Hello everyone! Welcome to the beginning of a new story!
Iron Blood Bride exists in a setting that features heavy use of Old Gaelic fairy mythos, Norse mythology, and High Fantasy logic, so I felt having an index was probably a good idea.
This is here to help you only if you need it! So please continue to the 1st chapter! You can revisit this index if you need help with a term or need to remember a character we haven't seen in a while.
-There are NO spoilers in this index!-
(Please feel free to ask any questions!)
Character List:
Main Character/Narrator: Osmond Jasper Dale
[Love Interest] Unseelie Prince: Fáelán
Osmond’s Family:
“Grandfather” [100+] – Tristram Blackwall.
|||| The most famous feyer to ever live. Was the one who started the Siege of Black Flames.
Father [57] – Gareth Dale.
|||| Commander of the Dale feyer Order. A strict leader, and an ever stricter father.
Mother [51] – Romilly Dale.
|||| A Countess who married into the Dale Family. Has little care or love for feyers, and spends most of her time at her father's estate.
Eldest daughter [28] – Fleur Wolfbane (previously Dale)
|||| Married into the Wolfbane family, rarely home for this reason.
Eldest son [27] – Alfred Dale
|||| Eldest male, firmly believes the order will be his once their father steps down.
2nd Daughter [would be 24] – Edith Dale
|||| Never became a feyer, died in the Joining ceremony when she was 15.
2nd Son [23] – Osmond Dale.
|||| Due to poor health was never allowed to be a feyer. Has never left the Dale Castle.
3rd Son [20] – Edward Dale. (Goes by Ward).
|||| Troublemaker with a heart of gold, everyone’s favorite person. The most emotive of Osmond's siblings.
4th Son [18] – Herry Dale.
|||| Quiet type. More book smart than street smart.
3rd Daughter [15] – Molle Dale.
|||| Family baby. Just completed her first mission as a feyer when the book starts.
Seelie Royal Fey:
Seelie Queen – Morgan
1st Seelie Prince – Áedán
|||| The Prince who died in Merica's invasion.
1st Seelie Princess – Eithne
|||| Eldest of the triplets born after the peace deal. Originally a human princess from the Kingdom of Yane
2nd Seelie Princess – Boudicca
|||| Middle of the triplets born after the peace deal. Originally the daughter of the prime minister from the Republic of Lu.
3rd Seelie Princess – Gwladus
|||| Youngest triplet born after the peace deal. Originally a human princess from the kingdom of Woedan.
Unseelie Royal Fey:
Unseelie King – Alberich
Unseelie Prince – Fáelán
Unseelie Princess – Muirenn
Other Unseelies:
Brynhildr – Prince Fáelán's Second in Command. A former Valkyrie.
Íte – Wild Hunt's Healer.
Elric – Fáelán's Advisor
Ruben – Fáelán's Stead
Other characters of note:
Tomfery – A half giant warrior who used to work with Tristram Blackwall.
Barnaby – A young templar squire.
Donven Boyle – A 20 year old feyer and a friend of Ward’s.
Asgardians:
Odin – The All-father, ruler of the gods, and the master of ravens.
Frigg – Goddess of Love. Wife of Odin.
Freyja – Goddess of magic. A fey turned goddess. Younger twin sister of Freyr. Leader of the Valkyries. The one who gave humans Seidr magic.
Freyr – God of pleasure. A fey turned god. Older twin brother of Freyja.
Njörðr – God of the sea. A fey turned god. Father of Freyja and Freyr.
Loki – The Trickster God. Father of Hel, Jörmungandr, and Fenrir. Adopted son of Odin.
Thor – The God of thunder. Child of Odin, brother of Loki.
Tyr – The God of War. But rarely does Tyr raise his spear. Advocates for peace when possible.
Heimdallr – The God of the Bifrost. Keeps enteral watch for the coming of Ragnarök. For once Heimdallr blows his horn Gjallarhorn, Ragnarök truly begins. Is the one prophesied to kill Loki.
Other Mythological creatures of note:
Norns – Weavers of fate. Three sisters who dwell in the roots of Yggdrasil and weave the pre-destined future of the world.
Hel – Goddess of the dead. Child of Loki. Has many forms, but often appears as a spider-like woman with a black veil. No one truly knows why she wages war against the living with her Helborne, but one thing is certain, the war isn’t ending unless the goddess of death breaths her last.
