Layin' It Down

Whenever someone asks about how powerful a fairy is, normally people just jump right in and say "they're very powerful creatures, one you don't want to run into." Of course, they're predators like a lot of other creatures in Felarya, and in any situation, its advisable not to run into a pred no matter how powerful they're judged to be.

The problem are the assumptions that people make. How often do we sit down and analyze how tough/vulnerable a creature really is?

One thing is for certain: We all judge fairies to be one of the most powerful creatures of all Felarya, and the Crimson Maidens one of the deadliest creatures in existence, and we seem to like it that way.

However, I watched a conversation fairly recently about fairies, and decided to lay it down: their strengths, weaknesses, and anything that could be a give-or-take advantage.

Weaknesses:

Wings so delicate any damage done to them at all severly hampers their ability to use damage

Not fast fliers

Their magic is nulled by insects

Not physically strong

Strengths:

Very Mobile

Massive pool of magic to draw from

Give-or-take:

Flying

Intelligent

Varied/Diverse

Size Shifting


Those are the abilities I've layed down after thinking about where they truly belong. At first I ended up putting quite a bit of abilities on the "strengths" list, but then I reconsidered.

The first one is quite obvious. A Fairy's pair or two pairs of wings are not a strength, the reason why is that they are extremely frail, and easy to damage. Sometimes it seems that their wings are so frail that they could tear them just by catching their wings on a branch accidentally. Their wings house the entirety of their magical pool. When one is damaged even slightly, their ability and potency in using magic drops dramatically. When they change size, their wings upscale as well, becoming even bigger targets than before.

Slow Fliers: Fairies, unlike harpies aren't built for speed. This much is clear, and that can be a disadvantage when trying to make a getaway, or lunging in for an attack they want to pull off quickly. When a fairy fights, it shouldn't be based on speed, that will get them killed quicker.

Insects: Their magic is nulled, almost completely, by insects. In a forest, there are more insects than anything. Insects also cover most of our world, and it would be safe to assume, they would cover most of Felarya's world. In a place like Felarya, where creatures are normally fairly large, or larger, this becomes a problem. Insects will probably know by instinct that fairies have a hard time defending themselves against them, and when a creature finds out it's stronger than another, the objective is clear.

Weak Physically: Fairies focus primarily on magic; this much is true. It's their greatest strength, but also a grave weakness. They are not strong in that field unless one trains in physical combat to overcome that weakness. The advantage of training in martial combat would be an advantage to those that have had the years to learn it in addition to their magic, but those (like Alvar) who focus on it first and foremost, would still find magic-based day to day activities that fairies would employ to make life harder, both in combat and out of.

Strengths are few. Fairies are extremely mobile, in compensation for their lack of speed. This mobility is also governed by their wings (an additional weakness, wings with holes are hard to fly with) and can use it to their advantage by...er...dodging. Dodging a lot can help, or flying up higher to hide in the tree branches, then come down on their enemies.

They have a massive pool of magic, supposedly a monumental amount, and this is their greatest advantage. In combination with their mobility, magic styles involving those of illusions will make life frustrating and hectic for anyone trying to overpower a fairy. With the right fairy, deadly strategic combat can ensue.

Give or take was a field created out of the idea that sometimes there are abilities that can just go either way. In a fairies case, this is the field with probably the most content. Flying, intelligence, diversity, and size shifting.

Flying used to be in advantages, but lets be realistic: Felarya is a big forest, huge, titanic, and larger. Not to mention denser than my mother's wardrobe. It's hard to fly in such a place, and unless a fairy knows how to use their terrain, their wings will not be an advantage. Not to mention all the other critters laying around. In our world, playing games on the internet like Halo, or whatever, people employ the strategy of lying in wait, and stealing another person's kill, taking the credit. In Felarya, this strategy is all the more likely, as gekkotaurs (or whatever they're called) could come down from hiding in a tree, and steal the fairy as prey when the fairy is focused on another enemy. Gekkotaurs are just one of many possible examples.

Intelligence: This is not a big factor anymore. A vast majority of creatures are intelligent, and all of them can strategize, think on their feet, and thus, creates a stalemate. Whereas Fairies are judged to have a superior analytical mind, it does not always play to their advantage, as other determining factors like surroundings, and incidences cannot always be planned for.

