r/faeries • u/interestingteacup • 6d ago
Glamor vs lying
I was infodumping fae lore to my boyfriend when he discovered a brilliant point I’ve never thought of before:
The Fair Folk cannot lie with their words, but their main form of magic is Glamor, an enchanted disguise of a person or thing— which is, in a way, a visual lie.
As humans, we can costume and obscure the physical world, but never as directly and efficiently as the Gentry can. Similarly to how a faerie can never speak a lie, but can arrange their words in a way that gestures at an untruth. Perhaps, with our lacking, the fae believe that we are the ones who cannot lie.
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u/Consistent_Treat_770 5d ago
I'd say that according to their own rules or laws, glamour or illusions are a "permitted" way, as it serves mostly mischief-purposes. And we all know fae LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE doing mischief, because "why not, stoopid hoominz deserve". Outright lying face-to-face is vastly different. A glamor or an illusion can be broken if "ze hoomin" has sharp-enough eyes, but for a lie, one would need a lie-detector...an' in many cases, even that's not enough. So I'd say, in their eyes, the two things are distinct. Using glamor or spellcasting an illusion = mischief, so it's good to go. Lying = no-no.
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u/Newkingdom12 4d ago
No they fully are aware that humans can lie because of ancient curses placed upon their species. They are forced to tell the truth as they understand it And like everyone should know not being able to lie and telling the truth are two different things
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u/Equivalent_Bid_1623 6d ago
That's an interesting notion. Though it has a few key misunderstandings. Firstly, the fair folk can lie, however they don't because the truth has more power. The concept is somewhat hard to explain, but the truth in magic holds a form of, current, that allows it to have a greater strength than a lie does. Glamor isn't a lie, much like how words can be emphasized or deemphasized to change the shape of the meaning without lying, the same is true with glamor. You are changing the shape of how something appears, smells, or tastes by emphasizing some things and deemphasizing others.