This lore dive is a helpful resource for understanding the Fae & Alchemy series! This lore guide includes spoilers, so please read AFTER you’ve finished Quicksilver.
Includes info from Quicksilver, so this guide is spoiler in nature.
This guide does NOT include information from Brimstone.
If you would like to listen to this lore dive, check out the Rusarius’ Library section here.
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The Gods
The gods as a collective are known as the Corcoran.
Their names and temples have been forgotten in Zilvaren (thanks to Madra), but in Yveia, the gods are revered. The gods left Yelia a long time ago, and since their departure, certain elements of fae magic died or waned over time and it is hoped that they will someday return.
The 4 Gods and 3 Goddesses
Styx – God of Shadows
Kurin – God of Secrets
Nicinnai – Goddess of Masks
Maleus – God of Dawn and New Beginnings
Balmithin – Twin goddesses of the Sky (Bal and Mithin)
Legends say they were once one god, but when a storm came and Balmithin refused to take shelter, the powerful spirit within the storm became furious that Balmithin didn’t cower before him. He lashed her with forks of lightning, but she didn’t die. Instead, she cracked and split in two, becoming Bal and Mithin.
- Bal – Goddess of the Sun / Goddess of Day
- Mithin – Goddess of the Moon / Goddess of Night
They are also known as Balea and Min, the twin suns of Zilvaren, and whose likeness is startlingly similar to faces carved into the walls in the Hall of Mirrors in Madra’s palace.
They are described as looking about 18 or 19 in age, though they are probably older than this universe. They are completely identical with waist length black hair, royal blue eyes with silver threads, and dressed in loose, dark grey dresses with bare feet. They are both playful and curious, especially about what it’s like being with a man.
Their father, Zareth, forbids them from being with anyone, claiming that no living creature from any realm is worthy of their touch. According to them, they have been waiting an eon for him to gift them a playmate, but no other of their kind has braved the journey to visit their Corcoran.
NOTE: Eon – is a unit of geologic time equal to one billion years.
Zareth – God of Chaos and Change
In Yveia, his statue is always turned away with his back out and face hidden so his face is to the wall. While the Fae respect him, they would rather he pays attention to others rather than themselves.
There are very few people who enjoy his attention being focused on them. Fae respect and revere him, but many would rather he pay attention to what other people are doing instead of themselves. They touch his statue foot to guide him away from them
Zareth in person is described as wearing a dark gray robe, with long brown hair tied back into war braids. He has cool, blue eyes and looks to be middle aged, and about the height of Kingfisher. While he doesn’t LOOK god-like, immense power emanates from him.
While Fae pray to each member of the Corcoran that they’ll someday return to Yvelia, in secret, a lot of them pray that Zareth gets lost on his journey.
The Realm of the Gods and the Universe Tree
The realm of the Gods is accessed through the quicksilver. This is a place separate from the realms, from the universe; time and space exist differently here.
From what is seen of the gods’ Corcoran, there is a vast grassy field at the foot of a rolling hill. Atop the hill is a single massive oak tree with silver leaves. The tree has streams of quicksilver running down its bark like sap and trickling in the quicksilver moat. At the base, its roots are surrounded and growing into an 8 foot wide moat of pure liquid quicksilver.
One of the branches is covered in a black rot, shriveled and has fewer leaves than the rest wirh a large chunk of the tree and roots dying. The rot is slowly growing and infecting the rest of the tree, leading to leaves needing to be pruned to prevent the rot from spreading.
The tree and the surrounding quicksilver moat represent the universe, the roots of the tree are the anchors of fate, and each silver leaf marks a single realm of Zareth and his family’s domain with billions of beings per realm.
Zareth and his family are the stewards of this domain, watering the roots of fate and training the branches and pruning the leaves to prevent the rot and decay from spreading. However, the rot is spreading through the gods’ domain and realms that are infected with rot that has to be destroyed to protect the rest of the tree and prevent the rot from spreading. These pruned realms fall into the moat of quicksilver.
NOTE: The gods are also able to replant the tree if/when it dies, starting a new universe.
The Fates
The Fates bless true mates with marks, and the threads of fate determine the path and futures of those woven into the tapestry. Not every path on the tapestry is good or bad – some are shrouded in uncertainty, hidden so well that not even the Gods can see the outcome.
NOTE: It’s our understanding that the fates are not people or their own gods, but rather the fates of the universe, the deciding threads that weave what happens in this universe – across different timelines, in the future, and such.
The gods can consult the fates and sway the fates (or at least try to). Zareth attempted to sway the fates, changing the realm and species in which Saeris was born into, but the boughs of the universe grew against nature to allow Kingfisher and Saeris to still meet.
There is a counterweight to everything: Light and darkness. Life and death. Joy and sorrow. Good and evil.
This law applies, no matter the realm – meaning no matter how hard someone tries to change fate, it can’t be done without major intervention. Someone’s life thread can be severed from the tapestry of the universe, and once that happens none of the gods can interfere with timelines or events that will affect this person.
The only way for this to be done is by transforming the person into something that has never been seen before. To quote Zareth, “The universe cannot focus on that which it does not recognize.”
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