath. (This is why she tries not to do it for the Queen's court-- the Queen likes to change Toby's real actual clothing into real actual something else, and she's fond of her jeans.)

beccastareyes

4 years ago

vixyish

4 years ago

beccastareyes

4 years ago

seanan_mcguire

4 years ago

beccastareyes

4 years ago

seanan_mcguire

4 years ago

Deleted comment

Question 1: Because only the Cait Sidhe accept and care for their animal-form descendants, and because cats have folklore that says they remember everything while nothing else does.

Question 2: Answered.
Having just reread all the books to prepare for the latest, I find myself wondering about two things.

First, May. If the Night-Haunts only die by becoming Fetches, and fetches die when their...um...selectee dies, does that mean that May will outlive Toby now that Toby's blood has been shifted? May really has become her own (rather more cheerful) person, but outliving Toby would be hard, if it's even possible. But becoming a fetch means shifting to match your selectee, and there's no reason why the shifting has to stop. Is May going to slowly change until she's a match for Toby again?

Personally, I think it's amusing - The Devin-haunt asking "Why aren't you *dead*?" Literally willing to do something unprecedented to figure out why this one odd changeling, clearly suffering with a major death-wish, keeps spilling all that blood and not doing the rational thing and just -stopping-. Toby confuses them terribly, and the Night-haunts, more even than most purebloods, deal with change poorly. Shows what you get for not socializing more.

Second, Amandine and the Dochas Sidhe. When Toby was dying, Amandine showed up - within seconds, a very few minutes at most - and did what was necessary to save her from the Elf-shot. How did she know? Is she so tied to her daughter's blood that she felt it slowing in Toby's body? Would any pureblood of her line be the same? How deep does the tie go? Did she feel what happened when Toby was transformed, did she spend all those years feeling everything fish-Toby was feeing? Is *this* what drove Amandine to her self-imposed exile? Did she drift into madness naturally, or was the strain on her blood too great for immortal flesh and spirit to endure?

Amandine seems to approve of May. She kept her from dying when Toby was elf-shot - by ordering her to stay. That's a neat trick. Is there a link between the Dochas Sidhe and the Night-Haunts? The memories of the fey are tasted in their blood; It's what the Night-Haunts seek. They're no less blood-workers than Amandine's line - possibly moreso, as they literally take on the persona of those they eat.

Wait - that's three questions. Oh, well.
These are great questions, but they're all very character-specific, and as such, would be spoilers if answered.
Will Toby ever have a healed closure with her daughter or exhusband? I know mundane question but it weighs on me.
I'm gonna guess that "will x happen?" questions aren't within the scope of this offer, since they'd necessarily involve spoilers and/or things that aren't certain because they haven't been written yet. :)

seanan_mcguire

4 years ago

gwisteria

4 years ago

seanan_mcguire

4 years ago

Do you have a convenient link to the previous question-answering posts?
Nope. Sorry. But if you try the "a few facts" link, you should find most of them.

vixyish

4 years ago

semperfiona

4 years ago

Not a question, just a "SQUEE!" about the 15 day time frame. :)
How, exactly, do we go from Oberon + (Maeve or Titania) --> Firstborn --> various lines?

Did the firstborn interbreed to produce the different lines? If so, then how was it decided that the resulting children were one line or another? Or was it as simple as "All Night Haunts are Amandine+Michael, all Blodynbryds are Acacia+Michael, etc"?

Or did they breed with the humans to produce the various descendants of their line? Would this explain why most fae are so much weaker than the Firstborn, because they are *all* changelings of different strengths?

This was actually covered last time, in the "where do fae races come from?" question.

fordprfct

4 years ago

vixyish

4 years ago

So, is there any overlap between the Fey we know so far, and Native American mythology & creatures/beings?
None. I can't fit it into the mythology, and there's only so much cultural appropriation that I can render acceptable.

dostehseh

4 years ago

How important is smell in Cait Sidhe culture?

(For context, I mean that cats are very fond of scent-marking things as theirs; do Cait Sidhe do that too?)
Suddenly Tybalt giving Toby his jacket takes on a whole new meaning...

hasufin

4 years ago

seanan_mcguire

4 years ago

Whom is Toby writing to?

