Tom Hood

Tom Hood was the founder of the Seasonal Courts of Miami and former leader of that city's Autumn Court, until his death at the hands of Deathless Ivan.

Biography
Tom was one of the three charismatic visionary changelings who, in 1946, came together to attempt to forge order from the chaos in the area of Miami. He was a former U.S. Army sergeant who had been  abducted by the fae in the Bastogne in late 1944. He returned not long after the end of the war, calling himself Tom Hood, the “Headsman’s Ghost.”

In France, he was initiated into the Autumn Court and brought the idea with him when he returned home to Miami. Tom contacted two of the most personally powerful changelings he could find in Miami: Grandfather Thunder and Rose Thorne, who, to Tom, exemplified the ideals of the Summer and Spring Courts, respectively. A changeling to represent Winter could not be located, and many modern changelings of the Silent Arrow consider this snub to be the principal reason their Court remains low in prominence.

Tom, Thunder and Rose met in Miami Beach one moonlit night, and Tom outlined his plan to create a freehold of Miami. He offered the other two access to ancient books he had brought with him from Paris, books that described the philosophies and the mystical theories behind the changeling Courts. In return, Tom himself was guaranteed a place of prominence in the freehold, regardless of the season and current ruler. Thunder and Rose agreed, and at midnight on  September 23, 1946, the first pledges of the Trident, the freehold of Miami were sworn.

With the Courts now established in name, the three leaders of the freehold began to spread their teachings, recruiting many of the city’s formerly Courtless changelings and establishing their power bases. Even to this day, the original territories of the Courts hold, more or less. Rose Thorne and her Spring Court claimed South Beach and the nightclub district, Grandfather Thunder and the Iron Spear solidified themselves in Liberty City, and Tom Hood took his Autumn Court and fortified himself in downtown Miami. There was no Winter Court in Miami until the middle of the 1960s whe the Silent Arrow was founded when a Courtless changeling called La Llorona managed to steal the original texts Tom Hood brought with him from France.

The rotation lasted until June 21 of 1999, at the height of Grandfather Thunder’s reign, when the King of Endless Summer announced that, by virtue of its climate and the general essence of the city’s character, Miami would henceforth be known as the City of Endless Summer and that the seasonal governance of the Courts was dissolved. Tom Hood condemned the action and mobilized the Leaden Mirror to force the King of Endless Summer to abdicate and name a successor. Had Tom and Rose combined their forces to deal with Thunder, the  whole  affair  might  have  been  nothing  more than a footnote in the freehold’s history. As it was, the Antler Crown and Leaden Mirror each made their own play, and were soundly defeated by the knights of the Summer Court.

It is difficult to say which Court got the worse end of the battle. Tom Hood was killed by Grandfather Thunder’s chief enforcer, Deathless Ivan, and the Autumn Court has withdrawn to its holdings in and around the University of Miami in an attempt to deal with their grief at the loss of the father of the freehold of Miami. It wasn't until 2003 that the Autumn Court finally chose a new leader in one of Tom Hood’s protégés, and the Darkling known as Naamah became the Autumn Queen.

However, thanks to the extended lifespan afforded to changelings, the city has many residents who still remember how Tom Hood brought their city to order and created the seasonal Court that has helped to ward off the lords of Faerie.