The Wood People you’ll meet in The Black Act harken back to a pre-Christian conception of faeries, based not only on Celtic folklore and mythos, for the novel incorporates archetypes found in ancient Greek and other pagan Eurpoean cultures as well.

It isn’t that I dislike the Victorians or Walt Disney, but it is my belief they diluted and narrowed the view, archetypes once found in the common human shared social psyche, of nature spirits and nature deities.

Before the Victorian Era and before the dawn of Christianity, faeries–wood spirits or minor gods and goddesses, sometimes major ones–were thought to be far more dynamic. They were a collection of natural forces both positive and negative. They represented a percarious balance of these forces, a reminder for humankind to respect the rhythm of nature–to work with it, not against it.

So, within the pages of The Black Act, I’ve attempted to re-capture these old legends of folklore, yet also create new creatures and concepts–a new mythology.

On this page, you’ll find public domain pictures that represent my vision of the fae and their world. I hope you enjoy.

For More Depiction of the Fae and Their Land Visit My Facebook Album

This piping satyr resembles Rothrien.

This creature resembles the ‘ugly’ fae that discovers Drea.

A Green Man — Not in The Black Act; I just like him.

All the ones that follow aren’t really found in the novel, but they could be found somewhere upon Dala, lurking in her plentiful forests, perhaps.

Seductive trickster type

Green Man artwork

Nymphs seduce a willing satyr.

Witches dance with a horned god.

I believe it is in Scottish lore that the more malevolent fae are known as the Unseelie–fae of a chaotic and wilder nature.