#iron fey ash

[j-marlowe]

Canon be dammed Trans masc Ash is living rent free in my brain. The favorite son who worked so much harder for that station.

The fact his brother's weaponize the fact they see him as too emotional for the winter court. The cold mask he puts on is both for his faimly and the version of masculinity they put upon him.

Bonus Puck and Ariella were some of the first people he told

[shallyne]

Ash from Iron Fey was my first ever book crush and I didn't even know at the time

[ironfeybloggings]

[bestcouplesofbooks]

[aroaessidhe]

okay I was asked about fey books I’ve read that Do stick to folklore a bit more than certain popular books - and actually looking at what fey books I’ve read  it’s a bit like.... books that stick to folklore closely I sometimes Don’t Love, and there are others that don’t stick to it as much but I like the overall narrative more? or some mix of that. 

so here’s a list of a few - a range of how much they stick to folklore (which of course is an amorphous thing) and how much I like them, but it’s something!

YA

That Self-Same Metal - literally just read this, it’s about a Black girl who’s the stage blade expert for shakespeare’s company and can see fey, and they’re appearing more and more in the city. explores a bit of the midsummer night’s dream fey but also like “shakespeare was wrong” and general folklore. definitely the start of a series and has a lot going on but I thought it has some cool ideas!

all Holly Black’s books deal with them well! the Modern Faerie Tales companion/trilogy has maybe aged a bit by now, and I hate way the romance ended up together in The Folk of the Air (and the way the fandom is about it) but otherwise I do really like how it deals with fey and politics! also enjoyed The Darkest Part of the Forest. these are all intertwined/same world

The Buried And The Bound - a hedgewitch girl keeps fey away from her town, and gets caught up with two boys who are cursed. mostly deals with minor fey and a powerful hag

An Enchantment of Ravens - it’s been quite a few years since I read this, but I do remember enjoying it. It is a bit more of a romance focused story also, an artist stolen into the fey realm for painting a fey prince as if he was human(iirc?)

The Bone Houses - not directly dealing with fey, but like the aftermath of the ancient fey’s curses? welsh myth inspired. which I think is cool.

At The Edge of The Woods - about a girl in a religious/patriarchial village who starts to have strange dreams about a fey boy luring her into the woods. it’s not super focused on them, but they’re very much the classic ‘dangerous fey stealing people away for entertainment’ kind of thing

Adult

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries - I sort of have mixed feelings about this - I really enjoy how it dealt with fey and the creepier folklore creatures side of it! the handling of the changeling was a bit iffy and not sure about the romance

The Wolf Among the Wild Hunt - dark fantasy novella about a wolf-shifter made to join the wild hunt to save his qpr. focused on the unseelie/wild hunt area

Silver in the Wood - gaslamp fantasy novella about the keeper of a magical forest, dryads and dangerous fey

The Wind City - a bit of a mashup of fey folklore and Māori atua in a modern NZ setting

Sinners/Veiled - very classic but also with the element of a modern setting where human pollution is like a drug to fey (and the MC is a drug lord.) (so kind of dark but also not dark in the sexy way bc the MC is aroace)

Under The Pendulum Sun - this is a gothic fantasy that has a bit of a new take on a fey world, but also definitely has some of those creepy folklore vibes.

Siren Queen - this only partly involves fey but I thought the way that it mashed up old hollywood and fey (aka shady deals for fame themes) was interesting!

Sorcerer to the Crown/The True Queen - my memory on this is hazy, but I believe it’s regency fantasy, with its own take on a fey world/magic (moreso the 2nd book)

Malice/Misrule - adult high fantasy lesbian sleeping beauty reimagining, this is kind of doing it’s own thing I guess (I don’t remember if they’re even called fey?) but definitely has a bit of the creepy creature/court vibes in book 2 especially

In The Jaded Grove - I was just looking up books to see if there was anything I missed and found this, which seems interesting to me!

I also haven’t read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (but I watched the show ages ago) and I believe that has the vibe too

[imagine-iron-fey]

Puck: *sticks his head into Ash’s bedroom*

Puck: Yo, I’m going to rock bottom. You need anything?

Ash: How in the HELL did you get in here?

Puck: I’ll take that as a ‘no’.

