Fairy Size-Shifting
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Most Felaryan faires possess the innate ability to change their size in one instant, growing from 5 feet to 90 for example, and to temporarily alter the size of other creatures as well. It depends a lot on the original size of the target and its magic resistance, though. For instance, if the target is too big to start with, the fairy will be unable to change its size at all. Moreover, altering the size of another creature is only temporary and if the target, say an adventurer that has been shrunken, manage to get far enough from the fairy, they will eventually pop back to their original size. That range can varies widely from one fairy to another.
Self-Size Alteration
The archmage Mezzus was the first to come with extensive and detailled theories regarding fairy size-shifting magic. According to him, the concept of "size" simply does not exist for Felaryan fairies, at least not the way we recognize it. A fairy does not actually change their physical size, ever, they simply have the ability to change their size in relation to everything else. Mezzus dubbed this ability as "Dimensional Scaling". This means that at any moment, if you asked a fairy ( we will assume that she will actually try to answer the question instead of eating you ! ) "What is your real size?", the response would always be the same. She might be a bit confused, and not quite sure what you mean at first, but once she got the gist of what you were asking, her answer would be, "This is my real size." Now, if she suddenly went from 6 inches tall to 60 feet tall right before your eyes one second later, and you asked the question again, the answer would still be "This is my real size." Despite the fact that from your perspective she obviously changed size, the assertion that her current size is her "real size" indicates that from her perspective, no physical change of size occurred. Thus Mezzus believes that the concept of physical size as we understand it is not only completely alien to fairies, but totally irrelevant to them. When a fairy "changes size", they do not think in terms of, "I want to be 80 feet tall.", they think in terms of "I want to be bigger/smaller than that thing there." As far as the external world is concerned, it treats the fairy as though she has not changed size at all, which is why a fairy will never collapse under her own weight as a result of "growing", and can fly regardless of how tremendous she grows.
Several known facts are corroborating this "dimensional magic" theory:
- The magical capacity of a fairy's body does not increase when they "get bigger".
- A fairy's "real" size is whatever their current size is. Most fairies say they go around small only because they like having more space, not because "small" is their default size.
- A fairy can "change size" after eating someone. This last one is especially revealing. If a fairy swallows an adventurer, and then "shrinks" to 3 inches tall, and there is still no size discrepancy at all between the inside of the fairy's stomach and the person inside of it, then it means that the size of her stomach always remains the same in relation to the size of anything inside her stomach. If she eats until she gets full, and then gets bigger... she is still full. She does not become less full, because the amount of space the food in her stomach occupies never actually decreases (at least, not until it has been digested). If she is full and gets smaller, then her stomach does not burst because it is suddenly "too small to hold the amount of food inside of it".
So fairies never changes their physical size, only their size in relation to the world around them. So thinks Mezzus and many other mages, although they could be wrong of course. It's important to note that, if you have been shrunken by a fairy, the effect will wear off
Dimensional upscaling
Most fairies have an innate
Fairies have no problem with growing their clothes and equipment with them when they feel like roaming around at giant size. But sometimes a fairy wants to share something with a non-fairy friend. When an object "grown" by a fairy, or upscaled, is relinquished it will be subject to effects of imperfect dimensional scaling. An upscaled object not on a fairy's person will obtain dimensional instability, eventually "popping" back to its original size. You could think of it as a book on a train rattling closer to the edge of a shelf, inevitably dropping off. The larger an object would be if upscaled to a fairy's maximum size, the more instability it will begin with, or simply fail to grow in the first place. A typical fairy could enlarge a book to be ten feet tall for weeks or months but couldn't for a moment enlarge a vehicle to ride in at maximum size. Objects enlarged by fairies gain immense instability when exposed to anti-magic, no magic, and to a lesser extent, in odd places within Felarya that have less magic than usual. This means that while you might just be able to convince/steal from a fairy to get an enlarged priceless gem, it would be very disappointing when you take a dimensional gate to your home world hoping to get rich when the object turns out to have been constructed at tiny size! Even more unlucky would be selling it in Negav for the buyer to have it shrink on them one day... Needless to say, Negavians are wary about over-sized objects.
Some fairies living in the Fairy kingdom have a knack for more potently applying dimensional upscaling, essentially granting it permanently so long as the object isn't exposed to things like being taken near a voidcap mushroom or for a stroll through Mycoria Forest. They are widely spoken of for this skill and often sought out for it, regardless of whether they want the attention or not.
- Credits goes to Gregole for his characterization of fairy size-shifting magic and to Fish for the dimensional upscaling concept.
