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{{Infobox Species
{{Infobox Species
|image      = Fairy.jpg
|image      = Fairy.jpg
|aka        = {{il|The Fae|The Fair Folk|''Homo fata vulgaris''}}
|aka        = {{il|The Fae|The Fair Folk|Sidhe|[[Elf]]|''Homo fata vulgaris''}}
|type        = Supernatural [[humanoid]], [[Mara]]
|type        = [[Humanoid]]s
|affiliation = [[Chosen One]]s, The [[Mara]]
|origin      = {{il|[[Earth]], [[Sidhe realm]]/[[The Invisible]]/[[Lost Lands]]}}
|origin      = [[Earth]]
|individuals = [[Titania]], [[Oberon]], [[Galastel]], [[Jasmine Pierce]], [[The Lost (The Shining Man)|the Lost]]
|individuals = [[Jasmine Pierce]], [[The Lost (The Shining Man)|The Lost]]
|first mention = First Frontier (novel)
|first      = Small Worlds (TV story)
|first      = Future Generations (TV story)
|appearances = [[PROSE]]: ''[[The Shining Man (novel)|The Shining Man]]''
|appearances = {{il|[[PROSE]]: ''[[Unnatural History (novel)|Unnatural History]]''|[[PROSE]]: ''[[Autumn Mist (novel)|Autumn Mist]]''|[[TV]]: ''[[Small Worlds (TV story)|Small Worlds]]''|[[PROSE]]: ''[[The Shining Man (novel)|The Shining Man]]''}}
|clip        = The chosen one - Torchwood - BBC
|clip        = The chosen one - Torchwood - BBC
}}
}}{{Goblin nav}}The '''Fair Folk''' or '''Fae''', also known as the '''Sidhe''', and most commonly called '''fairies''' (though [[Jack Harkness]] thought the name was improper), were [[magic]]al, [[humanoid]] entities who existed alongside [[human]]ity on [[Earth]] on some level of reality that overlapped with the mortal realm. They were sometimes equated with '''[[Elf|elves]]'''. Though a fixture of legends and imaginary stories, as evidenced by the term "[[fairy tale]]s", many accounts agreed that these beings actually existed in [[the Doctor's universe]]. The [[Twelfth Doctor]] once claimed that they had a [[binomial nomenclature|scientific name]], '''''Homo fata vulgaris'''''.
'''Fairies''', as the [[human]] race called them, were dangerous [[humanoid]] entities native to the [[Earth]]. Fairies were not [[alien]] life-forms, but had lived alongside humanity since the dawn of time. Their exact nature was unclear, although [[Jack Harkness]] described them as part myth, part spirit world and part reality jumbled together, mixed with "old moments and memories". He speculated that they might be "part [[Mara]]". Though incredibly dangerous and capable of wiping out humanity, they were not a direct threat unless they or their so-called "Chosen Ones" were explicitly harmed or threatened. There was no way to trap, contain or fight them as they controlled the elements of Fire, Earth, Air and Water. ([[TV]]: ''[[Small Worlds (TV story)|Small Worlds]]'')
 
The Doctor also connected them to myths of [[boggart]]s and [[goblin]]s. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|The Shining Man (novel)}})
 
== Nature ==
The [[Twelfth Doctor]] described the Fair Folk as originating in a realm known as [[the Invisible]] which existed parallel to "the Visible" that mortals ordinarily perceived. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Shining Man (novel)|The Shining Man]]'') According to the [[Eighth Doctor]], the Sidhe's "[[magic]]" was primarily rooted in the fact that they could perceive and act through "all eleven [[dimension]]s" instead of humanity's four. Thus, their [[Sidhe realm|realm]] overlapped with the mortal realm humans inhabited, and they could manifest therein at will, but they would usually be imperceptible to humans due to being "out of phase" with them. Their three-dimensional forms were therefore highly malleable and changeable; a single fairy might appear alternatively as a small figure with clearly inhuman features, as almost human except for pointed ears, or as more monstrous or ethereal forms such as patterns of lights or moving, solid shadows. This was analogus to the different ways a three-dimensional object might look from a two-dimensional perspective. ([[PROSE]]: {{cite source|Autumn Mist (novel)}}) One account showed fairies manifesting both in a small, glowing humanoid form with butterfly-like wings, and in a human-sized, green-skinned, more starkly inhuman and threatening form which still retained wings. ([[TV]]: ''[[Small Worlds (TV story)|Small Worlds]]'') Even when manifesting in forms with slim and fragile-looking builds, fairies were not only agile, but immensely strong and capable of overpowering fully-grown men with ease. ([[TV]]: ''[[Small Worlds (TV story)|Small Worlds]]'', [[PROSE]]: ''[[Autumn Mist (novel)|Autumn Mist]]'')
 
