Court Fae and Solitary Fae

There are two categories of faeries, court faeries and solitary faeries.

Many people are more familiar with the solitary fae, the leprechauns, the selkies, the banshees, brownies, etc. Basically beings of the earth. These faeries are bound to either an element or an animal or a lifestyle or a place, etc. that defines their existence. For example selkies are seal people bound to the sea. Banshees are faeries bound to the deaths of a family. You get the idea. Because these creatures are bound to the earth as they are, they are in a way beholden only to what holds them to this world.

The court fae on the other hand are not faeries of the earth. They are breathtakingly beautiful and operate in a sort of Victorian court system with a king and queen and so on. They sometimes even dress in old English court fashions, depending on the story teller. When people tell stories of humans falling in love with a faerie or vise versa, or a faerie liking a human's gift with music or healing so much that they take him or her away, they are referring to the court fae and not the solitary fae. These are also known as Trooping Faeries, as they like to travel in long processions on various nights. These faeries, more than the solitary fae, live in other realms and create portals between their world and ours.