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| Species | Bean Sith |
| Order | Faerie |
| Classification | Vaettir |
| Court | Unkindly |
| Sphere | Cacophony |
| Origin | All faeries are born Nameless and must be given a True Name; bean siths have cacophonic Names |
| Lifespan | 2,000+ years |
| Habitat | Wooded areas, plains, bogs |
| Food | Emotional resonance |
| Description | Bean siths appear to be women with slightly alien features, with something just off about them. They range from 1' tall to 8' tall. Their hair is worn long and their eyes are usually reddened from weeping. Their hair is usually either red, black, or grey. Their complexion is often pale and seemingly sickly if they are not glamoured. |
| Procreation | All bean siths are considered women. Those who are fertile procreate sexually with appropriately anatomied people of other fey nations or mortal nations. |
| Esoterica | Bean siths are beings of cacophony, uafas, and poioumenon. Like all faeries, they are users of The Tradition, a form of poioumenonic lore empowered by dream energies (in their case, uafas). They also use infernum, arnum, entropy, rending, some aetherial energies, Damaskian powers, mystery, the gates, kor, mana, ethereal energy, other forms of msawhat, and some emotional resonanaces. |
| The Tradition | Bean siths have these basic faerie powers:
Bean siths wail. Their voices have different properties: a high-pitched wail that can shatter glass, a grating wail that sounds like wood slapping together and causes intense irritation, an owl-wail that foretells the death of a listener, and the royal song that declares a true royal and means the bean sith's death. They can sing sweetly if they need to, to convince others they are kind. Finally, they keen to lament at funerals. Each wail produces emotional resonance, which they consume, but they cannot fully absorb it until they stop beneath a tree. Thus, they are often seen crying while flying through the moonlight after a hunt. When they are full, they place a veil over their faces, find a tree, and crouch beneath it to fully absorb it. They can sense the forthcoming deaths of people in families they have slept upon the roof of the homes of, even if those people are far away. When they person dies, they wail to tell the family and absorb their grief. Every bean sith has a silver comb, which, if a mortal touches it, binds the mortal to them for a year and a day. If the mortal survives this, the bean sith becomes bonded to their family for generations. Bean siths can fly if their hair hangs down to their lower back. A bean sith's tears can dissolve bonds. |
| Glamour | Bean siths can glamour themselves using certain ancient rhymes. Their glamours are usually limited to varying forms of feminine variations on their true form, often to hide the redness of their eyes. The biggest exception is if a mortal woman dies unmarried, is murdered, or dies in childbirth, and a bean sith is bound to her family, the bean sith can take her form. |
| Weaknesses | If they do not speak their True Name backwards into that same mirror in half a minute, bean siths lose their True Names. If they do not recover it in a fortnight, they become hags, become targets of the Wild Hunt, or are corrupted by other powers into a fey of a different Court. Iron or steel will bind a bean sith into powerlessness. An iron horseshoe nailed over a door will bar a faerie from entering a house. Most bean siths detest tobacco smoke, and it can be used to stave them off. This is just a preference, however, and not a weakness. Wearing white will prevent them from glamouring. Euphonia can harm them. |
| National Culture | The original culture of the bean sith was a brutal slave-trading nation. Bean siths would fly out into mortal territory, find mortal homes to sleep upon so that they could learn about them, then manipulate them to feed off their emotions. After weeks of tormenting them, they fly off back to their mounds, called side (sid singular), where they lived. Eventually, they began taking mortals back as slaves to serve them and a trading empire began. Some bean siths, however, formed bonds with the families they targeted, becoming supporters of them instead of tormentors, protecting them from danger and bringing them sad news. These families were from specific wealthy families among the mortal nations, blood purists who took the bean siths are a point of pride. This began a tradition of some families having their own bean siths, which they support and empower. These were called banshees, pronounced the same but misspelled by mortals. When a powerful member of these families or their nations died, many bean siths would gather to feed off the collective suffering that followed. The slave-trading nation was led by a council of elder women (seanbhean) and Aibell, the Bean Sith Manifest, who continued being Queen after the original nation developed into a feudal state. The council is chosen by the Manifest, and those on the council (25 bean siths) engage in political intrigue for greater power within the council. Separately, every tribe of bean siths has a tribal war-leader who has her own council. These answer to the Manifest and council and control their own tribes. Children are raised by slaves. Bean siths procreate only with members of other nations/species, and all are considered women unless they say otherwise. If they show any sign of being any gender but female, they are killed. At the age of 25, bean siths are considered adults and sent on their first solo hunting trip, seeking a mortal to torment or enslave. If they fail but survive, they are killed. If they succeed, they are welcomed into the tribe and allowed rank and status. Bean siths wear certain clothing on certain occasions. When eating, they wear shrouds and veils. When hunting, they wear grey cloaks over green dresses. When being punished, they wear white, which prevents glamouring. Some bean siths become professional wailers, using their voices only to devastate, destroy, and torment. These women are called bean chaointe. They are revered among the bean sith and considered their most elite mystics. |
| Unkindly Culture | Eventually, the slave-trading nation of the bean sith began to absorb other nations, and in the process of war and economic hardship, collapsed. Out of the ashes came an alliance of nations that included the bean sith, redcaps, trasgus, and maeros, as well as a handful of rogue tribes and clans from other fey nations. They were forged into a queendom by Queen Aibell and her seanbhean. The seanbhean became a council of advisers to the Queen, and the leaders of the other nations became feudal lords, controlling the lands of the Unkindly Court. The culture of the Court is motley, mixing all four of the main nations' cultures and adding features of feudal economy. Slave-trading remained part of the economy to a lesser extent, but not the main focus. Instead, bean siths became a mystic/warrior class that extorted tribute out of the peasant class, made up mostly of fey of other nations. Old rivalries run deep in the Unkindly Court, and members of the Kindly Court are usually killed on sight. |
| Other Courts | Bean siths are usually welcomed in the Unseelie and Winter Courts--feared in some parts--and usually taken in as members of the ruling classes. In the Kindly and Summer Courts, they are required to be reformed or transformed. In the Seelie Court, it varies greatly; they are welcomed if they are considered useful and worthy. |
| Mortal Interactions | Bean siths are known for keening, wailing, or shrieking near to mortals' homes, being harbingers of a death in the family. They do this to feed off the sorrow, fear, and pain of the families. Some bean siths become attached to a single, powerful family of mortals, feeding off it for generations. Others enslave or kill mortals. |
| Notables | Aibell, Queen of the Unkindly Court, Bean Sith Manifest |
| Special Classes | Banshee, Bean Chaointe, Seanbhean, Harbinger, Togalai Dumha (mound builder), Slave Catcher |
| Sample Stats | PRO 9 ATH 9 Flight 9 STR 8 AWA 10 WIL 9 ROG 9 Voice 14 Glamour 7 Vanish (30 seconds) Death Sense (AWA+9) Tears 11 |
GrandGuignol
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