(She can't be addressing human readers, who aren't supposed to know anything about the fae. She doesn't seem to be addressing fae readers, who presumably don't need to be told the basics about their own kind.)

(I was recently trying to describe that aspect of the books to a friend, and put it as "expository lumps leavened with snark". I suppose that might sound more uncomplimentary than I intended, but she took it as the joke that it was supposed to be. She's been enjoying Rosemary and Rue.)
She is her own internal monologue.
One of the book mentions Black Annis and Gentle Annie (IIRC). Could you tell us about them?
Nope! :)

Details on people we haven't met yet count as spoilers, and I don't want to commit myself to anything.
The scent of fae magic is one of the things that catches my fancy the most in the series- what factors go into that? I've come up with a few theories but I don't think any of them fit all the facts.
This is coming out in the series more and more. :)
SPOILER BUFFER PLEASE SCROLL PAST! SPOILER BUFFER PLEASE SCROLL PAST! SPOILER BUFFER PLEASE SCROLL PAST! SPOILER BUFFER PLEASE SCROLL PAST! SPOILER BUFFER PLEASE SCROLL PAST!

What are relations like between the Selkies and the Roane? I know that there was at least one character who was half-Selkie and half-Roane, but is there tension/resentment between the two groups? What will happen to the Selkies when the time the Luideag spoke of is up?
Because this is a major spoiler thing, I can't really go into it in a general post. And the answer to your last question is a serious spoiler for future book events, so I can't go into it at all.
I'd be interested to know more about Cait Sidhe biology. I remember Walter saying something about Cait Sidhe being biology weird and anything Faerie considers weird should prove interesting.
Me, too!

But alas, that is still in flux, so I cannot explain it to you.

trixiaw

4 years ago

seanan_mcguire

4 years ago

Someone above asked about fae craftspeople, and this may be similarly-themed: We've seen fae architecture, and fae gardening as themes of their art, but what of fae literature? There have been dances and balls, so I presume they have their own music..is there fae folk music? Fae filkers?
There is, but not as much as you'd think; a lot of fae hang out with human musicians, and so the bleed is high.
Fae board games.

What games do they play? Anything have special significance for them?
And what about sports ?

vixyish

4 years ago

seanan_mcguire

4 years ago

Natural philosophy - is it something that Fae speculate on very much? Are there people researching "Why is there magic in the first place?" or "How is it that Oberon and Titania came to be Firstborn?" or other such potentially impossible questions?
Not so much, no! When your creators hang out and make you get them breakfast, it's harder to doubt.

tsgeisel

4 years ago

bookzombie

August 21 2012, 07:56:47 UTC 4 years ago Edited:  August 21 2012, 07:57:36 UTC

I'm just catching up on the previous question posts (mainly 'cos I've only just finished catching up on the books - which I read in close to one sitting!) and I had a follow-up question on the Cait Sidhe post (apologies if this got answered and I missed it): if Royal Cait Sidhe are so rare, what happens to a court if there is no 'spare' and the King or Queen dies? e.g. if Tybalt hadn't taken in Raj and then got himself killed.

Would the court dissolve or would they try to hunt up another King or Queen to take over?
It depends on the Court and the situation. Most of the time, they'd dissolve.
Although I have no questions of my own to ask, I'm looking forward to reading through the list of everyone else's questions and your answers.
:D

rhodielady_47

2 years ago

seanan_mcguire

2 years ago

Who's in charge of what in Golden Gate Park?
In particular -- the Buffalo Paddock and or the Conservatory of Flowers? Because they're both awesome.
Most things don't have someone "in charge," and I'm still sorting out the rest.
Do the Fae have their own language or do they just adopt the language of where they are?

I'm particularly interested by the use of what seems to be Irish for some of the race names - daoine sidhe, dochas sidhe, etc. (I admit to be slightly bugged by the singular of daoine sidhe being daoine sidhe but I keep telling myself that Fae =/= Irish).
Annnnnnnd answered!

What should the singular be? Curious cat is curious!

scorbet

4 years ago

Can you tell us more about fey childhoods, of any sort? How are the children educated?
Very much like human children in a feudal society, really. :)
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