Does this history/explanation for 'Monsters' in an urban fantasy make sense to you?
Tried explaining it to multiple who seemed to have trouble grasping it, trying to simplify it/punch up the explanations here before i try again:
There are only 2 truly sentient races in the setting: Humans and Fae.
Fae effectively fill the roles of the various fantasy races like Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, etc. The differences between them are mostly tied to their different beast forms rather than them being completely separate races.
Fae have magical cores in their bodies that utilize different frequencies and essentially "data" to regulate their bodies and magic.
These cores allow them to regenerate from injuries, trigger reproduction by exchanging signals between mates, shift into their beast forms, and, most importantly, detect metal.
Metal is the only substance on Earth capable of directly damaging a Fae core and killing a Fae.
Because of this, humans eventually developed a type of magic called Tower Craft, along with weapons called Tower Tools.
Tower Tools are not made of metal, so they cannot simply destroy a Fae's core. Instead, they emit frequencies that corrupt the core and turn the Fae into what humans call "Monsters." The Fae call them Monseelie.
When a Fae becomes Monseelie, they lose their human form, much of their sanity, and ability to use or comprehend 'Glamour', an illusory magic fae wield. Their corrupted core also becomes effectively "coded" to obey whoever corrupted it. They also now feed on 'fear' from both humans and other fae.
The corruption or 'Maddening Frequency' can also spread between Fae. Monseelie are extremely territorial and will attack other Fae not Monseelie or even just not their precise species. This also makes it difficult to command large numbers of them at once, since their different signals can interfere with one another.
Because of this, Seelie Fae generally rely on humans they have contracted with to protect them from Monseelie and Tower Toolists.
Humans contracted with Seelie are allowed to eat their magical fruits, which enhance their natural abilities, particularly while they are in sunlight. They can also learn to craft the wood of the Titan Tree into magical tools to aid them in battle.
Unseelie Fae take a different approach to humans. They often manipulate or "curse" humans into serving them.
One common method is to remove a memory of great consequence from an individual and threaten to return it to the people involved unless that person serves the Unseelie. However, not every relationship works this way, and mutual arrangements between humans and Unseelie also exist.
Unseelie can also teach humans Echomancy, a type of magic fueled by the user's own memories. It can typically only be used by humans inside the Memory Holes, magical dungeons born from human memories that the Unseelie once resided in and fed off of to avoid directly preying on humans.
Seelie Fae and their human Sages generally remain in Avalon because the magical fruit they depend on only grows there.
The Unseelie, however, regularly waged war against the Tower Lords.
Because Unseelie feed on memories, these wars can eventually be forgotten. This creates a cycle throughout history where entire wars, kingdoms, and even "Gods" can disappear from human memory.
The Unseelie aimed to conquer the Towers and turn them into Courts, domains similar to Memory Holes. These Courts allow the Unseelie to farm the memories associated with the conquered Towers. Anyone who remembers, sees, visits, or otherwise interacts with the Tower provides memories that the Unseelie can consume.
Despite the Unseelie conquering many Towers, the Madness continues to spread.
Eventually, a Monster King emerges. A Kelpie who somehow manages to maintain his sanity despite losing his original human form.
Unlike ordinary Monseelie, he can command other Monseelie, including those already under the control of Tower Lords.
His main ability is the Mad Whinny.
The Mad Whinny can corrupt previously unaffected Fae, but also "reset" Monseelie already under someone else's control, causing them to serve him instead of the humans who originally corrupted them.
Humans who hear it are affected as well. It can drive them insane and cause extreme physical reactions, including heart attacks and death.
With his aid, the remaining Towers are eventually toppled and their Tower Tools destroyed.
All but one.
The original Tower is known as the TreeTower.
Unlike the later Towers, the TreeTower was built directly inside the ancestral Titan Tree, the enormous tree that produces the magical fruit the Seelie Fae need to survive.
The Tree was once hollowed out to create the first Tower. Eventually, the Tower Lord was sealed away, but the Tower itself remained.
The problem is that after so much time, the Tower and the Tree have become inseparable.
The TreeTower cannot be toppled or destroyed without also destroying the Titan Tree and, by extension, the ancestral homeland of the Fae.
The Monster King's maddened mind cannot properly understand this distinction.
To him, the Tower is the enemy, so the Tower must be destroyed. He cannot understand that destroying this particular Tower would also destroy the very thing he is supposedly trying to protect.
The pathway to the fae homeland from the human world is through the memory holes. So while Cauldros traveled with his army, Glamour was cast over all the memory hole entrances and exits.
The glamour prevents humans and Monseelie from passing through them. Humans cannot naturally wield glamour, while Monseelie lose their ability to use it after corrupted.
This effectively turns the Memory Holes into a magical quarantine zone, trapping the Monster King and the other Monseelie inside.
The Towers are gone. The Tower Lords are slain or sealed.
But the Madness remains.
Posted Sep 23, 2026, 8:40 AM UTC