Fomorian (CTD)

Fomorians is a term used to describe a brutal and powerful race of misshapen monsters. Also referred to as the "Elder Darks", they appear as colossi constructed from man's primal fears.

Overview[]

As creatures of winter and destruction, they can be seen as the progenitors of the Unseelie. In ancient times the Fomorians were the most potent champions of horrific dreams, perhaps even evil gods of a sort. Deformed beyond description, they were said to be inhumanly beautiful or inhumanly hideous. Woe to their subjects that cross their path - the nobility are tyrants who used to rule many of the Adhene.

Traditional enemies of the Tuatha de Danann and the Sidhe, they were banished into the depths of the Dreaming after they lost the War of Trees against their foes, and their followers were cast behind the Silver Path. In the present day, some still influence the Shadow Court.

In 20th Edition, the Thallain are their children, and their return in great numbers in the wake of the September 11th attacks is a herald of their awakening.

Imprisonment[]

Before Arcadia, before the sidhe rose out of the Hearthlands and took their place as rulers of the Dream, the fomorians ruled. The trolls remember the Fomorian Dream, but they do not speak of it. According to the Green and Black Compendia, it was an age of strange wonders, haunting beauty and terror, and the oldest of all the stories... ones that no longer make sense even to faeries.

Neither Seelie nor Unseelie, but comprising three ancient courts of their own, the fomorians are best remembered now as preternatural monsters, against which the sidhe rebelled in the conflict known as the War of the Trees or the Fomoriomachy. After a seemingly eternal and undoubtedly apocalyptic series of battles, the three courts of the fomorians were chained and imprisoned in the depths of the Dream Forest, on the peaks of the Dream Mountains, and at the bottom of the Dream Sea.

Most of the fomorians are still chained. Since Arcadia has locked itself away from the Dreaming, though, some have gotten loose and are even now calling their forces to these wild territories in the depths of the Far Dreaming. Between the locked gates and the Earth, nestled among dreams a forgotten memories, the Great Monsters are taking root.

The Present[]

The Seelie Court's rulers have assured their subjects that if the fomorians are indeed returning, defeating the is simply a matter of having the bravest hearts, the sharpest blades, and the most potent magic. The fomorians are dark and ancient creatures, puissant and terrible to be sure, but there is always hope. this is but one of the lies that the fae leadership has told its followers. Perhaps it is better than telling the truth. More than simple monsters or evil chimerical geniuses, the fomorians are lodged deeply in the murkiest depth of the collective human psyche. It has comforted some changelings to think of the fomorians as such an abstraction. If the fomorians are the shadow of human evil, what of it? Some chimera can say the same and they can be defeated. Not merely reflections, though, the fomorians are the sum and total of al that is dark and murderous in the human heart. It is the fomorians who perpetuate, if not necessarily direct, much that is wrong in the World of Darkness. They are inimical to human and fae alike and paving the way for their imminent return. Defeating them once and for all is "merely" a matter of cleansing every human soul of violence, hatred, and corruption. It is fitting that those who once battled the fomorians likened them to a force of nature, for one could no more fight them than capture a tempest wind.

In the great war that ended the last age, the Tuatha de Danaan and the fomorians were opposite sides of the same coin. One represented humanity's highest aspirations, the other its darkest fears, but both were as far above the young races of Kithain and Denizens as humans are above laboratory rats. Still, for all their high-handedness, the Tuatha were powerful protectors of the Earth-bound fae. The Children of Dana are gone now, and the Fomorian Dream rises again. This may, in part, explain why some commoner leaders were so quick to capitulate to side leadership after the Accordance War. The sidhe, too, may be high-handed and arrogant, but this only means that they represent the one spark of the Tuatha de Danaan that remains in the Known Dreaming.

In this struggle, most knowledgable Kithain see the Denizens as the first darkling servitors returning at the forefront of the Elder Darks. They see a band of black storm clouds spread across the horizon, terrible in its single-minded intensity. They do not see the divisions that now divide the fomorians' old army. Much time has passed since the War of Trees and the Dark-Kin have built their own cultures without their old masters' blessing. Indeed, some Denizens hold as much animosity toward their old generals, for leading them into defeat and then abandoning them, as many commoners hold toward the sidhe. Still. the Kithain may have a point. The fomorians' first move seems to be to gather their old servants. They once ruled over the various adhene through fear a powerful pacts, some of which seem to be active again. Those Denizens who choose not to serve may soon be culled from the ranks.

Each of the Elder Darks is different; the ancient legends speak of some that were giants and wholly alien in appearance, while others took on human or fae guises, appearing beautiful beyond comprehension or foul beyond belief. Tales of the War of Trees tell of some that froze the bravest hearts by their mere appearance, causing madness or death. While some fae believe it possible that some of these creatures might be related to what the Garou call the Wyrm, the thought that the Garou's enemies the fomori, mere degenerate human mutations born of tainted technology, have much connection with the Elder Darks seems remote. Legends record that there are three Fomorian Dreams: The White Court which was imprisoned in the Forest of Lies, the Red Court which lies chained beneath Kureksarra and the Splintered Mountains, and the Green Court which voluntarily imprisoned itself below the Sea of Silver. There are also legends of a fourth group, the Black Court, though (if it ever existed) it did not manifest itself during the Tessarakonta. Some believe that the Black Court is an amalgamation of the there three court and will only appear at the first true evening of the Evernight.

The Courts[]

Notable Fomorians[]

References[]

CTD: Changeling: The Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition, p. 33-35, 40-41, 62, 122-123, 149, 309-310, 350, 355, 368-370, 376-377, 384-385, 387, 437
CTD: Denizens of the Dreaming, p. 86-88