Folklore Head Canon Day 2 - Fairy

In the Otherworlds, 'fairy' is an umbrella term for lots of fairy-like creatures, but for the purposes of the challenge I'll be sticking to straight up fairies and changelings insofar as possible.

They are usually human-sized, with pointy ears.  Some kinds of fairies are quite short though, i.e: changelings

Fairies are almost exclusively found in Fairyland.  Though they do like to travel and some try to live elsewhere, they will return there eventually.

This is because fairies need a high magic environment to survive.

Fairies have an average lifespan of 200 years.  They grow a little slower than humans between the ages of 0-25, and then age reeeeally slowly after that until they are about 150. That is when they become what we would call 'middle-aged' and then their aging process speeds up again.  This would be why humans thought they never aged and possibly why they thought time was standing still in Fairyland. If you live for only 60 years and your fairy friends barely change, of course you're going to think they're immortal...

They are afraid of iron and technology in general.  Some of the younger fairies think this is mere superstition and some think there is a reason Earth is all jacked up and can't help but think it's all that iron humans keep jamming into everything.

There are various anti-aging potions available in Fairyland, but they only work in Fairyland. If you leave, you're gonna die really fast... anyone taking them would be forced to stay in Fairyland for the rest of their lives.

Fairies have very limited natural resources.  Their currency is actually spelled rocks and stones.  It's called Coal. If you take it out of the high magic environment that is Fairyland, it will turn back into rocks and be worthless.  Having said that, it's pretty worthless anywhere but Fairyland even if it hasn't turned back because the exchange rate with almost any other currency is freaking terrible.  
The royal family has a stash of gold and other valuables for when they absolutely need to get something from outside the country, but this is rare (and they are currently broke for Book Reasons).

Their magical specialities are invisibility, transformation and self-transformation.  They have both 'invisible to everyone' and 'invisible except to other people who are invisible' spells, with the latter being the most common.  They also quite like messing with people by pretending to be talking animals or turning other people INTO talking animals.    

Fairies have a 'free love' sort of culture and will hop into bed with practically anyone.  This could be a result of their gene pool being limited, because their religion pretty much told them to, because they fall in love at the drop of a hat or because they're just living permanently in the 60s.  Or all the above.

Despite this, it doesn't mean that they aren't a bunch of speciesist jerks.  They tend to view other species much like humans view other animals, with attitudes ranging from 'D'aww wook at his cute widdle ears' to 'That looks delicious' to 'Why do people even like humans?   I hurt them for fun'.  Still, most fairies are pretty progressive and understand that other species are people too.  Thank goodness.

They have a particular liking for humans.  They're just so cute with their little round ears and their usual total lack of magic, the fluffy defenceless things.  

Despite the fact that they used to guard Fairyland's borders very aggressively, they brought in all kinds of humans they liked from all over Earth(and Anima). There are a great many humans with some fairy ancestry and vice-versa. Green eyes are a sign of fairy ancestry and purple eyes are especially notable as a fairy trait.

They will eat pretty much any other species - but not other fairies, even if they are halflings.  Just because you can talk doesn't mean you're off the menu.  Because that would mean they'd starve.  There are talking animals, plants and even rocks all over Fairyland. They won't eat things that are the same species as they have made friends with, though.

They used to view changelings (half fairy, half other magical creature) as inferior and often swapped them out for human babies, leaving the changeling baby to sicken and die in unsuitable human surroundings... This shame is probably why changelings kept being spotted in groups outside Fairyland*.  If my own people hated me, I'd go hang out with others like me in a foreign country too.

*there are many legends all over the world of fairies or similar beings with cloaks or skins bathing together

Their religion is animistic in nature, ie: they revere nature rather than gods.  Though they do have a mother goddess, no-one actually worships her.  If magic can't solve something, then they think it's unsolvable.  

Growing up using magic for everything with food growing (or living) everywhere means that they don't have any trouble whatsoever with the basics of life, ie: food and shelter, so they are commonly carefree and don't get why the other species find just living so hard.  I mean c'mon other species, life is easy, why so serious?  Why don't you just use magic for everything, what POSSIBLE harm could come to you?  

Incidentally, vampirism is not exactly uncommon amongst fairies.  There are probably as many vampire fairies as there are vampire humans, but you must remember there are like, 11 billion humans and perhaps only ten thousand or so fairies, meaning it is a more common condition in fairies than it is in humans.

Fairyland is split into three realms, the Light Realm, the Dark Realm and the Wild Realm. This may correspond to light elves, dark elves and regular elves, except that fairies hate being mistaken for elves and elves hate being mistaken for fairies so I wouldn't ever tell them that theory to their faces.  This may be why in the old days, humans, who have considerable trouble telling the difference, avoided calling them either, referring to them instead as 'The Gentry', 'The Good Folk' or 'The Little People'.

This is probably very clear if you've read to this point, but they are not those tiny, twinkly winged things the Victorians made up.  Fairies do not sparkle.  

Okay, so they DO, but it's a TRAP.  

Fairies are not ever born with wings, but they may make them for themselves - or more likely their children - by making a changeling cloak.  A changeling cloak is so personal and indispensable to its owner that they will do anything you ask if you take possession of it. The cloak acts like a magic amplifier for fairies with weak magical ability and usually contain a few spells, such as a transformation spell or two.

There are a massively disproportionate number of female changelings.  Male changelings are uncommon.  The  kind of cloak they use is chosen by their parent(s) when they are born, when the parents must make it.  When the child is old enough, they teach them to maintain it.  The non-fairy parent usually holds sway on the sort of cloak they get, ie: a garwulf is likely to want their child to have a wolf cloak, a water-dwelling person such as nixie will most likely want their child to have a sealskin, etc.

There are three royal families, one for each Realm.  They consider themselves as one big family though.  

In Fairyland, women are the dominant gender.  In all three of the royal houses, the crown passes to women first.  It could be because their mother goddess is well, a goddess, or it could be because that's what happens when most of your women are scary, literal man-eaters.