Life dust

Life dust is the magical essense of life. Since it is shed and consumed by all Fay creatures it is a common substance in Faierie. Both The Fayrie and the plants of Faierie shed and consume life dust. Fay plants use life dust in place of seeds or fruit, while the Fayrie use it to empower magic, or go into a dormant state.

copied discussion

See The Fayrie page and history for the lead-up discussion. It is copied here for reference.

• Fay dust is used by who?

anyone who uses fay magic can use Fay dust. It is an essential ingredient in some spells, or may merely augment them. Fay dust is also an essential (of the essence) part of the Fay diet. Fay dust is a stage in the lifecycle of all fay, as well as many of their plants and animals.

i was thinking we might be able to take the whole dust concept farther, there just seems to be so many creaturs that are relaited to dust, i think we could take it farther than just fay. almost all demonic or evil creatures i can think of are reduced to dust when killed. vampires, demons, there are some legends that say zombies fall to dust when killed. this way we get an interesting dinamic not only between good and evil creatures but also between evil and evil. idk something to think about--Zack 21:34, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

I think you've hit on something there! Not only are supernatural beings related to dust, but man himself was formed out of the dust! Dust is kind of like the fundamental building block of life, just as atoms are the funamental building block of chemistry. What if any living creature, supernatural or not, turns into dust when they die, and then, if you want to create a creature, you have to use this essential dust to do it. Healing too, requires dust. Humans do too (minus the water, zombie dust, mummy dust). Fay dust would be magical (since the creatures themselves are magical). Maybe vampire dust attracts demons and other evil creatures? Ashes could be a kind of dust as well, which would be an interesting hook for why dragons can breath fire, they reduce the whole of their prey to dust. They wouldn't even need a mouth to eat, just fire, and then absorb the dust magically, or inhale it or something! To make a ward against a creature, perhaps you need some of its dust. "Dusting" would take on a whole new meaning. I'm sure there are more ways we could go with this. Keep the ideas coming. Ziggy 22:38, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

k, ya i was thinking something along those lines, what about the idea of spells being agmented by the "spirit" of the creature from which the dust was taken? does that only aply to Fay? This also gives us a physical mode for essence, every fantisy world or RPG you hear about essence of...whatever: fire, water, air, death, life. You would be able to enbed life into all sorts of enanimate objects or perhaps elements. see were im going with this? golems or elementals. but the dust would only work on simple, or pure elements unlike steel, acids, and complex gasses leaving you with the basic elements. The dust from a fire elemental would be an essence of fire since dust takes on the atribues of the creature it comes from. having dust from a fire elemental would be ideal for the use of fire magic since the will of the dust would be bent towards fire. And what happens when you have the ability to make somthing you need?...you are going to get elemental farmers whos crop would be essence of fire.--Zack 09:46, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

This could also lend itself well to a more traditional type of magic. where most magic is shape shifting, illusions, and mind altering. so if you want to make shape shift into, make illusions of, or alter the minds of a Human, then you need the dust of dead humans.... which makes magic against humans morally questionable. Then other forms of magic would be less detestable, like killing a bear and using its remains to turn into a bear. Oswald 20:30, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

hummm....not a fan of that idea. I like dust the way it is right now, as a tool for magic, not the entire magic system. besides dust is only really going to be used in the Fay world because they are they only culture that is built around it, otherwise there are very few other being that would have knolege about dust, also im thinking we should call it "life dust" if we go with the idea that the dust is deposited life enegies.

going back to my idea about farming elementals, this would add a whole new level to the eco-system of the Fay world. the easiest way to get life dust would be from certain plants (as stated above) so now you have life dust farmers whos crop is bought by pretty much everyone for all kinds of every day comodities. this dust would also be sold to elemental farmers who in turn would sell the essece of elemenals as fuals for magics, fay technology, or perhaps even weaponry.--Zack 05:07, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

ok here is a crazy idea: fay cannot "die" untill they age to a certain point, but what if physical events can turn them to dust, fayrie dust, thats what gives it so much power. fairy dust is actualy the dormant remains of fairies and can only be retured to its physical form when...psh i dont know, retuerd to its birth place, or tears, or fire, or maybe a whole ritual but whatever the case they should be able to be revived reletivly easily. in the mean time though, fairy dust then becomes a powerfull tool long with a highly debatable moral subject.--Zack 23:48, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, I like where this is going. Maybe Fay can choose to spall off fairy dust as well. That way, physical damage, or the Fay's will can convert them into this passive form. However, using fayrie dust for your own ends doesn't actually consume the fay, it just gives the fay partial controll of your spell, binding the fay, but empowering it as well. Thus Fay can lend others their power, but they also gain a hand and knowlege in whatever it is used for. I'd say that, barring outside influence, Fayrie dust re-coagulates into the fay it came from after some time has passed. Fayrie dust could also be magical energy, created by plants in Faierie, and any fay can eat fayrie dust (from plants, or other fay). Consuming the fayrie dust from plants gives the Fay properties of those plants as well. In this way, the fay are all intertwined.

Perhaps the Fay are also graduated in power. Some are greater creatures, with a longer lifespan, and an ability to absorb more fayrie dust. If a fay eats too much, the dust begins to spaul off, and could make the fay unstable. There could be lots of different types of fayrie dust as well, reflecting its origins, potency, uses, and character. The very soil of the great enchanted forests would sparkle with the stuff.Ziggy 06:11, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

i like the idea of its not consuming the fay...cuz then you run into all kinds of moral snags. Even with this system we are still going to get magic hungry creatures though, wich im sure will add nicely to the story. I also like the idea of fairy dust empowered spells. That way anyone who would use spells in an evil way, they Fay would be able to stop the spell or at least channel it deffensivly, but if there were fay that wished to be used by evil...then we have an interesting delema. so what about the dust from pants and such?

is the dust from plants not as potant as the dust of a dormant Fay?

also, test here to see if we are on the same page. for example, Peter pan: to fly the children need fairy dust, but because its the dust from tinkerbell she can mold the spell such that only a person wih happy thoughts can fly, protecting her magic from the piraites. is this the basic idea?--Zack 16:38, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking. If a fay is reduced to fayrie dust before its lifespan is up, then using the dust also allows the fay to partially controll the spell even after it is cast, since the will of the fay gets bound into the spell too. The difference between plant and Fay dust could be both a matter of potency, as well as the fact that plants have no active will, and therefore won't mess up your spell. Plant-originated dust could also be ill-suited for certain kinds of magic. On the other hand, certain magical plants could produce specialized forms of fayrie dust, so to cast spells requires gathering all the right kinds of dust together. Lots of places we can go with this. When a spell is broken, or expires, it would dissolve into the component fayrie dust (or whatever was left over) and the captured Fay could then re-emerge.Ziggy 17:12, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

ok but there is still a normal use of spells without Fay dust corect? they are just far less potant?--Zack 19:58, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Right. Fay magic isn't the only kind of magic, and even some of that doesn't require Fay dust (Though perhaps the more potent workings should).Ziggy 20:01, 1 April 2008 (UTC)