The Iron Seer

About the Nevernever

For those unfamiliar with the world of the Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa, some bonus material explaining the world-building. Basically a big info-dump. :) Also feel free to check out the Iron Fey Wikia to find out more, but beware of spoilers in doing so if you've not read the series!

The Nevernever, the world of the fey, also known as Faeryland or simply as Faery, is parallel to the human world. The fey can travel back and forth between both worlds through portals called trods, which are often found in places of concentrated human emotion and creativity in the mortal world. Such as, for instance, a door in an abandoned, run-down building opening up onto an alley off a busy city street one moment, and the next an enchanted forest of eternal summer.

The door to your closet could lead to a nest of giant spiders!

Most humans cannot see the fey, the faery world, or faery magic; however, some mortals are gifted with something called the Sight, the ability to see through the Veil (also known as the Between, a place that also can be traveled to as well) which obscures Faery from mortal sight and knowledge.

Will-o'-the-Wisps by Emerald-Depths on DeviantArt

There are many different species of faeries; in Kagawa's world, pretty much any mythological creature is considered fey, from the sidhe, the fey nobility (similar to elves from Lord of the Rings), to satyrs, ogres, trolls, phoukas, leprechauns, redcaps, piskies, goblins, gnomes, kitsunes, sylphs, will-o'-the-wisps (like above), bogies (who like to hang out in little kid's closets), wyverns, brownies (not the chocolate kind, but those are good too), undines, sprites, unicorns, ice wyrms, kelpies, dwarves, and many more.

The fey are born from human dreams and fears, and they are only immortal so long as they stay in human belief and memory. When they're forgotten, they fade into nonexistence. This goes for individual faeries as well as whole species of fey.

There are two traditional types of faeries, divided by their allegiance to Seelie (Summer) and Unseelie (Winter) Courts. There are different territories of the Nevernever, divided up by the Courts. These territories take on the characteristics of their rulers. Tir Na Nog, the Winter realm, is a land of eternal snow and ice. Arcadia, the Summer realm, is a land of lush forests and greenery.

Here's a map I made of Tir Na Nog (meaning "Land of Youth"), also known as the Winter Realm. I used details from throughout the Iron Fey books (which unfortunately don't have maps) to construct this and added some of my own original places for more content. Since it started out as just a purely functional sketch to help me visualize the places I was writing about, the distances aren't really scaled correctly and it's definitely not an official representation of Julie Kagawa's Winter Realm. This is simply how I see the Winter Realm of the Iron Fey series, and how it is represented in this story.

The fey have magic, called glamour; this magic is fueled by human belief and emotion. What type of glamour a faerie has is based on the Court they are part of. Unseelie fey have Winter glamour, of snow and ice, and Seelie fey have Summer glamour, of plants and animals and summer storms. Glamour is not solely limited to seasonal abilities. It can also be used to create illusions, transform one thing into another for short periods, and other magic "tricks." The range of these abilities and the amount of glamour fey possess depends on how powerful they are. Basically, faery glamour is pretty versatile.

The most powerful fey are the rulers of the Courts - King Oberon and Queen Titania of Summer, and Queen Mab of Winter, all immortalized in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. However, there are other famous fey, such as Robin Goodfellow, also from A Midsummer Night's Dream, and of course the three faery sons of Queen Mab - Sage, Rowan, and Ash.

Iron is a faerie's kryptonite. It weakens them, drains them of power, and eventually kills them. Iron exists in abundance in the human world. That's why being banished to the mortal realm - a popular punishment for traitors to the fey Courts, or really anyone who happens to anger the rulers badly enough - is ultimately a death sentence. Part 1 and 2 of The Iron Seer is set around the early 1900's, about a hundred years before Meghan and the events of the Iron Fey series take place, and after the industrial revolution, which was a huge leap forward in human technology.

The advancement of science and technology is a threat to the fey, for its relationship with iron and its effect on the fey, and also because, as I said earlier, the fey are born of human belief in magic. If magic is forgotten by mortals, then the fey as they are will simply cease to exist.

This concludes my info-dump. I hope it was helpful and not too boring! ;)