Some anon posted this a while ago:
>Fairy is a simplified, 'cutsey' term for Spirit, not in the same sense as Ghosts, but rather the living presence of nature. This covers all forms of nature, from the traditional dryad and treant figures to lake and river spirits that drowned naughty children in various myths.
>The woman with butterfly wings is a relatively 'new' image. Even in European folklore 'faeries' were more prone to being more humanesque. Think of elves in the Tolkien vein, but give them razor sharp teeth and a tendency to prey on mortals. Wings aren't necessary, nor even exceedingly prevalent.
>Something to look up might be the baobhan sihdes, rusalka, blemmies, redcaps, kappa, huldufolk, and anything pertaining to the keywords 'elves' 'fae' or 'yokai' as all of them fall into the base generalization of 'fairy' in folklore terms. Anything translated from Japanese to English as 'demon' or 'spirit' could also be considered a 'fairy'.
>Depending on what you make of Authorian Legends, Excalibur is a fairy-forged blade. If that strikes you as bad justification for SE against dragons, many northern fairytales include fae weapons used for killing serpents.
