Faemons

The term Faemon is a combination of the words fae and daemon.

Faemons are humanoid skeletons, usually completely covered besides their heads (other than things like hats and hoods) and tails. They have a human or animal skull, glowing “fae fire” in their eye sockets to act as eyes, either antlers/horns or ears (but not both), and an animal tail (the tail is not skeletal).

Appearance

There is no real limit on how they will look, but they must be skeletal, covered, have antlers/horns or ears, and have some sort of tail. Each part must be from a different creature. They also have wings that can be hidden, and once released will allow them to fly. These wings are also from different creatures than their other parts.

Origins

They seem to originate from a "crooked" plane of existence called Distiltside (distort + tilt + lopside), which is described as a confusing and disorienting place. Everything looks 'fake', as if being props and sets made for a stage play. Many things appear to be made from cheap wood, cardboard, yarn, sheet metal, fabric, plastic, and other artificial materials. Windows and doors seem to be scribbled into surfaces with crayon, ink, or paint, yet they function the same as normal windows/doors.

Even the sky looks like it's simply a stretched-out curtain, or something like the skybox of a video game. Clouds are seemingly made of cotton even though they move and occasionally give rain and other types of weather. The sun itself looks like a lightbulb. There is no transitions between day and night in Distiltside, it just changes from one to the other every 12 hours, with the lightbulb in the sky getting instantly dimmer or brighter as needed.

The layouts of buildings and towns seem to make no sense, with different numbers of rooms, buildings, and so on. It's especially obvious if you look at the outside of a building or town beforehand, only to find that the inner layout doesn't match what's on the outside. Plants appear to be made of plastic yet still act like normal plants. Meanwhile, most 'animals' here seem to be just simple animatronics, repeating certain actions and motions over and over with no input.

This location is a layer of existence 'within' the Nothingness, though it is neither a Miran nor its own Story. While other beings of the Nothingness seem to be created in certain locations, in the case of Distiltside it seems to be the other way around. That is, the Faemon created Distiltside for themselves. It is still unknown how Faemon came into being at all, nor how new ones are created. The only thing known is that they're not created in Distiltside, though all Faemon will eventually visit there at some point in their lives.

Abilities

Faemons all have abilities related to bones, which they refer to as bone magic. This includes things like divination with bones, and even manipulating bones. They also tend to have their own unique bone object tied to them. This item is often a weapon that can be used to defend themselves without greater magic.

Much like the standard fae, they love to play pranks on people and even make one-sided contracts with them. These contracts basically have the signee offer something in exchange for something from the Faemon. Anything can be offered for a contract, from souls and blood to money and toys. The signee can try to ask for anything from a Faemon, but the Faemon themselves have their own preferences and boundaries on what they're willing to do. Thus, the signee and their Faemon can negotiate the terms of the contract, though the Faemon will also do whatever they can to confuse and trick the signee. Otherwise, Faemon can literally do anything, but can only do so if it's part of a contract.

Faemons are not limited to making contracts with only ‘bad’ humans. They have their own morals and preferences, though generally they do tend to target only foolish or evil humans who deserve the fallout of such contracts. Generally, whatever is promised will happen, but eventually it will be ruined by either the human’s hubris, or by the Faemon itself once it gets bored. They tend to lie a lot to get their contracts signed, and will sometimes come up with a magnificent backstory for themselves in order to influence or convince people to do something.

Besides their contract abilities and bone magic, Faemon have general magic abilities that can be honed into mastery over certain elements or crafts. Usually Faemon tend to be adept at magic related to plants, illusions, and lunar/stellar energies.

Examples of Faemons

The following are examples of named Faemon in the Storyverse setting:

• Larkspur (young woman, DnD ranger kinda outfit, bird skull, white-tailed deer antlers, cat tail, blue jay wings, blue fire eyes, bone longstaff)
• Foxglove (middle-aged man, librarian sort of outfit with argyle/tweed, hippo skull, antelope horns, peacock tail, dragonfly wings, green fire eyes, bone whip made from a spine)
• Oleander (older man, black long coat and trilby hat, human skull, bighorn ram horns, scorpion tail, bat wings, red fire eyes, bone rapier/cutlass/fancy sword)
• Phillip A. Avarice, a member of the Morbid Mayhem!! crew.
• Malakite (short woman, rogue-ish outfit; anteater skull, fox ears, rabbit tail, ladybug wings, dark green fire eyes, bone flute; surprisingly malicious and the source of quite a few deaths and other injuries to her signees, even by Faemon standards. She's bad enough that she's officially listed as an Interloper.)