[artbycc12321]

Iron Fey book series I am REACHING for you guys cause look I sketched Ash👉🏻👈🏻 I’m gonna colour and do final touches at some point but I just wanted to share him with someone

[hesperidia]

the iron fey as a series is very mid and the main characters are insufferable but damn if it didnt have the most original explanation for fae and magic in a modern setting i've seen, like having faeries being born out of the stories mortals tell and (in some cases) their own fears, and then having an entire set of iron fae appearing alongside technological advances as humans started to wonder more and more about it, and these fae they grow rapidly and start to take over the realms of summer and winter... and then the protagonist becoming the nexus between the old and new and achieving a balance between tech and nature...

And to be a series written in the late 2000s, early 10s (i believe) it makes a lot of sense!!! i personally think there was a lot of influence of the cyber aesthetics of the time in these books

+ the series has amazing character design when it comes to the faeries who arent your typical tolkien-esque elf (see, the iron faeries) and i think thats awesome

[nessaiscuteandtrans]

Ash: do you ever see something so amazing it changes your life forever

Meghan: I saw you

Ash: thats very sweet and i love you too honey and this is very embarrassing now cause i was bout to show a picture of Puck wearing a pixie costume

[obsessingoverl]

Yk just this description of events reminds me of the series your mom recommended to us that I binged in like a week or two

And also that is exactly how I reacted when it happened in that series

cardan when he exiled jude:

the fandom:

[j-marlowe]

Iron fey spoilers for those who might read

I genuinely think Ash should have been left permanently disabled from the bug put in his spine. I think in some ways he should just behave like he's being effected by Iron. For example extreme fatigue from physical demanding things or when using his powers. Migraines as he copes with a body that has literally been invaded by the thing designed to kill him.

The fear he would have of showing up to the winter court disabled because people could see that against him!

An Ash that swears himself to be Megan's Knight even as he struggles with rebuilding his own strength again.

[bestcouplesofbooks]

[blueskyscribe]

So I was on Taobao and I found a listing for reprints of localized Chinese cards featuring Transformers, Mickey Mouse, and He-Man, as well as Chinese mythological and historical figures. Here is the explanation from the listing, which I found fascinating:

Foreign paintings, also known as cigarette cards, photo cards, picture cards, and paji, are actually small cards with characters printed on them. They became popular children's collectible toys in the 1980s. The original picture cards were made of rough paper and the patterns on them were blurry, but they were very popular at the time. They were usually best-selling in stores near schools. I remember that playing with picture cards was the most popular when I was in elementary school. At that time, whether it was elementary school students or kindergarten children, they all carried hundreds or hundreds of picture cards on them.

There are many ways to play cards. The most primitive way is to slap cards. One person takes a card and puts it on the ground with the front side facing up. Whoever flips the card over with his hand wins. Every time the get out of class is over, the classroom is full of people squatting and slapping cards except for the places without tables.

Another way to play is to see who is better, mainly the Three Kingdoms foreign painting, one Lu, two Zhao, three Dian Wei, four Guan, five Ma, six Zhang Fei, etc.

Although these games are very simple and a bit "rustic", they brought us endless joy and fun in our childhood, just like playing marbles, rolling copper coins, turning iron rings, and throwing water chestnuts. I just played with them for a while, and they were so real, so interesting, and so memorable.

The paper used for foreign paintings is mostly hard, thick and yellow horse manure paper. Especially on the reverse side of the foreign paintings, the ash mixed in the paper is vaguely visible, which adds to its "Chinese local product" temperament. Children from the 80s and 90s have a deep affection for foreign paintings. Who says there is no time machine in this world? The collection of foreign paintings is the best time machine to return to our beautiful childhood.

[imagine-iron-fey]

Imagine convincing Glitch, Ash, and Puck to go with you to a rage room. Puck, of course, is all for it, but Ash and Glitch aren't too convinced this is necessarily the best idea.

"You've been kind of tense lately," Glitch says, eyeing you almost warily from his position on the couch.

"Exactly!" says Puck enthusiastically. "They need to blow off some steam! Besides, it'll be fun."

His eyes glint a little too wickedly at the word for Ash's liking.

He exchanges a long look with Glitch, who shrugs in defeat.

"Fine," he sighs, pinning you and Puck with an icy silver stare. "But at least TRY not to go completely ballistic. I don't want to have to bail you out of jail."

"Again," adds Glitch dryly, back to scrolling on his phone.