Diversity: This used to be in advantages, but then I realized that their diversity for the sake of combat is different than their diversity for the sake of culture. Fairies have the biggest diversity when it comes to culture, but for the sake of fighting to defend themselves, it boils down to magic specialization, and what they're better at learning: fire, ice, illusion, etc, are also all learned (or know) by mages and any other creature out there. Fairy magic may be a different type of magic than others, and thus they may use their magic differently, but fire magic, ice magic, it can still be learned by everyone else too.

Size Shifting: This went everywhere. From strengths, to weaknesses...it's problem lies in the fact of size. Bigger isn't always better, and in a ludicrously dense forest, size just adds to the problems. It's like stacking towers of books all around you with a 2-3ft gap, and trying to manuever through it, and flying just makes it worse. Their wings are bigger targets as well, and even though they have mobility, it's still easier to hit them. Fighting against a larger creature while bigger can be a strength or weakness depending on how they use their terrain and their abilities, the same way fighting a human can prove to be a challenge or not. A human with a shotgun, or any weapon that has a similar dispersion system or a wide range can do some damage against wings with a good enough angle. Smaller holes might do less damage to their magic resevoirs and fortitude, but still leaves the fight up in the air regardless.


As you can see here, with this analysis, a Fairy has far more weaknesses and abilities that could go either way that they really aren't the apex predator we believed them to be. If we are to keep them at their assumed position of being one of Felarya's most common predators, then some changes should be made to make them less vulnerable.

I wonder though how needed their weakness against insects are, where that disadvantage comes from, and why we say it's there. It's not wholly necessary, as there are plenty of other factors out there that also serve as a large weakness to a fairy's arsenal of abilities and state of being. This is my suggestion though, and I would appreciate feedback from others.

This thread isn't here for the sake of "omg make 'em super powerful cuz fairies r awesome and should eat everything" than it is analyzing them for the sake of their own good as a species. Fairies are focused on a lot and people assume a lot of different things about them, and a lot of assumptions can leave disaster in it's wake.

You forget one thing: Versitility. That's what the size-shifting really helps with. They can be as small as a human bug, or a tiny, evading all the super-big threats, who would simply ignore them. They could be the size of a naga, too, which means they can... well, avoid small threats.

Yes, but versatility is also there with mobility.

Size shifting down to a smaller size can help with mobility yes, but you're also weaker, in that a larger creature could swat a fairy into a tree, or a human sized one against what type of creatures? Humans or smaller would still prove to be a dangerous assault, and not necessarily advantageous.

Two big advantages you left out:
Size-shifting other people, which, although it can fall under the umbrella of "magic powers," I feel due to its frequent use and notorious effectivity deserves its own recognition.
Disguising themselves as humans - this is relatively easy for a fairy as opposed to nigh impossible for a naga, dridder, dryad, etc. This means that a fairy can readily approach humans or nekos off their guard and then proceed to covertly eat them one by one like some kind of horror movie villain, with no one being the wiser.

Yeah... about being able to shrink people, this is something I need to bring up. Experience has taught me that most people who play a fairy tend to use their ability to shrink other things as the go-to solution for... pretty much everything that deals with a physical object. Not only that, but a lot of people either aren't even aware that fairies can't shrink something that's far too big to begin with, or ignore it completely. This undermines one aspect that I've noticed about fairies on the wiki. Almost all of them have one category of magic, unique to each individual, which they specialize in. While this doesn't affect their ability to shrink something, and is still a big advantage for them, I see it as a character trait. With that in mind, I think a fairy is more likely to use other tricks to deal with their problems, and the ability to alter their and someone's size is mostly used for hunting.

Now, this bring something else into play, which is how versatile this ability is. Any competent adventurer or mercenary will be traveling in group. One fairy against a group cannot shrink down the group one by one without one of them alerting the others that he or she is feeling weird. As soon as they notice something is off, the fairy will have to be extra stealthy, and at this point, trying to attack the group by shrinking them is becoming far too dangerous, as once she's spotted, she's a goner. You may think she could simply grow to giant size and try to attack the group all at once, but she's now a much bigger target, thus much easier to hit, especially her wings. The whole shrinking thing has its own pros and cons, thus while it's good in certain situations, it's not going to be helpful in others.