#imm not sure if this is okay??? im really encroaching on like all yalls storylines by jamming zaya in there

[fistsoflightning]

i’m jumping in on @whitherliliesbloom‘s fairy au? i’m jumping in! also; i love everyone’s fae au posts and am hoping i don’t heckel anything up here :\

some say they hear birds singing with the breeze; some say they hear a child laughing happily. if you could ask the wind, they'd tell you that is the sylph who tames lightning and myths; this is the fae that names them by the ways of mortals, and their name is zaya, keeper of the secretive mountain aviary.

headcanons (and wavy hand storyline for zaya) below the cut!

zaya is a sylph, more accurately a lightning sylph that tends to birds in the mountain ranges surrounding il mheg! they’re rather reclusive towards other fae, but will occasionally meet with others who fly across the skies doing their thing such as the fae of the night, since they are the one who causes the lightning storms in il mheg’s skies! they themselves are flightless, but to balance that they fly on ochir’s back, a mythical thunderbird they raised themself! 

their mountain aviary is very close to the lakeland entrance, and is quite easily seen from settlements in lakeland; however, to obey to the current titania’s wishes, they will cover the aviary in clouds to hide it from mortal eyes.

zaya is not quite your traditional fae friend! they prefer the company of mortals to fae, and often fly down from their mountain home to meet with some of the mortals living in lakeland! they are an avid trader, and deal in fae goods; stardust for lazurite, sugar blooms for sparrow feathers, eternal ice for sunlight catchers; they trade for baubles and objects that catch their eye and fancy before considering use, seeing as they have all they need at home. they’re quite similar to crows, in a fashion; even their clothes have all sorts of bits and bobs that came from mortal children and weavers. their fascination with mortal lives could be tied to a certain set of lost memories that came with the price of becoming a sylph...

when more and more mortals begin to enter the fae kingdom in search of a cure, zaya begins a small service; entrance to the kingdom for a hefty trade, since advisor urianger does not take kindly to their activities. most times, they trade a flight on ochir’s back for a certain type of crystal; auracite. they use the auracite they receive to feed ochir! he needs a good meal of aether to produce proper lightning storms, after all.

(here’s where things get hand wavy; ignore these if shurimun has something else planned!) when the snow mother becomes reclusive herself, zaya has to move their aviary much closer to lakeland and rak’tika than before, leading to an increase in thunderstorms over both areas. mortals begin to attribute this to the curse spreading across and through norvrandt, and curse the thundering skies with a passion. even more people come to them, seeking to cross into the forbidden kingdom to search for an end to the storms and curse before it can destroy all they have.

zaya sees many mortals across, and few back; many die to the harsh conditions found in il mheg; fuath and pixies tricking them into their demise, or the queen’s royal guard finding them and ending them for reasons unknown. of the mortals zaya ferries across, they see many elves and many humes across safely. the first of the mortals to be deemed worthy of a small time as one of them, alphinaud, oft has his sister demanding zaya take them across the mountains despite the fact alisaie herself is ill with this curse. zaya only agrees to take her when a face familiar to many of the snow fairies comes back; thancred waters, the man who betrayed the snow mother’s trust.

thancred remains with zaya in their aviary while alisaie endeavors to join her brother, ochir her (temporary) mount. he and zaya do not get along, at first; he tries to coerce them into speaking about the thunderstorms when they are mute, and they attempt to retrieve the crystalline spring he’d taken for peppermint and the snow mother. neither of them get what they want; the rulers of the mortal kingdom have already taken the spring, and thancred cannot for the life of him get any information from this stubborn sylph!

zaya continues their work (illegally, if you asked advisor urianger) of carrying mortals across, but now they only dare to let those with strong hearts and strong souls across; not many seem to survive the trip into il mheg, they’ve noticed, and when a mystel and viis by the names of tehra’ir and valdis request entrance with a massive haul of auracite, they can hardly decide; these mortals are different than the rest, somehow.

after ferrying them across, a change strikes; there are suddenly no more mortals asking for passage, and zaya finds that the duo have been sneaking around. not to harm any of the fae, no, but to take down their own kind; there have been spies and soldiers alike who have made it past nymph laurelis, and not of zaya’s accord.

okay! that’s all the story/backstory tie in i’ve got rn. i didn’t wanna overstep boundaries, so those of you in the fae au are allowed to ignore parts if you don’t likey! time for some more random headcanons >:3

like lunya, zaya was originally a mortal drahn! they came in the same wave of people, though zaya was an adventurer among plunderers; they hadn’t intended to harm any of il mheg’s inhabitants in their wake.

a greater sylph by the name of sadu saved zaya in the exodus! they were mortally injured at that point from some rather violent fae they had thought to be kind, so sadu inscribed a set of magic tattoos into their arms that took sadu’s faehood and gifted it to them.

the aviary that zaya cares for? it was originally sadu’s! that’s why ochir’s here...

ochir is a mythical thunderbird that spawns the frequent thunderstorms over il mheg! he’s a kind fluffy boy... just don’t hurt him or any of the other aviary birds and you good.

of all the fae zaya is likely to meet, it would be the snow mother and lunya! due to reclusion in mountains and to flying across the skies bringing the stars/storms, zaya would likely have frequent encounters with both of their sisters. what they interact like is up to you!

zaya knows most of the mortals that have snuck their way into il mheg, mostly because they helped them. the ones they do not know are probably hien, aymeric, and estinien! otherwise you can point your fingers at them for it :P

zayacred is a hard maybe they will, maybe they won’t, tbh; i don’t know if shurimun is done with thancred?? i’m not sure if he should/would come back?? i’m drawing a blank but if i can borrow thancred’s character he and zaya absolutely go on a mini excursion after alisaie settles down/gets taken back to the mortal kingdom to go resolve the growing thunderstorm over rak’tika! y’shtola lives with the settlement in slitherbough and has reported of a storm brewing for weeks that is preventing the trees and grass from getting light or rain; rak’tika is slowly dying for some reason...

if the New Mortal Wave goes well, then zaya might come back down from their mountain aviary! since they’re so interested in mortals and their lives, allowing them back into the kingdom would be good reason for the reclusive lightning sylph to rejoin the common society! they left in the first place since a lot of the other sylphs disliked them.