Greyfolk
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Overview
Greyfolk (Commonspeak), also Bodachs (Feyspeak \ˈboʊdɪk\ for ancient one), are a Fey species native to Arcadia. They are one of the two constituent species of The Lower Bone Court. Their Fey God is The Grey King. Greyfolk embody Strange Meaning through mortality, erosion, and the quiet dignity of things ending.
They are most commonly found in places associated with decay, abandonment, and the long passage of time. Among the Fey, Greyfolk are regarded as somber, patient, and unsettlingly gentle.
History
Dark Age
Greyfolk came into existence in the Dark Age, circa NIR 1380, when The Grey King founded The Bone Court. This Court pursued Strange Meaning through substance and impermanence, asserting that decay is not failure, but truth.
Greyfolk emerged as contemplatives of death, studying it not as violence, but as release. From their earliest days, they viewed life as endurance and death as cessation, a position that placed them firmly among the Bleak Courts.
Later in the Dark Age, circa NIR 1750, The Bone Court was fused with The Lower Court through the Concordance, forming The Lower Bone Court. This fusion brought the Greyfolk into permanent association with the Bogles, the other species of the fused Court.
Unlike the volatile pairing of Fetchlings and Changelings, the Bodachs and Bogles achieved a genuine peace. Their philosophies aligned naturally: where Greyfolk contemplated endings, Bogles dwelled in misplacement and loss. Over time, the two species came to see one another as siblings, each completing the other’s understanding of impermanence.
Dawn Age
In the current era, Greyfolk remain stable within the Lower Bone Court, their role unchanged but deepened by centuries of shared existence with the Bogles.
Cosmology
The Lower Bone Court holds that Strange Meaning arises from impermanence. All things decay, and it is this inevitability that gives them weight.
Greyfolk embody this belief by existing in a constant state of near-ending. Their aged forms are not the result of time passing, but of philosophical alignment. They look old because oldness is closer to truth.
Their obsession with death is not nihilistic. To the Greyfolk, death represents the end of suffering, while life is the continuation of it. Neither is moral; both are conditions to be observed and understood.
Society
Within The Lower Bone Court, Greyfolk occupy roles as watchers, counters, and quiet custodians of endings.
They commonly:
- Observe deaths and decays without interference.
- Record the passing of individuals, places, and eras.
- Counsel other Fey on matters of loss and dissolution.
While usually harmless, Greyfolk sometimes involve mortals in their philosophy, allowing death to unfold so it may be witnessed and comprehended. Such acts are rarely motivated by cruelty, but by a sincere, if Bleak, pursuit of Strange Meaning.
Ecology
Greyfolk appear as extremely tall, gaunt, ancient elves, stooped and brittle with age. Their skin is deeply wrinkled, their teeth yellowed, and their hair wiry and grey. Every movement suggests fragility, though they are far hardier than they appear.
They possess a singular and unsettling ability: Greyfolk can determine the exact age of any object or creature they encounter, living or dead. This knowledge comes instantly and without effort, as though age itself announces its presence to them.
Greyfolk favor desolate environments, graveyards, ruins, eroding coastlines, and forgotten roads. In such places, they are calm and attentive, listening to the slow, inevitable work of time.