The Story of The Fae King

Back in the mists of time (well last spring actually), I took a gamble and moved away from ‘normal’ hypnotic stories to create something a lot more experiential. Something that was designed to hit you on every sense. The idea became ‘Seduced by the Shadow’. At the time it was very different to anything me or anyone else had ever done, and was massively well received. Following on from it’s success, I wanted to create something that was a natural successor. Taking the story of ‘A Midsummers night‘  as inspiration, I decided on an even darker tale. Turning the stories of the fairy folk on it’s head.

Although it was started around half way through my work on Seduced it took several months to complete. My methods were still in their infancy and the story is very paranormal so required a leap of imagination for the listener that was quite beyond anything I’d even tried by that stage. Not only did I have to take my listeners into a magical land, but I also had to change their concept of the fairies. In total the story was rewritten 7 times, and recorded 5.  I actually created another 3 recordings in the time it took me to get the Fae King right.

Inspiration for the Story

I wanted a story that was very dominant. But, me being me, I didn’t want it to be predictable. So I decided to work with the most submissive thing I could think of in the supernatural world – fairies (go on just TRY imagining Tinkerbell with whips and chains – it won’t figure). Looking around the traditional fairy stories there was little to inspire an erotic. Until I turned my attention to A Midsummers Night Dream . The fairy king is not your traditional fairy, much darker, much more sinister. I just knew there and then, that’s what I needed to work with. In the end I decided to take him to an extreme and make him huge – everywhere – closer to a beast than a fairy.

The gardens at the start of the story are actually a collage of several manor house gardens I have visited around the UK including Austwick Hall and Abbey House Gardens. I wanted to create a relaxing atmosphere but with the hint of something darker just off in the distance. So the story begins on an summers day within the gardens and is all about a gentle stroll through some old manor house gardens and really immersing yourself in the beauty of nature. I can’t remember which garden it was, but one I visited had an area adjacent to some old woods. It obviously hadn’t really been cared for in years being overrun with wildflowers and bramble. It had a truly wild beauty to it. In the centre of this little area was a fountain I’m guessing it had been vandalised as the stone was broken, but still water erupted from it. The water basin (the part of a fountain that holds the water) has long since cracked and the water flooded out of the side – creating a little stream that went into the woods. That was just too tempting not to use – it had to go in.

In the UK the legends of the fairy folk are numerous. There are books that are full of various tales and stories, many of them mentioning a Fairy Ring. A Fairy Ring is actually created by mushrooms growing in a circle. In medieval England it was thought Fairy Rings were created by fairies dancing in the moonlight. The next morning, a ring on the ground marked where the nocturnal festivities had been. Sometimes a daisy ring, sometimes just a dark mark. It was universally thought really bad luck to enter the ring – you were trespassing on the fairies kingdom and would be punished by the fairy folk. There are many tales throughout folklore of people unwittingly stepping into Fairy Circles and unable to escape, taken prisoner bOf course, the sort of punishment they had in mind wasn’t quite the one I did, or maybe it was – it just never made it into the folklore books.

Experience the Fae King for yourself

If you want to experience the Fae King for the first time, or maybe just re-live those intense sensations again – you can listen here.