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sparkindarknessI have surrendered to the inevitable and concluded that Light & Dark is going to be more a political tale than anything else. Sure, I'm going to force what action I can into it, but I think the boys and the world they live in is just a bit too political for that to ever be a dominant theme. I also don't think they're lovey-dovey enough for it to be a romance driven one either.
So, now I get Sidhe etiquette rules infringing into my head. Fun.
The rules of the Seelie Court can be Byzantine, and seemingly none more so than a Seelie invitation. The missive may stretch to pages in length to describe the purpose of the gathering. The most important matter, however, is not why the gather is called, or even where the gather is called, (both of which I may ramble on about later) but who may attend. While in theory these rules only apply to the Seelie, the dominance of Seelie rule means that many Unseelie find themselves similarly bound.
To begin to understand the system, it is necessary to understand the Seelie noble Houses.
Seelie Noble Houses are divided into 4 types - Regal, Great, Honoured (usually just referred to as a House with no prefix) and Noted (usually just referred to as a House with no prefix necessary). The members or sometimes just the heads, of these Houses sometimes adopt these prefixes to their titles (e.g. The Great Lord Brionachan). There is only one Regal House - the house of the High King. Great Houses are the most powerful Houses, only these may rise to become the Royal House. Only the High King can grant recognition of a House as a Great House, and it’s rare and difficult. The Honoured Houses are the rest of the Houses of the sidhe (honoured by the presence of sidhe). The Noted Houses are none sidhe nobility (they have been ‘noticed’ or have been considered ‘noteworthy’ of the sidhe).
NB: The title does not necessarily reflect the power or even the influence of the House.
Each class of House may attend various meetings of the nobility (referred to as ‘Courts’). Commoners may only attend Moots and Things (unless invited, as explained later). In theory, anyone entitled to attend a meeting may call it (so any member of a Great House may call a Noble Court), practice is usually different. If you are not the head or a high ranking member of your House, then issuing such a call will be seen as a challenge for position, or perhaps even ignored altogether. It is also preferable to have a call backed by ‘sponsors’ especially if your House is not especially influential, otherwise people may not attend (which will be very embarrassing and socially damaging). Likewise, snubbing a call by a more influential or powerful House may be seriously damaging, or in some cases (such as refusing a call to the Royal Court) suicidal. Naturally the wording of the invitations will vary on standing - the invitation to an Honoured House from the Regal House will be more a command to attend, while an invitation from a Great House to the Regal House will be full of praise and flowery language.
Sometimes it is best to ask a superior House to call a gathering in your stead both to ensure a respectable turnout and to allow the higher ranking House to act as Host and obtain Host rights (and possibly duties, if they are too onerous for the lesser House). Alternatively the caller may extend some or all Host rights to a superior House in the invitation (e.g. a right to invite guests in a Pure gathering, especially if the lesser House also wants to invite someone - to invite someone and at the same time tell the King he can’t is... politically ill-advised).
The gatherings are:
Royal Court: The High King, his immediate Household and the most powerful of the Great Houses (usually those who have other Great Houses as Vassals).
Noble Court: The Regal House (if in the area) and all the Great Houses.
High Court: Regal (if in the area), Great and Honoured Houses.
Low Court(s): Noted Houses. Usually of a certain type i.e. a Low Court of the Trolls is for Trollen courts only.
Common Court: All houses.
Moot (or Grand Moot): Meeting of all fae of a particular type in the area (e.g. A Brownie Moot of the Seelie will be a meeting for all Seelie Brownies). A Grand Moot is a meeting of all fae of all kinds. Both kinds of Moot are usually restricted to an area (A Brownie Moot of the Seelie in the domain of Lord Brionachan the Bold, though fae often travel depending on whether open, closed or pure).
Thing (or Althing): Like a Moot (the various Moots, so you can have a Troll Thing, for example or an Althing of all fae), but by egalitarian by tradition. Everyone has a right to speak and be heard, and TECHNICALLY no more weight is given to someone’s words than they deserve. Title and position is SUPPOSED to be replaced by pure merits.