Also as a result of their dimensional out-of-phaseness, ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Autumn Mist (novel)|Autumn Mist]]'') they could [[time travel|travel through time]] without need of a time machine, living non-linear lives; ([[PROSE]]: {{cite source|Autumn Mist (novel)}}, [[TV]]: ''[[Small Worlds (TV story)|Small Worlds]]'') a picture of [[Jasmine Pierce]], who became a fairy in the [[21st century]], was seen in her fairy form in [[1917]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[Small Worlds (TV story)|Small Worlds]]'')
 
Fairies "controlled the elements of Fire, Earth, Air and Water", making them highly dangerous opponents for mere humans. They could produce localised, powerful storms and gales. Not bound by normal physical laws, they could choose whether a camera could take their pictures. They made themselves invisible to closed circuit television cameras on one occasion. On another, they let their photographs be taken. They could kill their victims by "stealing their breath", asphyxiating them by clogging their throats with [[rose]] petals, drowning them via rainstorms or using gales to draw all oxygen away from the victim. ([[TV]]: ''[[Small Worlds (TV story)|Small Worlds]]'')
 
However, they had a great weakness to [[metal]], particularly [[iron]], as they interfered with their natural [[electromagnetism]]; a fairy trapped in an iron cage would be trapped, and prolonged contact with metal would kill them. ([[PROSE]]: {{cite source|Autumn Mist (novel)}})


According to the [[Twelfth Doctor]], Fairies were also called "the Fae", "the Fair Folk" and "Homo fata vulgaris". They came from [[the Invisible]], a realm that ran alongside Earth. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Shining Man (novel)|The Shining Man]]'')
Fairies could turn [[human]]s into more of their own, granting them [[immortality]] in the process and the ability to perceive the higher dimensions. ([[PROSE]]: {{cite source|Autumn Mist (novel)}}, [[TV]]: ''[[Small Worlds (TV story)|Small Worlds]]'') One account even suggested that all fairies had once been human children, taken out of time; the "[[Chosen One]]s". ([[TV]]: ''[[Small Worlds (TV story)|Small Worlds]]'')


== Biology ==
== Culture ==
Fairies had a wide variety of advanced, seemingly magical abilities. They had control over the elements and could produce localised, deadly storms and gales. Not bound by normal physical laws, they could choose whether a camera could take their pictures. They made themselves invisible to closed circuit television cameras on one occasion. On another, they let their photographs be taken. They could [[time travel|travel through time]] and had an apparently non-linear relationship to it; a picture of [[Jasmine Pierce]], who became a Fairy in the [[21st century]], was seen in her fairy form in [[1917]]. They could kill their victims by "stealing their breath", asphyxiating them by clogging their throats with rose petals, drowning them via rainstorms or using gales to draw all oxygen away from the victim. One was also somehow able to get into and out of a fully sealed police cell without disturbing anything.
The Sidhe were organised in [[clan]]s, such as the Leannain Sidhe, who kept their bloodlines separate, but all answered to the authority of the Fairy [[Queen]], [[Titania]]. She was eternal, and there was only ever one Fairy Queen, but she could have multiple "aspects"; if one was destroyed or was deemed unfit to fulfill her duties, she would be replaced. Her consort was the ''[[Amadan na Briona]]''. The fairies' culture and spirituality paid homage to the duality of [[chaos]] and [[order]], and, just as the Queen embodied Order, the ''Amadan'' embodied Chaos; they could not interfere in one another's affairs. The marriage was usually a purely political one, though at least one aspect of [[Oberon]], the ''Amadan'', was genuinely possessive of Titania and resented her countless affairs with mortals and other Sidhe. ([[PROSE]]: {{cite source|Autumn Mist (novel)}})


