Unseen Compendium: Hobs

Happily! Hobs are among the handful of fae races known as house fae. These live closely with mortals and maintain a fairly symbiotic relationship. Hobs are mildly to moderately magically skilled, specializing in natural magic, healing magic, shapeshifting, and spells inclined toward domestic pursuits. Though hobs are known to cook and clean on occasion, their preferred professions typically involve caring for livestock or mending clothing and footwear. Unlike brownies, hobs do not hold any particular loyalty to mortal families and will often serve multiple households at a time as long as they are compensated with offerings of cream, woolen hats, or gloves with the fingertips removed to suit their clawed hands. Hobs are solitary creatures with little desire for familial bonds. Some magical scholars believe this has something to do with their unique birthing situation. Hobs do not reproduce, but spring from faerie rings when the Wild Magicks seep from their leylines. They are born with a full set of teeth, the ability to walk, and the instincts to feed themselves. If they are fortunate enough to have Ring Siblings --that is, other hobs that sprang from the same faerie ring-- who are inclined to care for them or come across another benevolent parental figure they will often blend well with mortal or fae society. If not, they almost always become feral. This stark contrast means that hobs may be found in both Seelie and Unseelie Courts, but many choose to live in the Greylands as they are mischievous and vindictive folk if they feel offended. Hobs have little need for clothes as their bodies are furred, but that does not stop them from being fashionable little creatures. Generally, they are roughly the size of a human baby, so mortals have found it fitting over the ages to gift them with discarded children's clothes, usually in the form of hats and gloves. Mortals have taken to showering female hobs with more gifts than their male counterparts, as female hobs are rare and take more care with their work. For this reason, it is not uncommon to see a female hob wearing several hats or pairs of gloves at one time. Males, on the other hand, like simple woolen caps and care for little else. Rather than collecting these caps, they will find one that the prefer and then adorn them with trinkets of value to them, like coins, feathers, strings of beads, or four leaved clovers. Curious articles though they are, one must never, never touch a hob's clothes without permission. Fingers and worse have been removed for such an offense. Hob tempers and penchants for grudge holding are legendary. If a hob takes a liking to someone, it is a compliment in their culture to pull a prank or several on the person in question. However, if that person were to repay them in kind, perhaps mistakenly thinking that reciprocating is also a compliment, the hob will take it as a declaration of war. When a hob feels slighted they will not rest until the perceived offender is at the very least miserable, and at the very most... well... dead. It is never advised to be anything but gracious and respectful to a hob unless you want your fields salted and barns burned. Though hobs are born fully mature, they are not considered trustworthy or respectable in their own society until their hair turns completely grey or white. When they reach this milestone, they are given the title of Wizened and expected to leave any mortal homes that they serve to either wander the world as a traveling healer or serve the Seelie Court as a constructor of faerie mounds. Both professions are considered the highest honor for a hob, and both come with unquestioning respect; something that is nearly impossible to earn in hob culture in any other circumstance.

Could you please make a transcript of iI? I'm having trouble reading it. (Astigmatism is bad today)

Crissa Kentavr