To Gubbin

[TennyoCeres84]

What are newborn and young Malks like? I doubt they would be skilled hunters straight from the beginning, right? How involved are parents in the raising of a Malk?

[IamLEAM1983]

"Our infants are particularly vulnerable, as are other mortal creatures in their infancy. Even the snows over which Oberon rules can prove to be a harsh environment for our whelps to grow in. Mothers are driven to increased hunting patrols so that their milk can be as warm and as rich as possible, while fathers must protect the first two from other creatures in Faerie's wildlands.

Whelps are more playful and inquisitive than their later childhood and adolescent years would allow for. Instincts are honed during these first few decades, and speech is mastered both in human and feline form. Hide-and-seek games and scavenger hunts are two of the very few pastimes our youngsters can afford in the snows. As we do not mingle with Faerie's civilized folk without Oath or employment-related obligations being invoked, we do not initiate our young to forms of play requiring extensive investment. Snowballs, twigs and branch networks are our children's toys of choice. This willful limitation fosters independence, a quality which becomes essential at an early age. Our paternal and maternal instincts do not overshadow our other impulses for longer than a scant few decades - a few years in your time. Proximity to the Hearth may trigger additional displays of fondness or extend the whelps' stay with their parents, but abandonment is virtually expected. No amount of liberally dispensed love will overpower an adult Malk's instinctive desire to be rid of a younger, weaker liability - nor of said younger Malk to prove its strength.

Those of us who live with the True Fae sometimes enter a different mode of operation, in relation to our parents. Rather than letting me go or otherwise abandoning me, my father established a Bond over me. I would follow him throughout the centuries, acting as one of the help while he would remain a sought-after butler in both worlds. It allowed me to learn a valuable trade and introduced me to Civilization's expectations of ownership and propriety. Thanks to my years under my father, I am not phased by the sight or concept of other Fae or mortals attaching importance to material goods, when my own needs are comparatively simple.

I was my father's responsibility and property, and was soon transacted into House Machae. While you may still refer to me as being biologically young, it is a characteristic of Wyldfae that our affected age mirrors our personality rather than the passage of time. My mother's influence cooled the passions the Hearth would have fostered in me, and I was left with a wizened shell and a young adult feline's physical capabilities. I appear to Madame Aislinn and her coterie as I do thanks to the expectations placed on a manservant. I must think for her if passions overrule her judgment and, in some ways, must act as a dispensor of common sense and restraint. I must be wise should she ever be foolish and must disapprove should she ever endanger herself. As my concerns are those of a matured mind, so, too, have my two selves matured equally.

Consequently, it is not uncommon for outsiders to have difficulties at telling Wyldfae family members apart from one another. I suspect Warwick and I would appear to be the same age, despite the fact that he is my progenitor."

[TennyoCeres84]

How do "True Fae" and Wyldfae differ, beyond appearances?

[IamLEAM1983]

"Lore tells us that we Wyldfae were already present in Faerie, before the former servants of the dragons found ingress into the Realms of Seasons. Perhaps we stand as early Terrestrial fauna that slipped into another plane of existence, following some sort of natural arcane event; but we developed differently from humans, theriomorphs and anthropomorphs alike.

As you may know, most of us are marked by our red ears. Reddish fur or scales tend to mark external features around our heads, typically our outer ears. From Summer's Fae Hounds to us Malks and even the Gruffs and Bugbears, we are all recognizable as Wyldfae because of this very trait. I suspect that later generations in Aspasia's species will also develop red tufts in easily observable areas of the body, whereas Spearhead's ruddy complexion will receive additional red tints on either side of the head.

Besides our shape-changing abilities, we also tend to display a more instinctual nature, to behave in ways that are germane to those natural species we are often compared to. Fae Hounds are typically gregarious individuals mistakenly described as lazy, whilst they are simply conserving their energy for the needs of the hunt. Gruffs are stolid and protective because they stand as Summer's first line of defense, the way mountain goats will frequently be the first animals to see incoming threats from far away. Bugbears, the likely point of origin for your Sasquatch and Bigfoot myths, are considered slow-witted, when their nature results from their metabolism. A Bugbear who is not bogged down by digestive processes or who has no cause to succumb to rage can be as fleet of mind as anyone else. The Fauns of old were advance scouts for the Gruff parties, using their foraging and survival skills to thrive in the most merciless of terrains while still providing a more personable face for True Fae and mortals to encounter. Spearhead's forerunners, on the other hand, lived in Morrigan's cloying tropical forests and hunted in packs.

Otherwise, our etheric make-up appears to differ slightly from a True Fae's. We are close arcane cousins to the Fair Folk, but we not, ourselves, fair in that specifically arcane sense of the word. There is no Choice for any of us to take, and yet our true selves tend to emerge in a much more definitive process than the mortal concept of growing up - as is the case with some Fae. As I am content with my presented appearance, it is unlikely that madame Aislinn or anyone from Holden Hall could notice me age over time. For external changes to occur, internal change must be spurred onwards.

Of course, the Troll varieties have yet to be discussed. Neither Wyldfae, True Fae, mortal or otherwise, these humanoids are suspected of being early hominids who unwittingly transitioned into Faerie. That is, when one does not adhere to the school of thought that presents them as incarnated spirits, cousins of the dryads who watch over various plots and patches of natural resources."