Fairies could be seen in two forms: a small, glowing [[humanoid]] form with butterfly-like wings; and a human-sized, more monstrous form. Both forms had wings and could fly with ease. At least in the larger form, Jack Harkness described them as only visible from the corner of one's eyes. ([[TV]]: ''[[Small Worlds]]'')
The Sidhe did not generally interfere with human affairs on a wide scale, ([[PROSE]]: {{cite source|Autumn Mist (novel)}}, [[TV]]: ''[[Small Worlds (TV story)|Small Worlds]]'') owing to an ancient pact between the Sidhe and early humans; though they still honoured the terms of this pact, by the [[20th century]] the Sidhe were aware that humanity had largely forgotten the old agreements, and did not generally exact punishment when mortals broke its terms out of ignorance. ([[PROSE]]: {{cite source|Autumn Mist (novel)}})
 
According to the account which depicted young [[Chosen One]]s as the apparent sole origin for new fairies, they were fiercely protective of these Chosen Ones, and would begin to interfere if humans tried to prevent the Chosen Ones from being taken. ([[TV]]: ''[[Small Worlds (TV story)|Small Worlds]]'')
 
The Sidhe were aware of [[the Doctor]], whom they called [[the Evergreen Man]]. Though they abided by the [[Laws of Time]], Titania claimed that the Evergreen Man was the only "[[Time Lord|Lord of Time]]" whose Lordship over time she actually acknowledged. ([[PROSE]]: {{cite source|Autumn Mist (novel)}})


== History ==
== History ==
Jack Harkness told [[Gwen Cooper]] that Fairies came from the Dawn of Time. Humans, over time, made Fairies into something harmless and beautiful, but those who had encountered them, like Jack, never doubted their powers. ([[TV]]: ''[[Small Worlds (TV story)|Small Worlds]]'')
=== Origins ===
[[Jack Harkness]] claimed that fairies came "from the [[dawn of time]]" and that it was impossible for humans to fully comprehend their nature, floridly describing them as "something out of the corner of your eye with a touch of myth, a touch of the spirit world, a touch of reality, all jumbled together". ([[TV]]: ''[[Small Worlds (TV story)|Small Worlds]]'') The [[Eighth Doctor]] speculated that the Sidhe were "[[psychomaterial construct]]s from a parallel evolutionary path" relative to [[human]]ity, ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Autumn Mist (novel)|Autumn Mist]]'') and indeed, the [[Twelfth Doctor]] gave their scientific designation as ''Homo fata vulgaris''. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Shining Man (novel)|The Shining Man]]'') Jack once mused that he wondered if the fairies were "part [[Mara]]", whom he described to [[Toshiko Sato]] as a "kind of malignant wraith" whose name was the origin of the word [[nightmare]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[Small Worlds (TV story)|Small Worlds]]'')


=== Throughout human history ===
When the Earth was young, the veil between the Invisible and the Visible was thinner, allowing fairies to cross the divide and wreak havoc in the human dimension. They frequently attacked [[Huckensall]] village. The people in the village protected themselves by building the doors in the village from the wood of a [[rowan tree]]. In [[1654]], a Fairy Finder came to the village and rounded up the Fae, burying them deep in the ground. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Shining Man (novel)|The Shining Man]]'')
When the Earth was young, the veil between the Invisible and the Visible was thinner, allowing fairies to cross the divide and wreak havoc in the human dimension. They frequently attacked [[Huckensall]] village. The people in the village protected themselves by building the doors in the village from the wood of a [[rowan tree]]. In [[1654]], a Fairy Finder came to the village and rounded up the Fae, burying them deep in the ground. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Shining Man (novel)|The Shining Man]]'')


