TV Tropes knows what's up with the fae
As a fandom-loving person, one of my favorite sites at which to go down rabbit holes (that saying itself being a fandom reference, of course) is TVTropes.org. Despite its name, it does not confine itself to TV shows, but encompasses all of popular culture: video games, literature, music, theatre, anime, you name it. It has accurate and often amusing names for the over 30,000 (!) tropes listed on the site, and it cross-references each one with the books, shows, etc., that contain examples of the trope. It is fantastic fun, and I can easily lose an hour there anytime.
(A quick sidenote before we continue: Tropes are not a bad thing. You’re thinking of clichés. Those are to be avoided. Tropes, however, are storytelling conventions. As TV Tropes puts it, “tropes are tools that the creator of a work of art uses to express their ideas to the audience. It's pretty much impossible to create a story without tropes.”)
Today I was browsing the site for examples of the tropes in my own books, and found a good basic one on The Fair Folk.
As usual, TV Tropes knows what's up! Their entry is spot-on for what I have learned in reading about the fae, and is more or less what I show in the Eidolonia books (Lava Red Feather Blue, and the upcoming Ballad for Jasmine Town), as well as The Goblins of Bellwater, which isn't set in Eidolonia but has a similar system.
Excerpt from TV Tropes:
"The fairies of old weren't cute little bewinged pixies who fluttered happily around humans. ...Often, they would interact with humans with no thought to the consequences of their actions, or they would be tricksters that deliberately delighted in the utter mess they made of mortal lives.... At worst, they're like serial killers with magic.
"...There actually were plenty of myths and folklore about fairies who helped humans, though they were still believed to be dangerous if angered- but then again, the belief that supernatural beings are helpful to humans that show them kindness and angry if neglected is ubiquitous in many traditional religions and folk beliefs, including Greek Mythology."
I, too, have noticed the remarkable similarity to the Greek gods, in the diverse personalities, powers, and whims of the fae. No wonder I was drawn to write about both.