Legend (CTL)

Legend is a term used to describe a contest between True Fae, where they take lesser forms to fight for the acquisition of Names and Titles.

Overview
The Fae battle each other in the Game of Immortals to generate Legends and live — but a legend has no weight if it does not involve great difficulty and an equally great triumph. In order to fight, they need each Other’s permission. Arcadia’s ruled by oaths and Contracts; dire enemies must negotiate their wars. These agreements create Feuds: alliances of enemies that dominate Gentry society.

True Fae don’t have bodies but adopt them when the occasion demands it. They don’t need nourishment and rest unless these are required by an oath. They don’t age or feel pain unless they promise to experience those things. The Gentry dine on stories and vows. Flesh is a game. If a mortal was thrust into existence as one of the Gentry he might exult in the power and scope of his new existence, but would quickly learn it has its own vulnerabilities.

For all the power of the True Fae, their fluid nature is a weakness. Like humans and changelings, Gentry are defined by a basic duality: subject and object, Self and Other. But unlike mortals, Gentry are not guaranteedduality. They only have a tenuous ability to set themselves apart from Arcadia. At the whim of material existence, mortals cannot help but experience a separation between themselves and their world. Tensions between  the  Self  and  Other  drive their  lives. They remember conflicts, link them together and forge life stories.

By contrast, True Fae are the places they dwell and the things they experience. Without duality there’s no conflict and without conflict, they cannot truly exist. Instead of air, water, food or shelter, the Gentry need to struggle. They need adversity, surprise and risk. They can’t create these conditions by themselves (and while the Fae can simulate all of these things, it would be a meaningless exercise on their own).

A Keeper creates a fiery mote between herself (really, the body she’s created for the occasion) and a trapped lover — another extension of her desire. She leaps the mote and rescues her love, but it’s not real conflict. She is the mote, so leaping it is insignificant. Even if she fell, the fire would persist, and she would live as the  fire. She is her rescued love. His peril — her peril — is voluntary. The love itself is false. None of it sustains the faerie. At best, it’s a diversion, like daydreaming or masturbation. At worst its autocannibalism; the desperate faerie mimics a true conflict to deny her own starvation. The True Fae need conflict to survive, lest they succumb to the Dwindling.

Each faerie in a Feud sends manifestations of itself against others, where they play out tales of genuine peril and difficult victory. One Keeper plays the hero of our last example, but another plays the fiery mote and a third, the imperiled lover. This time, the fire canburn the questing faerie. Her lover might spurn her, too. If she can’t overcome  these  obstacles,  their  ruling  Fae  win  the right to devour a bit of her essence, but if she didn’ttake up the  challenge,  she  would  fade  away. Some Winter Court writings  call  these  story-battles "Legends".

Alternate Legends
Feuds are not  the  only  way  True  Fae  create  conflict. There’s also  the Wild Hunte: an expedition beyond Arcadia to alien realms like Earth, human dreams and the Hedge. Natives challenge the Others with strong wills and strange ways. Changelings know the Hunt. Often as not, they were the prey. Mortals are valuable commodities: a free will is precious. Human duality  grows  stronger  before  Arcadia. Mortal fear,  hate  and  disorientation  strengthen  psychic boundaries and feed a Keeper’s needs. Resentful slaves are the most valuable kind. When they rebel, they trigger Legends of their own, and True Fae revel in them. These conflicts sustain them, too.