According to Jack, Fairies were once human children taken from various times stretching millennia into the past. These children were called the [[Chosen One]]s, whom the Fairies protected and avenged if harm came to them. Eventually, the Fairies would claim these children and take them to their "[[Lost Lands]]". Once there, the children would become Fairies themselves. The Fairies required these children to continue their race; despite being immortal (or near-immortal), they apparently could not reproduce on their own. These "Chosen Ones" always seemed slightly odd and would try to spend as much time as possible with the Fairies.
A fairly large group of Fairies lived in [[Roundstone Wood]], outside of [[Cardiff]], and had various standing stone circles arranged in it. Many avoided the woods throughout history, thinking it a cursed place; even the invading [[Roman Empire]] steered clear of the forest and it was considered bad luck to even walk through them or collect wood from the forest. Even into the 21st century the woods remained unharmed and housing developments hugged its very edge but did not move any further in. ([[TV]]: ''[[Small Worlds (TV story)|Small Worlds]]'')


The Fairies were not generally involved with the affairs of other humans, but they violently defended any infringements on their territory and killed anyone they felt had acted against them. In this regard they could be quite sadistic, often toying with their victims before moving in for the kill. When one set its sights on [[Mark Goodson]], a paedophile who had attempted to abduct a Chosen One, it allowed him to think he was safe by letting him be arrested and secured in a prison cell for a few hours, then gained entry to the cell and revealed itself before killing him.
=== 20th century ===
In [[1944]], in the [[Ardennes]], the American [[Colonel]] [[Allen Lewis]] sought to continue experiments with dimensional phasing which he had begun as the [[Philadelphia Experiment]] the year prior. He managed to open a [[rift]] over the [[Schnee Eifel]], which made shifting into the [[Sidhe realm]] easier in the surrounding area, and began experimenting with the possibility of outfitting [[tank]]s that could pass into the faerie lands. He contacted his [[Nazi]] counterpart [[Jurgen Leitz]], also a researcher of the occult, who referred to the Sidhe as "[[Light Elf|Light]] and [[Dark Elf|Dark]] [[Elf|Elves]]", and they worked together in secret even as their forces clashed, having agreed that the real War would be between the West and the [[Soviet Union]], and they needed to start preparing for it now, whatever the outcome of [[World War II]].


They could also distinguish between those who harmed the Chosen child and who didn't. When Jack was on a train with a group of soldiers who had run over a Chosen One, the fairies attacked the men, but left Jack unharmed in a car full of dead bodies. The Fairies also ceased their possibly fatal assault on two bullies who tormented Jasmine when [[Kate (Small Worlds)|Kate]], a teacher who had been kind to her, intervened and saved them. The Fairies also appeared to have limitless powers over the elements. [[Jasmine Pierce]], a Chosen One, told the team, when they tried to stop her being taken, that they would "turn the world to ice". When Jack said that would mean no more Chosen Ones, Jasmine said the Fairies would simply keep to the past. ([[TV]]: ''[[Small Worlds (TV story)|Small Worlds]]'')
Because of the rift, the violence of World War II began leaking into the Sidhe realm, with every bombing and shelling causing the realm's beauty to decay on every layer of perception the fae could perceive. [[Queen]] [[Titania]] decided to decree that so long as the realms bled into one another, human lands overlapping with the present location of her court would count as part of her domain; as a result, she claimed all who died on the battlefields as chosen, and intercepted their [[soul]]s as they died, before healing them and [[Regeneration|regenerating]] them into Sidhe themselves. Rumours of the mysterious beings who snatched the bodies of the only-just-dead, appearing out of a mysterious mist, began to spread around the men, with the Polish-born [[Wiesniewski]] interpreting them as [[Leshy]] (woodland elementals of Polish legend) and the [[Hopi]]-descended [[Daniel Bearclaw]] referring to them as [[Kashina]]s, or "cloud people". Meanwhile, her chaotic consort [[Oberon]] decided to help Colonel Ellis, not in service to any wider ambition but simply to spread mischief and, secretly, to see how far he could push his rule-breaking before someone would stop him.
 
