House Hime scout in fall foliage camouflage. This dude will have stories. Art by Steve Prescott (@thesteveprescott), illustrator and concept artist on fantasy brands such as Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, Blizzard, Dune, and more. A taste of House Hime: “Fae for play, Fae for delay.” — Common expression in the realm “Two nipples and one mouth. Kai se vell!” — Graelin expression for when unable to pick between two options The fact that members of House Hime go by so many names is, in of itself, telling. The Graelin, The Fae, Foresters, forest elves, and many more. They are all the same, all names given by the Fae elves to themselves. For simplicity, I’ll refer to them as the Fae here, lest this description become a muddled mess. They would love nothing more. Widely regarded as the best musicians in the realm, the Fae weave song, story, dance, and jokes into a constantly shifting weather pattern of expression that other races find entertaining, perplexing, and exhausting in equal measure. Their unpredictability takes many forms. The Fae are famously unreliable workers but also famously unorthodox and formidable fighters. Their musicality, combat rhythm, and even thinking are considered syncopated. The origins of the Fae are frustratingly unclear. This is partially because the Fae themselves love to spin yarns and create confusion. Nonetheless, there are certain storylines repeated often enough, and from enough sources, to be considered close to the truth. The Fae dwell in dense forests and have for at least the last several thousand years. The Elvish dialect of Graelin became their official language roughly 1,500 years ago. There are rumors that the Fae and Alcedonians were once integrated and considered a single race, but this is strongly refuted by both sides and a frequent cause of bar fights. At the very birth of Era Kaifan, the Fae were the first to report news of the conquering expansion of General Tentakis. Their long history as traveling bards made them the realm’s messengers for news, rumor, fear-mongering, and gossip, and it has been so for countless generations... For more lore: cockpunch.com/podcast (4.9 stars on Spotify)