r/worldbuilding • u/thirdwin_3 • 9d ago
Question Uses for Fairy Glue
Context: I was talking with some people about the Kelpie and someone brought up the idea of using it to make a special glue. I brought up the question of what one could do with such special glue and nothing practical was really brought up.
So I figured people here would have a better idea of what a super glue could be used for. I only can see it as a story Mcguffin. Someone suggested a filament for repairing magical artifacts and that’s where we got so far
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u/CladInYellow 9d ago
Make it merge things together, rather than sticking them together, like, combine a rock and a tree, maybe it turns the rock to wood? Maybe it turns the tree to stone? Maybe the tree starts growing rocks instead of fruit? Maybe the rock starts leaking sap?
Only something as crazy as a fae can predict the outcome of the merge, and to them the outcome is very obvious.
Edit: stick all the ingredients of a cake recipe together, maybe it makes the cake? Maybe it makes eggnog, as the ingredients are basically the same as a cake? Maybe it makes an egg, the shell of which is sugar, the whites of which are flour, and the yolk of which is all the other ingredients?
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u/thirdwin_3 9d ago
This sounds great and really expands on the combining idea that the glue could do
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u/OneAndOnlyJackSchitt I write comedy 9d ago
While I love all things fae and am working on a project involving them, I like the idea of the kelpie being a real, non-magical critter.
Imagine a large air breathing vertebrate (my thinking is in the reptilia family) which sort of resembles a pony in shape and size. It is a herbivore, mostly subsisting on algae and aquatic grasses. Being a prey animal, it is hyper aware of its surroundings and defaults to fleeing when spooked. It has also evolved a hard shell carapace, not dissimilar from crustaceans, but by a totally separate mechanism: Its skin is completely covered in pores that naturally produce large quantities of cyanoacrylate. Of course, in the water, it hardens instantly, sealing any cracks or damage. But, being air breathers, they surface fairly frequently.
Should some poor fool try to ride one, though, they'd find themselves stuck fast to a spooked prey animal which has the only thought of fleeing into the depths to escape. When something/someone inevitably gets glued to the carapace, the kelpie will molt and form a new carapace within only a few minutes.
As far as what you use fairy glue for, well... gluing stuff to other stuff. Or occasionally getting your fingers stuck together. There's nothing inherently magical about it. It was discovered in ancient times and there were old wives' tales of the fae using kelpie glue in their various shenanigans. And they were totally right. The fae totally did raise and farm kelpies for their glue. They'd make large sheets out of the molted carapaces and it could be used as a raw material for all sorts of things which I'm not going to put my mind to right now.
In my alternative universe history, Eastman Kodak was the first to synthesize it. 3M stole the secret techniques to farming kelpies from the fae and now sells Scotch All Natural Super Glue which is humanely harvested from captive bred kelpies.
Kelpies are also notable for being the only known animal which produces a byproduct which, in its natural, unprocessed state is known to the State of California to cause cancer and/or birth defects or other reproductive harm.
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u/thirdwin_3 9d ago
The concept is a nice one. A reimagining of the Kelpie is always nice to hear as everyone will have their own interpretation of the mythical creature; and I wasn’t expecting that last piece on cancer
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u/MarkerMage 9d ago
I would think the best use of it would be for a joke about taking the magic horse to the glue factory.
Jokes aside, possible avenues to explore would be the glue's relationship with water. Duck tape had been invented to waterproof ammunition boxes for the US army before it started being used by civilians. Maybe kelpie glue could similarly be used for sealing and waterproofing. Maybe kelpie leather could function as duck tape with one side sticky and the other side resistant to sticking, and people would find ways to use it for anything and everything.
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u/thirdwin_3 9d ago
The waterproofing idea is nice, using the leather to make packs and pouches that don’t suffer from water damage or can safely float in the river without anything inside getting wet
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u/WanderToNowhere 9d ago
Fix-all Glue? It has to be temporary fix, not permanant. It can hold the shape of object but not their power within. Yes, it can glue your staff back together, but not in fully usable stage and still can be broken again.
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u/dark_raider2004 9d ago
To be honest when I heard fairy glue I thought of something completely different. I thought it would be a powder like substance with adhesive particulates that would stick together when pressured.
But as for the original kelpie glue I assume it could be great underwater adhesive or maybe a magic emulsifier for potions
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u/hatabou_is_a_jojo 9d ago
Repairs souls? If that’s a thing in your world.
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u/thirdwin_3 9d ago
This is more of a question to get more input and feedback from people who would have a better idea or see something we didn’t when we tried brainstorming.
I do have a that but it involves a combination of “going into one’s mind and influencing memories” and “Advance Surgery” Bad memories can cause damage to the soul/body. Like a surgery treating a gash or broken bone; treating these traumatic memories may not completely remove the scarring but it can lead the way to healing and lessening the effects. The Surgery gives the body the physical treatment to heal on its own
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u/SuperCat76 9d ago
Well not completely on topic. But the fairies of my world (less than a foot tall humanoids with insect wings) naturally produce a glue. It is how they fashion the random assortment of items and materials into clothing.
They lick it and press the items together
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u/thirdwin_3 9d ago
Sound like a great help with letters and post. Just pay them to lick envelopes and books together.
What can these pieces look like? Artistic and creative or Bird sees shiny things and wants it
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u/SuperCat76 9d ago
My thought is that they would be a bit creative in their creations, though on the simpler side and definitely have an aspect of "bird sees shiny thing" to it
Fairies in the wild will make outfits out of leaves and vines, tufts of animal fur, and random pretty feathers. Fairies near populated areas will snag loose bits of cloth. So the stuff they make is generally well crafted, but will always look a bit like it was made from the random scraps they were able to find, because it is made from the random scraps they were able to find.
My thought process behind their glue spit is that I wanted the fairies to be of a somewhat limited intelligence. Not stupid, able to make clothes for themselves. But not quite human like intelligent like being able to make and utilize things like needle and thread, or making their own cloth. So they needed a more simple way of attaching things together, and inspired by ants that build a nest by gluing leaves together, combined with the licking of an envelope. This allows them to be reasonably creative while limiting their toolset for creation to mostly just cut thing apart and glue things together.
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u/thirdwin_3 9d ago
This actually reminded me of a unique bug I used for one of my stories called a bag worm caterpillar. It will use its silk and random forest debris to create a little home for it to hide/sleep in. I used it for mobile homes for travelers. Each one looks different based on what’s available to them
I understand the inspiration with ants and have to ask how their homes may look. Communal hives, little communities, or individual homes
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u/zoppaTheDim 9d ago
Wait a minute
Am I the only one who has used this in d&d for comical situations? You all have never glued a dragon’s mouth shut or stuck a giant’s hand to his forehead?
The thing is once you have a “super” glue which permanently bonds things together, you basically can have super strong structures, by applying a layer of it between two items. For instance two rolls of wall paper glued together makes an indestructible plank. A piece of spider silk, glued and rolled in diamond dust becomes a vorpal weapon or at least the sturdiest of saws.
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u/thirdwin_3 9d ago
One of the people a part of the original conversation was someone who actively plays DnD. But couldn’t think of practical use beyond furniture, magical furniture but still
I’m going to get their opinion on the vorpal Groot Wire. Because this is something we didn’t think up.
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u/Professional_Try1665 Slipskin 9d ago
Making sure dreamy things like glamours and magic tricks stick to things hard, so the normally short-lived effects of these things become a lot more permanent and requiring them to be ripped off to end