After the [[Eighth Doctor]]'s [[The Doctor's TARDIS|TARDIS]] materialised not far from the rift, he and his [[companion]]s [[Sam Jones]] and [[Fitz Kreiner]] quicky became separated. While the Doctor made it to an American base and began investigating, spurred on by a cryptic encounter with Titania (who could not openly interfere, but hoped he would oppose Oberon's schemes), Fitz unwillingly found himself undercover at the Nazi encampment, where he discovered Leitz's experiments and freed his [[Prisoner (Autumn Mist)|Sidhe prisoner]]. Sam, meanwhile, was found by another American squad and was on her way to join the Doctor when their entire column was halted and then slaughtered in cold blood by Nazis. After dying, Sam was rescued by the Fae and regenerated into a fairy herself, being welcomed into the Sidhe realm by [[Galastel]]. Eventually, the Doctor was reunited with his companions and they were able to close the Rift, also destroying Oberon's current aspect in the process — though the Doctor was confident Titania would find herself a new ''Amadan'' almost instantly. Sam ended up requesting to be returned to her basic human state, losing her perception of the higher dimensions. ([[PROSE]]: {{cite source|Autumn Mist (novel)}})
 
The [[Seventh Doctor]] claimed in [[1957]] that many so-called [[UFO]] sightings in the 20th century were actually down to the Sidhe. ([[PROSE]]: {{cite source|First Frontier (novel)}})
 
=== 21st century ===
In [[2002]], [[Griffin (Unnatural History)|Griffin]] spotted a Sidhe in [[San Francisco]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Unnatural History (novel)|Unnatural History]]'')
 
In the mid-to-late [[2000s]], [[Torchwood Three]] investigated events surrounding a girl called [[Jasmine Pierce]], whom the fairies had selected as a [[Chosen One]]. They brutally killed [[Mark Goodson]], a paedophile who had attempted to abduct Jasmine, and also exacted supernatural retribution on bullies who'd made fun of her. Torchwood attempted to stop the fairies from taking Jasmine, but they refused, threatening to freeze the entire [[Earth]] (which they said would be of little concern to them, as they could simply confine themselves to other eras of time). [[Jack Harkness]], who had encountered the fae before and knew of their power, relented, and Jasmine herself thanked him as she went to join the fairies in the [[Lost Lands]]. Torchwood would go on to realise that an older Jasmine she was one of the fairies depicted in the [[Cottingley fairy photos]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[Small Worlds (TV story)|Small Worlds]]'')


In [[2017]], the Shining Man craze on the internet led to a general sense of fear among the public, and the barriers between the Invisible and the Visible began to weaken, allowing fairies to interact with humans again. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Shining Man (novel)|The Shining Man]]'')
In [[2017]], the Shining Man craze on the internet led to a general sense of fear among the public, and the barriers between the Invisible and the Visible began to weaken, allowing fairies to interact with humans again. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Shining Man (novel)|The Shining Man]]'')


The [[Eighth Doctor]] encountered a species called the [[Sidhe (Autumn Mist)|Sidhe]], which was also immortal and able to move through time, and also said to be responsible for the Earth legends of fairies. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Autumn Mist (novel)|Autumn Mist]]'')
=== Undated events ===
The Doctor encountered fairies alongside [[Madame Vastra]] during his [[Ninth Doctor|ninth]] (or earlier) incarnation. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[The Lost Dimension (comic story)|The Lost Dimension]]'')


The Doctor encountered fairies alongside [[Madame Vastra]] during his [[Ninth Doctor|ninth]] (or earlier) incarnation. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[The Lost Dimension (comic story)|The Lost Dimension]]'')
=== Cultural legacy ===
[[Titania]] appeared in [[William Shakespeare]]'s play ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]''. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Slow Decay (novel)|Slow Decay]]'')


== Behind the scenes ==
=== In non-valid sources ===
[[File:Mavis Cruet 2.jpg|left|thumb|[[Mavis Cruet]], a fairy. ([[TV]]: ''[[Future Generations (TV story)|Future Generations]]'')]]
[[Mavis Cruet]], a fairy, once [[Flight|flew]] through [[Festive Road]], before being [[Chasing|chased]] by [[Gnasher]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[Future Generations (TV story)|Future Generations]]'')
{{NameSort}}
{{NameSort}}
[[Category:Earth sentients]]
 
