A Knowe (pronounced "now") is the home and domain of a Faerie, carved from the space between the human world and the Summerlands. They are carved to fit fae needs and desires…reflecting the personalities of their keepers. Some of them are easy to get to while others require everything up to and including blood sacrifice just to get inside. It depends on who built them, and who controls the doors.[citation needed] All of them are hidden because they have to be, not just from mortal eyes—fae are territorial by nature and will hold it against whatever comes.[1] Knowes are at least partially sentient- they reflect the styles of their owners/rulers, and mourn if their owner/ruler is killed, although Toby suspected that Evening's former knowe didn't like her. Entrances can be anything, from carnival photo booths, gas station restrooms, or old cardboard boxes, to the more traditional grass rings and stone gateways.[citation needed]
The health of a knowe is dependent on the health of its keeper. Sylvester's madness would've collapsed Shadowed Hills had Etienne not maintained its stability in his place.
Knowes seem to have “hearts”. In Strangers in Court, Eira says that the heart in the Kingdom in the Mists knowe was a piece of an ancient knowe, carried across the ocean by the monarchs who founded the Kingdom.[2] In Through This House, the pixies bring Toby a chunk of rose quartz the size of duck’s egg, which she realizes to be the knowe (Goldengreen), and which grants her a vision of its history.[3]
Per A Local Habitation ch 5:
There are two types of knowe. Some, like Shadowed Hills, are literally Summerlands estates connected to the mortal world by doors punched through the walls of reality. Nothing forces them to conform to mortal geography, and for the most part, they don’t bother. The Summerlands-side of the Torquill estate is all virgin forest and cultivated farmland, and it looks nothing at all like the land surrounding the city of Pleasant Hill. Shallowings, on the other hand, are little pockets carved from the space between worlds, not entirely existing in either one. Because they aren’t anchored entirely in Faerie, they rely a lot more on the actual geography of both realities. We’ve been banned from all the lands of Faerie but the Summerlands since Oberon disappeared, and Shallowings are getting more common as real estate gets scarcer.[4]
Shallowings are a less permanent and stable type of knowe.
Knowes in Mythology[]
The hills from which the Sidhe take their name[5]
Knowe Entrances[]
See individual knowe pages:
- Kingdom in the Mists
- Duchy of Shadowed Hills
- County of Goldengreen
- Tea Gardens
- County of Tamed Lightning
- Amandine's Tower