Jörmungandr – Commonly referred to as the World Serpent. Child of Loki. A giant snake that circles around Midgard and keeps it separated from the other realms.
Fenrir – A giant black wolf. Child of Loki. Is supposed to be chained in the deepest parts of Helheim.
Yggdrasil – The World Tree. A giant ash tree that supports the universe. All of the realms are connected by its branches. It is the font of all life and the place where all life returns. Should Yggdrasil fall then all of the 9 realms will collapse as well.
Factions:
Feyers: Feyers are mutated humans who have altered their bodies and souls to better fight the Fey, and to some, these fairy hunters are no longer human themselves.
Feyer is the technical term for fairy hunters, though it is rarely used outside of their own orders, most humans call them “Carrion Crows” (an unflattering term that means “omen of death that feasts upon rotting flesh”) and fairies refer to feyers as “Iron-Bloods” because of the potent and dangerous levels of iron inside of feyer’s blood.
All feyers belong to a feyer order, which are established groups of fairy hunters that train and house new and current feyers. Each Order has its own rules and regulations and closely monitors only the land they are in charge of. Only in the most dire of circumstances do feyer orders work together. Despite having established orders, most fairy hunters operate like mercenaries, traveling out into the world trading coin for the heads of dead fey.
Fairy Courts: The closest human parallel would be a country, as fairy courts have a monarch, nobles, and commoners, with their own unique governance and claimed land. There are only two known Fairy Courts, the Seelie and the Unseelie.
The Seelie Court: Faires of Spring and Summer, with power over Fire and Wind. Are from Alfheim.
All Fey are prone to great emotions, but the Seelie Fey are particularly notable for how quickly their emotions change, ever fleeting and shifting. Seelie Fey while not common are more well known and seen among the human lands, they are more likely to engage in trade and make deals. A few notable Seelie Fey types would be: harpies, pixies, and unicorns.
The Unseelie Court: Fairies of Autumn and Winter, with power over Water and Earth. Are from Svartalfheim.
Unseelie Fey are more rigid than their Seelie cousins, emotions more slow and lasting. It is commonly said, “To anger a Seelie Fey is to be met with a sudden roar of fire, but to anger an Unseelie fey is to be slow boiled in ice.” Humans tend to fear the Unseelie more than the Seelie, in part due to how rarely Archfey from the Unseelie Court wander beyond their borders, leaving curious rumors and speculative guesswork to fill in the gaps of information. A few notable Unseelie fey would be: sirens, gargoyles, and treants.
Fey/Fairies/Fair Folk: All words used to describe Faires.
None of the terms for fey are offensive (at least the fey don’t view the terms as offensive no matter the human intent), though humans tend to use “Fair Folk” when trying to be polite. Most fairies refer to themselves exclusively with either “Seelie” or “Unseelie”, though when conversing with humans will use terms such as fey and faires. Identifying a fey can be quite the challenge however, as most fey appear more monster than they do human-like, and the exact qualification for what is a fey can be a slippery slope. A common way to identify a fey is by the human proverb, “As long as it is not Asgardian, Helborne, or Human; it is fey.”
Helborne: Souls twisted and deformed by foul dark magics, Helbornes seek to corrupt and pollute the land of the living at the orders of their mistress, Hel, goddess of the dead. Helborne are the living mutated dead, bodies who never found proper burial, or trapped souls that never entered the gates of Valhalla.
Asgardians: Those from the divine plane of Asgard, the realm where the gods reside, a beautiful place of power and wonder. Asgardian is a term used when referring to the whole pantheon of divine gods (excluding Hel).
Witches: Little is know about the practitioners of magic, and they like to keep it that way. Witches despite what rumors say, are not born with magic, it takes skill, practice, and years of study to learn the arcane arts. Though just like power granted by the gods, there is a price for invoking magic that breaks the divine order.
Druids: Sworn enemies of feyers, druids are humans who willingly follow and swear oaths to the fey in exchange for power. The oaths the bind druids are generational, leading to druids being treated as a separate people even though most that still survive no longer continue their practices of fey worship. Druids are easy to spot because the fey magics that bless them also mark them as other, a druid’s eyes will be two colors, with the inner ring being the same shade of green as the Fluxx. Most of the druid enclaves are gone, but a few still remain hidden in the far corners of Midgard, worshiping the fey in place of the real gods.