[[Category:Mythological creatures]]
[[Category:Myths and legends from the real world]]
[[Category:Humanoid species]]
[[Category:Humanoid species]]
[[Category:Mythological creatures]]
[[Category:Sapient Earth species]]
[[Category:Earth myths and legends]]
[[Category:Shapeshifters]]
[[Category:Time-travelling species]]
[[Category:Time-travelling species]]
[[Category:Unique beings]]
[[Category:Biologically modified species]]
[[Category:Biologically modified species]]
[[Category:Shapeshifters]]
[[Category:Species with green skin]]

Latest revision as of 03:00, 30 March 2024

Fairy

The Fair Folk or Fae, also known as the Sidhe, and most commonly called fairies (though Jack Harkness thought the name was improper), were magical, humanoid entities who existed alongside humanity on Earth on some level of reality that overlapped with the mortal realm. They were sometimes equated with elves. Though a fixture of legends and imaginary stories, as evidenced by the term "fairy tales", many accounts agreed that these beings actually existed in the Doctor's universe. The Twelfth Doctor once claimed that they had a scientific name, Homo fata vulgaris.

The Doctor also connected them to myths of boggarts and goblins. (PROSE: The Shining Man [+]Loading...["The Shining Man (novel)"])

Nature[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Twelfth Doctor described the Fair Folk as originating in a realm known as the Invisible which existed parallel to "the Visible" that mortals ordinarily perceived. (PROSE: The Shining Man) According to the Eighth Doctor, the Sidhe's "magic" was primarily rooted in the fact that they could perceive and act through "all eleven dimensions" instead of humanity's four. Thus, their realm overlapped with the mortal realm humans inhabited, and they could manifest therein at will, but they would usually be imperceptible to humans due to being "out of phase" with them. Their three-dimensional forms were therefore highly malleable and changeable; a single fairy might appear alternatively as a small figure with clearly inhuman features, as almost human except for pointed ears, or as more monstrous or ethereal forms such as patterns of lights or moving, solid shadows. This was analogus to the different ways a three-dimensional object might look from a two-dimensional perspective. (PROSE: Autumn Mist [+]Loading...["Autumn Mist (novel)"]) One account showed fairies manifesting both in a small, glowing humanoid form with butterfly-like wings, and in a human-sized, green-skinned, more starkly inhuman and threatening form which still retained wings. (TV: Small Worlds) Even when manifesting in forms with slim and fragile-looking builds, fairies were not only agile, but immensely strong and capable of overpowering fully-grown men with ease. (TV: Small Worlds, PROSE: Autumn Mist)

Also as a result of their dimensional out-of-phaseness, (PROSE: Autumn Mist) they could travel through time without need of a time machine, living non-linear lives; (PROSE: Autumn Mist [+]Loading...["Autumn Mist (novel)"], TV: Small Worlds) a picture of Jasmine Pierce, who became a fairy in the 21st century, was seen in her fairy form in 1917. (TV: Small Worlds)

Fairies "controlled the elements of Fire, Earth, Air and Water", making them highly dangerous opponents for mere humans. They could produce localised, powerful storms and gales. Not bound by normal physical laws, they could choose whether a camera could take their pictures. They made themselves invisible to closed circuit television cameras on one occasion. On another, they let their photographs be taken. They could kill their victims by "stealing their breath", asphyxiating them by clogging their throats with rose petals, drowning them via rainstorms or using gales to draw all oxygen away from the victim. (TV: Small Worlds)

However, they had a great weakness to metal, particularly iron, as they interfered with their natural electromagnetism; a fairy trapped in an iron cage would be trapped, and prolonged contact with metal would kill them. (PROSE: Autumn Mist [+]Loading...["Autumn Mist (novel)"])

