Kortiki
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Danger: Low
Inhabitants: Fairies, humans, nekos, elves, Tinies
Characters: Mezzus
Under construction
Kortiki is a town situated deep in the Fairy kingdom. It's large by fairy standards and represents a rare exception in Felarya. Indeed, for some mysterious reason, the place was declared neutral ground long ago and thus, even though it's a fairy town, it's a relatively safe place for a human to visit or live in. Theories abound on the reasons for this, but when you ask a fairy, all you will get in reply is that eating a guest is "rude and not nice at all!" You could still end up in the belly of a fairy if you do something very stupid though, such as committing a crime or stealing the wares of a merchant for example. But as long as you don't act really foolishly, the risk of that happening is very low. Some humans and nekos have been living in this safe haven for dozens of years without any problem.
The town is a peaceful, colorful, and beautiful place. Nature is everywhere with some houses built directly inside hollow trees and lianas and vines creeping their way inside. Many fairies seem fascinated by human architecture and some have tried to build vague replicas of the houses the human inhabitants of Kortiki have built for themselves. Some fairies take an even easier route and decide to elect permanent residence inside a human's house, often much to the dismay of the owner. If a fairy moves into your house, you can expect things to get lively and "fun", at least fun for others to hear about"! Some fairies have taken a liking to domestic appliances, and unaware of (or disregarding) their original purpose, prefer to live inside chests of drawers, clocks, or even pianos.
The Kortikian culture is an odd and unique blending of the original fairy culture and of that brought by humans over the years. Artists of all sorts are highly regarded in Kortiki and the city is full of painters, poets, and musicians. On some rare occasions, rosic nekos coming from the other side of the continent make their way here as well. Kortiki is also a great place to visit if you seek old, rare books as fairies are fond of reading and the town possesses several libraries.
Living among fairies
For a human, neko, or elf, living right in the midst of fairies is a strange and sometimes unnerving experience. One have to be pretty open-minded and patient, for sure, and holding a certain fondness or fascination for fairies in the first place will also help you to not turn crazy. They have very little sense of privacy and won't hesitate to invade your home and play pranks. You also can't completely shake the feeling that those friendly creatures remain fearsome predators and that, should you have met them first in different circumstances in the wild, many of them would have seen little wrong in shrinking you and happily gobbling you down as a snack.
On the bright side, fairies treat their "guests" well and they are probably the best revelers in all Felarya. A big fairy party is something you'll never forget! Overall, living among fairies is a relatively good life and most humans inhabitants seem content with their condition. Unions between an human and a fairy are not uncommon either. Moreover, being so used to living among fairies, humans in Kortiki possess an invaluable gift : their good understanding on how the mind of a fairy works, their quirks and all those little things that you can pick up only after years of life in common. Thus, a human from Kortiki would be much less helpless when encountering a fairy in the middle of the jungle, than say a Negavian, as they naturally interact better with them. Even when far away from Kortiki or the Fairy kingdom, they would have a real chance at talking their way out of trouble and even to get the fairy to help them.
That relation is mutually beneficial. Non-fairy inhabitants live in safety, while they can help fairies solve some of their problems. For example, a group of humans would have no trouble whatsoever in clearing a bush of feyweed, while fairies would be likely to suffer casualties. It's interesting to note that fairies don't really see sizes as relevant, so they will deal with tinies in Kortiki just as they do with its humans inhabitants. If for whatever reasons, a human wishes to leave, they are free to do so, and to use a portal leading to central Felarya in the Forest of whispers. If they had friend among fairies, they could easily ask to be escorted to safety.
Access
Reaching Kortiki is very difficult and perilous, as it is situated deep in the core of the kingdom. You have little hope of making it there through normal means if you don't know a fairy who can transport you there. There is however a portal leading directly to it in the Forest of whispers, situated west of the Lake of illusions. It's well hidden though and a canopy fairy dwells on top of it. Her job is to guard it and eat any trespasser who doesn't know the password, usually by simply placing a belly trap just before the gate. She can also quickly deactivate the portal if necessary.
technology in Kortiki is low level and the magic ability among humans from Kortikis is more prevalent than in most others places. Firstly because the Fairy kingdom is highly saturated in magic in general, but also because of the close relationship with fairies and the hybrids that can result of it. But also because as it's a common practice, it encourages people more to develop it themselves.
I wonder if the higher density of fairies might mean fairies are nommed by other fairies more often? More opportunities If so, wild fairies must find this rather... disturbing, hm. Here's another idea. What if Kortiki is no less alien to fairies than it is to us? What if most fairies gotta compromise as much as the humans to live in this town, and while they can intelectually grasp the concept, they try not to stay any longer than they have to?
Here's another idea on that. What if Kortiki's that size because that's the size cap for a town that's integrated with fairies? Maybe fairies can only attain that much density before they start stepping on each other's toes at whatever size, and Kortiki is strained to the point that it has had to shed some excess population, creating satellite towns a fair distance away, all of which have decided to stay WAY below that size, but which also results in other towns being relatively vulnerable?
Trade
Kortiki is little known across Felarya Kortiki trades with a few other settlements, including Negav. Of course trade with Negav is low-key and discrete as Negavian authorities look very dimly on any form of contact with a fairy town, at last officially. However one could suspect some of the magiocrats to, at least, know of the existence of those activities and to turn a blind eye on it, since Kortiki has a wide variety of interesting commodities to offers, such as rare plants growing only in the fairy Kingdom, that can be useful ingredients in alchemy, potion crafting , or more simply in rare and exotic dishes. As for Negavians, they know well how fond of books fairies are and will mostly trade them, along with various intriguing trinkets.
Thus, every now and then a caravan from Kortiki will quietly settle in the jungle relatively neear to Negav, meet with its contact in the city and conclude the trade, usually as a barter, under the protection of several giant-sized fairies to prevent any outside interference. The goods are then transported back to Kortiki, with the help of those fairies.
Organization
Guards
in town, should anything hostile manage itself through the portal. Actually, on the note of guards, given what you've been stating about "Typical" fairies, what about, instead of dedicated guards patrolling the town, there was a sort of unofficial 'militia' of people who just drop whatever they're doing whenever danger happens and come together to defend the place? I feel like that'd fit your definition of fairies a lot better.
- Fairies wouldn't really have a government. The humans? They certainly would, even if its just a mayor. I could actually see a sort of tribal-esque leader for the fairies and possibly an elected leader for the non-fairies who work together to keep things running semi-smoothly. Though I would suspect that the fairy leader would be a lot less worried about things then the non-fairy. Kortiki would need some kind of government to help run it since it is a multi-species village.
That's a good point. yes I imagine the fact there is multiple species means Kortiki would be run in a special way with representatives. Maybe a fairy sage of sort and a mayor for the other races. Guards are also a thing I agree would be pertinent here. Not so much for actually keeping order, than for having humans residents feel safe.
- Credits to Stabs and for ideas to develop Kortiki town.
