A brief explanation of the Great wars.

There are 4 dominant species in what is referred to as ‘the fairy world’ or ‘The Otherworld”. Unlike Earth its less of a world and more of a dimension so It does not possess a common designation.

The popular belief is that names have power. To name something is to take ownership of it. The repercussions of trying to take possession of a whole dimension would be too large for any one individual to take on.

(This version of history is going to be from a fae-centric view1.)

In the beginning, the Dimension was divided into 4 courts and was split between the four dominant races.

The summer court that belonged to the Fairies, the winter court that belonged to the Goblins, the Fall court where the Witches resided And the Spring court that was governed by the Elves.

As the Elves dwindled in number due to civil wars and natural disasters as well as them having the lowest reproductive rates out of the four races they eventually grew to little to warrant their own land and dispersed into other worlds or pocket dimensions.

The now unoccupied spring court was the cause of the First official Fae-goblin war otherwise known as the Great war.

The full name is the Interspecies war but the witches sided pretty quickly with the fairies in that war. The Witches and fairies had always been friendly to one another but the main cause of the alliance was their hatred of the goblins.

The Witches were also promised many benefits after the war as an incentive to side with the fairies.

The Fairies won after 2 centuries of war with only a small part of that victory being owed to the witches, and the Goblins were beaten back to the Winter court.

This war was led by Heloise.

Eventually, the Fairies as well split up into the two courts and stayed divided until Belphoebe reunited them through war. The witches were awarded many advantageous trade deals as well as small parts of the spring kingdom in return for their contributions.

That was the first Great war.

During this Cambridge and Corin as well as Mei's mother and the other matriarchs of the Duchies fought alongside Belphoebe. Which is what results in their positions now.

A point of interest is that Cambridge and Corin used to be from a rather large clan, but they eventually died off due to internal conflict and poor reproductive abilities.

(ie Corin and Cambridge killed them all for attempting to harm the crown and both swore to never have children of their own as atonement. The clan essentially dies with them)

In-between the two Fae goblin wars there was a small uprising in which the witches were unsatisfied with what they had received as a reward from the Fairies and felt that it went against the original treaty signed.

The Witches teamed up with the Goblins, who were still dissatisfied with the results of the previous war and prepared to launch an attack against the fairies.

The situation was dissolved to quickly to let it be called a war as during the official declaration of war the Respective leaders of the Fairy and Goblin races fell in love.

The Goblins reneged on their alliance with the Witches and stood behind the Fairies in punishing the Witches for trying to attack them.

The Fairies and the Goblins went into negotiations on plans to merge the fairy and goblin kingdoms And the plan started with deciding the Fate of the future child of the couple. Were the child to be a goblin male it would be taken to the winter kingdom to be raised. And if it was a fairy female it would be taken to live with the fairies.

Regardless of the sex of the child, It would spend a single season of each year in the other kingdom to learn about its other heritage.

It was a glorious occasion that was greeted with much celebration and fanfare.

Eventually, the child was born between the two leaders being almost exactly half Fairy and half-goblin. Which raised the debate of where the child would be raised.

The Goblins Argues that it was a male and was, in fact, half-goblin, meaning that it fulfilled the terms of the treaty and should be taken to the winter kingdom.

The Fairies argued that the child would not be able to access its goblin powers without an official awakening but it would be able to use its fairy powers with training.

There was also the condition of the Queen2 Not being able to have another child because of the child inheriting the ‘royal’ status from its mother.

This essentially settled into a war with many factions. The faction of goblins that wanted to bring the child to the winter court, The Fairies that did not want to give the goblins a warrior that was capable of using fairy magic and finally the faction that wanted the child killed in order for the queen to birth a new royal.

The result was the Goblin emperor and Fairy Queen attempting to flee the child into the human world where it could be safe. Unfortunately, the plan failed and both perished.

Unlike the Fairies who had multiple ranks of power and someone able to lead the armies even after the queen’s death the goblins were very dependent on their emperor and fled back to their courts, Locking away the child’s goblin power and leaving it as a male fairy.