Fairies could turn humans into more of their own, granting them immortality in the process and the ability to perceive the higher dimensions. (PROSE: Autumn Mist [+]Loading...["Autumn Mist (novel)"], TV: Small Worlds) One account even suggested that all fairies had once been human children, taken out of time; the "Chosen Ones". (TV: Small Worlds)

Culture[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Sidhe were organised in clans, such as the Leannain Sidhe, who kept their bloodlines separate, but all answered to the authority of the Fairy Queen, Titania. She was eternal, and there was only ever one Fairy Queen, but she could have multiple "aspects"; if one was destroyed or was deemed unfit to fulfill her duties, she would be replaced. Her consort was the Amadan na Briona. The fairies' culture and spirituality paid homage to the duality of chaos and order, and, just as the Queen embodied Order, the Amadan embodied Chaos; they could not interfere in one another's affairs. The marriage was usually a purely political one, though at least one aspect of Oberon, the Amadan, was genuinely possessive of Titania and resented her countless affairs with mortals and other Sidhe. (PROSE: Autumn Mist [+]Loading...["Autumn Mist (novel)"])

The Sidhe did not generally interfere with human affairs on a wide scale, (PROSE: Autumn Mist [+]Loading...["Autumn Mist (novel)"], TV: Small Worlds) owing to an ancient pact between the Sidhe and early humans; though they still honoured the terms of this pact, by the 20th century the Sidhe were aware that humanity had largely forgotten the old agreements, and did not generally exact punishment when mortals broke its terms out of ignorance. (PROSE: Autumn Mist [+]Loading...["Autumn Mist (novel)"])

According to the account which depicted young Chosen Ones as the apparent sole origin for new fairies, they were fiercely protective of these Chosen Ones, and would begin to interfere if humans tried to prevent the Chosen Ones from being taken. (TV: Small Worlds)

The Sidhe were aware of the Doctor, whom they called the Evergreen Man. Though they abided by the Laws of Time, Titania claimed that the Evergreen Man was the only "Lord of Time" whose Lordship over time she actually acknowledged. (PROSE: Autumn Mist [+]Loading...["Autumn Mist (novel)"])

History[[edit] | [edit source]]

Origins[[edit] | [edit source]]

Jack Harkness claimed that fairies came "from the dawn of time" and that it was impossible for humans to fully comprehend their nature, floridly describing them as "something out of the corner of your eye with a touch of myth, a touch of the spirit world, a touch of reality, all jumbled together". (TV: Small Worlds) The Eighth Doctor speculated that the Sidhe were "psychomaterial constructs from a parallel evolutionary path" relative to humanity, (PROSE: Autumn Mist) and indeed, the Twelfth Doctor gave their scientific designation as Homo fata vulgaris. (PROSE: The Shining Man) Jack once mused that he wondered if the fairies were "part Mara", whom he described to Toshiko Sato as a "kind of malignant wraith" whose name was the origin of the word nightmare. (TV: Small Worlds)

Throughout human history[[edit] | [edit source]]

When the Earth was young, the veil between the Invisible and the Visible was thinner, allowing fairies to cross the divide and wreak havoc in the human dimension. They frequently attacked Huckensall village. The people in the village protected themselves by building the doors in the village from the wood of a rowan tree. In 1654, a Fairy Finder came to the village and rounded up the Fae, burying them deep in the ground. (PROSE: The Shining Man)

A fairly large group of Fairies lived in Roundstone Wood, outside of Cardiff, and had various standing stone circles arranged in it. Many avoided the woods throughout history, thinking it a cursed place; even the invading Roman Empire steered clear of the forest and it was considered bad luck to even walk through them or collect wood from the forest. Even into the 21st century the woods remained unharmed and housing developments hugged its very edge but did not move any further in. (TV: Small Worlds)

20th century[[edit] | [edit source]]

In 1944, in the Ardennes, the American Colonel Allen Lewis sought to continue experiments with dimensional phasing which he had begun as the Philadelphia Experiment the year prior. He managed to open a rift over the Schnee Eifel, which made shifting into the Sidhe realm easier in the surrounding area, and began experimenting with the possibility of outfitting tanks that could pass into the faerie lands. He contacted his Nazi counterpart Jurgen Leitz, also a researcher of the occult, who referred to the Sidhe as "Light and Dark Elves", and they worked together in secret even as their forces clashed, having agreed that the real War would be between the West and the Soviet Union, and they needed to start preparing for it now, whatever the outcome of World War II.