You and Puck agree not to end up in jail (again).

Though, as Puck points out much later--after getting kicked out of the rage room, and spending nearly six hours being berated by Ash, Glitch, and even Meghan, "He never specified how we were supposed to stay out of jail. I figured running from the cops was a totally valid option. They need to be clear about these things, y'know."

[monstersdownthepath]

Monster Spotlight: Vexgit

CR 1

Lawful Evil Tiny Fey

Bestiary 2, pg. 145 (Image from 2nd Edition's Bestiary 2, pg. 134)

Among the most dangerous breed among the Gremlins, the Vexgits are banes and blights in the civilized world, and can quickly spell doom for any structure they manage to infest, to say nothing of everyone inside. Every bit as weak and wimpy as the other CR 1 Gremlins featured on this blog so far, like all of them a Vexgit is not a direct threat to the party that pops out of the walls to battle them, but a background danger to the party's belongings, allies, and homes. They're not threatening the party with their hammer, they're threatening to knock out a support beam, trapping the party in a collapsing home with them!

Vexgit are not combatants, they're worse: saboteurs. They LIVE to rip apart and repurpose existing devices, turning everything from clockwork machines to simple wagon wheels into tools of inconvenience, harm, or even death. Their danger isn't in their attacks--they struggle to deal lethal damage with either their tiny warhammer (1d4-2) or bite (1d3-2)--but what they can do if they're not stopped before they settle in, using their +9 to Disable Device checks to jam locks, loosen wheels, strip nails, and generally make nuisances of themselves. While normally disabling any device is a time-consuming process, Vexgit are Speedy Saboteurs, lowering the time it takes to sabotage any device by one stage.

If you've never looked at the speed chart for Disable Device, take a moment to do so now. See how a 'simple item,' such as a normal lock, mundane hinge, or a rope and pulley, takes 1 round to sabotage? Vexgit can sabotage 'simple' items as a free action once per round as long as it's within their reach, letting them pull off malicious acts mid-combat if they so wish. While this typically boils down to jamming door locks after running through them so the party cannot follow (or becomes trapped), it does also mean they typically have the time to perform more elaborate follow-ups. Since they can perform simple sabotage as a free action, they can then use the rest of their round sabotaging something rated 'tricky,' such as a wheel, a larger item held together with screws or nails, or a simple siege weapon to hamper the party more severely than they would if they simply attacked with their weapon.

Vexgit prefer to lure opponents to them rather than the other way around, as their penchant for recycling disassembled items into traps either via their Craft (Traps) skill of +5 or the Snare spell they can use 1/hour makes any infested areas a death trap that requires extremely careful navigation. They're more likely to simply flee any fight they get into, and they have a good chance of getting away; they can easily scamper up any surface thanks to their 20ft climb speed, protected by their DR 5/Cold Iron, while their 12 Spell Resistance shields them from retributive magic cast by unlucky mages. Their DR is especially hard to pierce thanks to their 1/hour Rusting Grasp dissolving any weapon brought into their reach, so if only one party member has a cold iron cudgel, the group will be in for a... well, not a hard time, but a slightly more annoying time, because like most gremlins the Vexgit have only 8 hitpoints and a moderate 15 AC, going down in just a few swings from any weapon that deals more than 6 damage per round.

Easy for a party, less so for the common man. I've said this before about other gremlins, but their resilience makes them difficult for commoners and low-level guards to clear out, so they're perfect little horrors for a party to be sent after without making the local guards look incompetent. When the little bastards can reach out and turn your equipment to ash while you're dangling upside-down over a latrine, you'd probably be inclined to let mercenaries handle it, too.

Especially if there's a lot of them. Vexgits can form insanely dangerous Wrecking Crews in groups as small as six, bolstering one member's Disable Device checks from +9 to +19 if each of them spends their turn contributing to the sabotage, letting them rip apart almost anything in less than a minute... or swiftly reset any traps that may have already gotten sprung, making the trip out of a gremlin's lair just as painful as the trip in. While on their own a Vexgit is content with causing injuries and humiliation with their pranks, when a whole crew of Vexgits is present, it becomes a race against time to track them down and destroy them all, because full infestations aren't satisfied with anything less than full-blown death and mayhem, driven to destroy greater and greater structures until whole city blocks are crumbling to ruin because of them.

You can read more about them here.