The Faen realm is a world created by the Shapers and inhabited by the Fae.[1]
Description[]
The Fae can be occasionally accessed from the human world, especially when there is no moon.[2] There is no day/night cycle. Instead, one direction, 'Day', advances the time of day and the opposite, 'Night', decreases it. The names of the other directions vary.[3] The moon moves between the Fae world and the human world.[4]
Inhabitants[]
These creatures are commonly referred to as 'Fae', 'the folk'[5] or 'faeries', though they consider the latter pejorative. The touch of iron is painful to the Fae.[6] Certain Fae beings have titles, suggesting they have some form of nobility.[7][8] Bast implies that what common folk believe to be demons are simply Fae.[9] There appear to be several different species of Fae being. Known examples include:
- Felurian, human in appearance bar her eyes, which have no visible sclera and are covered by eyelids pattered like butterflies' wings[10]
- Bast, a satyr with no visible sclera[11]
- Scrael, large black spider-like creatures with no eyes or mouths and razor-sharp feet[12][13]
- The Cthaeh, a creature of unknown appearance[14]
- Skin dancers, dark shadows or smoke[15]
The Folding House[]
In Hespe's story in the Eld, Jax unfolds a house for the moon. He ends up creating a home with multiple entrances, doors, and windows. It has a different sky inside with a different set of stars, and no moon. The house has rooms where it's nighttime, but in the same moment, another room can be daytime. One room may be spring, but in another it could be winter.
The Folding House that Jax builds is very similar to The Fae and, at the end of the story, Jax manages to trap part of the moon's name, making it travel between the mortal sky and the folding house, which is similar to how Iax made the moon travel between the mortal and Fae realm.
Because of these similarities, it is believed that the folding house could be an allegory for the Fae Realm. Therefore, it is speculated that the Folding House and The Fae are one and the same, only described in different ways. Hespe's story appears to be a myth that evolved around the truth of the Creation War, modified through the years.
- ↑
The Wise Man's Fear, Chapter 102: "The Ever-Moving Moon"
- "they were shapers. [... they made] the faen realm."
- ―Felurian
- ↑
The Wise Man's Fear, Chapter 102: "The Ever-Moving Moon"
- "on [a night with no moon], each step you take might catch you in the dark moon’s wake, and pull you all unwitting into fae"
- ―Felurian
- ↑
The Wise Man's Fear, Chapter 102: "The Ever-Moving Moon"
- "If you keep walking in one direction long enough, you will eventually see a whole “day” pass and end up in the same place you began. [...] Felurian described those two points of the Fae compass as Day and Night. The other two points she referred to at different times as Dark and Light, Summer and Winter, or Forward and Backward."
- ―Kote
- ↑
The Wise Man's Fear, Chapter 102: "The Ever-Moving Moon"
- "[the moon's] tethered tight to both the fae and mortal night. thus moves the moon"
- ―Felurian
- ↑
The Name of the Wind, Chapter 13: "Interlude ― Flesh with Blood Beneath"
- "The first of the folk he has ever had the luck to see."
- ―Kote
- ↑
The Name of the Wind, Chapter 92: "The Music that Plays"
- "[Bast] grabbed the circle of dark metal [...] Immediately Bast’s arm stiffened and his eyes clenched shut in a grimace of pain."
- ―Narrator
- ↑
The Name of the Wind, Chapter 13: "Interlude ― Flesh with Blood Beneath"
- "Bastas, son of Remmen, Prince of Twilight and the Telwyth Mael."
- ―Kote
- ↑
The Wise Man's Fear, Chapter 81: "The Jealous Moon"
- "Felurian. Lady of Twilight. Lady of the First Quiet."
- ―Kvothe
- ↑
The Name of the Wind, Chapter 92: "The Music that Plays"
- "You know there are no such things as demons. There is only my kind."
- ―Bast
- ↑
The Wise Man's Fear, Chapter 96: "The Fire Itself"
- "Her closed eyelids were patterned like a butterfly’s wings, swept in whorls of deep purple and black with traceries of pale gold that blended to the color of her skin. [...] There wasn’t any white to [her eyes] at all."
- ―Kote
- ↑
The Name of the Wind, Chapter 13: "Interlude ― Flesh with Blood Beneath"
- "[Bast's eyes] showed themselves to be all one color [...] and his soft leather boots had been replaced with graceful cloven hooves."
- ―Narrator
- ↑
The Name of the Wind, Chapter 1: "A Place for Demons"
- "[The Scraeling] was a spider[-like creature] as large as a wagon wheel, black as slate. [... with a] black, featureless body"
- ―Narrator
- ↑
The Name of the Wind, Chapter 1: "A Place for Demons"
- "[The Scraeling's] feet are sharp like knives."
- ―Carter
- ↑
The Wise Man's Fear, Chapter 104: "The Cthaeh"
- "I echoed, trying [and failing] to catch a glimpse of whatever was speaking to me from among the branches of the tree."
- ―Kote
- ↑
The Wise Man's Fear, Chapter 2: "Holly"
- "They’re supposed to look like a dark shadow or smoke when they leave the body, aren’t they?"
- ―Kote