The Faery and the Goblyn

Two broad groups of intelligent species dwell in the Valley that predate both the Older Ones, and of course, the younger races that dwell there now.  These are the Faery and the Goblyn.

The Faery include all of the normal magical races one would associate with that group - leprechauns, pixies, fairies, etc - but also the arboreal magical races - such as nymphs, dryads, nyads, centaurs, fauns, and elves.

The Faery do not have gods or goddesses, as such, but rather have a number of very powerful beings who rule over the Seely court.  These are King Oberon and Queen Titania, among others.  The Seely Court is removed from this world, and exists in the Seely Realms.  How or when this split from the World took place, none now alive know.  It is possible that Oberon or Titania know, but they do not speak of it.

The most human like of the Faery are of course the Elves.  They dwell almost entirely in their forest realms, which are areas around where portals from the Seely Realms intersect easily with the world of the Valley.  As expected, time and distance in the Seely realms are very different from time and distance as measured between portals in the world of the Valley.  Because of this situation - that the Elves congregate around the Faery portals - it is rare that Elves in any number are seen outside of their own Fey glens and hollows.

Humans who encounter Elves often mistake the leading figures of the Seely Court as elven "deities".  This is not exactly true, but it is common enough for humans to believe so.  There are Elves who venerate the members of the Court in such a way, that they behave as Priests while in the world of the Valley, receiving powers and spells from the realm of Faery due to their loyalty and fealty to the Court.

When the Seely Realms were separated from those of the World, at the same time the Unseely Realms were also formed.  These were populated by the Goblyn races, mostly.  Those consist of the goblins, hobgoblins, orcs, ogres, trolls and other affiliated races.  The magics of the Unseely Realms are not nearly as well formed nor as well behaved as the magics of the Seely.  Because of this, it is much less likely that travel back and forth against the Unseely portals takes place.  Unlike the Faery, the Goblyn portals are almost all underground, some are very deep underground.  A number of powerful dark magic beings rule over the Unseely Realms, and these are sometimes venerated by the Goblyn races as their own "deities".  This is much less likely than with the Fey folk.

Two interesting outliers from this situation are notable.  The first are the Dark Elves.  These are a group of elves that, for unknown reasons, have chosen to ally themselves with the Unseely Realms.  They dwell mostly underground, and are consummately evil.  They are the most powerful, magically, of the Unseely folk, rivaling some Faery folk for power.

The second exception are the very mysterious Gray Elves.  There are, roughly, three distinct groups of Faery Elves (apart from the Goblyn Dark Elves).  The first two - the High Elves (who dwell mostly in the Seely Realms, but visit the world of the Valley from time to time) and the Wood Elves (who are more likely to remain in the Valley for some time, but always remain in the forests near the portals where they can remain in contact with the Seely Court) never remain forever in our world.  They travel back to the Seely Realm (some more or less frequently than others, but none remain here forever), and look to the Court for their guidance and allegiance.

The Gray Elves, on the other hand, are of the Faery sort, but they have decided to come to our world and dwell her permanently.  They often take up residence in parts of the world far from the forests, usually because they cannot bear the sadness that results from their decision not to return to the Seely Realms.  They Gray Elves often speak in enigmatic riddles when discussing the world, and why they dwell apart from other Elves.  It is possible that they may know about the reason for the split of the Seely and the Unseely from the world of the Valley.

One curious feature of the separation of the Goblyn and Faery from the world, there are occasionally babies born to both Elves and Orcs (the races closest to humans) that resemble a human being close enough to be mistaken for one at a glance.  There are mischevious members of both the Seely and Unseely realms who will bring such babies to Human communities and exchange them for human babies.  In both cases (the elf or orc child raised by humans, or the human child raised by elves or orcs) the results are referred to as Half Elves or Half Orcs.  Once their true origin is known, neither are ever fully trusted by Humans.  It is not known how the human counterparts are treated in the Faery or Goblyn realms.