Science Fantasy Fey - What might that mean?

[Dusk Raven]

A project I'm working on at the moment is a near-future (late 21st to 22nd century) setting where aliens return to Earth after a very long absence, historically speaking. The impact of that return could fill an entire thread, so I won't talk about that here unless it's necessary - here I want to talk about the nature of said extraterrestrials. As the title indicates, this is a setting that, while largely science fiction, has an aspect of fantasy to it, and as such, I decided on an experiment - to make these aliens essentially extraterrestrial Fey - flesh and blood like humans, but alien in thought and with a subtle touch of "magic" to them in the form of psionic powers, the origins of which are more spiritual than mental.

But first I need to figure out what aspects of Fey to base them on. Since there are many different depictions of faeries, spirits, and other partially-supernatural beings in folklore, there's obviously a lot to choose from, and it'll be tough to make something that's both consistent and interesting. I do have a starting point: Celtic Fey, particularly the depictions of the Fey in the King Arthur: The Roleplaying Wargame series, which while not always exactly lore-accurate, are definitely interesting and I think a wonderful way to depict beings who have some Blue and Orange Morality (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlueAndOrangeMorality) but aren't actually insane, which I feel is always a risk with "different" minds.

That's essentially my goal - to recreate that sense of a people who are strange and different, yet not such that they seem insane or random - you can tell the pattern is there, even if you don't know what their mental pattern is. So that's why I ask - what are some memorable and interesting traits of fey, and can they be adapted to a science fantasy setting

[tantric]

in my Erywhone setting, i assumed that human lore about the fey was pretty inaccurate and that the little people, at least, were sapient representations of different arthropod orders, along with amphibians and some small mammals. thus the fey are based on nature, not myth. for instance, odonata, dragon and damselflies. these are sprites - males are dragonfly like with clear wings, females damselfly like with black wings. their young are aquatic hugely carnivorous naiads. for lepidoptera, nymphs are butterfly like, sylphs are mothlike - neither are sentient. hymenoptera are pixies, though there are several subtypes. here's the pdf...littlepeoplepdf (https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1v8aliGcWP-ZlNoazVORUkzYm8)

[Thinker]

My favorite depiction of a Sci Fi Fey is Q from Star Trek. Every aspect of Q could be ascribed to a Celtic-style fey.

What you need is a creature that can live alongside humans without the humans being aware of them. Thus, they need either invisibility or teleportation, or both. Maybe they live in a slightly different dimension from humans - like the upside down from Stranger Things, though you don't have to make it so dark. Like in Stranger Things, there might be specific portals to the other world (fun fact, the home of the fey in Irish lore was called The Otherworld).

Hope that helps.

[GorinichSerpant]

I don't remember where I read this but I've heard the idea that aliens and UFOs are the fey creatures of modern times. By which I mean they serve the same niche in the folklore. Disappearances that used to be blamed on changelings have now been replaced with abductions for example, body snatchers are also from stories that tickle the same fear reaction as changelings. Greys like elves are humanoid but have weird proportions and shapes to us. Not sure if this is helpful or if this is something that has already occurred to you thought.

[Mechalich]

A project I'm working on at the moment is a near-future (late 21st to 22nd century) setting where aliens return to Earth after a very long absence, historically speaking. The impact of that return could fill an entire thread, so I won't talk about that here unless it's necessary - here I want to talk about the nature of said extraterrestrials. As the title indicates, this is a setting that, while largely science fiction, has an aspect of fantasy to it, and as such, I decided on an experiment - to make these aliens essentially extraterrestrial Fey - flesh and blood like humans, but alien in thought and with a subtle touch of "magic" to them in the form of psionic powers, the origins of which are more spiritual than mental.

If you haven't already, you need to take a look at Julian May's Saga of the Pliocene Exile, which basically is this setup with a twist. Alien fey, psionic powers, the works. It's an older series from the 1980s, so you can pick it up for cheap or find it at many libraries.

[Vogie]

But first I need to figure out what aspects of Fey to base them on. Since there are many different depictions of faeries, spirits, and other partially-supernatural beings in folklore, there's obviously a lot to choose from, and it'll be tough to make something that's both consistent and interesting. I do have a starting point: Celtic Fey, particularly the depictions of the Fey in the King Arthur: The Roleplaying Wargame series, which while not always exactly lore-accurate, are definitely interesting and I think a wonderful way to depict beings who have some Blue and Orange Morality (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlueAndOrangeMorality) but aren't actually insane, which I feel is always a risk with "different" minds.

That's essentially my goal - to recreate that sense of a people who are strange and different, yet not such that they seem insane or random - you can tell the pattern is there, even if you don't know what their mental pattern is. So that's why I ask - what are some memorable and interesting traits of fey, and can they be adapted to a science fantasy setting

I think that eliminating some options is not the right way to go - instead, introduce the different 'types' of fey as different races of alien, that we have kind of lumped together. Kind of like what Jim Butcher did with Vampires in the Dresden Files series - Make several factions of Fey that are at conflict, but not exactly all out war, with each other.

Even if they're starkly, widely different - such as a group of controlling, serious long-lived Sidhe against a group of relatively shorter-lived, lively trickster Changeling types.

[geek2785]

Not sure if this helps but looking at the History of the race you are creating could be helpful in determining some of their traits/affinities. Do they have any exceptional battles/wars? Who were the survivors? What allowed them to survive/triumph? Are there any archetypal motifs or figures that they worship/draw align themselves with? If so do any of those archetypes exist on earth at the 21/22 century and how do they react to them? Just some thoughts, sounds interesting good luck.

[Benthesquid]

You have less work than you might expect- alien abduction mythos comes pretty close to the Fey on a couple of points.

1) Lost time: Frequently those who wind up in the Court of the Fey return to find that days, months, or even years have passed while they experienced no more than a single night. This could be the result of hypnotic suggestion or amnesia inducing drugs, or for a more high-weirdness quotient, exposure to some sort of Gravity drive actually warping spacetime.

2) Weird lights: what may in the past have been a Will-O-The-Wisp could pretty easily be called a drone or a hoverprobe or what have you.

3) Sleep Paralysis: As a terrifying and spooky experience for which we now have a scientific explanation, this one is pretty much perfect for your purposes. Look into the Night Hag and Incubi/Succubi, and then technobabble something about a psionic force maintaining you in the state of sleep paralysis longer.

4) The Wild Hunt- frightening, inexplicable things fly overhead in the middle of the night. Those who get caught, animal and human, are sometimes never seen again, or come back different, or just dead and mutilated. Sound familiar?