Templars: Just like how the feyers were created to fight back against the fey threat, templars were made to fight the never-ending war with the Helborne.
Devote followers of gods, they are practitioners of faith and steel, fighting to defend humanity in the name of their gods. Templars are instilled with minor divine gifts and some templars can even perform acts of minor miracles. Templars follow strict religious teachings that dedicate everything from their diet to their training schedules. Though templars are given basic training for battling fey threats, few templars ever actually intervene in fey altercations; their holy gifts poorly suited to fighting powerful creatures of nature. Unlike feyers however, templars are heralded as heroes and often receive warm welcomes when leaving their bastions. The highest rank of templars are known as Galahads.
Terms:
Wild Hunt – A Wild Hunt is a gathering of noble Archfey led by a fey Royal, assembled for a single purpose, to kill.
Wild Hunts are targeted, methodical in their chaos, with fey riding atop beasts in even rows following the sound of the Echoing Horn. Each Hunt will have one prize game, a human. The hunt will not end until the selected human is killed, only then will the Fey Royal leading the charge blow the Echoing Horn once more and the Wild Hunt will disperse. Debates are still held in human academic circles about whether Wild Hunts are provoked or just a natural fleeting whim the fey occasionally indulge in and their victims are just those unlucky enough to be in the wrong place and time.
Joining – the final step in becoming a feyer. It is a closely guarded secret what happens during a Joining, and most are tailored to the induvial undergoing the trial.
The process of becoming a feyer dulls one's emotions and alters their physical appearance, mutating the eyes into pitch black and causing the blood to become a dark gray color. The blood of a feyer is poisonous to fairies, because of the high amount of iron that’s put into them during the Joining process. The exact method of how new feyers are made is a closely guarded secret, with most feyers themselves not even knowing how or what changed them.
Ragnarök – The prophesied end of the world. It will begin with a winter that does not end, the Fimbulwinter. Gods will kill gods and all realms will fall from Yggdrasil. Creation itself will be unbound, not even the memory of life will remain.
The 3 Acts of Transference – A term used to refer to three symbolic feats, that if completed, will bind you to the fairy you perform them with. The acts are:
1- Partake of fey food
2- Accept a gift
3- Give thanks
True Names – A name that represents all that you are, and by giving your name to a fey, you give them power over you.
A True Name, can only be given by the owner of said name. Despite the human misconception that True Names are the ones you are born with, to Fey, True Names are the names you most identify with, for it is the connection and emotion behind the name that gives them power. As long as you believe it to be your name, it will have power.
That is why many children are born with middle names, secret names that they are told to never tell anyone but to remember. So even if they give their birth name to a disguised fey, the magic will not hold as they will not be giving “all” of their name.
Bláth-Croí – Literally translated into the mortal tongue as "Flower Heart".
Each Fey will have a plant that is intertwined with them. No two fairies can have the same plant, and these plants obey only the will of their matched fey. All Bláth-Croí's are plants that bloom or grow during the same season as the fairy they are paired with.
Wilder – A fey who has yet to undergo their metamorphosis and claim their Bláth-Croí.
Metamorphosis – The act of a wilder becoming a full fey. Each fey’s path to metamorphosis is personal, and often takes many seasons. Your body and mind fully aligning with your Bláth-Croí, until you become one of the World Tree’s many children. Your blood filled with the sap of her life and your skin hardened as her bark. You will gain your Bláth-Croí and take your true form.
The Fluxx – A realm between realms, it is where the true World Tree grows and where all magic comes from. Only the fey are allowed in this in between realm.
The 9 Realms:
Asgard: Realm of the Gods.
Jotunheim: Realm of the Giants.
Muspelheim: Realm of fire. Connected to Alfheim.
Niflheim: Realm of ice. Connected to Svartalfheim.
Alfheim: Realm of the Seelie Fey. Rotates around Midgard, when on top of Midgard, influences Midgard to have Spring and Summer.
Midgard: Realm of the Humans. Sandwiched between Alfheim and Svartalfheim. Connected to Asgard by the Bifrost.
Svartalfheim: Realm of the Unseelie Fey. Rotates around Midgard, when on top of Midgard, influences Midgard to have Autumn and Winter.
Nidavellir: Realm of the Dwarves.
Helheim: Realm of the dead and Helborne.
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