About the fae
The Fae are magical beings that used to roam the earth freely many thousands of years ago until humans evolved and rose to be a significant power in the world. Now they live just outside of that world in The Glimmer, a magical world that exists beyond the span of human perception and is anchored to earth through portals. They must remain anchored because it is the earth that fuels their magic. The Fae themselves are mysterious and mischievous by nature and have quite a diverse society. Fae are naturally gifted with magic from birth, that when properly harnessed and encouraged can become quite powerful and that is basically always the case for fae who grow up around their own kind. Their society is governed by an all powerful council, each of the 12 members representing a different district and each district having its own portals to both Earth and to the central, 13th district where the council gathers for meetings. For a very long time after they had moved to the Glimmer, the rule when it came to humans was absolutely no interaction must be had. While that was the rule of the council and most were happy to comply, there were others who were not. There were those who sought vengeance or to get even with humans, and they developed shadow groups who started the practice of Changelings. Some would just outright steal human children. As human society expanded, and the available land on earth to roam without human interference was reduced, these shadow groups gained numbers and popularity. The council knew they had to intervene and find a solution that would please all of their people, and so they adopted the practices with more regulation and allowed for some human interaction on the condition their society be kept secret through magic. The stolen human children up until then were often just killed by their kidnappers but the council sought more humane treatment for them, coming up with a program where fae families could raise the human child and when the human was old enough and capable would be more of an indentured servant in terms of their status in society. It was mostly up to each family’s discretion so long as the child wasn’t physically harmed. Gifting humans with magic was initially started by human sympathizers and adopted as a practice to help keep their society a secret. Some of these human sympathizers would go on to even have children with humans, their half fae children being a subject of heavy debate among the fae and for the most part widely looked down upon.