Also, a Court, Moot or Thing can be Open, Closed or Pure, dictating the presence of guests.
Open: If a Court, Moot or Thing is open then none qualifying fae may attend (e.g. a member of an Honoured House at a Royal Court) at the invitation of a qualifying member (in the case of a Court, this must be a high ranking member of the attending House). All Courts, Things and Moots are considered Open to the Convener (i.e. if you convene the Court, then you can invite unqualified people, even if you declare the court as Closed or Pure). In the Case of Royal, Noble and High Courts, none-sidhe members of the Houses may attend if the court is open (though the House may face derision for allowing such attendance). Servants are free to attend.
Closed: Only qualifying members may attend. Servants are prohibited unless human and clouded by glamour. A reasonable bodyguard is allowed but expected not to be in the court room itself. None sidhe members of Houses in certain courts are still allowed, but frowned upon.
Pure: Only qualifying members may attend. Servants are prohibited, in addition, only high ranking members of the House attend a Pure Court.
A final point of sidhe privilege. Sidhe of varying ranks get ‘Rights of Attendance’ also known as ‘Duties of Guidance’. Basically this means that sidhe are allowed to gatecrash at various meetings of lesser fae they should be barred from (e.g. a Low Court or a Sprite Thing) even is those meetings are closed or pure. Whether a sidhe has the right to attend depends on his rank and the fae who are calling the meeting. Example: because the Trolls are highly trusted and respected by the sidhe only members of the Great Houses (and they require authorisation by the Head of the House or the Heir apparent) may attend their Moots and Things and only members of the Royal Court may attend their Low Courts. Goblins, on the other hand, are so highly distrusted that any sidhe from any Honoured House or higher (i,e. all sidhe) may attend all their gatherings. Any gathering of mixed fae takes the ‘least favoured’ fae as the sidhe’s rights. Any gathering of more than 3 types of fae grants automatic Right of Attendance to all sidhe of all ranks.
Though the sidhe may attend, they usually don’t. Partly because they really don’t want to take part in a Nocker display or a Goblin party and also because it really annoys the other fae.
So, now I get Sidhe etiquette rules infringing into my head. Fun.
The rules of the Seelie Court can be Byzantine, and seemingly none more so than a Seelie invitation. The missive may stretch to pages in length to describe the purpose of the gathering. The most important matter, however, is not why the gather is called, or even where the gather is called, (both of which I may ramble on about later) but who may attend. While in theory these rules only apply to the Seelie, the dominance of Seelie rule means that many Unseelie find themselves similarly bound.
To begin to understand the system, it is necessary to understand the Seelie noble Houses.
Seelie Noble Houses are divided into 4 types - Regal, Great, Honoured (usually just referred to as a House with no prefix) and Noted (usually just referred to as a House with no prefix necessary). The members or sometimes just the heads, of these Houses sometimes adopt these prefixes to their titles (e.g. The Great Lord Brionachan). There is only one Regal House - the house of the High King. Great Houses are the most powerful Houses, only these may rise to become the Royal House. Only the High King can grant recognition of a House as a Great House, and it’s rare and difficult. The Honoured Houses are the rest of the Houses of the sidhe (honoured by the presence of sidhe). The Noted Houses are none sidhe nobility (they have been ‘noticed’ or have been considered ‘noteworthy’ of the sidhe).
NB: The title does not necessarily reflect the power or even the influence of the House.
Each class of House may attend various meetings of the nobility (referred to as ‘Courts’). Commoners may only attend Moots and Things (unless invited, as explained later). In theory, anyone entitled to attend a meeting may call it (so any member of a Great House may call a Noble Court), practice is usually different. If you are not the head or a high ranking member of your House, then issuing such a call will be seen as a challenge for position, or perhaps even ignored altogether. It is also preferable to have a call backed by ‘sponsors’ especially if your House is not especially influential, otherwise people may not attend (which will be very embarrassing and socially damaging). Likewise, snubbing a call by a more influential or powerful House may be seriously damaging, or in some cases (such as refusing a call to the Royal Court) suicidal. Naturally the wording of the invitations will vary on standing - the invitation to an Honoured House from the Regal House will be more a command to attend, while an invitation from a Great House to the Regal House will be full of praise and flowery language.
