The Filifernai: The Dark Fey
Name: fill-ee-FER-nigh, singular fill-ee-FER-nah, meaning unknown.
Origin: The filifernai do not tell their history to outsiders. However, their ancient feud with the silvereyes and their close association with the Dark lend credence to the rumors that they were once ordinary fey, who sacrificed their freedom to the Dark in return for their incredibly powerful magic.
Appearance: Filifernai strike humans, and even other fey, as highly alien, with dark blue skin that sometimes gleams silver when light catches it. They go naked, their bodies smooth and slender, and free of hair or genitalia. It is unknown how they breed or mate, and no one has ever quite dared to ask them.
Their “hair” resembles clumps of twisted silver wire, hanging around their necks and twisting in a wind no others can feel. Their eyes are faceted, with what seems to be a triangle in the middle that revolves, flashing sometimes silver, sometimes gold, sometimes white. It can be hard to tell whether a filiferna is looking at you or through you.
Their laughter is rasping and cackling when heard. Many say they have no voices at all, but those they choose to speak to, such as their victims, can hear them. Their teeth are very sharp, their blood thick and slow to congeal, and all carry chains. They are meat-eaters, feeding especially on humans and fey, and in great numbers they exude a foul scent that silvereyes are quick to recognize.
Magic: Filifernai’s main magic lies in the song and the dance, and this may be what they gave their freedom up to the Dark for. When they begin to sing and move with their chains in the dance, no mortal can resist them, and few fey. Silvereyes are the only ones with a chance, and they prefer to flee rather than engaging the dark fey. Others are lured close, until the filifernai can either whip out their throats with the chains and feed, or bind them and leave them for later, when their struggling has filled the meat with the sweet taste of fear.
Filifernai also dance for their own entertainment, and the entertainment of other Darkworkers. Their greatest ritual involves one dancer whipping out the throats of the others, until all but it are dead, and then restoring their lives with one touch. There are few who have seen this and are not of the Dark.
Filifernai also possess other magic, such as sensing when someone is a danger to the Dark and recognizing allies by gifts of chains, but these are much rarer and little understood by outsiders.
Life Cycle: Of this, little is known. Filifernai are always seen full-grown. There appear to be no children among them, and no method of breeding, since their bodies are utterly sexless. The bodies of those few killed and studied show no sign of ability to mate, either. They apparently spend all their time hunting, eating, dancing, and serving the Dark as invasion forces. When they do attack silvereyes, despite their old and hot hatred, it is always at the command of the Dark. Indeed, some consider them as little more than animals, mindless beasts moving at the will of the great power alone.
Filifernai do possess sanctuaries in the north, however, in the icy mountains beyond even the Kingdom of Amorier, and there they may lead lives that other fey, and humans, have no power to record.
Interbreeding with Humans: Only in history-tales do the dark fey interbreed with humans. As noted above, they have no apparent method of raping a human or lying with a willing one, and no means of bearing or siring children. Despite some famous claims of half-filiferna children, it seems likely that it is no more than a legend.