Because of the rift, the violence of World War II began leaking into the Sidhe realm, with every bombing and shelling causing the realm's beauty to decay on every layer of perception the fae could perceive. Queen Titania decided to decree that so long as the realms bled into one another, human lands overlapping with the present location of her court would count as part of her domain; as a result, she claimed all who died on the battlefields as chosen, and intercepted their souls as they died, before healing them and regenerating them into Sidhe themselves. Rumours of the mysterious beings who snatched the bodies of the only-just-dead, appearing out of a mysterious mist, began to spread around the men, with the Polish-born Wiesniewski interpreting them as Leshy (woodland elementals of Polish legend) and the Hopi-descended Daniel Bearclaw referring to them as Kashinas, or "cloud people". Meanwhile, her chaotic consort Oberon decided to help Colonel Ellis, not in service to any wider ambition but simply to spread mischief and, secretly, to see how far he could push his rule-breaking before someone would stop him.

After the Eighth Doctor's TARDIS materialised not far from the rift, he and his companions Sam Jones and Fitz Kreiner quicky became separated. While the Doctor made it to an American base and began investigating, spurred on by a cryptic encounter with Titania (who could not openly interfere, but hoped he would oppose Oberon's schemes), Fitz unwillingly found himself undercover at the Nazi encampment, where he discovered Leitz's experiments and freed his Sidhe prisoner. Sam, meanwhile, was found by another American squad and was on her way to join the Doctor when their entire column was halted and then slaughtered in cold blood by Nazis. After dying, Sam was rescued by the Fae and regenerated into a fairy herself, being welcomed into the Sidhe realm by Galastel. Eventually, the Doctor was reunited with his companions and they were able to close the Rift, also destroying Oberon's current aspect in the process — though the Doctor was confident Titania would find herself a new Amadan almost instantly. Sam ended up requesting to be returned to her basic human state, losing her perception of the higher dimensions. (PROSE: Autumn Mist [+]Loading...["Autumn Mist (novel)"])

The Seventh Doctor claimed in 1957 that many so-called UFO sightings in the 20th century were actually down to the Sidhe. (PROSE: First Frontier [+]Loading...["First Frontier (novel)"])

21st century[[edit] | [edit source]]

In 2002, Griffin spotted a Sidhe in San Francisco. (PROSE: Unnatural History)

In the mid-to-late 2000s, Torchwood Three investigated events surrounding a girl called Jasmine Pierce, whom the fairies had selected as a Chosen One. They brutally killed Mark Goodson, a paedophile who had attempted to abduct Jasmine, and also exacted supernatural retribution on bullies who'd made fun of her. Torchwood attempted to stop the fairies from taking Jasmine, but they refused, threatening to freeze the entire Earth (which they said would be of little concern to them, as they could simply confine themselves to other eras of time). Jack Harkness, who had encountered the fae before and knew of their power, relented, and Jasmine herself thanked him as she went to join the fairies in the Lost Lands. Torchwood would go on to realise that an older Jasmine she was one of the fairies depicted in the Cottingley fairy photos. (TV: Small Worlds)

In 2017, the Shining Man craze on the internet led to a general sense of fear among the public, and the barriers between the Invisible and the Visible began to weaken, allowing fairies to interact with humans again. (PROSE: The Shining Man)

Undated events[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Doctor encountered fairies alongside Madame Vastra during his ninth (or earlier) incarnation. (COMIC: The Lost Dimension)

Cultural legacy[[edit] | [edit source]]

Titania appeared in William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream. (PROSE: Slow Decay)

Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]

In non-valid sources[[edit] | [edit source]]

Mavis Cruet, a fairy, once flew through Festive Road, before being chased by Gnasher. (TV: Future Generations)