Sometimes it is best to ask a superior House to call a gathering in your stead both to ensure a respectable turnout and to allow the higher ranking House to act as Host and obtain Host rights (and possibly duties, if they are too onerous for the lesser House). Alternatively the caller may extend some or all Host rights to a superior House in the invitation (e.g. a right to invite guests in a Pure gathering, especially if the lesser House also wants to invite someone - to invite someone and at the same time tell the King he can’t is... politically ill-advised).
The gatherings are:
Royal Court: The High King, his immediate Household and the most powerful of the Great Houses (usually those who have other Great Houses as Vassals).
Noble Court: The Regal House (if in the area) and all the Great Houses.
High Court: Regal (if in the area), Great and Honoured Houses.
Low Court(s): Noted Houses. Usually of a certain type i.e. a Low Court of the Trolls is for Trollen courts only.
Common Court: All houses.
Moot (or Grand Moot): Meeting of all fae of a particular type in the area (e.g. A Brownie Moot of the Seelie will be a meeting for all Seelie Brownies). A Grand Moot is a meeting of all fae of all kinds. Both kinds of Moot are usually restricted to an area (A Brownie Moot of the Seelie in the domain of Lord Brionachan the Bold, though fae often travel depending on whether open, closed or pure).
Thing (or Althing): Like a Moot (the various Moots, so you can have a Troll Thing, for example or an Althing of all fae), but by egalitarian by tradition. Everyone has a right to speak and be heard, and TECHNICALLY no more weight is given to someone’s words than they deserve. Title and position is SUPPOSED to be replaced by pure merits.
Also, a Court, Moot or Thing can be Open, Closed or Pure, dictating the presence of guests.
Open: If a Court, Moot or Thing is open then none qualifying fae may attend (e.g. a member of an Honoured House at a Royal Court) at the invitation of a qualifying member (in the case of a Court, this must be a high ranking member of the attending House). All Courts, Things and Moots are considered Open to the Convener (i.e. if you convene the Court, then you can invite unqualified people, even if you declare the court as Closed or Pure). In the Case of Royal, Noble and High Courts, none-sidhe members of the Houses may attend if the court is open (though the House may face derision for allowing such attendance). Servants are free to attend.
Closed: Only qualifying members may attend. Servants are prohibited unless human and clouded by glamour. A reasonable bodyguard is allowed but expected not to be in the court room itself. None sidhe members of Houses in certain courts are still allowed, but frowned upon.
Pure: Only qualifying members may attend. Servants are prohibited, in addition, only high ranking members of the House attend a Pure Court.
A final point of sidhe privilege. Sidhe of varying ranks get ‘Rights of Attendance’ also known as ‘Duties of Guidance’. Basically this means that sidhe are allowed to gatecrash at various meetings of lesser fae they should be barred from (e.g. a Low Court or a Sprite Thing) even is those meetings are closed or pure. Whether a sidhe has the right to attend depends on his rank and the fae who are calling the meeting. Example: because the Trolls are highly trusted and respected by the sidhe only members of the Great Houses (and they require authorisation by the Head of the House or the Heir apparent) may attend their Moots and Things and only members of the Royal Court may attend their Low Courts. Goblins, on the other hand, are so highly distrusted that any sidhe from any Honoured House or higher (i,e. all sidhe) may attend all their gatherings. Any gathering of mixed fae takes the ‘least favoured’ fae as the sidhe’s rights. Any gathering of more than 3 types of fae grants automatic Right of Attendance to all sidhe of all ranks.
Though the sidhe may attend, they usually don’t. Partly because they really don’t want to take part in a Nocker display or a Goblin party and also because it really annoys the other fae.