In the beginning, the Gods created the earth. They created the plants and trees. They created the animals. They then created the people who would live on their world. They created two kinds of people, the humans who had a great logic and ability to solve problems. They were good builders and a kind people. Their women and men were almost equal, as the women made most of the important decisions. To off set these practical beings, the Gods created the Fae. These were a magical people, with almost godlike powers. They had little of what the humans called good sense, however, and were easily stumped by simple problems. The humans and the Fae soon discovered each other, and realized that they could help each other.
For hundreds of years the Humans and the Fae dwelled side by side, their worlds mixing, their children marrying and happiness and prosperity spread throughout the land. Everyone was equal, and all decided what was just when necessary. The Fae helped the humans, using their magics, and the humans used their logic, a concept quite foreign to the Fae, to help them.
During this period of peace, two children met. Maisri was a beautiful human girl. She had long dark hair, and big brown eyes. Many of her human neighbors wished for her hand in marriage, but she found the local boys boring, and would not wed them. Maisri lived near the border of Vembrosia, the land of the humans, and Faerie, where the Fae lived. A magical river lay between the two lands, and, as Maisri was walking near it one day, Turone happened nearby. Turone was a young Fae man. He was small, as were all of the Fae, with red hair and sparkling green eyes. He enjoyed mischief, and watched Maisri from behind a bush. She was fumbling to create a three cornered cup from the bark of a birch tree. Turone stepped from the shrubbery and created a beautiful cup made of finest Faerie china, decorated with beautiful and exotic flowers, and handed it to her. Without a word, Maisri turned and drank from the magic healing waters of that river. She then stooped to fill the cup again, and handed it to Turone, who drank his share. The place where Turone had placed his lips on the cup to drink was the exactly the same place that Maisri had put hers. They smiled knowing that their lives were now inextricably bound. They did not mind; they had fallen in love at first sight. They stayed all night by that magic stream, and in the morning went to Maisri's mother to tell her that they were married. (As that was all that was required to be married in those times. ) The women was overjoyed for her daughter and gave an immediate blessing to the happy couple. The couple then went to tell Turone's parents the gladful news. While they were in Faerie, Maisri's father returned from the fields where he made his living. When he entered his home, he demanded to know where his daughter was. When his wife told him the she had married a Fae, the father went to a terrible rage. He had long hated the Fae, though he had kept his feelings to himself. Now they exploded, and his temper got worse when he learned that the couple had decided to stay in Faerie for a few days. Despite his wife's objections, he went to his neighbors, with a tale of how his daughter, his only child, had been stolen by a Fae.
So the humans started a war against Faerie. When Maisri heard what was happening, she left her new husband, and went immediately to the battlefield where she found her father. She begged and pleaded with him not to continue this insane venture. Her father was inexorable. He ignore her pleas and her tears, and at last cast her from his war-camp when he learned that she was with child. She cried and argued with him, as he continue to drive her backwards towards Faerie. At last Maisri's father's sanity snapped. He struck his daughter and left her for dead near that same spot of the river where she had met Turone. He fled. Maisri did not lie unconscious for long. Turone, guessing what would happen, had followed his wife into Vembrosia. When he saw her fall he waited only until her father was out of sight. He jumped from the bushes and pressed the cup full of magic water to her lips. She swallowed and opened her eyes. Turone took her home to Faerie.
Maisri's father did not simply stop after his daughter's supposed death, he hunted all of the Fae from the land. Most Returned to Faerie, but some fled to the huge forests on Vembrosia's other border. Aldreas, Maisri's father, became the leader of the War he started. It continued until at last, they Fae, their numbers seriously depleted, closed the border between their land and that of the humans. Those who had fled to the forests could not get home. They began to become inextricably linked with the trees which made their home, until they were no longer Fae, but called themselves Dryads, and guarded their trees jealously. When at last Aldreas could find no more Fae, turned his army his own people. He made them call him "King" and ruled all the people of the land. He decided what was just or unjust, he took things from people until they had nothing, and these people became his servants. Others became Serfs, still others clung to their own land. His friends, he richly rewarded, and they thought that they were better than those who had less money than them. Aldreas created the classes, and in this new system, he took all power away from women, to spite his wife for her hasty blessing of his daughter's wedding. A women could no longer go into public unescorted, nor speak for herself, nor own property, nor decide her own future. She must dress modestly, in a dress, and never show her legs to anyone. If she did not comply with these orders, she was whipped like a child in the town square, to shame her. While the women did not like this, after a few brutal beatings, they did as they were told. What choice had they?
Their were guards created to watch for Fae in the country side. The first few Fae found were executed publicly, the others more privately, until years began to stretch where no one saw any Fae. It was believed they were all dead. Aldreas had a son, who took his throne when his father died. Aldreas II ruled in the same manner as his father. He too feared the Fae, who had "stolen" the sister he had never met. He married and had a son, whom he called Aldreas III. And so it continued, through generations.
This is where our story begins. The humans lived in fear of the Fae for a few years, but as generations went by, they began to forget what had happened. The Fae were forgotten, thought to be stories made up to scare small children. Most people did not believe in them, and those who did were regarded as insane, or at lest extremely gullible.
But the reactions of this lack of belief were more far reaching than anyone could have thought. The more that people stopped believing in the Fae, the tighter the border closed. No one could cross from either side. Or so it was thought. TBC...
"...There are Faeries..." Mage.