Mab, Queen of Air and Darkness; Titania, Queen of...?

[Jeff the Green]

So Mab and Titania are the most commonly attested names for fairy queens, and Mab has a title that's carried over into D&D. Does Titania have one, in any literature?

For that matter, is there a counterpart to Oberon in the unseelie court?

(I put this here because I couldn't think of a better forum and it's for homebrew research. If anyone has a better idea let me know and I'll report it to be moved.)

[ReaderAt2046]

I think the title you're looking for is "Lady of Light and Life." Also, I believe Oberon's counterpoint in the Winter Court would be the Erlking.

[Rhynn]

Well, these are all pretty much vague references with no real surviving background: Titania and Queen Mab are both from Shakespeare, and Queen Mab is just referred to vaguely once. I'm not sure where the association with T. H. White's Queen of Air and Darkness (Morgause, a character that is herself frequently conflated with Morgan le Fay; the apellation is actually a reference to a poem by A. E. Housman) comes from - it seems like one of those D&D things that people think have a bearing on the original, like Tiamat being a dragon (the Mesopotamian Tiamat was a Chaos monster and the primordial saltwater ocean, with no draconic connotations).

Mab might be Medb/Maeve of the Ulster Cycle, a Queen of Connacht attributed magical powers. If you want to draw on that, there are versions where the Kings of Connacht were sacrificed periodically...

The idea that Queen Mab is "unseelie" is pretty much all D&D, and I can recall no D&D references to an unseelie King of Faeries.

Edit: The Erlking ("Elf-King") is basically just the same figure as Oberon/Alberich. Given that Renaissance folklore conflated faeries with spirits with ghosts with devils, the Erlking os also Satan, more or less.

But this is all arbitrarily made-up RPG mythology anyway, so use whatever works. I'd definitely play up the netherworld / underworld connection.

[Eldan]

Edit: The Erlking ("Elf-King") is basically just the same figure as Oberon/Alberich. Given that Renaissance folklore conflated faeries with spirits with ghosts with devils, the Erlking os also Satan, more or less.

It might also the same word as Harlequin, there's some confusion on that. The Harlequin also leads the Wild Hunt, so the Erlking would, by that connection, also be Odin.

Generally, you should really mostly keep Celtic and Germanic myths apart.

[hamishspence]

I think the title you're looking for is "Lady of Light and Life."

I thought it was "Queen of Light & Illusion" myself.

[Red Fel]

Generally speaking, at least thanks to Shakespeare, Titania and Oberon are seen as Queen and King of the Faeries, respectively. Mab was ultimately separated from them in various sources, most famously in the D&D cosmology where she was a corrupted Fey who went insane and became the Queen of Air and Darkness. In essence, Titania would be the legitimate Queen, and Mab the usurper.

In Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files books, the two are diametrically opposed; Titania is the Queen of the Summer Court, Mab Queen of the Winter Court. (In each Court, there is also a Lady, who is the subordinate ruler, and a Crone, who is a superior-but-inactive ruler.)

The Erlkoenig, or Elf-King, is depicted as any number of things depending on medium. As mentioned, he is head of the Wild Hunt. In some respects, he is simply the King of the Fey, in which case he would be Oberon; in others, he is a savage and primal force of nature, in which case he is a separate (and, as mentioned, Satanic) entity. Amusingly, he appears in The Dresden Files as well (great series if you want great depictions of Fey) as a member of the Wyldfae, Fey beings either too weak or too savage to be under the power of either Court.

But short version? Titania and Mab were both created to a certain extent by Shakespeare, the former in A Midsummer Night's Dream and the latter by reference in Romeo and Juliet, based in part on prior Celtic, Norse, and Germanic myths.

And the simplest title for Titania would be "Queen of the Faeries."

[Eldan]

To expand on that a bit: in D&D, Titania and the Queen of Air and Darkness indeed are opposites. Here, the Queen of Air and Darkness is incorporeal and invisible and has no name, since her true name was lost. She also has no consort.

[Joe the Rat]

If you wanted to ignore the pseudo-actual lore for a bit, elemental opposites would say Lady of Stone and Light.

Because we simply don't have enough random 90's music references in our faelore.

[Rhynn]

Generally, you should really mostly keep Celtic and Germanic myths apart.

Next you'll tell me I should keep Babylonian and Greek mythology separate! It's all Indo-European, baby.

Also, those fairies are not even Celtic. Oberon, Titania, and Mab are straight-up Shakespearen, and fairy mythology is basically Renaissance and Victorian, because it kept evolving.

[Gavran]

Something tells me Oberon was mate to both Titania and Mab, but I can't think of any particular source confirming that off the top of my head. I think more than anything this thread just shows that you can play with it however you like. I unfortunately recall no symmetrical appellation for Titania.

[Socksy]

The Dresden Files wiki may help, if you don't mind a little sci-fi in your mythology.

[Jeff the Green]

The Dresden Files wiki may help, if you don't mind a little sci-fi in your mythology.

Ah, thank you. I've read them all but it's been a while since Cold Days (rereading in preparation for Skin Games and not yet finished Dead Beat), so I'd forgotten about "Lady of Light and Life... Queen of the Evergreen... Lady of Flowers." Thanks!

Of course, since that's only Dresden Files (and I think the Virgin Mary) I feel fine discarding it for my setting. I like the idea of the difference between the Seelie and Unseelie court being more domesticity than Good or Evil, so I'm thinking something like "Lady of Wood and Dale." It's still wild, as befitting fey, but wood and dale are less alien to humans than air and darkness.

[Socratov]

Please remember that Fairies (or the Fey, the Fair folk, and other names) were allready a mythical presence in Ireland, even stretching to Norway with their Goblin King. Aside from that Mab was part of the Morrigan (or was the Morrigan and part os a triade with Macha and Nemain), connected to Meave and Aillil. Please note that Mab and Morgana leFay are connected to the legends of the Lady of the Lake and Avalon.

[golentan]

It also bears mentioning that Mab's title carries diabolic overtones (prince of darkness and prince of air are both traditional titles for a certain fellow whose name means "antagonist"). If this is for homebrew, and you're concerned with traditional mythology, you may want to play up supernatural politics between the faerie courts and otherworldly influences. If as you say you don't want to have either fey court be especially "evil" or "good" so much as alien, feel free to disregard it.

"Hearth and Flame" might be good for Titania?

[Jeff the Green]

Well, in the setting and homebrew I'm working on, faeries are basically the personifications of mixed matter (i.e. things that aren't made of pure elements, like elemental a or outsiders). So there are definitely politics between fey and demons, but they're the kind of politics that are handled by assassins and spies rather than ambassadors.