Denial

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Denial was a form of philosophical warfare that was created by The King Who Never Was during The War of Erasure. Since Fey cannot die in any meaningful way, direct conflict among Fey Courts was not a productive activity. However, philosophical aggression proved extremely effective. It is believed by most Fey scholars that The King Who Never Was had help from The Keening Women in the creation of this form of warfare.

Since each Fey Court is predicated on a philosophical hypothesis for meaning, Denial seeks to unravel that philosophy by demonstrating, in an inexorable way, why the hypothesis is false. The crisis of meaning that this causes strips the target of the Denial of their Strange Power (so they are no longer a Fey God) and subsequently dissolves the Fey Court, as the Fey in the Court lose the will to continue exploring the philosophical hypothesis.

Denial was only successfully deployed against two Fey Courts.

• c. NIR 1100: The Merciful Queen fell to Denial, dissolving The Soft Court.
• c. NIR 1250: Her Imminence fell to Denial, dissolving The Nigh Court.

The third attempt to use Denial not only failed, but backfired. In the last years of The War of Erasure, c. NIR 1350, The King Who Never Was attempted to disprove the premise of The Court of Alignment. However, The Concordant Queen proved far more clever and far stronger of will than The King Who Never Was.

Instead of refuting the argument of Denial, which the prior victims had done, she accepted it. However, she then turned it around and made a counter-argument that allowed her philosophical hypothesis to evolve into something new, instead of being nullified, called Reframing. Then she countered with The Erasure, ending the War and annihilating The King Who Never Was.

Terrified of these events, no one has attempted Denial since, and all Fey Court conflict has been resolved through symbolism, proxy aggressions, and social pressure.